Decision Number 302

Decision

The special session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church to be held in 1970 shall have the exact number of delegates as the Dallas session of the General Conference except for representatives of electing units which are no longer members of the denomination. These delegates shall be the delegates to the first General Conference or their legal successors except in instances where an Annual Conference shall determine to hold a new election according to Paragraph 13 of the Constitution.

In instances where an Annual Conference holds a new election, it shall elect only replacements for the delegates who were elected to the 1968 General Conference. The replacements so elected shall be elected on a one for one basis and each newly elected delegate shall be required to meet fully all of the disciplinary requirements (former denominational and conference membership, layman, minister) as the delegate one is elected to replace.

Where consolidations and mergers change conference boundaries the delegates from such Annual Conferences will become delegates of the receiving Annual Conferences with which such delegate is affiliated by church membership or Annual Conference relation. If new delegates are elected for the 1970 special session, the procedures under which the original delegates were elected would apply. The new provisions cannot be effective prior to the elections for the 1972 General Conference.