Advanced Daily Christian Advocate (Advance DCA or ADCA) The book containing the agenda, rules, delegate listing, petitions and /or resolutions to be voted upon by General Conference, reports from the general agencies/commissions and study committees, information for delegates, and codes of conduct. This book is sent to all General Conference delegates prior to the conference.
Book of Discipline -This fundamental book outlines the law, doctrine, administration, organizational work and procedures of The United Methodist Church. Each General Conference amends The Book of Discipline and the actions of the General Conference are reflected in the quadrennial revision. Often referred to as The Discipline.
Book of Resolutions - This volume contains the pronouncements on issues approved by the General Conference and currently valid. The Book of Resolutions contains not only the resolutions and policy statements passed by the most recent General Conference, but also all such statements still considered to represent the position of The United Methodist Church. The text of any resolution is considered the official position of the denomination on that subject.
Calendar Items items to be voted upon by the General Conference. A legislative committee item becomes a calendar item when the legislative committee approves or disapproves (concurs or non-concurs with) the recommendation of the legislative subcommittee, the appropriate individuals sign the committee item, and the coordinator of the Calendar receives the committee item and turns it into a Calendar Item.
Commission on Correlation and Editorial Revision The group that works with the United Methodist Publishing House editorial staff to edit and publish The Book of Discipline and The Book of Resolutions.
Committee Item Number - As each petition is sent to a committee, it is assigned a committee item number to facilitate its tracking within the committee and subcommittee. Committee Item Numbers are not displayed on the online version of the Legislative Tracking System.
Committee on Reference Re-referrals This is the second part of the Legislative Committee referral process. When the Committee On Reference Re-referrals makes a decision on which Legislative Committee should be assigned a petition the process is called a re-referral. See also Legislative Committee Referral.
Concurrence/Concur - In Legislative Committees and in the Plenary delegates decide whether they agree - or concur - with the item (either a petition or a calendar item) that is before them. Affirmative votes are called concurrence. Delegates may also amend petitions and vote concurrence as amended.
Consent Calendar In order to speed up the legislative process in the plenary session, committee items are grouped together to be voted on in blocks. Three consent calendars are created:
A) Concurrence with proposed changes to the Discipline,
B) Concurrent with petitions on non-Disciplinary matters
C) non-concurrence on Disciplinary and non-Disciplinary items.
To be on a Consent Calendar, the Committee Item must:
1) Have no minority report;
2) Cannot deal with the constitution;
3) Not have financial implications.Rules 2 and 3 do not apply to consent calendar C.
Once a consent calendar is published in the DCA, delegates have one day to remove the calendar item from the consent calendar. It takes 5 delegates to do this.
Daily Christian Advocate (DCA) The official journal of the General Conference. The DCA contains three sections: news and features, verbatim transcript of the conference proceedings and calendar items. A calendar item must be in the DCA for 24 hours before it can be voted on by the general conference.
Discipline Paragraph The basic unit in The Book of Discipline. Paragraphs are numbered consecutively within each chapter or section, but many numbers are skipped between parts, chapters, and sections in order to allow for additions. Petitions to amend the Book of Discipline must refer to a specific Discipline Paragraph.
General Conference Rules Of Order Rules of operation of the General Conferences. General Conference Rules deal with number of delegates required to file minority reports, eligibility for the consent calendar, number of delegates required to remove a calendar item from the consent calendar, etc. The Rules are adopted by the General Conference as their first item of business. You can download a pdf of the proposed Rules of Order.
Legislative Committee Committees that meet during General Conference to review and make recommendations on petitions and/or resolutions to be voted upon. There can be both a majority and minority report from these committees. Each committee elects a chairperson, vice chairperson and secretary. A committee recorder enters information (vote results, minority reports&ellipsis;) into the legislative tracking system. The General Conference Rules of Order set the number and name of each Legislative Committee and what Discipline paragraphs will be assigned to each Legislative Committee.
Legislative Committee Referrals if a legislative committee feels that a petition should be assigned to a different Legislative Committee, it will refer a petition to the Committee on Reference to be assigned to another legislative committee or even back to the original committee. The legislation tracking system facilitates the referral and re-referral of petitions.
Legislative Subcommittee each legislative committee may deem it necessary to subdivide into subcommittees and be assigned specific petitions and/or resolutions to work on. Each subcommittee elects a chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary.
Non-concurrence - In Legislative Committees and in the Plenary, delegates can choose to disagree - or non-concur - with the item (either a petition or a calendar item) that is before them. Disapproval is called non-concurrence.
Petition An item to be considered by a General Conference legislative committee and voted on during General Conference. Petitions are proposed changes to paragraphs of The Book of Discipline, Book of Resolutions or general requests for the church. The Advanced Daily Christian Advocate (ADCA) contains a complete listing of Petitions. See also Petition Number and Petition Identification Code.
Petition Identification Code (PIC) A numbering system created from several pieces of data contained in the petition. The PIC is used whenever information related to a petition is printed or display. The PIC is displayed in the online Legislative Tracking System next to the name of the petition. See the PIC format.
Petition Number A sequential number assigned to each petition submitted to General Conference. This number is assigned automatically by the legislative tracking system when a petition is entered into the system. See also Petition and Petition Identification Code. The petition numbers for the 2004 General Conference will begin with 40001. You can search for petitions by their petition number..
Petition Secretary receives all petitions submitted, enters petitions into the petition tracking system. The petition tracking system assigns a petition number and assigns petitions to a legislative committee based on The Book of Discipline paragraph number and the rules of General Conference.
Plenary - The full body of delegates that comprise General Conference. The plenary debates and votes to concur or non-concur with Calendar Items and Consent Calendars.
Verbatim The verbatim is the complete transcript of the dialog from the General Conference. The conference verbatim is published in the Daily Christian Advocate (DCA) and is also available online here.