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Regarding Absentee Ballots

Dear Cypress Street Family,

In this second email regarding Wednesday's Special Business Meeting (6:30pm in the Fellowship Hall) to vote on the adoption of new bylaws, I hope to address a legitimate concern held by several in our church family.

Our current bylaws have allowed for absentee voting in all business meetings and on all issues. So why the proposed change? Let me address the "why" first and then I'll share those legitimate concerns + a possible compromise.

While absentee voting is common practice in organizations that are spread out across states or even larger regions out of necessity, it is not viewed as sound practice for local organizations like ours. Consider this quote from the General Secretary of the Church of the Nazarene who prohibit the practice in their churches: "The prohibition for this is not just in the [Nazarene] Manual; it is Robert's Rules of Order (RROO) Newly Revised. If someone votes by absentee ballot, but then there is discussion on an issue in the actual meeting, the person who voted by the absentee method will not have been informed about this information before he or she voted." For this reason and others, Robert's Rules of Order states: "In a strictly deliberative assembly [which is what we are considered] no member can vote who is not present when the question is completely put."

So this is not something that has been dreamed up on a whim nor an attempt to exclude anyone but rather comes from a desire to abide by sound practice. However, there is a legitimate concern that--having allowed absentee voting in the past--such a change could leave people like our shut-ins feeling excluded.

For this reason, the bylaws committee plans to make a motion at Wednesday night's meeting proposing an amendment that would create an exception allowing absentee voting on leaders and budgets at each year's Annual Business Meeting. The hope is that this compromise will help keep our shut-ins in the loop and prevent them from feeling further excluded from the life of the church.

Again, if any of this raises questions for you, I ask you to please contact myself or a member of the bylaws committee directly before Wednesday night. The bylaws committee includes Nancy Elmore, Pat Eads and Ruth Coody. It's always best to come straight to the source and any of us would be glad to visit with you this week (except Ruth who is in the hospital in poor health, please continue to keep her in your prayers).

Thank you and I hope to see you Wednesday,