March 17, 1999
North Carolina Baptists exploring
bipartisan plan for power sharing
___RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP)--A bipartisan group has offered a plan to depoliticize the 1.2-million-member Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
___A 36-member "Summit on Balanced Leadership" proposed the plan, which is intended to alternate the convention's presidency between moderates and conservatives each year.
___The plan, which would require approval on several levels and a constitutional change, is aimed at preventing a split like ones that caused conservative Southern Baptists in Texas and Virginia to form separate state conventions, leaders said.
___The proposal, sounded out March 4 at a meeting at North Carolina's Caraway Conference Center, calls for the top two vote-getters in the state-convention's presidential election to share the office. The person receiving the most votes would serve the first year as president. The second-place finisher would be named "president-elect" and hold the office the next year. Both leaders would serve two years, with the winner assuming the title "past president" during the second year.
___If recent voting patterns hold true, one of the winners likely would be a conservative and the other a moderate.
___Two vice presidents also would be elected in one vote, with the first and second finishers serving two-year terms as first- and second-vice presidents.
___The four leaders would serve as a committee to appoint the 15-member Committee on Committees, which in turn appoints the powerful Committee on Nominations. That group nominates individuals for election as trustees and directors of state convention agencies and institutions, as well as the General Board, the convention's top policy-making body.
___The proposal also calls for a change in the way General Board officers are elected. Every two years, convention messengers would elect a General Board president, president-elect and two vice presidents. Currently the General Board elects its own officers.
___The four convention officers and the four General Board officers would serve on the General Board's executive committee, which hires employees and appoints subcommittees for budget development and other strategic assignments.
___According to a statement released by the group, the plan would "preserve the integrity of one state convention, celebrating unity in diversity."
___North Carolina previously was known as a moderate state, but conservatives have gained influence there in recent years.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!