April 30 - Preparing for General Conference

Three weeks before Tampa, I had ordered a copy of the 2010 United Methodist Directory as part of my pre-conference preparation. I figured that since I was hauling it and my Discipline around with my computer and miscellaneous other stuff in the travel case I was pulling everywhere, maybe I better start doing some of that pre-conference preparation I had put off.

I had little patience with the plenary so I spent time that Monday going back into the pre-conference reports, finding and logging the numbers assigned to my petitions

I read through the Plan of Organization and Rules of Order for the 2012 General Conference, much too late to seek to get them changed to be more democratic.

I found that I could not account for four of the petitions I sent in. I know the petitions secretary and have all the confidence in the world in his integrity. But it was way too late to ask him to restore them for consideration. I sent him a note asking if he would let me know what happened to them after General Conference when he was done with all he had to do.

Shoulda done my homework weeks before coming to Tampa…. It’s all my fault that the American UMC is going to hell in a handbasket. I didn’t get my finger in the dike in time.