From Barbara Losse, St. Mark's SLC

I was assigned to a committee for the first time this Convention and appointed its secretary. Arriving in time for the Legislative Committee Officers’ Orientation on Monday, I met Dave from the Diocese of North Dakota and the chair of Committee 21 - Privilege and Courtesy. He had attended the staff and chair meeting a few months ago. As we listened to the Convention Secretary, Gregory Straub - he of the many colored sport coats, if you haven’t already heard - Dave leaned over to say things such as “we don’t need to do that”, or “that doesn’t apply to us”, or “don’t worry about that one”.

Important as saying “thank you” is, P & C operates independently of the committee system at General Convention. We had committee members from both Houses, an assigned meeting room, pre-filed resolutions, forms to fill out and a thumb drive, but didn’t meet as a committee until Monday of the 2nd week when fewer than half of us were available. Dave and I were the only members of the committee whose sole assignment was P & C, which meant that the others were heavily scheduled the 1st week with meetings and hearings.

Meanwhile, Dave had assigned each of the deputies to draft one text of the resolutions we were likely to need such as an appreciation for the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit and recognition to leadership of the Houses and the staff who made it all work. Hearings were unnecessary although an interested deputy stopped by to ask if we could keep his pre-filed resolution off the Consent Calendar and have it placed on the regular daily calendar. We could request it, but Dispatch of Business makes those decisions and as time dwindles, the likelihood is that the bulk of our resolutions will land on the consent calendar.

We met Monday, yesterday and today before the morning legislative session to review the drafts, decide whether they ought to be forwarded to the Houses, and then edit them for syntax, grammar, and general wordsmithing. Sound mundane? Well, maybe, but it was still kind of exciting when we got the Daily Calendar with our resolutions on it - not even on the consent calendar, and someone rose to speak to one of them!