What is General Conference like? Being my hotel was not downtown; it meant getting up to catch the 6:15am bus to get the free breakfasts provided by various caucus groups. Each day opened with music and worship at 8am.This was to get us centered for the day that would go until 11pm with only breaks for lunch and dinner. Having to wait for a bus back to the hotel meant not going to bed most nights until after midnight. The first few days had us in our committee meetings discussing over 1500 petitions. Since the Plenary overrides the Committee less then 2% of the time, this is where our contribution is most important. Being a smaller conference, we only had votes in 6 of the 13 legislative committees; with voice-only in two others. The second week was mostly consumed with debating petitions where the committees were not in full agreement on.  
 

            Each morning delegates are handed almost a dozen newsletters from the various caucus groups. These will review the prior day, list upcoming events and share where that group stands on issues important to them.    Between the books, reports, and handouts, I ended up mailing home over 14 pounds worth of materials. Luckily, the shipping office was one block from the convention center.
 

            Getting something passed on the Plenary floor requires knowing the ‘rules,’ good debating skills, and the ability to think on one’s feet. While I mastered the rules (I invoked one that caused the bishop running the session to look it up); I wasn’t quite up to par versus another General Conference veteran and my amendment failed by 5 votes; giving me the “honor” of having the closest defeat of all floor votes during this General Conference! Oh yea, someone objected to using the word ‘defeat’; they said it sounded too militaristic.
 

            All that said; General Conference can be very spiritual if you look beyond all the debating. The delegates, while not of like mind, all have the best interest of our great denomination at heart.You get to see friends from prior conferences and meet people from around the world. We met the delegations from the DRC where our Partnership funds go. We truly do have A Future With Hope. It has been an honor chairing your delegation to Forth Worth.We all look forward to Harrisburg in July and the Northeast Jurisdictional meeting.