Today, I am looking at Assembly Committee #2, Bills & Overtures. There is not going to be anything controversial in this post; all of that will start on Monday when we get into the Assembly Committees to which business is going to be distributed. However, there are commissioners and advisory delegates who are assigned to serve in Bills & Overtures, it does have an important function (as you will see), and it is therefore worthy of being summarized.
The assignment to Bills & Overtures? It is rather eye-glazing:
Docket of the assembly and referrals of business to assembly committees after commencement of General Assembly (Standing Rules C.4. b.); appeal of persons denied the right to speak at a public hearing (Standing Rule E.5.b.); review requests for distribution of material to commissioners (Standing Rule E.6.c.); review requests from agencies to schedule meetings, briefings, hearings during assembly meeting (Standing Rule E.6.d.); recommend approval of time limits on debate (Standing Rule F.1.b.); review and recommend approval of General Assembly Minutes (Standing Rule F.1.c.); requests for presentations to the assembly (Standing Rule F.1.d.); review protests, determine if entered in the Minutes, prepare response if needed (Standing Rule F.1.e.); report on assembly committee requests for establishment of special committees or commissions (Standing Rule K.1.a.-b.).
And?
Bills & Overtures is like the wedding coordinator at your church: they make sure the groomsmen are with the groom in a room and the bridesmaids are with the bride in another room, the decorations are ready, and then they tell everyone when it is time to march down the aisle. Sometimes they plead, sometimes they nudge, sometimes they push.
Bills & Overtures has that responsibility for the Assembly; to nudge it along to make sure that everything that needs completing gets done before everyone blows town to go home. They are time-keepers, business distributors, on-site administrative conflict resolvers, and the functional “court of last appeal” for many things that are time-sensitive to Sunday through Tuesday. (Technically, there’s a process for appeal from a B&O decision — Standing Rule A.8.1.h. — but … really… it’s not going to happen.) Most commissioners, advisory delegates, and observers who are not part of this committee will not notice what they do — but everyone would absolutely know if they did not fulfill their responsibilities. It is not a glamorous committee, but vital.
Two things I want to point out: commissioners resolutions and the Standing Rules.
You will notice that there are currently no items of business assigned. That will change. Bills & Overtures gets the first read of commissioners resolutions once they clear the Office of General Assembly (OGA). Standing Rule A.8.:
g. If the proposed resolution does deal with new business, the Stated Clerk shall transmit it to the Assembly Committee on Bills and Overtures with a recommendation for its referral.
h. The Assembly Committee on Bills and Overtures may decline to refer proposed items of new business if it decides that the matters proposed are already before the assembly or that the purpose of the proposals can be reached by the process of amendment and debate. …
Commissioners resolutions make up the “new business” section of the Assembly’s agenda. Standing Rule A.8. defines it
a. Any two commissioners may propose an item of new business, known as a commissioners’ resolution, for assembly consideration by delivering it in writing to the Stated Clerk or the Stated Clerk’s designee. No commissioner may sign more than two resolutions.
That is not a wide open invitation, however. Standing Rule A.8.b.-h detail the restrictions and procedural hoops commissioners need to work through in order to be successful in getting the business into the hands of the Assembly. It is not an easy road. Robert Austell has written a piece about his experience at the 218th General Assembly (2008) with a successful commissioners’ resolution. It is a must read if you are thinking about venturing in. It is worth saying: author a commissioners’ resolution only if it is something about which you are passionate. It is not worth doing if you are not going to spend your time pursuing it. It is not worth doing if you do not really care if it passes. Robert — to his credit — successfully ignored my advice because he was passionate about pursuing it, was willing to spend his time to chase it through the week, and he ultimately served the larger church by creating a mechanism for peace where all that existed was an adversarial process.
Regarding the Standing Rules: you have seen in my notes reference after reference to Standing Rules. The Standing Rules are the first part of the Manual of the General Assembly, which is available under the Resources tab on pc-biz. It is not too late to get familiar with them. Get familiar! (That’s an order, not just an exhortation) You do not have to memorize them, but you do need to know what is covered. You need to be able to quickly get around in them. And, if you are — for example — planning on signing a commissioners’ resolution, you had better plan to read Standing Rule A.8. word-by-word.
That’s it for Bills & Overtures.