Letter from the Senior Warden about the Annual Meeting and Vestry Elections
Hello to ALL within our Saint Stephen’s family. During the past year, we have experienced life changing events affecting all of us. None of us was prepared for the ride we are on in 2020. However, we have made the best of it and created many new ways to communicate, gather, and enrich our lives while maintaining the social distance we all must adhere to for our collective safety. In this regard, we have constantly adjusted our normal operations to accommodate our new reality. I would like to share our process for the Annual Meeting and Vestry elections this year due to the inability to come together in person for our annual meeting.
The Vestry is Saint Stephen’s governing board; it sets the policies that guide all our ministries, has fiduciary responsibility for the church's money and property, and gives both support and feedback to the Rector. Our objective is to gather a list of parishioners you believe now or in the future would serve our church well on the Vestry. We seek a broad range of ages, talents, and perspectives to provide the best possible leadership for our church. We hope everyone will suggest people who should be on that list, either themselves or others. We also seek three people to represent Saint Stephen’s over the next three Diocesan Conventions.
We have established a Nominating Committee for this purpose, with two options. First, we welcome the suggestion of anyone to be a possible candidate for Vestry, either for the immediate election and/or for future consideration in the next few years. Secondly, we welcome submission of candidates for this year’s Vestry election and as representatives to Diocesan Convention. The nominating committee will gather the potential nominees to create a slate of people for the four Vestry seats that come available this year. The slate, alongside names of possible delegates for Diocesan Convention, will be presented for election prior to the Annual Parish Meeting in November. Then, the annual meeting will likely be a premiered video presentation with a live Zoom meeting. During that parish-wide meeting, we will either approve the slate by acclamation, if only 4 four are nominated for vestry and 3 are nominated as delegates to Diocesan Convention, or elect 4 members for vestry and 3 delegates out the slate of candidates.
To nominate yourself or another parishioner as a candidate for Vestry or Diocesan Convention, please use this form and send to me before Sunday, October 25. The Nominating Committee will then review the information provided over the next two weeks and present it to the congregation to be included in the Annual Meeting on Sunday, November 29.
We hope this approach will ensure our Vestry has all the human resources it needs to provide the best possible leadership and experience for our church in all its many ministries.
The Vestry has appointed its retiring members to serve as this year's nominating committee: Xan Glover, Van Chaplin, Conley Knott, and Thomas Perrine (Chair).
According to the Diocese of Alabama’s canons and Saint Stephen’s policies, all Vestry nominees must be members on the rolls, givers of record, confirmed, and seventeen years of age or older. Vestry members serve for three-year terms and are not eligible for re-election in the year immediately after their term expires.
Again, we seek your suggestions of possible nominees and actual submissions of candidates and your feedback on this process. Please send either or both to me by email or U.S. Mail to:
or
Thomas Perrine, 804 Beech Court, Birmingham, AL 35213
Sincerely,
Thomas Perrine,
Senior Warden