In this first episode, Rev. Dr. Amy Valdez Barker, former head of the Connectional Table, was able to join us to represent the General Conference process from the perspective of the institution. The crew spent an hour talking about the logistical and practical elements that go into coordinating and implementing the actual General Conference session. How are different legislative items selected, edited, and presented to the plenary body for consideration? Whose voices have more influence or are given more privilege? How do caucus groups contribute to the discourse and proceedings? How to nonAmerican delegates experience the weeks of the gathering? All these and many more questions are addressed thoughtfully by our different panelists.

If you care about this April's General Conference going well, and you want to understand all the things going on behind the scenes, you would do well to spend some time with this episode. As always, we want to urge you to share this widely so as to equip the UMC denomination to be able to track and understand these proceedings. Feedback can be given to us at [email protected]. Make sure to subscribe, like, and comment as you are able.

Links: UM News Article detailing many particulars of this upcoming session - https://www.umnews.org/en/news/what-comes-after-general-conference-deadline Rules from the Daily Christian Advocate, detailing how the session is to be carried out - https://drive.google.com/file/d/17xKR3idzjOlXbl_CfmrXdIJHBj7zjnS9/view?usp=sharing Bio for Amy Valdez Parker - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TVCzYIRj2E19mp-T0QDVpK4Sd__66vfE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117124792218903575974&rtpof=true&sd=true

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plainspokenpod.substack.com