Barry McCarty has been the chief parliamentarian for the last twenty years and has seen a lot.
When I was doing the SBC Primer series, I had some people decry him and say some things that indicated he was possibly unregenerate, at worst, and unfair, at best. Of course others defended Barry as fair and qualified.
Heading into the convention, I was under the impression that the leadership of the SBC was ready to “bend over backwards” in order to be fair. What I saw in the disposition of controversial issues was just that.
Let me give you a couple of examples. During one business session, a young lady (I believe she was in a wheelchair) made two motions concerning the accessibility of the SBC to handicapped persons. She made those motions back to back, without giving the chair the opportunity to deal with them separately. Technically, she was out of order.
The chair and the platform, rather than insist on a technicality – even though they could have done so graciously and still allowed her to make both motions – allowed her to present her motions in the way she wanted. They then dealt with them accordingly.
In the disposition of Wade’s motion, it was complex enough to rule it out of order had they wanted to do so. They also wanted to be fair to the trustee system. In the end, they offered a compromise. They could have stopped there and simply referred it. It would then have taken a vote of 2/3 of the house to force a discussion of the referral. We all know that such a thing rarely happens.
Instead of that, the Committee on Order of Business, in conjunction with the parlimentarians and the President, scheduled a debate on the motion in order to give the convention ample opportunity to express its mind and decide what to do.
When this occured, I contacted Barry McCarty to ask him if he could explain what was going on and the ramifications of potential actions or motions concerning the impending discussion and decision. Barry was very generous with his tightly budgeted time and answered my questions for about thirty minutes – making clear that he was answering procedural questions and not advising me one way or another.
When I thanked him for the time, he said that he hoped I would make clear to all messengers that the parlimentarians would seek to help any messenger as best they could.
I do want to affirm that I felt just that way.
You can read a BP article on Barry’s twenty years with the SBC:
SBC Parliamentarian McCarty reflects on 2 decades of service
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Bowden McElroy
on Jun 23rd, 2006
@ 7:06 pm:
I had a similar experience a few months ago. I contacted the executive committee offices with a request for information re: how the SBC entities relate to one another. I was expecting to be referred to a link on the web site or maybe mailed some materials.
Instead, Augie Boto, chief counsel for the EC arranged for a phone appointment. We talked for an hour and I’m the one who had to go; he was willing to give me more time.
Kevin
on Jun 24th, 2006
@ 3:26 am:
Art
I met him and his wife on the plain ride to Dallas. He does want to be as fair as he can be. I thought he did a good job. I think he was misled about all of those “blogger boys” because I asked him. He thought there would be more Points of order I can only think of a few. I also think he thought there would be more out of order motions also, he didn’t say that that was just my perception. If you read the article you would almost wonder if he is a Southern Baptist by the way he talks about the SBC maybe I am just imagining things.
I gotta go to bed
In Him
Kevin Lancaster
Mike Stone
on Jun 24th, 2006
@ 2:09 pm:
I concur. While I do not know Barry personally, the handling of floor motions at the 2006 SBC is a credit to him and to Dr. Welch.
As the member of a committee, I was on the platform during one of the lengthier debates. His advice to the president was professional parliamentary counsel. There was absolutely no injection of personal opinion.
Great post.
Stephen A Morse
on Jun 25th, 2006
@ 7:59 pm:
I am just a small church pastor who deals with all kinds of ‘out of order’ motions as normality in our ‘business meetings.’ To have moderated at a convention woulh be un-imaginable!
I agree with you Art, Both Barry Welch did a terrific job in their consideration and application of their duties.
I learned a lot about grace and gracious response!
Arkansas Razorbaptist
on Jun 26th, 2006
@ 8:27 am:
McCarty always seemed to have a smile on his face. From the business side of the convention, things did go smoothly. Kevin, it is funny that McCarty, and probably the rest of the leadership, expected the bloggers to muddle the convention with numerous motions.
Great post Art.