Inline Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions

Thank you, computers!

Many congregations have kept their bylaws and continuing resolutions in separate documents. This made a lot of sense back before computers became a mainstay of our society. If a bylaw or continuing resolution was passed that belonged in Chapter 4 of the Constitution, how much work would it have taken to retype all the pages following it? For this historical reason, congregations are still allowed to have separate bylaw and continuing resolution documents.

Today, however, most congregations maintain their governing documents through computer files. It is relatively simple to insert a bylaw or continuing resolution into the Constitution. Moreover, as society moves away from print, it is also becoming easier to keep all the various copies of the Constitution up-to-date.

This site encourages all congregations that have separate bylaw and continuing resolution documents to moves those provisions inline with their Constitutions. The ELCA governing documents and the Model Constitution for Synods both include all bylaws and continuing resolutions inline. Congregations should follow these examples.

Example of Inline Provisions

This simple example demonstrates the value of inline provisions. C11.01. is taken from the Model Constitution.

C11.01.
The officers of this congregation shall be a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer.
a.
Duties of the officers shall be specified in the bylaws.
C11.01.10.
PRESIDENT
C11.01.11.
The president must do this.
C11.01.12.
And the president must do that.
C11.01.20.
VICE PRESIDENT
C11.01.21.
The vice president must do this.
C11.01.22.
The vice president may also do that.
C11.01.23.
The vice president should do this other thing if the president cannot.

With the provisions inline, no one has to search multiple documents to find where things are. Instead everything related to officers can be found clearly in the Constitution in Chapter 11.