Over the past weeks, you may have heard the term “executive committee” or even referred to it yourself. Have you ever wondered though, who exactly makes up the Oregon Conference Executive Committee, what do they do, how they’re chosen, or how often committee members change?

The Oregon Conference Executive Committee is the governing committee of the Oregon Conference. Between regular constituency sessions, our bylaws state that it has “full administrative authority to conduct the business of the conference.” The job is a big one, including the overseeing of policies, personnel, and committees that perform the work of the Oregon Conference. The committee serves a five-year term, and during that time the group works with the conference administration team to make the decisions that guide the work of the conference.

On September 17, 2022 the Oregon Conference constituency met at Portland Adventist Academy for our most recent regular constituency session, the 59th, to be exact. One of the tasks of the day included appointing the lay people, pastors, and teachers, recommended by the Nominating Committee, that would make up the Executive Committee for the coming term of five years. Currently, 23 people make up the group with a few others as non-voting participants. Of these, over half are lay people from nearly every part of the Oregon Conference territory.

But wait, “Where did that nominating committee come from?”, I can hear you saying. Did you know your local church board doesn’t just gather to make financial decisions or to approve membership transfers? They’re also the bridge between your church and the Oregon Conference. Leading up to a regular constituency session, the local church board selects candidates to be considered for conference committees. Some candidates serve on what’s called Organizing Committee––a large group of people representing every church in the conference. The Organizing Committee’s job is to choose from the lists of names put forward by local church boards to serve on more specialized committees.

One of those specialized committees is that Nominating Committee I mentioned. Its job is to recommend conference elected officers, Executive Committee members, and Financial Review Committee representatives. Those recommendations are then brought to vote at constituency session, with all delegates getting the opportunity to vote for or against the candidates.

If you’d like to learn more about how our conference is governed check out the About Oregon Adventists page on our website. There you can learn more about constituency session, who our current executive committee members are, and even find a PDF of our bylaws. Just go to www.OregonAdventist.org/aboutus.