Doctrines and Discipline of the Free Methodist Church of North America - 1939 Edition

CHAPTER II

BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION

     ¶ 102. The Board of Administration shall consist of the bishops, the secretary of the General Conference, two traveling elders and two lay members from each of the General Conference missionary districts, a majority of whom shall be members of the General Conference electing them, provided, however, that no General Conference officer other than the bishops and the secretary shall be a member of the Board of Administration. The senior bishop shall be president, and the secretary of the General Conference secretary of said board; but in case there is no bishop to serve, then the Board of Administration shall elect an elder from its members to preside.

     ¶ 103. 1. The Board of Administration shall have general supervision of all the activities of the church during the intervals of the General Conference. It shall meet annually and whenever the bishops or one-third of the members shall deem it necessary. A majority of the members elected shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

     2. The Board of Administration shall have power to accept resignations, or remove for cause, any of its members or any of the General Conference officers during the interim of the General Conference sessions and fill all vacancies occurring either in its own body or in any of the General Conference elective offices, subject to the provisions of the Discipline. The Board of Administration shall fill any vacancy which may occur in the Board of Bishops during the first two years of the quadrennium.

     3. The Board of Administration shall meet immediately at the close of the General Conference and organize itself into four commissions to be called the Executive Commission, the Commission on Missions, the Commission on Christian Education, and the Commission on Evangelism, Charities and Church Extension.

     4. The Executive Commission shall consist of one bishop and six other persons. The Commission on Missions shall consist of one bishop and eight other persons, two of whom shall be the women representing the Woman’s Missionary Society. The Commission on Christian Education shall consist of one bishop and six other persons. The Commission on Evangelism, Charities and Church Extension shall consist of one bishop and six other persons.

     5. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the Board of Administration to make a full report of its proceedings during the quadrennium to the General Conference.

     6. The Board of Administration shall elect five businessmen, who shall have charge of the investment of the church funds, including the funds to be invested by the several commissions. No member of said committee shall be eligible to borrow directly or indirectly or participate in the benefits of any moneys borrowed from the funds of the church. The finance committee of the Board of Administration shall not invest the trust funds of the church in any investments except such as are lawful for the investment of trust funds as allowed by the state in which the Free Methodist Church may be incorporated. No treasurer of these church funds shall be a member of this committee.

     7. The Board of Administration shall also employ a general church treasurer; a publishing agent, who shall be a member of the Free Methodist Church, and when they deem it necessary, an assistant publishing agent, and such other officers or employees as the General Conference orders.

     8. All of the commissions and the Woman’s Missionary Society shall make and file annually their financial statements with the secretary of the Board of Administration.

     9. The secretaries of the several departments of our church work shall meet with the respective commissions to whom their work is assigned.

     10. The Board shall provide rules and regulations for the conduct of its business.

     11. If for any cause a member of the Board of Administration shall cease to be a member of the Free Methodist Church his membership on the board shall thereby cease.

     ¶ 104. The various annual conferences shall be grouped in six General Conference missionary districts as follows: District No. 1—Genesee, Oil City, East Ontario, West Ontario. No. 2—New York, Susquehanna, Pittsburgh, Ohio, and Maryland-Virginia. No. 3—East Michigan, North Michigan, Michigan, and North Indiana. No. 4—Wabash, Central Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Ozark, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia and Florida. No. 5— Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, North Minnesota, Minnesota and Northern Iowa, West Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and West Kansas. No. 6—Columbia River, Washington, Oregon, California, Southern California, Colorado, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Japan.