Bylaws Church Conference

During church conference on September 26, Highland Hills’ members approved changes to the church’s bylaws to downsize the Board of Deacons to 15 members from the current 21. Action on other proposed changes to the bylaws was deferred until the Bylaws Task Force can finalize a new policies and procedures manual.

There was significant discussion around the proposal to remove references to all non-standing committees from the bylaws and place them into a new policies and procedures manual, which is currently only in rough draft form. Standing committees, which include Nominating, Personnel and Finance, remain in the proposed bylaws. Because other church committees tend to come and go or undergo revision from year to year, the Bylaws Task Force recommended moving them to the policies and procedures manual to reduce the frequency of bylaws revisions, which requires a vote of the membership.

Some members also voiced concerns during the church conference about not having enough time to discuss and review the proposed bylaws revisions.

The policies and procedures manual will be reviewed and approved by the Board of Deacons, and then be distributed to members ahead of another vote on the revised bylaws, which, hopefully, will be scheduled by the end of the year.