The end of a looong first day

YAD orientation went well this afternoon. We did some ice breakers and got to know some people. Then we went over some business. After that was dinner – pizza. Then we had some more business. Followed by a short and fun worship service.

The candidates for moderator all came and introduced themselves to us. The assembly votes for moderator tomorrow evening. In case you don’t know: in voting procedure, the YADs and Theological Seminary Advisory Delegates (TSADs) have a preliminary advisory vote. This vote shows on the screen for all the delegates to see what the youth think. It’s amazing to see how much the YAD vote has a real powerful influence on the vote for moderator, so tomorrow night should be exciting. That vote is probably where the YAD influence shows up most.

If you would like to follow the moderator vote there will be streaming video of the assembly. You can get there from the GA 217 home page.

Earl Arnold asked me a good question (thanks Earl!). He asked what committee I will be serving on. I will be on the Church Orders committee. Church Orders this year will be dealing solely with overtures regarding G-6 (ordination issues regarding homosexuality).

Speaking of which, you should all go take a look at the Peace Unity and Purity Task Force’s website http://pcusa.org/peaceunitypurity/ . The PUP report is the biggest issue GA faces this year. So go take a look, before it gets too intense!

A note on Les:

Les is the system being used this year for delegates to view assembly business. It is a paper-free system (yay!) and is easy for those in charge to update, so provided the intranet system works as planned and all delegates are able to use it comfortably it should be a very good system for us. Anyone can us Les! That’s another plus. You can find Les at http://72.54.6.218/Home.aspx . You do not need to log in to view the business and overtures. Clicking on the “Business” tab will bring up a list of committees under which you’ll find overtures. The plus side to creating an account is that you can make and save notes on overtures. You don’t have to be a delegate to make an account, just go to the upper right hand corner and click on “Create Account.”

As a final note (I promise this is the end!) I was planning on taking pictures and possibly video to post for you all, but I forgot the USB cord to connect my camera to my computer. If I can get my parents to ship the cord down, I promise I’ll post some pictures!

God bless,

Susan