NAD NEWS—Due to the impact of COVID-19 and the postponement of the 2020 General Conference (GC) Session until May 2021, and the North American Division (NAD) of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church policy that requires the election of NAD vice presidents and department directors be held after a General Conference Session, the North American Division Committee (NADCOM) voted on May 21, 2020, to hold division elections on May 26, 2021, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This date is immediately after the conclusion of the 2021 GC Session and will allow for the NAD Executive Committee to meet at a time when a significant number of its members would already be present in Indianapolis. Historically, the majority of other world divisions have held their department and ministry elections during previous GC sessions, setting a precedent for the NAD to do likewise at the upcoming session.
The election of NAD vice presidents and department directors was originally scheduled to take place at the 2020 NAD Year-End Meeting, held October 29 - November 3 at the NAD headquarters in Columbia, Maryland.
The General Conference has scheduled a series of departmental advisories to take place in August and September of 2021, and moving the NAD elections to May makes it possible for the newly-elected directors and vice presidents to participate with their ministry colleagues from around the world. The GC has announced plans to hold the advisories virtually. In the past the meetings were held at the GC headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. This will provide the church with substantial savings on the travel and meeting costs of previous advisories.
Earlier, the NAD announced plans for the election of a replacement for Daniel R. Jackson, who is retiring from his position as NAD president on July 1, 2020. The NAD nominating committee will meet on July 6 and the NAD executive committee will meet on July 7 to select a name to be recommended to the General Conference executive committee, which will meet virtually on July 9 to elect a new NAD president.
All three NAD executive positions — president, secretary and treasurer — will be elected at the 2021 GC Session.”
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Due to the cancellation of GC Session 2020, and the upcoming simultaneous retirement of Dan Jackson, it can be confusing to understand the replacement process of a Division president and its relation to GC Session—where Division presidents are normally elected. Here’s what we learned from the NAD Communication department regarding the between-session replacement/election process for a Division president.
When a Division president retires mid-term, the secretary acts as president until a replacement president is nominated by the NAD nominating committee.
The NAD Executive Committee will choose a name from the nominating committee, and that name will be recommended to the GC Executive Committee. The GC Executive Committee will vote on that name on July 9 of this year.
That person will become the NAD president until GC Session 2021. At Session 2021, there will be another (regular) election for all Division president(s). We hope that helps.
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“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice” (Proverbs 29:2).