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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Something new happened this year during the plenary sessions at annual conference.

Members of the conference Commission on the Status and Role of Women observed each session, monitoring those who spoke in two categories: gender and ethnicity. They had planned also to monitor for age, but were unable to. 'We couldn?t tell whether speakers were young or old or in between,' one of them said.

The purpose of monitoring is to determine 'how inclusive we are,' said the Rev. Iris Farabee-Lewis, who heads the conference COSROW.

Monitoring is a regular function at many annual conferences and COSROW extensively monitors at General Conference, but this year is the first undertaking for the Baltimore-Washington Conference. They acknowledge it has been a learning experience and that the information is incomplete.

Seven members of the commission, working in pairs, observed the six plenary sessions, plus the clergy and laity sessions.

Under their telescopes they observed the people who spoke at the microphones, and recorded them in the selected categories. 'We weren?t there to judge,' Farabee-Lewis said, 'just to observe.'

In the six sessions, five plenaries and the clergy session, monitors recorded 211 times someone spoke. Speakers included 76 females (35%) and 135 males. These were divided almost evenly between clergy and laity, with 103 clergy speaking and 108 laity. Clergy included 14 who spoke in the clergy session, which was not open to laity. The laity session was monitored, but had nothing to record, since there was almost no discussion from the floor.

In terms of ethnicity, the monitors found that 59 African-Americans, 27% of the 211 people who spoke, and 152 white people spoke.

To provide a reference point, conference statistics indicate there are 909 full-member clergy, including Deacons, but not including local pastors, of which 275 are female (30%) and 634 are male. Among the same number of clergy, 200 (20%) are African-American and 664 are white. The other 45 clergy are of several ethnicities. There are no stats on the categories of lay members.

'White males dominated the floor,' concluded Farabee-Lewis.