| Petition deadline draws near By Erik Alsgaard UMConnection Staff Petitions going to the 2004 General Conference that wish to carry the support of the Baltimore-Washington Conference need to be submitted sooner rather than later. Thats the word from the Rev. Stanley Harrell, secretary of the conference. According to Harrell, the deadline for submission of petitions to the Resolutions and Petitions Committee from an individual, church or Annual Conference agency, is March 21 at 12:01 p.m. There are specific instructions for submitting a petition to General Conference, Harrell said. Those procedures are outlined in the 2000 Book of Discipline, 507. Each petition must address only one issue if the Discipline is not affected, noted Harrell. If the Discipline is affected, each petition must address only one paragraph of the Discipline. Each petition must be signed by the person submitting it, Harrell said, accompanied by the appropriate identification, which includes address (postal, e-mail or fax number), and United Methodist local church. Laity must be members of The United Methodist Church to submit a petition. The petitions are organized by subject and by submission, said Harrell, and printed in the Pre-Conference booklet for action of concurrence or non-concurrence by the annual conference. Petitions that receive concurrence from the annual conference are then sent to the General Conference Petitions Secretary by the Conference Secretary. Petitions that do not receive concurrence are not necessarily finished. Rather, the individual or group submitting the petition to the Baltimore-Washington Conference are free to re-submit the petition to General Conference. However, the petition will lack the concurrence of the conference. Deadline for petitions to be in the hands of the General Conference Petitions Secretary is set by the Discipline at 150 days prior to the opening session. In this case, that date is Nov. 29. The next General Conference takes place in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 27 through May 7, 2004. More information on the 2004 General Conference, including downloadable petition forms and instructions, is available at www.umc.org/gc2004/. | 
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