National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the UK, elected at the UK National Baha’i Convention, 2009
I attend many meetings and conferences in the course of my working life, but none of them come near the National Baha’i Convention for flow and maturity of consultation.
This is where 95 delegates elected by Baha’is locally across the UK come together to elect the National Spiritual Assembly, the Baha’i community’s national governing council for the coming year. And they review the life and development of the Baha’i community in the past year and consult about the coming year.
No politics
The election is a remarkable experience. Nobody stands, nobody is nominated and there is no canvassing. The delegates are expected to get to know their fellow Baha’is and to vote for nine people who have the right kind of qualities and experience to serve on the National Assembly:
…only those who can best combine the necessary qualities of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, of a well-trained mind, of recognized ability and mature experience. (Shoghi Effendi)
Silent voting, secret ballot
The election itself is surrounded by prayer and silence. Each delegate writes on his or her ballot paper the names of the nine people she or he considers to be most qualified to serve. Once all delegates have voted, the Secretary of Convention calls the names of the delegates and each in turn, observed by the tellers, casts his or her ballot into the ballot box. The tellers then take the ballot box away and confidentially count the votes.
Who is elected?
The nine people with the highest number of votes are elected to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly for one year.
Consultation
The consultation at National Convention is completely unlike the debates at political party conferences. No proposition. No opposition. No prepared resolutions. No debate at all, but rather a conversation amongst the delegates. Any delegate is free to put forward a resolution and speak to it at any time during the Convention. Other delegates respond, shariing their thoughts and experiences; ideas grow and are shaped.
When the resolution is put, delegates vote by showing their cards. The resolutions that Convention passes are then sent to the National Spiritual Assembly for its consideration.
Resolutions do not bind the National Spiritual Assembly. In fact, it is not unusual for resolutions to stimulate the National Assembly’s own thinking in such a way that the final decision may bear no resemblance to the resolution. But that’s OK. The purpose of Baha’i consultation is to arrive at the best possible decision on any given issue.
In other words, the consultation flows freely, unencumbered by pre-Convention haggling by pressure groups or party machinery. Convention belongs to the delegates.
Newly elected National Spiritual Assembly
And then comes the moment when the Chief Teller announces the result of the election in order of the number of votes received by each of the nine who become members of the National Assembly for the year. As each name is called the individual elected comes forward to stand in front of the delegates.
The first time I heard my name called by the Chief Teller – back in 1993 – I felt a jolt like an electric shock had passed through me. I was a delegate that year and had been writing down the names of the newly elected National Assembly members as they were called out. The names would be part of my report to my electoral unit.
I wrote eight names – they were the names of members reelected from the previous year; all of them had served for many years – and suddenly I was writing down my own name. I was utterly shocked. I wanted to run from the Convention hall for a hug from my wife and time to get over the shock. But I had to go up to the stage and sit there, facing the delegates while the Secretary of the previous year’s National Assembly made a speech launching a plan.
As the newly-elected members stand together before the applauding delegates, they are – no matter how many years they have served – aware of the responsibility they carry and the confidence placed in them by the Baha’i community.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, National Spiritual Assembly, National Convention, election, voting, consultation
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{ 8 comments }
Sounds like our political process could take some lessons…
I agree, Tess. We really do not need the adversarialism and the ad hominem attacks that are so characteristic of political discourse.
Where does the process of consulting and presenting resolutions to the Assembly come from? Is that universal in all national conventions, and if so is there any guidance on how a National Convention is to be held?
I just realized there is a whole portion of administrative life I know NOTHING about. Like the national equivalent of Feast it seems. I always assumed it was pretty boring, just voting and done. Obviously the voting itself isn’t boring for the voters or elected, but I assumed Convention was very simple that way.
God Bless,
Gerald
In the Netherlands this year (and I believe several previous years) presenting resolutions was discouraged (by the chairpersons, not the NSA) because, as I understand, they tend to ‘highjack’ the consultation and prevent the free flow of ideas and reflections. The NSA takes any individual suggestion seriously, even if not consulted and voted on, or when voted on but not accepted by the Convention. Having also experienced conventions many years ago, I found this refreshing. Much less time pressure and less opportunity for annoyance. That said, one delegate did make a resolution which was voted on and another asked for the ‘return’ of resolutions. I kind of hope that doesn’t happen
Congrats to the UK Baha’i community. God is the Most Glorious!
Thank you, Phillipe, Martijn and Gerald for your comments.
Over the years our National Spiritual Assembly has moved from running Convention in the old (and frankly boring) way, with everything based around resolutions and conducted according to Roberts Rules or something similar. Delegates had to speak for or against resolutions and put amendments and all of that stuff. I recall a lot of points of order and fruitless arguments in those days. Then the National Assembly decided not to have resolutions or to take the focus right off resolutions and, as now happens in the Netherlands, to allow the consultation to flow freely. In more recent years, the National Assembly came to believe that resolutions, handled in the right way, provide a useful focus for consultation, but that consultation should not be limited to discussion of resolutions.
This was guidance given by the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly in 1982:
To answer Gerald’s question, these are matters that are left to National Spiritual Assemblies to decide (within limits). Our National Spiritual Assembly has adopted a much more informal approach to the running of Convention. The delegates sit at long tables laid out in a U shape with the open end of the U facing the platform where the officers of Convention sit. There is one conference microphone between every two delegates and delegates speak from where they are sitting. Each delegate has a card with their delegate number on. When they wish to speak they hold the card up and are recognized by the chair of Convention. The delegate’s number is entered into a simple computer program which keeps a record of the speaking order and the list of delegates who have asked to speak is projected on a screen behind the officers.
The agenda is broadly drawn and allows the delegates the freedom to address whatever issues they wish, but the National Spiritual Assembly reminds them of the importance of focusing on the processes of growth and consolidation.
Delegates enter into a free-flowing conversation and delegates who have specific proposals they think the National Assembly should consider are asked to formulate their proposals as resolutions, which are discussed and voted upon. This is a great help to the National Assembly, since it can get a sense of the degree of support in the community for these ideas. The secretary of Convention makes a reasonably complete record of the main points arising in the consultation so that the National Assembly can consider anything that comes up.
So one could say that the resolutions do not drive Convention but generally emerge as a natural consequence of the process of consultation.
Gerald, the guidance on the running of Convention comes from Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice. There is considerable stress in the guidance on remaining flexible. Our Conventions in the UK have become ever more interesting now that an increasing proportion of the delegates are actively involved in the processes of growth and consolidation. They share experiences and speak from those experiences. They are also, of course, free to raise any issues they wish. The consultation grows ideas and, of course, the representative of the Continental Board of Counsellors gives wise guidance and reflects on what she is hearing. Boring? Definitely not!
Thanks Barney! I learned a lot from that!
God Bless,
Gerald
Thanks, Barney – interesting these parallel developments in the Netherlands and the UK. Still a difference is that we only have 38 delegates and we sit in a square instead of a U, in our wonderful conference centre “De Poort”. I should add that this year we were blessed with the loving and illuminating presence of counsellor Vivien Craig, from your country!
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