The rows of tables seat 196 committee members.  There are electronic voting pads.  There are video projectors and big screens.  Technology abounds in a room that will be busy for the next 10 days.  This is where the Nominating Committee for the Seventh-day Adventist world church will meet starting Thursday evening.  Their purpose: to elect leaders to the world church for the next five years.

Two thousand delegates, representing the Church’s 13 world regions, select the committee. Larry Evans, undersecretary for the world church told ANN that they have worked hard to ensure that the delegation is representative of the church not just geographically, but also in terms of gender balance and youth. 

The delegates meet in their various regional caucuses to select the nominating committee.  With such large numbers this is a process that takes several hours. It is the pre-planning that has already taken place that will help the committee to work smoothly and get through an agenda of more than 100 names.

Much of that pre-planning is done by Bob Woolford.  “Over the next 10 days I’ll walk a thousand miles”, he says.  He has already spent years in planning for today’s start.  Every world church business meeting or “GC Session” since 1980 Woolford, assistant to the president at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Kansas, has given of his time to assist the nominating committee. 

It’s a task that calls for an eye for detail, good organizational skills, a pleasing personality and a satisfaction in seeing a job well done.  From making sure there is cooled water for up to 200 committee members, to ensuring appropriate access and security, Woolford is on the job and has a protocol for every eventuality.

Assistance on the technology side comes from Ed Bahr of the Pacific Press.  He developed the electronic voting system which allows committee members to vote on numbered names projected on a big screen.  Over a 45-second period members can vote, and even change their vote, but electronic security ensures that each person only votes once. The results can then instantly be displayed on the screen.

Once a name has been voted on Woolford starts his thousand mile stroll, searching the halls and corridors of the Americas Centre looking for the nominated candidate. 

Woolford states that this is the last time that he plans to assist the nominating committee.  “I started this job as a young volunteer.  I now have gray hair and it’s time to hand on the privilege to a new generation who can bring new skills and new vision.” With 25 years of expertise under his belt he may be a hard act to follow.