A unit of Seventh-day Adventist Church organization composed of the local churches within a given area, such as a state. With other local conferences such a unit is a constituent member of a union conference. The conference officers are the president and the secretary-treasurer. The officers, together with the conference executive committee, form the administrative body.
Administration . The conference president is an ordained minister of experience and reputation, and is the ranking officer in the conference and in any of the churches within the conference at which the individual may be present. The president is at the head of the ministers in the conference and counsels in all their activities. A president has access to all the churches, their services and business meetings, and may preside over any of the meetings of the churches when it is deemed necessary. Although the president cannot set aside any of the duly elected officers of a church, they are bound to recognize this individual as the superior officer in the conference. The president is chair of the conference executive committee and of various other committees and boards, including boards of all conference institutions. The president is also a member of the union conference executive committee and the boards of union-operated institutions.
The conference secretary-treasurer is responsible for keeping the business records of the conference and for receiving and disbursing conference funds in harmony with conference policy or committee action. This individual also audits the books of the church treasurers within the conference, unless a regular auditor is appointed to that work.
Each conference has a legal association or corporation to carry on the financial transactions of the conference and to hold title to property. Church buildings and schools are held in the name of this legal association rather than in the name of the local church.
The executive committee (commonly referred to as the conference committee) is composed of from five to nine members and is elected at each regular session of the conference. The president is a member of the committee and is its chair. The ministry and the laity of the conference are also usually represented on the committee.
The conference issues credentials, licenses, and certificates to the various types of conference employees. ( See Credentials, Licenses, Certificates .) It also directs the activities of the several departments. Its officers are also the officers of the conference church. It operates conference institutions, such as secondary schools, sanitariums, and hospitals, and subsidizes schools and church building projects. It pays the salaries of evangelists, local pastors (appointed to their churches by the conference committee), and Bible instructors ( see Financial Policies ). In cooperation with the local church school boards, it assigns elementary school teachers to these schools. (Most conferences receive the tuition collected by the churches and pay the church school teachers.)
Departments . The conference fosters various lines of denominational work among the churches through departments, at the head of which are directors or vice presidents, elected to their office at the biennial session of the conference and working under the direction of the conference committee. These directors do not have administrative authority; their relation to the field is advisory on matters that affect their own departments, unless otherwise requested by the conference president. While departmental directors are under the direction of the president and the executive committee, they also cooperate with the union departments, which in turn sustain a similar relation to the division or General Conference departments. See names of specific departments.
Sessions . A conference meets in session every two years, with delegates from the various churches represented. Such a session elects officers and the conference executive committee; receives new churches; hears reports on the work in the conference during the term then closing from the president, secretary-treasurer, and heads of conference departments; appoints the standing committees for the session; and acts on the recommendations of these committees.
The committee on nominations, with the union conference president (or one who has been designated by that individual) as chair and a General Conference representative meeting with it, recommends names for the officers, the departmental director, the executive committee, and institutional boards for the next biennial term. The committee on credentials and licenses makes recommendations on the renewing or issuing of credentials and licenses to conference workers. The committee on constitution and bylaws suggests changes in the constitution and bylaws. The plans committee studies and presents plans and policies for the promotion of the work of the conference during the ensuing term.
In addition, reports are presented to the delegates from the officers and departmental secretaries on the work in their charge.
Delegates to the conference session are elected by the churches on the basis of one delegate for each church and an additional delegate for a specified number of church members, as provided for by the constitution. There are no appointed or ex officio delegates.
Delegates are chosen to represent not only their church but the entire conference; hence it is not permissible for delegates to attempt to organize voting in blocs.
Under the present system a new conference is organized by the union conference, with the sanction of the division. For a history of the development of the local conference in the SDA denomination, see Organization . For other units of organization also composed of local churches, see District , Field , Mission , Section , Station .