Structure. The General Conference Model Conference Constitution follows the typical American structure for a constitution, with articles and bylaws. In the UK constitutions do not usually have bylaws, they simply have a list of articles. This may be to avoid confusion with 'byelaws' (note the slightly different spelling), which, according to the UK Government website are 'local laws made by a local council under an enabling power contained in a public general act or a local act requiring something to be done - or not done - in a specified area. They are accompanied by some sanction or penalty for their non-observance.' However, the General Conference Model Mission Operating Policy, whilst very similar to the Model Conference Constitution, is structured differently, and only has articles. So, in structuring the proposed new NEC Constitution we have gone with the content of the GC Model Conference Constitution, but the structure of the GC Model Mission Operating Policy. A chart of how this has been done is at the bottom of the working document.

GC Annual Council Amendments. General Conference Working Policy is updated every year at their Annual Council, which is usually held in October. This year the changes to the GC Model Conference Constitution were fairly minor, but still needed to be taken into account. In draft 21 of the working document you can find these in Model Constitution Bylaw Article 2, Sections 10 & 11. They are double underlined in the left-hand column of the working document, and a deletion highlighted in red. For clarity, in later versions of the draft constitution this highlighting has been removed, but you can see how the changes have been implemented in the proposed new NEC Conference Constitution in Article 5(j).

BUC Model Conference Constitution 2016. In preparation for updating its own constitution in 2016 the BUC produced a Model Conference Constitution for adoption by the SEC and NEC at their own conferences sessions. However, the NEC did not have time to fully consider this document at its 2016 session and so it was not presented to the delegates. The SEC held its session in 2019, and a new SEC constitution, based on the BUC Model Conference Constitution was presented to the delegates. However it was not adopted for a number of reasons: it was not fully aligned with the GC Model Conference Constitution, and by 2019 it was already quite out of date. Some of the elements of the BUC Model Conference Constitution have been included in the new NEC Constitution, particularly in the 'non-bold' sections, but overall, the new NEC Constitution is more closesly aligned with the GC Model Conference Constitution. It had been hoped that, if adopted in September 2020, the new NEC Constitution would have served as a model for the BUC, the SEC, and the Missions. In the event, due to COVID delays, the BUC Session will now be held before the NEC Session in 2021. However, there is no doubt that the extensive work done by the NEC Constitution and Executive Committees, together with their interactions with local lawyers and GC legal counsel, provided much of the ground work for the other constitutions. For this we are very grateful.

Colour Coding. To help make the working document more readable, some coloured highlights have been added. What was originally bold in the GC Model Conference Constitution is now highlighted in yellow. Changes to the bold (now yellow) sections of the GC Model Conference Constitution are highlighted in purple, and these will need to be approved by the General Conference before they can be presented at the NEC Session.