The Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society held its annual meeting at the Seventh Day Baptist Center in Janesville, Wisconsin on June 1st.  The yearly business of the Society was transacted, including:

• The re-election of one of our Directors, Judy Parrish (Battle Creek, MI), to a 5-year term on the Board.
• The election of one new Associate Director, Tim Lawton (1 Hopkinton, RI), to a 2-year term on the Board.
• The election of officers for the year 2014-2015:  Janet Thorngate, President; Rev. Brent Hannah, 1st VP; Rev. Helmer Umana, 2nd VP; Judy Parrish, Secretary; and Rev. Paul Green, Treasurer.
• The Society’s Annual Report, which is distributed to the membership and is the Society’s report to the General Conference on our work for the year 2013, was adopted, including a brief treasurer’s report.

In addition to this regular business, additional business was conducted, including a vote with respect to merger with the General Conference. This vote came as a result of the Directors recommending that the Society pursue merger with the SDB General Conference following the advice of the Society’s Task Force, which was convened to investigate that possibility. The vote was 89 to 8 in favor of pursuing merger. This included votes of members present at the meeting and those sending proxy votes of “yes” or “no” on the specific question. In response, the Society will begin work on a formal merger agreement which would assure continuation of the Society’s work through a Historical Council of the Conference. The hope is that the merger agreement would be ready for vote by Society members in 2015 with probable vote by the General Conference in 2016, the 100-year anniversary of the Society.

We are grateful for the prayers and support of Seventh Day Baptists, and we continue to ask for your prayers as we do the work of remembering as we fulfill our vision, “Remember our past to inform the present and envision the future,” in the coming year.