Balloting Materials for the Regional Council

Balloting Materials for the Regional Bahá’í Council of the Midwestern States

Please find accompanying this message a letter from the National Spiritual Assembly regarding the 2020 appointment of your Regional Bahá’í Council. Paper ballots are being distributed by post in accordance with results of the survey your secretary completed in early August and should arrive by the end of September. Assemblies that did not respond to the survey will receive a packet containing nine ballots, for distribution to their members as needed. Everyone who is able to do so is encouraged to cast his or her ballot online through the new Online Balloting System. Further instructions in this regard will follow in due course.

The documents accompanying this letter are accessible through the following links:

As an added convenience, the National Assembly’s letter is reproduced below.

September 14, 2020

To all Local Spiritual Assemblies

Dearest Bahá’í Friends,

In its message to the Continental Boards of Counselors on December 28, 2010, the Universal House of Justice discussed service on Bahá’í institutions, noting both the “tremendous privilege” and the “responsibility” such service entails. For every Local Spiritual Assembly, participation in the annual casting of ballots for its respective Regional Bahá’í Council must surely rank among the weightiest of its responsibilities.

The materials accompanying this letter have been designed to assist you in submitting valid ballots within the required timeframe, either online through the new Online Balloting System or by paper ballot. We trust that in anticipation of this you have already taken steps to ensure that each member of your Assembly understands her or his responsibility and is committed to participation in the task, which, though different in some respects procedurally, is no less meaningful and sacred than other facets of the Bahá’í electoral process.

The Regional Bahá’í Councils have, as you are well aware, “a crucial role to play in the effective prosecution of the Five Year Plan.” To further prepare you for carrying out this task, we urge you to take time to reflect on the qualifications for Council membership described below, bearing them in mind as you later cast your ballots.

In a letter written to another National Spiritual Assembly, the House of Justice states:

Clearly, in casting their votes, [participants] will give due regard to the qualities specified by the Guardian such as selfless devotion, recognized ability and unquestioned loyalty, as well as to factors such as age distribution, diversity and gender. Yet they must also realize that at this time Regional Councils are responsible largely for overseeing the execution of the global Plan in the territories under their jurisdiction, in collaboration with the Counsellors and their deputies, ensuring that the two complementary movements central to its progress steadily unfold. It is only natural, then, that Local Assembly members would select for service on a Council men and women who, through their understanding of the institute process, their proven experience with the core activities, their ability to contribute to learning at the grassroots and their constructive attitudes, can best guide the unfoldment of the Five Year Plan.

This year, as you know, there will be no election meeting, and members will cast their ballots in the privacy of their homes. This is an act that should be carried out in an undistracted, quiet, and prayerful atmosphere, reflecting the high importance of the occasion. Each member of your Assembly is receiving a copy of this letter—and a compilation of guidance from the Bahá’í World Center on the function of the Regional Councils—for personal study in advance of the voting period.

As you propose for service on your Regional Bahá’í Council “those women and men who, through their proven experience in the activities of the Plan, their capacity to participate in the learning process, and their upright character and constructive attitudes, can best advance the process of entry by troops,” be assured our loving support surrounds you, as do our prayers that your faithful efforts may be blessed and guided.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF
THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

Kenneth E. Bowers
Secretary