I believe that the current voting practice is based on sound reasoning. However, I also believe that the report is correct in that members of synod who have no vote need to be heard and that this needs to be formalized in some way. I have no had a vote at district conventions since becoming a theology professor at Concordia Chicago over 20 years ago--for over half of my 40 years as an ordained pastor in the LCMS. Before conventions the district and synod have seldom (perhaps never--I cannot recall an instance) sought my opinion or the opinion of colleagues in similar positions in the CUS institutions, even though we are charged with the theological training of future workers in the LCMS. Our colleagues at the seminaries are sometimes consulted, but those of us who teach in what one evangelical friend of mine calls "the Lutheran academic ghetto" are often overlooked. It appears to me that this is not the best use of the human resources that constitute the theology faculties of the CUS.