I.	REGULATIONS ANENT THE NOMINATION OF THE MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (AS AMENDED BY REGULATIONS I 2001 I 2003 and I 2004)
Edinburgh 8 May 1999  Sess. 1

1.	With effect from June 1999 the Moderator of the General Assembly shall be nominated by
a committee constituted as follows:
(i)	The three surviving immediate past Moderators ……………………………………….	   3
(ii)	Three elders appointed through the Nomination Committee, each to serve for four
	years ….......................……………………………………………………….....................	   3
(iii)	One representative, minister, deacon or elder, from every Presbytery in the United 
	Kingdom and from the Presbytery of Europe, such appointments being held for four 
	years ………………………………………………………………………………............	 45
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2.	The Convener of the Committee shall be the past Moderator present and willing to act whose year of office was the earliest; and the Secretary shall be the Principal Clerk.
3.	Members of the Committee shall be circulated with a copy of these regulations at least one week in advance of their first meeting, and with contact details of Committee members within one week after the first meeting.
4.	Written nominations, with curriculum vitae and evidence of the person’s consent to be nominated, shall be submitted to the Principal Clerk by the Friday falling eighteen days before the October meeting of the Committee, proposer and seconder to be members of the Committee but neither of them to be a former Moderator. The Principal Clerk shall circulate the names properly submitted, and CVs, to all members of the committee, and shall make public these details.
5.	The Committee shall act in accordance with the following procedure:-
(a)	On the first Thursday in September the Committee shall meet, when the Principal Clerk will outline the duties of the next year’s Moderator and draw the Committee’s attention to any particular occasions and visits anticipated during that year.  The Committee shall hear the comments and advice of the former Moderators present, and shall debate the general requirements of the Church for the next Moderator.
(b)	The Committee shall meet on the last Tuesday of October when speeches in support of nominations shall be made by all proposers and seconders and a period of general discussion shall follow.
(c)	When the Convener rules that full opportunity has been given for debate, the Secretary shall read out the names of nominees in alphabetical order and the vote shall be taken among them, dropping the name receiving fewest votes and repeating the voting until one name has an overall majority of votes cast.
(d)	The Convener shall declare the person with the overall majority to have been nominated Moderator-Designate of the forthcoming General Assembly, and an opportunity shall be given to the meeting to make the choice a unanimous one.
6.	The Secretary shall make public the name of the Moderator-Designate, but the state of voting shall remain strictly confidential.
7.	In the event of the death, resignation or supervening incapacity of the Moderator-Designate the Principal Clerk shall call an extraordinary meeting of the Committee when procedure shall be followed as in Regulation 5(b) to (d) above; nominees from the original process will not be considered unless proposed as above on each occasion, and new nominations will be in order.
8.	In the event of any difficulty inhibiting process in terms of these regulations the Committee shall have a general discretionary power to take any other steps appropriate in the circumstances to fulfil the intention of these Regulations.
Regulation 1 1983 is hereby repealed.