Papers are presented at each annual gathering of the Prairie Group; on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and afternoon, each followed by a shorter response paper.
The papers are intended to be original works of research, constructive scholarship, and intellectual engagement.
The body elects a president, and a member to rotate onto the program committee for a three year term.
At some point over the decades, the president was given a gavel, in an effort to augment his/her authority over the raucousness of the business meeting.
The usefulness of this gesture has yet to be proven. The position of scribe, who handles the group’s money, arrangements, and correspondence Came to be regarded as an office of twenty years tenure.
Creation and reading of the minutes from the previous year’s meeting offers an opportunity for the exercise of the Scribe’s narrative creativity and dry wit, while the relative permanence of his/her appointment traditionally evokes random impotent condemnation by the members.
On the final night of the gathering, a business meeting is held, at which topics for the following year are proposed and one is chosen, under the direction of the three-person program committee. the just-elected junior member of the program committee records nominations from the floor.
This committee later selects texts for all to read, with an aspirational limit of approximately 500 pages, and assigns members to prepare papers and responses relevant to the chosen topic.
They also appoint a chaplain and a member to be responsible for the aesthetics program.
A number of members small enough to maintain the intimacy and intensity of conversation to which the group has grown accustomed, continually stands in tension with the impulse to welcome newly arriving colleagues.
In order to become a member of the Prairie Group, one must be invited to attend one year’s gathering as a guest,and then request to be voted into membership at that year’s business meeting.
Traditionally, the candidate is required to put his/her head down on the desk, while the members vote to admit him/her.
A would-be member may communicate his/her wish to be invited as a guest to the Scribe, or a member may suggest to the Scribe that a colleague be approached to attend as a guest.
A member who retires from active ministry may request emeritus status in the Prairie Group. If granted, this means that all future participation of that member is voluntary, and no assignments will be made to them.
Prairie Group 