Among this group, there was increasing concern that the incumbent synodical president, Oliver Harms, was going to lose reelection. Harms was a key supporter of the Lutheran Council in the United States of America and other inter-Lutheran cooperation, and the modernist faction was concerned that confessional insurgents would disrupt the process of selection for presidency of Concordia Seminary; hindering the greater goal of Lutheran unity. In addition, members of the seminary's Board of Control would be elected at the convention. There was great urgency to complete the process of selecting a new seminary president before the upcoming Synod in Convention could interfere. While the procedure for actually electing the seminary president was normal, the timing was unusual in that It was the first time a new president of the seminary would be elected before the actual retirement of his predecessor.