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At the convention there was a
lot of nonsense about by-laws and constitutional changes. Since the meetings
about these issues took place on Saturday, few people participated. John
Berntson showed up with a contingent of his buddies and slammed everything that
so many other people had worked on. John’s a physically imposing fellow and he
seemed to be really agitated that anyone would want to reform our by-laws and
constitution. I felt as though I was being personally attacked. I’ve waited a while to see if that
feeling would go away, or if I could come to an understanding with others about
what occurred. Little has happened to make me feel otherwise. In fact, I’ve
received a lot of feedback that we were railroaded into the same corner that we
were in before. I’m going to report on what
things did pass, and what got slammed (by the minority). Then I’d like to talk
about the future in respect to by-laws and constitutional changes. One thing that I think is worth
mentioning is that Steve Gresh refused to participate as a voting member
because of his high moral fiber. Like many of us, Steve believes that only
registered Libertarians should have a say in the direction of this party. Steve
is a registered Republican, but a dues paying member of the LP. He worked on
the by-laws and constitutional committee and is on this list, but he refused to
vote. He talked to people about his stance, and many people got the picture.
But all too late, as the scheduling was problematic. People who came to vote on
by-laws and constitutional changes didn’t understand that the voting would take
place on Saturday, not Sunday. That was different than any other LP convention
I have been to. In the past all voting took place during the business session
on the last day of the convention. That’s what we all expected. ===== Bylaws
Amendments: === Paul Tiger made a motion to
accept Bylaws Amendment A, Article 3, Sec. 1, Written Notice. Seconded – Bud Martin Reading of Amendment B (see
Amendment A Handout). Little discussion Voice vote unanimous. Passed This is where we inserted the
word “Board” to clarify that only board members needed to be informed about
board meetings by a mailing and not the entire membership. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to accept
Bylaws Amendment B, Article 8, Sec. 2, Membership determination Seconded – Bo Shaffer Reading of Amendment B
(handout) Some statements and discussion. 1 Nay 16 Yea Passed This change leaves the
determination of who is a registered Libertarian up to the Records Director,
rather than by an affidavit from the potential member. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to
accept Bylaws Amendment C, Art. 8, Sec. 1, Membership occurance. Seconded – Nathan Hickson Reading of Amendment C
(handout) Some negative comments. Some discussion. Rewording worked out (see
handout – moot, see below) 16 Nay 1 NOTA Failed This amendment was designed to
change who can vote at a convention to only registered party members, rather
than either registered party members or dues paying members. For some reason the secretary
does not report the Yeas, but only the Nays and the NOTAs. This was highly
contentious, with the fundraisers pushing for membership by dues to have a
vote. Later, when the floor was
opened to amendments, Dan Cochran made a motion to add the following language
to the current text of Article 8, Sec. 1 “…provided they are not
affiliated with nor registered to vote as a member of any other political
party.” Seconded – Nathan Hickson Some discussion 12 Aye 5 Nay Passed I (and a few others) voted
against this amendment as it does not prevent unaffiliated voters from voting
at our conventions. The goal was to have only registered Libertarians voting at
our conventions. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to
accept Bylaws Amendment D, Art. 8 Sec. 3, Other Memberships Seconded – Bo Shaffer Reading of Amendment D
(handout) Not much discussion 15 Nay 2 Aye Failed The amendment was to add a line
of text that would prevent members from being disqualified by being members of
other organizations. A great number of arguments had been presented in the past
when new and old members were known to be members of organizations such as the
Republican Liberty Caucus or the John Birch Society. This was an attempt to end
those arguments. ==== While the floor was open to
additional amendments: Paul Tiger made a motion to
strike Paragraph 4 of Article 8. Seconded – Dan Cochran Some discussion 9 Nay
6 Aye Failed This was intended to remove the
following paragraph: “No membership in any other organizations
shall be required of any applicant for consideration for Party membership.” The goal of which was to
allow Libertarians to be only members of the state party and not also of the
national party. ===== Constitutional
Amendments (requires
2/3 vote) [ The two-thirds vote meant of
the members present in the room. The door should have been locked, or
stringently policed. It wasn’t and it caused problems. Joe Johnson was literally
crying when he caused an upset of a measure that he wanted to see approved. He
hozed the vote by entering the room with several others and then refused to
cast a ballot. He didn’t understand what he’d done until after the fact. ] Chair verified 12 voting
members Paul Tiger made a motion to
accept Constitutional Amendment A1, Art. 4, Sec. 3, Pledge removal Seconded – Nathan Hickson Reading of Amendment. Some
discussion. More discussion. 5 Nay
4 Aye 1 NOTA
2 Abs Failed This was an attempt to get rid
of the pledge of the non-initiation of force. This only place in our
constitution that requires that members sign the pledge, and it only applies to
board members. ==== Paul Tiger made motion to
accept Constitutional Amendment A2, Art. 4, Sec. 3, Officer requirements Seconded – Lloyd Sweeny Reading of Amendment. Some
discussion 6 Aye 5
Nay 1 Abs Failed This was an attempt to create a
requirement that candidates or appointees for state board must be party member
for at least a year. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to
accept Constitutional Amendment B, Art. 7, Sec. 3, Candidates Certificate Seconded – Bo Shaffer Reading of Amendment.
Discussion 10 Aye
1 Nay 1 Abs Passed This amendment removed the
procedure for revoking a candidate’s certificate of designation. Something that
we cannot do, no matter how hard we try. It is contrary to state law, and the
SoS found it laughable. Berntson was adamant about
keeping this as the only way to rid the party of candidates of poor choice. He
didn’t seem to care that it was unachievable, monetarily and politically
costly. As the author of these 147 words of gross nannyism he was married to
it. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to accept
Constitutional Amendment C, Art. 7, Sec. 6, Delete Sovereignty Seconded – L. Smith 12
Nay 0 Aye 1 NOTA
(13 eligible voters) Failed
miserably This amendment had been proposed by Norm
Olsen (party chair) in an attempt to comply with state elections law. ==== Paul Tiger made a motion to accept Constitutional
Amendment D, Art. 7, Sec. 1, 30% Rule Seconded – Bo Shaffer Reading of Amendment. Long winded discussion.
Some heated discussion. Friendly Amendment proposed to add NOTA as a
viable Candidate. 5
Aye 6 Nay 2 Abs
Amendment failed Additional 7 voters came into the room at
this time, making 20 the number to have 2/3 of for passage. (14 needed) 8
Aye 4 Nay 8
Abs Failed This amendment had been proposed by Norm
Olsen (party chair) in an attempt to comply with state elections law. [ This is the amendment that Joe was crying
over. He and six others entered the room and then abstained from the vote. They
all complained afterward that they were for the amendment and had they voted it
would have passed, but they didn’t vote, so it failed. ] ==== That’s the story on the by-laws and
constitutional changes. The work of this committee is finished for the 2004
convention. I plan on leaving this list up for a few weeks to see if anyone has
comments. The 2005 state convention may
end up in Dove Creek hosted by the WSLP. That has not been decided upon yet. I have proposed that at the
2005 convention (an off election year) that we have a constitutional convention
and return to modify our by-laws and constitutional more fully. We have a nanny
document that looks like it was written by our congress. It needs massive
reform and lots of repeals. Paul Tiger,
Deputy Legislative Director of the Libertarian Party of Colorado "The government that governs best, governs least." |
- Re: the result Paul Tiger
- Re: the result MONTE POAGUE
- RE: the result Paul Tiger
