As for what was “slammed” and what was not, this is politics, when you want someone to support your “bill”, lobby them before hand. It’s not their fault if they refuse to vote in favor of something they haven’t had time to consider, it’s your fault for not explaining the purpose before the vote.
Maybe you should have talked to John about the changes that were being proposed instead of attacking him for being “a physically imposing person”.
Michele P
On 6/16/04 2:41 PM, "Paul Tiger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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.
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Bylaws Amendments:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. ]
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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
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
303-774-6383 voice and messages
720-323-0570 cell
www.LPCOlorado.org <http://www.lpcolorado.org/>
"The government that governs best, governs least."
Thomas Jefferson
