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Thank you for you comments. I believe that I may post
whatever pleases me, and you will note that I have done exactly that. You are
welcome to do the same. The schedule was changed several times, and even the
one that I printed off the website and brought with me was not what we had at
the convention. I can’t exactly recall, but I believe that there were changes
made only three days before the convention. As I came with my wife, we had made
plans to spend time together away from the convention. It was made quite clear to Elizabeth and the
convention team that one hour would not be sufficient for by-laws. At every
step the chair kept reminding us that we were pressed for time and had to give
up the room for a presentation at a specific time. As you yourself noted at the last bod meeting, the
importance of the convention was party business. Fund raising is great, and I applaud
your efforts and successes in that vein. However, I think you should (and
probably do) understand that a number of us were there to conduct party
business. People who were attendees should not have been
expected to be checking the website everyday for possible changes. People who
had been to previous conventions had a different idea of what the business
meeting would be like. While it became evident to me that we would not be
having all party business on one day, it wasn’t that understandable to others
from their past experiences. Even though I kept sending out updates to members
who had expressed the desire to be present for by-laws and constitutional
changes, they had lives and their own schedules. On Sunday, quite a few members showed up and were
upset when they discovered that they had missed a very important portion of the
business meeting. John Berntson was well aware of the content of the
proposed bylaws and constitutional changes being proposed. This had been posted
on the website over a week in advance, and links to it broadcast on several
statewide lists. John is on at least two of those lists. He had ample
opportunity to suggest his own amendments or argue points about them. He wasn’t
absent, and he was involved with Dez and I concerning a discussion about
SJR03-010 and HB03-1227, which originated on the LPCO-Chat list. I believe that I can tell ‘physically imposing’ from
just a big guy. I’ve always liked John, but in the by-laws hearing he was loud,
impolite, and physically imposing. Other people noted it as well. Doug Anderson
seemed to be playing a side-kick role for John, and it took me several hours to
get him to understand that I wasn’t trying to change the rules all by myself,
but was a representative of the voice of dissent. John never allowed me to
discuss these issues with him, as Doug did. I had a similar experience with
Mike Spalding, who figured it out and was willing to have open and friendly
discussions, but only after swapping a few insults with encouragement from
Berntson. I don’t understand why John was being this way. It hadn’t
been my experience with him in the past. The party doesn’t need this kind of behavior,
and I would hardly have expected it from the past party chair. I am pleased that we managed to get some changes made.
I am also pleased that there was participation and members were able to air
their views – whether in favor of changes or not. What I am not pleased with is that by-laws and
constitution were not decided on the same day as candidate nominations. This is
what members had come to expect and had relied upon in timing. You are welcome to criticize my opinions, but you
should expect me to respond. I’m not interested in a ‘flame war’. I made this
posting as informational, but I am opinionated and as I am no longer a bod
member I don’t see a reason to contain myself. You may not be aware of this, but for the past year I’ve
actually been pretty reserved. I’m done with being reserved for the time being. I believe that we had a GREAT convention, despite my
disgust of the business meeting being split up. My wife loved Mark Rutherford
and actually entered into several discussions over dinner that I never would have
imagined. Cindy has been a total Dem all her life, but this experience gave her
pause to think about other possibilities. That in and of itself was worth all
the hassle. paul -----Original
Message----- Whine, whine, whine.
The schedule was posted weeks before the convention. Anyone who was too stupid
to look at the schedule before attending is probably too stupid to vote anyway. [|>] |
Title: Re: the result
- the result Paul Tiger
- Re: the result MONTE POAGUE
- Paul Tiger
