Online/teleconference meeting to work on bylaws

Announcements
1

Myself and our other officers, Nick Smith, Richard Fast, and Rebecca Lau (our treasurer, secretary, and vice-chair respectively), will be meeting online this Saturday from noon to 3pm, to work on drafting proposals for revising the Libertarian Party of San Francisco's bylaws.

  Any other Libertarians who would like to participate are welcome to join us. Here's the FreeConferenceCall.com information to call in to the meeting:

phone number: (425) 436-6356
access code: 155643#

  Bylaws revision suggestions from this working meeting will be presented at our next monthly LPSF meeting happening May 9 from 3-5pm, for input, discussion, and voting on by the general membership.

  Here are a few of the topics to be discussed and worked on:

• Allowing voting by members, not just officers, between meetings
• Making it faster and easier for our local party to take action and do so in a timely manner
• Resolving conflicts between the LPSF and Libertarian Party of California (LPC) bylaws
• How much to rely on detailed rules; when if ever to use Robert's Rules of Order or other outside rules, etc.
• What tasks we want done, and how we want to allocate them
• Definition of voting membership at the local level

  Here are links to the current LPSF and LPC bylaws:

LPSF bylaws: https://lpsf.org/bylaws
LPC bylaws: https://ca.lp.org/bylaws/

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))
LPSF chair
(415) 625-FREE

P.S. – If you would like to whatever proposed changes that we come up with on Saturday before our next monthly meeting and are not already on the LPSF-Activists email list, please let me know and I can send you that info before our next meeting.

2

Thanks, Starchild. I think the meeting can be shorter. I will respond to some of your agenda items.
These two points have nothing to do with our bylaws, except for obvious things like "the secretary takes minutes." Nothing gets done in LPSF because of a leadership problem, not a bylaws problem. • Making it faster and easier for our local party to take action and do so in a timely manner
• What tasks we want done, and how we want to allocate them

These are non-negotiable items in LPSF's bylaws:• Resolving conflicts between the LPSF and Libertarian Party of California (LPC) bylaws• How much to rely on detailed rules; when if ever to use Robert's Rules of Order or other outside rules, etc.• Definition of voting membership at the local level
LPC rules always override county level rules. Our definition of a voting member cannot be different from what's defined as a "central committee member" in state bylaws. Robert's is our parliamentary Rule of Order because it's in LPC bylaws. If we were giving a report like at the state convention, I would consider these "no-debate" items.

We can do this:• Allowing voting by members, not just officers, between meetings

I attached a copy of the state party's bylaws recommendation form.
Sincerely,Rebecca

Repeal Program Committee (1).docx (244 KB)

3

Thanks for your feedback, Rebecca. I look at this as more of an informal working and brainstorming session than a formal meeting; certainly no one is obliged to participate for the entire time. As Richard said, there will likely be more work on bylaws revision past Saturday.

  My observation has been that often someone will propose something, maybe a couple people weigh in with their takes on it, positive or negative, but then nothing happens because there is not a clear path to action. I'd like to look at how modifying our rules could help reduce this happening. For instance we could potentially have rules incentivizing people to do activism, maybe even incentivizing people to weigh in online, rules enabling projects to move forward unless they are specifically voted down or vetoed, etc. I'm open to ideas.

  As far as the "leadership problem" you perceive, what do you think the specific problems are? What do you think would help all of us be better leaders? What seems important to me is building our sense of ourselves as a community in which each member is valued, and we have a sense of working together as freedom fighters on a joint project (our local Libertarian Party) for which we all share responsibility and in which we all have a stake. "Be excellent to each other", as the Noisebridge hacker space slogan has it.

  Our shared love of and support for freedom is what matters most. In seeking to share, spread, and grow libertarian ideas, I think we should be creative and not necessarily wedded to particular rules if they aren't serving us well. Except our support for freedom, nothing about our bylaws is "non-negotiable" as far as I'm concerned.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))

4

Starchild....a most excellent post. I believe you and Rebecca are a very good team. While your styles and skills are different, you seem quite complimentary potentially for the greater benefit of the LPSF.

Thanks to you both for your activism.

Mike

5

Hey Rebecca,

  Would you give me a call when you get a chance, I'd like to touch base and talk about working together.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))
(415) 625-FREE

6

Rebecca:

I actually took the time to look thru the Bylaws of the LPCA. I don’t see any provision that says the County Committees have to follow Roberts Rules of Order. It actually say that Cnty Committees may follow any rules they like as long as they are consistent with the Bylaws of LPCA and national. I don’t know if there are any provisions in the national bylaws regarding this.

Where are you getting this from?

I do not entirely agree with Starchild’s proposed changes to the modus operandi, but I don’t see anything in the State bylaws that would forbid such changes. Since there is such wide disagreement over what rules, if any, to follow, perhaps it would be better to change the Bylaws to say something to the effect that the duly elected chair shall specify the rules to be followed. This is not a well thought out proposal, just a suggestion. Some people like lots of structure, some don’t. Why not leave it to the reigning officers to decide what they want?

I can see both sides. Too much structure and rules smothers activism, too little invites chaos.

Les Mangus

F108468B24DC4901B2E6E93312F63A7C.png

7

Thank you Leslie….

Mike

8

I believe you and Rebecca are a very good team.

She doesn't seem like a team player to me at all... She seems arrogant and unwelcoming, and makes a lot of personal attacks.

9

Yeah, I know... sadly that is pretty much my sense as well. I'm trying to be diplomatic and work together, but she apparently does not even want to talk with me on the phone. I don't get it.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))

10

If anyone tries to call in and encounters any issues, I recommend dialing the number again. The first time I tried a few minutes ago, I got a message saying the number wasn't in service.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))