Danger, Will Robinson. Danger! Danger!
The Republicans who have infiltrated the LNC are out to kill any LP that
actively embraces the personal freedoms part of our platform, and doesn't
just restrict itself to economic freedom. And they're using parliamentary
procedure as a weapon, as illustrated in the forwarded message below.
Today, they effectively killed the LP of Oregon. San Francisco is an
obvious bulwark against their efforts to make the LP more socially
conservative, and I think we should understand that we're a potential target
-- whether of disaffiliation by the state party (for having non-compliant
bylaws) or of them intervening in our own meetings as they did in Oregon.
We need to defend ourselves.
To that end, I'd like to propose a replacement of our current bylaws with a
very stripped-down version that reverts to the public-domain version of
Robert's Rules of Order (the 1915 Fourth Edition, for which the copyright
has expired, so it's available freely online at http://www.rulesonline.com/ and
elsewhere in electronic form) when the bylaws are silent, but which
specifically has an escape clause that allows any provision of the bylaws
(except the statement "In the event of any conflict or ambiguity arising
between the constitution and bylaws adopted hereunder and the constitution
of the Libertarian Party of California, the latter shall prevail.") or
Robert's Rules to be suspended by a 7/8 vote the members present. If LP
Oregon had included such a provision, their convention attendees surely
would have voted near-unanimously (minus M Carling, of course) to not waste
their weekend, by waiving the quorum requirement of 50% of dues-paying
members, which I'm sure you all realize is a quorum requirement that no LP,
whether national, state, or local, would ever be able to meet, thereby
paralyzing them.
Oddly, our current bylaws (as revised in 2004) make no mention of a
requirement of notice for amendments. The only amendment language is:
"Decisions made by the LPSF at general meetings shall be made on the basis
of a majority of those voting members present. The exceptions are voting to
amend this document or to impeach an officer, actions which require a
two-thirds majority vote of those voting members present."
Similarly, the state party bylaws (
http://ca.lp.org/files/2010/03/Bylaws2010-2011.pdf ) make no requirement of
prior notice for county committees to amend their bylaws (though there is a
30-60 day notice requirement for officer elections).
So, as a courtesy (since nothing appears to require it), I'd like to notify
our Activists list that I plan to bring a set of bylaws amendments to our
December 11 meeting. I'm happy to work on these amendments with anyone who
is interested in helping.. I can set up a shared document in
http://docs.lpsf.org where anyone volunteering to help can collaborate on a
live document.
Marcy, if you could please state my intentions in this regard in your report
at the November meeting, where I regret that I will be absent, I would very
much appreciate it
Rob