[Lnc-business] agenda item and previous notice - amendment of Policy Manual Section 2.09.3

[Alicia Mattson]

I am requesting an agenda item for ten minutes to consider the following
Policy Manual amendment:

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2.09.3  International Representatives

The LNC may appoint one or more individuals to serve as International
Representatives, subject to the following:

   - The title is honorary, and does not convey any binding authority,
   unless specifically and conditionally delegated by the LNC.
   - The International Representative serves at will, and may be terminated
   by either party at will without cause.
   - The terms of service are from appointment until termination, and will
   not be tied to LNC terms of office.
   - Expenditures for this position must be made from either budgeted
   expenses or from restricted funds raised specifically for this purpose*may
   not be made without advance approval by the LNC*.
   - The purpose of this position is to establish and maintain mutually
   beneficial relationships between the LP and its international
   counterparts.

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I propose deleting the "and conditionally" in the first bullet point
because I have no idea what that means.  How do we delegate something
conditionally?

Regarding bullet point #4:  I don't like the idea of the LNC dumping a lump
sum in the budget for this purpose and then having no more say about how
that money is used.  I wouldn't want our delegates to think that it could
be used as a slush fund for European trips when the party is broke.

Our policy manual has a directive to staff that there are to be no
off-budget expenditures.  But when bullet point #4 says there can be
expenditures either from budgeted funds OR raised as restricted funds, it
implies the restricted funds are off-budget, else it would be covered by
"budgeted funds".  This seems to create an exception for off-budget
spending on this one area.  The LNC might have NO say in it.  The
chair/staff could decide to raise restricted funds from our donor base for
something the LNC would not approve of if asked, but because of this
policy, they don't need LNC's approval.  It's off-budget.

The convention asked to pursue forming an International Association of
Libertarian Parties.  Frankly, I don't know that member funds should be
used at all to create a separate organization as opposed to spending on our
own organization.  The delegates didn't approve this policy.  They voted
for an idea.  They said nothing about spending money.

But if money is to be spent for something that is outside of our normal
scope, the LNC should have to specifically approve the expenditure.  Not
just a budget category with a big, round number in it to be used as someone
else chooses.  Not off-budget things that the LNC may not even know about
and hasn't approved.  A specific request to spend $X in an itemized way.

We should probably inquire with Paula Edwards whether or not there are any
FEC restrictions about our spending for international political purposes
rather than for political activity in the U.S.

Tim, could you inquire about that before our meeting?

-Alicia
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