[Lnc-business] Regarding the Doug Craig matter

Daniel Wiener wiener at alum.mit.edu
Tue Apr 28 20:43:25 EDT 2015


I will co-sponsor both of Alicia's email ballots.

I had to take a few hours to mull over this question.  The Chair's ruling
is plausible but not ultimately persuasive for me.  If we set the precedent
that buying a convention package counts as sustaining membership dues,
where do we draw the line?  Logically, any transfer of funds to the LP in
excess of $25 would then have to similarly qualify.

Suppose someone who was briefly a member ten years ago (and hence signed
the pledge) should now decide to buy a T-shirt or some books from the LP
for more than $25.  Do we automatically categorize that person as a
sustaining member?  Even if that wasn't the person's intent, and indeed the
person had no knowledge or desire for that to happen?  Does this become an
additional burden on staff, to have to check up on every sale to see if it
has a membership impact?

I'm afraid that the Chair's ruling will just muddy the waters rather than
clear them up.  I much prefer a bright line standard which says that a
purchase is just a purchase, and a sustaining membership requires a $25
donation which specifically identifies it as being for that purpose.  I
think that is arguably more in line with both the literal wording (i.e.,
"given" refers to a gift rather than a purchase) and the underlying intent
of Bylaws Article 5.3.

All that being said, I will happily vote for Doug Craig to fill the LNC
vacancy, and thus resolve any question as to whether his vote should be
excluded on a technicality.  This is also an excellent opportunity for all
the LNC members to quickly vote on these email ballots, and thus conclude
them well before the normal 10-day deadline.  The LNC should be able to act
much quicker than it traditionally has, so let's prove we can do so!

Dan Wiener



-- 
*"In general, we look for a new law by the following process. First, we
guess it (audience laughter), no, don’t laugh, that’s the truth. Then we
compute the consequences of the guess, to see what, if this is right, if
this law we guess is right, to see what it would imply and then we compare
the computation results to nature or we say compare to experiment or
experience, compare it directly with observations to see if it works. If it
disagrees with experiment, it’s WRONG. In that simple statement is the key
to science. It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it
doesn’t matter how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is.
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.”*
-- Richard Feynman (https://tinyurl.com/lozjjps)
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