[Lnc-business] Ruling of the Chair re: Doug Craig's sustaining membership status at the time of his election

[Alicia Mattson]

I agree with the Chair that we should both address the ruling as well as
the vacancy.  I am not comfortable that they should be combined into a
single motion, as a motion to sustain a chair's ruling is not amendable and
is to be only on the question of the ruling itself.

But in two separate email threads I will ask for co-sponsors for two
motions for the following purposes:
1) to sustain the ruling of the chair, and
2) to elect Doug Craig to fill the vacancy

If the chair's ruling is sustained, then the second ballot becomes out of
order anyway, and the LNC has effectively decided to accept the election on
March 29.

If the chair's ruling is not sustained, then the LNC has decided to not
accept the election on March 29, but the 2nd email ballot is then in order
and can fill the vacancy.

If the co-sponsors arise (or if the chair wants to sponsor it just to get
the voting started faster), my suggestion will be that members vote FIRST
on whether to sustain the ruling of the chair, and THEN on the motion to
elect Mr. Craig.  Just for technical considerations, the motion on the
ruling of the chair should be answered before the other, even if the time
gap is only a matter of a minute difference on the last person's vote.

-Alicia



On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 7:18 AM, Nicholas Sarwark <chair at lp.org> wrote:

> All,
>
> Mr. Goldstein has requested a ruling as to whether Doug Craig's
> purchase of a convention package on May 6, 2014 was sufficient to make
> him a sustaining member at the time of his election the the LNC on
> March 29, 2015.  I believe it was.
>
> Bylaws Article 5, Section 3, says "'Sustaining member' is any Party
> member who has given at least $25 to the Party in the prior twelve
> months, or who is a life member."  There is no language in the Bylaws
> that discusses convention purchases as separate from an other giving
> to the Libertarian Party.  Without explicit language in the Bylaws to
> the contrary, I find that the money Mr. Craig gave to the Libertarian
> Party for his convention package on May 6, 2014 was in excess of $25
> and given in the twelve months prior to the  LNC meeting in Phoenix on
> March 29, 2015.
>
> The Association levels that Dr. Lieberman points to are not in the
> nature of a Bylaw, but are set by the LNC as a way to recognize
> supporters at different giving levels.  Whether his contribution would
> count for an association level is not the question at issue here.
>
> With that, I don't think there is an issue with Mr. Craig's
> eligibility at the time of his election.  If there are those on the
> LNC who would still like a mail ballot on the issue Ms. Mattson has
> raised, I think it's appropriate to phrase it in a way that it is
> clear that it is also an appeal of the ruling of the Chair, but it
> would probably be most appropriate to combine it with the question of
> voting to fill the vacancy with a particular person should the ruling
> of the Chair be successfully appealed.
>
>
> -Nick
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20150428/7449f051/attachment-0002.html>