[Lnc-business] requesting co-sponsors to appeal Chair's ruling

[Alicia Mattson]

Laws come with sections of the code that create particular definitions of
terms.  They can say basically, any time we say "car" in this statute, we
mean a thing with wheels, such that it would include a truck, a bike, a Big
Wheel, a trailer, a large toolbox, etc.  When you read statutes about a
car, then, it's not the everyday layman's meaning of car.  They can define
"pig" to mean "horse", I suppose.

FEC laws define a lot of common words/phrases to have particular legal
meanings.  You think you know what a "committee" is, but when it's in FEC
statutes, it only applies to very precise conditions that they have defined.

Yes, convention package purchases meet the FEC definition of "contribution"
such that we report it to them.

-Alicia



On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 7:01 AM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:

>  I believe that the bylaw :
> *"3. “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."*
> was added at the 2006 convention. I'm not certain, but I'm thinking maybe
> Geoff Neale and Dan Karlan were on the bylaws committee.
>
> You might want to ask our FEC consultant if the 2014 convention packages
> counted as a "contribution" to the Libertarian National Committee.
>
> Our 2014 convention registration form, approved by the APRC, said:
>
> *Federal law requires political committees to report the name, address,
> occupation, and name of employer for each individual whose contributions
> aggregate in excess of $200 in a calendar year. Political contributions are
> not tax deductible.
>
>
> And Mr. Craig's convention package gift or purchase or whatever you call
> it was reported to the FEC.
>
>
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
> *New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314*
> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
> facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
>
>  On 4/28/2015 11:52 PM, Tim Hagan wrote:
>
>   I will co-sponsor the Secretary's appeal.
>
> To me, the Bylaws' definition of sustaining member could be ambiguous,
> depending on which definition of "give" applies. One is "to present
> voluntarily and without expecting compensation." Another is "to pay or
> transfer possession to another in exchange for something." Using the later
> would mean that those who buy the LNC's surplus or leftover equipment could
> count the payments to apply to being a sustaining member. To me, counting
> any purchases, instead of using the first definition I gave for "give", is
> not logically the intent of the convention. The Bylaws could be cleared up
> by changing "given" to "donated". (Hint to the Bylaws Committee)
>
>  Tim Hagan
>
>
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> <agmattson at gmail.com>
> *To:* lnc-business <lnc-business at lp.org> <lnc-business at lp.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3:09 PM
> *Subject:* [Lnc-business] requesting co-sponsors to appeal Chair's ruling
>
>   I am requesting co-sponsors to appeal the Chair's ruling that a
> person's purchase of a convention package should count as a gift for
> purposes of determining sustaining membership.  Recall that the motion for
> an appeal is phrased as a motion to sustain/uphold the chair's ruling, even
> though my already-stated position is to not overturn it.
>
> Therefore I am seeking co-sponsors for the following motion:
>
>  To sustain the Chair's ruling that a person's purchase of a convention
> package in the prior twelve months meets the requirement of Bylaws Article
> 5.3 that a sustaining member must have "given at least $25 to the Party
> in the prior twelve months".
>
>  I interpret Norm's previous statements as his being willing to co-sponsor
> this motion unless he tells me otherwise.  So two other co-sponsors (or the
> chair) would be needed.
>
>  -Alicia
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business at hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/20150429/ee46f83b/attachment-0002.html>