[Lnc-business] Committee Transparency revived

[Ken Moellman]

So, I'm breaking this down, and I still have a few concerns. (I never
intended to de-rail before, sorry about that.) 

First, there are committees with no power to spend, but are strategic in
nature that would fall under this proposal. Specifically, I can tell you
that the Ballot Access Committee has discussed important strategies on
how to achieve ballot access. 

I have already heard from some members that they believe committee
transparency would expose our strategy, putting us at greater risk of
being on the wrong end of shenanigans. By the wording, these substantial
strategies would be required to be exposed. 

And it's not even just the Ballot Access Committee. Look at Affiliate
Support or Candidate Support; do we really want to let our opposition
know our next few chess moves? I foresee a day where our opposition
raises money to counter the actions of a candidate to be funded by the
LNC before the candidate even gets the money from the LNC. Politics is a
game of chess, and telling your opponent your next 3 moves means you're
either really good, or really dumb. And I don't see us winning
elections, so that might narrow such a move into only one of those two
categories... 

I'm all about transparency, but only after the information is of no
value to our opponents anymore, and cannot be used by our opponents to
cause harm to the party or its candidates. 

Second, a committee would be able to set their own rules on executive
session. What stops a committee from adopting rules that puts them
permanently into executive session whenever they're in a business
meeting? Unless, of course, we create special rules for every committee
(and clutter up the Policy Manual -- sorry, but it's true!) 

Third, you're talking about creating new mailing lists aliases. That's
more work for the LNC staff. 

Fourth, the Ballot Access Committee has had one or two emergency
meetings. There are times when 48 hours notice is not realistic. 

Fifth, I strongly oppose publishing my phone number on LP.org. I'm
already annoyed enough that I get phone calls from petition coordinators
from around the US. It is great to have my phone going off in the middle
of the day while I'm trying to be on a conference call, or trying to
lead a meeting (sarcasm). Maybe some folks like having their phones
blown up and being put on spammer phone lists. I do not. 

Finally, I would suggest not hardcoding the "public reflector" language.
There are better ways to publicize mailing lists that don't involve the
current configuration which could be examined in the future. 

So, now that I'm through everything that I see wrong with it, here's
what I'd counter-propose: 

_ANY COMMITTEE WHICH HAS BEEN EMPOWERED TO EXPEND FUNDS SHALL NOTIFY THE
LNC CHAIR, IN WRITING, OF THE EXACT WORDING OF ANY MOTION PASSED BY THE
COMMITTEE TO EXPEND FUNDS, AND THE LNC CHAIR SHALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
APPROVING THOSE EXPENDITURES PRIOR TO FUNDS BEING EXPENDED.  ALL
EXPENDITURES SHALL BE RECORDED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW AND THIS
POLICY MANUAL.  ALL EXPENDITURES SHALL BE REPORTED TO THE FULL LNC AT
THE NEXT IN-PERSON LNC MEETING._ 

---
Ken C. Moellman, Jr.
LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative
LPKY Judicial Committee 

On 2016-08-11 22:20, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote: 

> As per the request of several committee members, here once again is what I like to offer as a Policy Manual Amendment: 
> 
> 2) Committee Transparency 
> 
> The names and contact information (phone number, email address, or both)for all committee members shall be posted on the LP.org website. Unless otherwise specifically excepted on a committee-by-committee basis or within the committee's own published standing rules for "executive session," all committee meetings shall be open to any member of the National Party to observe or listen and all electronic committee correspondences shall bemade available on a public reflector system on the LP.org website, the location of which will be published with the committee contact information. Notices, minutes, agendas, and call-in information of committee meetings shall be published to said reflector list or otherwise on the LP.org <http://lp.org/ [1]> website, including a record of all substantive committee actions and how each membervoted. At least 48 hours public notice will be given for any committee meeting. 
> 
> My intent for this is that I want to empower committees but will oppose that if it adds a layer of opacity that does not presently exist. Right now, we as an LNC are micromanaging things, but at least the members can see the decisions. 
> 
> I would like some real discussion on this and respectfully ask that any discussions about the policy manual being too long, or needing to be consolidated, that do not debate or make suggestions as to the merit of this specific proposal have their own email thread. 
> 
> I want to sponsor with Joshua Katz a Candidate Support Committee. But I cannot/will not unless we have transparency in place either in the description of that committee or as a general rule which guides all of our committees. 
> -- 
> 
> IN LIBERTY, 
> CARYN ANN HARLOS 
> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org 
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado [2] 
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus [3] 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org [4]
 

Links:
------
[1] http://lp.org/
[2] http://www.lpcolorado.org
[3] http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org
[4] http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
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