[Lnc-business] Committee Transparency revived

Thu Aug 11 23:26:43 EDT 2016

I agree with Ken in his analysis of this proposal 100%  We are a political
party, not a social club and the members and delegates
elect LNC members to do the business of the party.  Committees have enough
serious work of the party to accomplish without
having to worry about every action or word being help up for criticism.

I would consider supporting Ken's proposal if there were an amount of
spending that would trigger a review or approval of the chair.  I
doubt the chair wants to be involved in micro-managing the expenditures of
several committees for stamps and envelopes.  Either a
set dollar amount or percentage of that committee's budget would be
acceptable.

Sam Goldstein
Libertarian National Committee
Member at Large
8925 N Meridian St, Ste 101
Indianapolis IN 46260
317-850-0726 Phone
317-582-1773 Fax

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 11:15 PM, Ken Moellman <ken.moellman at lpky.org>
wrote:

>
> 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/> 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 <Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org>
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
> <http://www.lpcolorado.org>
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
> <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
>
>
>
>
>
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