[Lnc-business] Committee Transparency revived

Fri Aug 12 10:39:52 EDT 2016

Ken,

	Good point about secret meetings (aka "executive sessions"). Personally I don't think subcommittees should be having them at all; if a matter is deemed important enough to warrant secrecy, it seems to me that it's important enough to warrant the attention of the entire LNC. 

	Regarding publishing your phone number on LP.org, if you use a partial letter instead of number format as I do with mine (see below), I think that would tend to greatly reduce your number being harvested by spammer phone lists. Other solutions might include getting an additional number for LNC purposes, or adding a note saying you only wish to be called during non-daytime hours.

	My feeling is that making my phone and email contact info publicly available to the membership goes with the territory of being an elected representative and that we should be encouraged to do so, but if a representative doesn't wish to for whatever reason, I don't think there should be any absolute requirement. If someone doesn't want to provide a phone number or an email address, there could simply be a standard note posted in that space to the effect that the LNC member chose not to provide this information.

	One problem with trying to keep our opponents from knowing what we're doing which I didn't mention in the essay I just posted is that it also prevents our own people from knowing what we're doing when they might be able to help us if they knew what was up (e.g. with ballot access matters), and I think they're more likely to be paying attention at that level than the cartel parties are. However, I'm glad you favor a sunset clause for secrecy. That's certainly an important safeguard.

Love & Liberty,
                                 ((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
                               (415) 625-FREE

P.S. – Another chess analogy is to imagine a chessboard where the rest of the pieces on your team don't know what the king and queen are doing (this analogy doesn't reflect the nature of the game as well as yours does, but better reflects the nature of the party, where there are lots of people on our side working for liberty who might benefit by being better informed of our actions, not only leaders moving inanimate pieces around on a board and trying to keep moves hidden from leaders on the other side).

On Aug 11, 2016, at 8:15 PM, Ken Moellman 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
>> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
>> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> 
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