[Lnc-business] Motion:Historic Preservation Committee

Tue Jan 10 18:01:34 EST 2017

This motion is to put someone "in charge". Basically, it's managing
volunteers. The committee will be in charge of LPedia, generally, and in
charge of actually making available to the public all of the information
we have in the basement. Someday, we might even be able to use that
space for something else, other than filing cabinets full of documents. 

In a decade from now, assuming that the committee has caught up on the
45-year document backlog that exists today, the committee will still
maintain LPedia, and will continue to update LPedia with the
to-be-history of the party. It probably won't need a committee, but it
will need a manager of some sort - and at that time, after the backlog
is all entered, the future version of the committee can look at
modifying or disbanding the HPC. 

I'd be fine doing this without a committee, if the LNC wants that. It is
a job that needs to be done, and staff shouldn't be burdened with it
when there are volunteers ready to do the task. 

ken 

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

On 2017-01-10 09:35, Joshua Katz wrote: 

> I haven't decided how I will vote on this, and the debate here hasn't helped me. Let me revisit some of the comments I made on the document itself, but in a more inquisitive manner, and see if I can get some light on the matter. 
> 
> It seems to me that there are 3 (really 4, but see below) categories of tasks that matter here. They are: 
> 
> 1. Things we do now. 
> 1a.Things that can be done now without a motion, but aren't. 
> 2. What the makers of this motion intend to do that isn't done now. 
> 3. What will be done as a result of this motion passing, in 10 years, when few of us are on the LNC. 
> 
> Obviously, we want 2 and 3 to be as close to identical as possible. I'm getting the sense from some of the discussion that they aren't, and I will try to make some suggestions on the document to bring them closer together. 
> 
> My question is on the relation between 1 and 1a together, and 2. What, exactly, is in 2 that is not in 1 or 1a? To give some examples: is there anything not being stored that the makers want to see stored? 
> 
> So far as I know, there is nothing stopping volunteers from going into the basement and scanning things. At least, that's the impression I have from the fact that my colleague from Colorado, a stickler about rules, did so, with another volunteer member, and there was no suggestion of impropriety. What stops us from, without doing anything, having volunteers do that? 
> 
> Which brings me to another question - what, exactly, will this committee decide? It seems to me that the answer might be nothing, but I'm not sure on that. That is, it looks like it will not be an empowered committee, and will only make recommendations to the LNC, albeit with special rules of order that will make it easier for things to pass (but, I suggest, might impact the vote threshold for this motion, as well as make the Policy Manual a bit more confusing - it might be good to have this motion amend the Special Rules of Order section of the Policy Manual as well, and leave the rules of order parts out of the committee description and scope). Since it was posted, the scope of those recommendations has been narrowed somewhat (my understanding of the deleted line about expenditures seems to have been different from that of several others - I didn't see it giving the committee unlimited power to commit us to expenditures, but I did see it as oddly outside the budget process, as
others have pointed out - I might prefer if a budget line were created for this purpose, and the committee just incurred the costs without going to the LNC within that line). 
> 
> So, in sum, here is what I would like to know: 
> What, exactly, will this motion allow to happen, that cannot happen now? 
> Why is a committee needed for this purpose? 
> 
> These questions are actually closely related, because they both get at why this is a committee, rather than a group of volunteers doing work. 
> 
> I don't want to get into most of the other points raised at the moment, but I'll add that volunteer time is, of course, not totally fungible, but I suspect it is more fungible than we often think. 
> 
> Joshua A. Katz 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 6:37 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I am at a full screen computer now, and can get better address: 
> _ _ 
> _With the assistance of staff and the Secretary, maintain all physical historic information in a safe and climate controlled environment._ 
> _ _ 
> This is already done. Decisions are already made - either explicitly or implicitly - about what is kept. This does not change that. 
> _ _ 
> _With the assistance of staff and the Secretary, collect all public electronic records._
> 
> _ _ 
> This is already done. When things are made public, they are either electronic or physical. They are already been saved. 
> _ _ 
> _Make a good faith effort to preserve and publish all available historical party documents, and transform physical documents into electronic format toward that end._
> 
> _ _ 
> Historical documents are not kept for mere utility reference, but for their historical value. We don't put out that much "publicly" and what is put out has a historical value in saving. Though this section could be tweaked to give greater discretion to the committee on items. 
> 
> Make a good faith effort to preserve and, and within its discretion, to publish, all available historical party documents, and transform physical documents into electronic format toward that end.
> 
> _ _ 
> I would make the point of volunteer times. Their times is their to spend. There are volunteers waiting to be involved. Their time is not fungible, people get involved in what they are passionate about. 
> 
> - Caryn Ann 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 5:15 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Alicia, 
> 
> First I would ask if there is language you could suggest. 
> 
> As in the "all" - it is what we are doing now. Nothing is being added. All records that are public records. 
> 
> The committee is tasked with a good faith effort to publish them yes. Nearly everything being referred to will have been published previously - this is making the permanent archive. 
> 
> Top level history is subjective. The Wiki now is far from only top level- histories of some county parties are preserved if someone was interested in them. 
> 
> What is useful is very much subjective. To those very interested in having a good complete record of our history, they are all. 
> 
> Volunteer time is like earmarked money. If a volunteer wants to give it- that is their choice, not ours on what we deem fruitful. I already know volunteers willing to be dedicated. There is a core of people interested in historical matters. 
> 
> A treasure trove of records exist. 
> 
> -Caryn Ann 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 1:53 AM Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> I think the scope of this committee, as proposed, is so broad that it's a problem.
> 
> Am I really being asked to be partially responsible for preserving ALL physical historic information (in #1), and ALL public electronic records (in #2)? And the committee is additionally tasked with publishing ALL historical documents (in #4)?
> 
> "All" is an awfully large amount of information, and it means there would never be anything deemed inappropriate for inclusion because it says "all".
> 
> I thought this was just going to be some top-level history like whatever is on the wiki right now, but this proposal is a massive expansion in scope.
> 
> Some historical documents are useful to keep around for reference. Others just aren't, so why spend time preserving ALL of them?
> 
> Are we going to spend our limited volunteer time and effort documenting the past, or are we going to instead focus on how to make our future efforts have more real-world results?
> 
> -Alicia
> 
> On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Ken Moellman <ken.moellman at lpky.org> wrote:
> 
> The following is a motion seeking a sponsor and co-sponsors, to create the Historic Preservation Committee, tasked with preserving and publishing all historical documents of the Party.
> 
> Add a line item to chart in subsection 1 of section 1.03 of the Policy Manual, which reads (column name in italics):
> 
> _(Committee name)_ Historic Preservation Committee
> _(Size)_ Two (2) LNC Members or Alternates, plus up to five (5) non-LNC members. 
> _(Member Selection)_ LNC Members or Alternates selected by LNC. Non-LNC members selected by the committee, which shall be accepted unless objected to by a majority of the LNC within 14 days of notification. 
> _(Chair Selection)_ * Committee Selected
> 
> Create a new subsection under section 2.02 of the Policy Manual, which reads:
> 
> x) Historic Preservation Committee
> 
> The goal of the Historic Preservation Committee is to preserve historical documents of the party. To that end, the committee shall:
> 1. With the assistance of staff and the Secretary, maintain all physical historic information in a safe and climate controlled environment. Any costs for document storage shall be presented to the LNC and shall be accepted unless objected to by the majority of the entire LNC within 14 days.
> 2. With the assistance of staff and the Secretary, collect all public electronic records.
> 3. With the assistance of the IT Committee and staff, provide and maintain a permanent public document archive in the form of a publicly-viewable website which is separate from the Party's primary website.
> 4. Make a good faith effort to preserve and publish all historical documents, and transform physical documents into electronic format toward that end.
> 5. Vote to recommend the destruction of any original document, or document for which no other copy is available. No such document shall be destroyed without the consent of the LNC, as outlined in Section 2.07(x).
> 6. At each LNC meeting, present a summary of physical document preservation mechanisms currently being utilized, and the number of documents preserved in electronic format.
> 7. Ensure that any document that would qualify for discussion under the rules of executive session for the LNC, as outlined under Section 1.02(5), remains private until such time that the Executive Committee, or the entire LNC, meeting in executive session, votes in the affirmative to make that information public.
> 8. Within one business day, inform the LNC of any committee appointments.
> 9. Publicly announce and permit a public audience for all meetings, other than those meetings held for the explicit purpose of discussing historic items that would qualify for Executive Session. 
> 
> Nothing listed in the responsibilities, powers, or scope of this Committee shall be construed to prevent or circumvent the normal operation of the Party's main website or to interfere in the duties of the Secretary as mandated by the Party Bylaws or this Policy Manual.
> 
> Create a new subsection under section 2.07 of the Policy Manual, which reads:
> 
> (x) All agendas, public meeting minutes, and public records of the Party shall be made available to the Historic Preservation Committee. No data shall be deleted or destroyed without a vote in the affirmative by no less than two-thirds of the entire LNC. 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Ken C. Moellman, Jr.
> LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative
> LPKY Judicial Committee 
> 
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 -- 

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] 

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