[Lnc-business] Requirements for Sustaining Membership in the Libertarian Party

[Nicholas Sarwark]

Dear All,

Apparently some members of the LNC think it's appropriate to discuss in a
public forum an individual who sent in a contribution to the Libertarian
Party with a signed pledge, is not a public figure, and is not able to
advocate on his own behalf. It is not.

Apparently some members of this committee think that they have the
individual authority to tell the Executive Director how to handle a
membership contribution from someone with a criminal conviction in absence
of any bylaws or policy manual justification for the action. They do not.

The requirements for sustaining membership in the Libertarian Party are
defined by the delegates at convention in the bylaws. The Libertarian
National Committee has no power to add requirements for sustaining
membership that are beyond the bylaws, only the delegates at the next
convention have that power. If they want to add further requirements to be
a sustaining member that would disqualify people from joining the party,
they may do so by a 2/3 vote of the national convention.

Sending back a legal contribution from a person who has signed the pledge
has the effect of creating an additional requirement for sustaining
membership that could be described as, "the Executive Director approves of
the member." There may be good reasons for this requirement, there may be
good reasons not to adopt this requirement, but those would need to be
considered by the convention delegates, it's not a requirement that can be
created without authority from the bylaws.

Yours in liberty,
Nick