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

[Elizabeth Van Horn]

Nick,

I'm the person who forwarded to the public list, as I think this 
discussion is one that our LP members should know about.

Our ED brought this situation to the attention of the LNC, and had noted 
his own inclination was to return the check.  He also said he'd 
gratefully defer to the LNC.

Any LNC member responding to the ED, and/or discussing the situation, 
are acting out of interest of the LP, and are prompted by the ED's 
initial communication.

For the record, I strongly oppose accepting the donation in question.

If you think this issue has no further forward motion, I'll let it go.

EVH


---
Elizabeth Van Horn
LNC Region 3 Representative (IN, MI, OH, KY)



On 2019-12-21 08:18, Nicholas Sarwark via Lnc-business wrote:
> 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