A Copy of the proposed Bylaws changes will be available to Members at the 2019 Annual Meeting to be held January 19, 2019
PROPOSED BYLAWS CHANGES
2019 Annual Convention Meeting
Date ? Saturday, January 19, 2019
Time ? 11:00 AM
Location ? Haverkamp home,
13520 New Discovery Rd
Colorado Springs, CO 80908
Report of the Bylaws Committee
Presented to the 2019 Annual County Convention
January 19, 2019
Chris Houtchens, Chair
Judy Darcy, Committee Submitter
John Hjersman, Committee Submitter
Legend of Report
Text of the Bylaw is in Times New Roman
Text to be inserted is in increased Bold Underline Blue
Text to be deleted is in increased Bold Strikethrough Red
All other text is in Arial (which our website does not currently recognize – for a true copy of this report please contact bylaws@lpepc.org)
Report section headers are underlined
The procedure for amending the Bylaws is listed here for reference.
Article XI.? Amendments to Bylaws
11.1.??? These Bylaws may be amended by passage of a resolution at a Convention (if specified) by a two thirds (2/3) vote of the Members.
11.2.??? All proposed amendments to these Bylaws shall be submitted in writing to the Board of Directors no later than two (2) weeks prior to the Convention at which they are to be addressed.
11.3.??? Each proposed amendment shall be limited to a single topic.
Proposal #1
Subject: Old wording deadwood
Problem: The Second Annual Convention was held in 2014, making some verbiage unnecessary.
Solution: Clean up the verbiage.
Substantive?: NO
Proposed language: Amend Article V, Section 5.7, as follows:
5.7.???????????? After the Second Annual Convention, all All Directors shall be Contributing Members for no less than ninety (90) consecutive days prior to election.? If a Director ceases to be a Contributing Member, then they automatically resign from the Board of Directors as well.
Proposal #2: (Submitted by John Hjersman)
Subject: Board eligibility
Problem: Prohibitive voter registration requirement delays recent arrivals from abandoned parties participation on the board.? A recall election nomination requires only one day.
Solution: Relax the requirement for libertarian registration and allow until the next meeting for a new director to become a contributing member.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article V, Section 5.7, as follows:
5.7? After the Second Annual Convention, all Director Candidate Candidates shall be Contributing have been at least Regular Members for no less than ninety (90) fourteen (14) consecutive days prior to their elections. Newly elected or appointed Directors shall be Contributing Members by adjournment of the first Board Meeting after the meeting in which they were elected or appointed.? If a Director ceases to be a Contributing Member, then they automatically resign from the Board of Directors as well.
Proposal #3: (Submitted by John Hjersman)
Subject: Conventions
Problem: Convention registration is implicitly defined in the section after which it is used.
Solution: invert the order of existing 8.1.5 and 8.1.4
Substantive?: NO
Proposed language: Amend Article VIII, Section 8.1, Subsections 8.1.4 and 8.1.5, as follows:
8.1.45.??? At all Conventions, a quorum shall be forty percent (40%) of all Members registered as attending the Convention.
8.1.54Members shall be required to register their attendance and departure with the Secretary when attending any Convention.
Proposal #4
Subject: Clarify vote recording process for votes between meetings
Problem: Some of the votes the Board have taken have fallen under the ?other means? clause.? The Bylaws Committee feels it is a good idea to clarify the vote taking process to resolve any ambiguity.
Substantive?: YES
Solution: Add language to clarify.
Proposed language: Amend Article V, Section 5.2, Subsection 5.2.2, in the following manner:
5.2.2? Expenditure of funds or official action of the LPEPC, between Meetings and Conventions, may be undertaken by a vote of the Board of Directors in person or by phone, email, or other means, so long as a written or electronic record of the vote is made or collected by the Secretary and validated as accurate by a majority of the Board of Directors. The votes shall be formally collected by the Secretary and saved for a period of one (1) year and made available to any Member on request.
Proposal #5: (Submitted by John Hjersman)
Subject: Email voting
Problem: The fact that this applies to votes that occur between meetings is submerged in the text.
Solution: Begin the text with the condition to which it applies.
Substantive?: NO
Proposed language: Amend Article V, Section 5.2, Subsection 5.2.2, as follows:
5.2.2? Expenditure Between Meetings and Conventions, expenditure of funds or official action of the LPEPC, between Meetings and Conventions, may be undertaken by a vote of the Board of Directors in person or by phone, email, or other means. The votes shall be formally collected by the Secretary and saved for a period of one (1) year and made available to any Member upon request.
Proposals #6 & 7
Subject: Resolve confusion over which Directors are on the Board of Directors and which aren?t.
Problem: The current composition of the Board of Directors is not functioning efficiently as needed with a good distribution of labor and needs adjustment.? The problem is that the number of Directors does not match up to the number of Committees, creating two tiers of Committees that are either headed by Directors, or not.
Solution: Make the 5 Directors explicitly be Chairs of permanent standing committees, with the provision that if a chair of a standing committee is also an Officer, then that person only has one vote.? Clarify the powers of the board in regards to standing and ad-hoc committees.
Current Committees:
Bylaws, Platform, Outreach, Education, Media, Volunteer, Campaigns, Convention, Fundraising, Voter Registration, Finance
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language:
- Amend Article V of the Bylaws, Section 5.1, as follows:
5.1.????? The Board of Directors of the LPEPC shall be composed of the following Officers: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and up to five (5) other Directors the five (5) Chairs of the Standing Committees, for a total of no more than nine (9) Directors.? The Secretary and Treasurer positions may be combined out of personnel necessity as determined by the Board of Directors.? Other Officer positions shall not be combined, and other Directors may be combined but only count as one (1) position and one (1) vote.? The Standing Committees shall be Bylaws, Platform, Outreach, Education, and Media.
- Amend Article V of the Bylaws, Section 5.2, as follows:
5.2.????? The Board shall have full powers to conduct all business of the LPEPC, including fundraising; creating, appointing, and dissolving ad-hoc committees as needed; appointing Chairs of Standing Committees; and the expenditure of funds belonging to the LPEPC.? No expenditure of funds or official action of the LPEPC may be undertaken, except: ?
Proposal #8
Subject: Who gets elected and who gets appointed
Problem: At Convention, the Members elect the Party Officers, and those Party Officers appoint the Standing Committee Chairs.? But the Bylaws state that the Convention elects the Board of Directors.? There is an inconsistency here that needs fixing.
Solution: Change such that the Members elect the Party Officers.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article VIII, Section 8.1, Subsection 8.1.1, as follows:
8.1.1? The Party shall hold an Annual Convention for the purposes of electing the Board of Directors Officers and conducting any other business prior to the State Party Annual Convention.
Proposal #9
Subject: Succession of vacant Chair
Problem: The recent resignation of a Chair for relocation reasons caused some confusion about the role of the Vice-Chair in the duration of the vacancy.? After consultation with an impartial source, it was determined that the wording of the Bylaws meant that the Vice-Chair became Chair upon the resignation of the previous Chair, to finish out the term of office.? The original intention of the Bylaw was to have the Vice-Chair become Acting Chair until the Board of Directors appointed a new Chair.? However, the Bylaws don?t explicitly state that.? Bylaw 5.6 states that a vacancy on the Board of Directors is filled by the Board appointing a person to fill the spot, to finish out the term.
Solution: Clarify the role of the Vice-Chair in the case of the vacancy of the Chair such that the Vice-Chair will explicitly be the Acting Chair until the Chair vacancy is filled via Bylaw 5.6.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article VI, Section 6.3, Subsection 6.3.2, as follows:
6.3.2 The Vice-Chair shall assume the duties of the Chair in their absence or vacancy or at such times as the Chair so designates as Acting Chair.
Proposal #10
Subject: Keeping quorum with LPCO BoD involved
Problem: The State Party Bylaws have a provision in them (Article II, Section 13) that makes all State Party Board of Directors, all 11 of them, as ex-officio members of LPEPC?s Board of Directors, and every other county affiliate Board of Directors in the State.? Per Bylaws 8.2.4, LPEPC?s meeting quorum is a majority of the sitting Board of Directors.? Combining these two, a LPEPC quorum is suddenly the LPEPC?s 9 board members PLUS the LPCO?s 11 Board members, making a quorum of 11 Board Members, which makes conducting any and all LPEPC business impossible without having full attendance of the LPEPC Board of Directors plus two LPCO Board members, since a quorum would be impossible.
Solution: While the correct answer is to remove the ex-officio membership clause from the State Party Bylaws (and that?s being worked on), to keep the ability to actually conduct business in LPEPC, change the quorum requirement to exclude ex-officio Board Members.? This allows conformance to the State Party Bylaws but also protects LPEPC?s ability to do regular business.
(NOTE: There is also a dispute over the LPEPC?s Residency requirement under Bylaw 4.2, but that?s not in scope here.? The LPEPC position on that is that there is no prohibition against such a requirement in the State Party Bylaws, so LPEPC can impose it.? Bylaw 10.5 reflects that as well.)
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article VII, Section 8.2, Subsection 8.2.4, as follows:
8.2.4? At all Meetings, a quorum shall be a majority of the sitting Board of Directors, not including ex-officio Board members.
Proposal #11: (Submitted by John Hjersman)
Subject: Dues
Problem: Only Contributing Memberships expire.? The duty to notify members of membership expiration is not specifically assigned.
Solution: Assign the duty to announce membership expirations in the Policy Manual so that it?s easily adjustable.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article VII, Section 7.5, as follows:
7.5? Contributing Members shall be notified of upcoming Membership expiration no later than thirty (30) days before said expiration. Such notification shall include the Membership type, dues amount, and expiration/anniversary date.
Proposal #12: (Submitted by John Hjersman)
Subject: NOTA
Problem: Permanently eliminating potential candidates after a NOTA win ignores the possibility that one or more candidates was misunderstood by the voters.
Solution: After a period in which candidates can redeem themselves, a repeat vote after a NOTA result should not exclude potential assets to the Board of Directors or other elected position.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article XIII, Section 13.3, as follows:
13.3? ?None of the above? or ?NOTA? is recognized as a legitimate candidate for every vote regarding elections, nominations, or appointments. If NOTA should win the ballot, the balloting must be repeated with all previous candidates for that vote (except NOTA) being ineligible.? At no time shall NOTA be removed from a balloting.
Proposal #13
Subject: Appointees to the Board should be Contributing Members
Problem: Elected Board Members have a requirement in Bylaw 5.7 to be Contributing Members; however, there is no such requirement for appointed Board Members.
Solution: Add the requirement for appointed Board Members for consistency.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article V, Section 5.7, as follows:
5.7? After the Second Annual Convention, all Directors shall be Contributing Members for no less than ninety (90) consecutive days prior to election or appointment. If a Director ceases to be a Contributing Member, then they automatically resign from the Board of Directors as well.
NOTE: The following two proposals are competing.? In general, per Robert?s Rules ? 57, p. 592, if the first proposal passes, the language passed carries over to be considered in the second proposal.? If the first proposal does not pass, then the second proposal is treated as presented.
Proposal #14
Subject: Who calls the meetings?
Problem: Calling meetings and conventions is implicitly the duty of the Chair under Bylaw 6.2.1, 6.2.2, and 6.2.3, but it has not been done by the Chair lately because others have decided to do it themselves without the Chair?s approval.? The LPEPC has worked with it for the time being, but the duty is not the duty of the others doing it.
Solution: Make the duty explicit.? This was overlooked in the original Bylaws drafting.
Substantive?: YES
Proposed language: Amend Article VI, Section 6.2, Subsection 6.2.3, as follows:
6.2.3? The Chair shall call and conduct all Meetings and Conventions.
Proposal #15: (Submitted by Judy Darcy)
Subject: Change duties of Chair
Problem: The Education Director has been leading Educational/Social Meetings as long as there is an Education Director in place.? In order to be in compliance with the Bylaws, a new Chair would be required delegate these duties to the Education Director every time a new Chair was in place.
Substantive?: YES
Solution: Change duties in Article VI, to reduce requirements so that delegation is allowed by standing Policy.
Proposed language: Amend Article VI, Section 6.2, Subsection 6.2.3, in the following manner:
6.2.3? The Chair shall conduct all Board Meetings, and Conventions, and special business meetings.
This post is of Proposed Changes only. Accepted Amendments will be on another post to be attached (linked on the site) to the Minutes of the 2019 Annual Convention Meeting.