Posted at Kn@ppster:
Article 11, Sections 4 and 5 of the Libertarian Party’s bylaws reads as follows:
4. Affiliate Party Delegate Entitlements:
Each affiliate party shall be entitled to send delegates to each Regular Convention on the following basis:
a. One delegate for each 0.14 percent, or fraction thereof, of the total Party sustaining membership in that affiliate; provided that at least one such delegate must be a resident of that State or District.
b. One delegate for each 0.35 percent, or fraction thereof, of the votes cast nationwide for the Libertarian Party candidate in the most recent presidential election, cast in that affiliate’s state.
5. Delegate Allocation:
In order to be counted for delegate allocation, sustaining membership applications must be sent to the National Headquarters by either the individual member or the affiliate party and received or postmarked no later than the last day of the seventh month prior to the Regular Convention. The Secretary shall make a count of the sustaining members qualified under the requirements set forth here and shall compute the delegate allocations for the affiliate parties. Notification of the sustaining membership totals and allocation totals shall be sent by the Secretary to the Chair of each affiliate party no later than the last day of the sixth month prior to a Regular Convention. A list of the names and addresses of all delegates and alternates chosen by each affiliate party shall be sent to the Credentials Committee no later than one month prior to start of the first general session of the Regular Convention. Amendments to such lists may be made by the affiliate parties and submitted to the Credentials Committee until the close of the Credentials Committee meeting preceding the Convention. The number of alternates’ names submitted shall not exceed the greater of 50 or the number of delegates allocated. Failure to submit a listing of delegate/alternate names and addresses, as prescribed within these Bylaws, shall cause no delegation to be registered from that affiliate party. By seven-eighths vote, the Convention may approve additional delegates and alternates whose names and addresses are submitted to the Credentials Committee during the Convention.
I’d like to see it moved (in the bylaws committee’s report, or from the floor) that the following replacement sections be adopted:
4. Affiliate Party Delegate Entitlements:
Each affiliate party shall be entitled to send delegates to each Regular Convention on the following basis:
a. Two delegates for each state.
b. One additional delegate for each US House District in each state.
5. Delegate Allocation: The Secretary shall make a count of the US House Districts in each state and shall compute the delegate allocations for the affiliate parties. Notification of the allocation totals shall be sent by the Secretary to the Chair of each affiliate party no later than the last day of the sixth month prior to a Regular Convention. A list of the names and addresses of all delegates and alternates chosen by each affiliate party shall be sent to the Credentials Committee no later than one month prior to start of the first general session of the Regular Convention. Amendments to such lists may be made by the affiliate parties and submitted to the Credentials Committee until the close of the Credentials Committee meeting preceding the Convention. The number of alternates’ names submitted shall not exceed the number of delegates allocated. Failure to submit a listing of delegate/alternate names and addresses, as prescribed within these Bylaws, shall cause no delegation to be registered from that affiliate party. By seven-eighths vote, the Convention may approve additional delegates and alternates whose names and addresses are submitted to the Credentials Committee during the Convention.
Some effects of this change:
– The LP’s national convention delegate representation would mirror the Electoral College, which in turn mirrors America with only slight distortion (due to the “base” delegate number).
– The maximum number of possible delegates would remain stable and known in advance for a decade at a time (congressional districts are re-allocated pursuant to the US Census). If this amendment were in place at this time, the maximum number of delegates to the LP’s 2010 convention would be 538.
– The maximum number of delegates would be smaller than at present (1000+). As it happens, the lower number correlates more closely to the number of delegates who actually show up (for example, 600-odd delegates were present on the floor in 2008 for the presidential nomination vote). This would allow convention planners to procure smaller, cheaper meeting facilities instead of renting a bunch of empty extra room for delegates who could theoretically show up, but who in practice never do.
– Three other sections of the bylaws (Article 8, Section 2c; Article 11, Sections 7b and 7c), which refer to sustaining membership statistics, would also need to be modified to get rid of “as determined for (Convention) delegate allocation(s)” language.
Always has been for those paying attention 😛
Aaron Starr // Feb 21, 2010:
“Don LAKE, As long as you’re entertaining and can bring a smile to the faces of other attendees, you can be one or all of the above. —— The Starr Plan has decreed it.”
—– Oh, so Third Party Watch became Libertarian and or Bible Beater’s Beat via partisan manipulation ?????
—– Oh, so Independent Political Report is going to become the Comedy Hour due to individual diversion[s] ?????
My dog has no nose.
How does it smell?
Awful.
Nun walks into a liquor store and asks for a bottle of vodka. Clerk says, “Sister, it is very unusual to see a nun ordering alchohol.”
Nun” “Oh, it’s for Mother Superior’s constipation.” Clerk: “O.K. Here you go.”
Later, Clerk locks up, goes to his car, sees said nun drunk as a skunk, swinging on a lamp post.
“Sister, I thought you said this was for Mother Superior’s constipation?” Nun: “It ish. Whensh she shees me, she’ll shit!”
Don,
As long as you’re entertaining and can bring a smile to the faces of other attendees, you can be one or all of the above.
The Starr Plan has decreed it.
Funny Humorous ???????
Funny Acting ????????
Funny Looking ???????
Just Plain Strange ??????
Warning: I am not universally
popular and never will be ……..
Don Lake, in accordance with The Starr Plan, I decree that you are officially funny and therefor entitled to be a delegate at the 2010 convention.
Aaron Starr // Feb 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm
LG, I like that one.
me_ YAY! Im a delegate!
Good one [and kinda true] Lib Grrl!
A politician died and arrived at the Pearly Gates. After that shock wore off, he was ushered into the area where Saint Peter held court.
Saint Peter verified ID and other details.When a crowd had finally gathered he started the group toward the interior. At the first apartment bloc the rooms had bare floors and an oil lamp. The priests in the aggregate pealed off.
The next apartment group had an area rug and a plain bed with a candle. The bishops quietly left the mob.
The next habitation included bare thread carpeting, a plain electric bulb and a decent bed. The four arch bishops departed, leaving only Saint Pete and the Politician.
The duo traveled to a detached home. Inside was plush carpeting, and four poster canape bed, and a chandelier. The politician was amazed. He was stunned.
“Saint Peter: the priests, the bishops …… ”
Saint Pete glanced back and said, “Well we have all the arch bishops we need ………’
This is a fun read.
Some churches are more fun than others.
Believe it or not, these actually appeared in various church bulletins:
1. This afternoon there will be a meeting in the south and north ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends.
2. Tuesday at 4PM there will be an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk, come early.
3. Wednesday the ladies liturgy society will meet. Mr. Johnson will sing, “Put Me In My Little Bed,” accompanied by the pastor.
4. Thursday at 5PM there will be a meeting of the little mothers club. All ladies wishing to be little mothers please meet with the pastor in his study.
5. This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Johnson to come forward and lay an egg at the alter.
6. The service will close with “Little Drops of Water”. One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.
7. On Sunday, a special collection will be taken to defray the expenses of the new carpet. All those wishing to do something on the new carpet, come forward and get a piece of paper.
8. The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the church basement on Friday afternoon.
9. A bean supper will be held on Saturday evening in the church basement. Music will follow.
10. The rosebud on the alter this morning is to announce the birth of David Alan Belzer, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Julius Belzer.
11. Tonight’s sermon: What is hell? Come early and listen to our choir practice.
12. For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
13. Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
14. Potluck supper: prayer and medication to follow.
15. Don’t let worry kill you off — let the church help.
The Republicans support small government — now that’s a joke!!!
LG, I like that one.
Maybe some day we can fill the L.A. Coliseum.
Nah forget it. The press wouldn’t cover us.
http://www.lol.com/joke/show/21
mhw, further point…the national Tea Party convention had some 600 attendees (who paid $550, btw). That got a LOT of national news coverage. Many national LP conventions have MORE people and get a LOT less coverage. Why? Because the Tea Party had big-name speakers, mostly. They made news.
Our off-year conventions are almost always administrative functions. Sometimes we get minor coverage. Our presidential conventions usu. get some coverage, generally not as high profile as the smaller Tea Party’s.
Media bias? Not really, IMO. We need to earn primetime coverage by having primetime speakers speaking eloquently about current issues. That’s generally not been our MO, and some in the LP seem to prefer it that way.
Ls should not expect others to understand Libertarian-speak, yet many of us continue to engage in it.
It’s all good, though, we’re all doing the best we can.
“Follow me folks — I am right behind you!
“The Starr Plan – Let Aaron Starr choose all the delegates.”
Well, okay, if I’m going to do this, I guess I better make up some rules here.
To make our conventions more entertaining, I will only select those people who can provide us with the best jokes. Feel free to post them here or provide us with a link.
Here’s one I like:
So there’s this fella with a parrot. And this parrot swears like a sailor, I
mean he’s a pistol. He can swear for five minutes straight without repeating
himself. Trouble is, the guy who owns him is a quiet, conservative type, and
this bird’s foul mouth is driving him crazy.
One day, it gets to be too much, so the guy grabs the bird by the throat,
shakes him really hard, and yells, “QUIT IT!” But this just makes the bird mad
and he swears more than ever.
Then the guy gets mad and says, “OK for you.” and locks the bird in a kitchen
cabinet.
This really aggravates the bird and he claws and scratches, and when the guy
finally lets him out, the bird cuts loose with a stream of invective that
would make a veteran sailor blush.
At that point, the guy is so mad that he throws the bird into the freezer.
For the first few seconds there is a terrible din. The bird kicks and claws
and thrashes. Then it suddenly gets _very_ quiet.
At first the guy just waits, but then he starts to think that the bird may be
hurt. After a couple of minutes of silence, he’s so worried that he opens up
the freezer door.
The bird calmly climbs onto the man’s out-stretched arm and says, “Awfully
sorry about the trouble I gave you. I’ll do my best to
improve my vocabulary from now on.”
The man is astounded. He can’t understand the transformation that has come
over the parrot.
Then the parrot says, “By the way, what did the chicken do?”
mhw, actually, MHW, I am now in sales these days. I’m a semi-retired former VP of corporate public and investor relations, FWIW.
@8 For some reason Robert I doubt that you are in the sales business.
LOL, I like Deathrace scenario where convention fun things like speakers and food are 1 place and convention business is like 15 miles away and there arent enuf spots just like musical chairs for everyone and we have to race there , no rules apply. first come first to vote
Here’s some more ways we could do it.
The Starr Plan – Let Aaron Starr choose all the delegates.
The Eric Dondero Plan – Hold our convention as a caucus in the back of the GOP convention hall.
The Secret Location Plan – Hold the convention at an unannounced location. Give out mysterious clues, and see who’s clever enough to figure it out.
The “What, Me Worry” Plan – Just let anyone show up and be a delegate. Can be combined with the Secret Location Plan for maximum confusion.
@6 possible disadvantage: convention-packing . Member = $25 and a pledge that the person may or may not sincerely believe and which means different things to different people.
ms 6, another disadvantage of your anyone-who-shows-is-a-delegate is that home/regional states would have a HUGE advantage in swaying outcomes.
As evidence, consider all the criticism after the Portland convention. Many “radicals” dismissed the results of Portland because Portland was relatively remote and hard to get to.
Nice sentiment, yours, but sounds like a prescription for chaos to this hombre.
mhw, oh, I’ve been incorrect before, but I simply cannot imagine that the press would cover an LP convention based on numbers of attendees. 1 vs. 15K just doesn’t seem especially newsworthy. If so, how so?
What they might cover is NEWS. A great, captivating speaker. Etc.
Parliamentary wrangling by a few thousand 3rd party people doesn’t make for great TV or news.
I’d like to see us do whatever it takes to increase the number of delegates. Higher delegate numbers at conventions may lead to better press coverage. Better press coverage might lead to better understanding of the issues as we see them and thus those solution we propose are more likely to be accepted.
Or it could be even simpler: If you show up and you’re a member, you’re a delegate for free, materials and optional non-business stuff extra.
Advantage 1: opens it up and makes the whole thing wide open, and eliminates the argument completely.
Advantage 2: can create a SRO situation for the C-SPAN cameras, which is good publicity as to popularity.
Advantage 3: simplifies the Bylaws by eliminates the formulas that don’t need to be there.
Disadvantage 1: Prevent consolidation of power in a select group.
Wait, that’s another advantage…
It seems as if how we answer the question of allocation depends on what we see the point of the convention as being. Tom, I wonder if you’d mind saying more about the underlying rationale for your proposed formula. It seems as if an allocation based on electoral votes makes the most sense if the goal is to make sure we nominate a candidate with the ability to attract votes and win an election. But that prospect seems a long way off. If the goal is instead to represent members and do business on their behalf, it seems as if an allocation based on registered voters might be fairest (in light of Darryl’s concerns). If the goal is to amass libertarians who represent (in some sense) the population as a whole, why not just go with the number of Representatives and forget the two extra delegates per state? I’m all for both small and simple, and I like the idea of moving in that direction—I’m just continuing to chew over options.
if the idea is to save money, why not cap delegates at 50? Each state could auction off the delegation seat to the highest bidder as a fundraising technique.
OR
To save even more money, why not make the convention virtual? Sell the virtual seats over the ‘net, simulcast it as a pay-per-view event…. 😉
“Vote totals” discriminates against the States in which the candidate isn’t on the ballot.
“Dues payers” discriminates against States with higher numbers of Life-members, who are not required to send yearly “dues”.
We can get the benefit of a lower maximum delegate total simply by lowering the maximum delegate total. I like that part of the idea a lot. I don’t like the part about disconnecting delegate allocation from our two key metrics of dues-payers and vote totals.
Tom, great idea!