[Procedures] Setting State Convention Date - version 20080721a

[Daniel Melnechuk]

Same here:

Title:         Setting State Convention Date

Sponsors:         Daniel Melnechuk (manager) & ????

Contact Info:         isis AT isisdesign.com, 781-894-5544

Committee(s) Vetting:         Procedures, Structures, Meetings and  
Bylaws



Background:



At the June 29th 2008 Summer Statecom meeting, the state committee  
made a clearly invalid decision to hold the State Convention in  
November of 2008. The bylaws state from section 6.4 state:



The Green-Rainbow Party shall hold at least one state convention every  
year no sooner than February 1st, and no later than the last day to  
file certificates of nomination with the secretary of state.
This section is ambiguous in that there are two different deadline  
dates that certificates of nomination can be filed with the secretary  
of state (commonwealth). This year it was June 3rd 2008 for candidates  
from state parties and August 26th for candidates either independent  
or from political designations.



The situation is further compounded in that section 6.8 talks about a  
3 month notice period for members and locals. This means if we held  
the the convention on August 26th we should have told members and  
locals by May 26th.



So the party is not in compliance with our bylaws. This means to be in  
compliance we need to modify the bylaws to allow for a later date of  
the convention. Seeing as there are good reasons to have the  
restriction of the last date to file nomination papers with the state,  
there should be good reasons and a high threshold to override this  
bylaw.



Also when there are not any state nor federal positions for which  
there is an election, then we should also loosen the restriction on  
the date.



Summary:



This proposal specifies to modify section 6.4 to allow overriding the  
restriction if the date is selected by consensus or by at least a ¾  
majority. It also clarifies that on years when there are no state or  
federal positions open for election that the date may set later with  
our normal decision making process.



Proposal:



Add the following sentences to the end of section 6.4 of the bylaws:

The state committee may decide to set a date later than the last day  
to file certificates of nomination with the secretary of state if the  
decision is by consensus or in the absence of consensus by a ¾  
threshold vote. In a year when there are no state nor federal  
elections being held, the state committee may decide using our  
standard decision making process to set a date no later then the end  
of November.

Budget Impact

None.



Implementation

1. The procedures, structures, bylaws and meetings committee will  
modify the bylaws if adopted.





On Jul 22, 2008, at 2:44 AM, Daniel Melnechuk wrote:

> After i sent the last version off i noticed a note i had made to add  
> that in years that there are no state or federal elections, there  
> are less restrictions on setting the date.
>
> So attached is version 20080721A.
>
> Peace,
> Dan
>
>
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