LNC members plot to steal your rights as a sustaining member
Posted in Stand Up For Liberty by R Lee Wrights on September 22nd, 2009 by George Phillies
Mind you, when you aren’t up to publishing the newsletter regularly, threatening to take it away loses savor as a threat.
A motion now before the LNC, would amend the Policy Manual. In the following quote, Sections 2, 4, and 5 are new as worded. The motion, which has not been widely circulated, takes away fundamental rights of the Sustaining Membership.
For starters, Sustaining Members no longer get to be called “Sustaining Members.” Instead, for most of the Membership Rules they will have an “Association Level” of “Basic.”
For next, the motion makes up in complete violation of the By-Laws the notion of “benefits lapse date,” after which you stop receiving the Newsletter (which, of course, the LNC mostly fails to publish). The claim of the new motion is that when you first give $25 you establish a day and month on which your membership expire, and you cannot extend your membership by giving more money *except in response to a membership renewal request*.
That is, if you renew your Sustaining Membership by sending in $25 a bit too early, your newsletter subscription will not extend, contrary to every understanding of many years as what it means to be a sustaining member. Unless, of course, the staff gives you special privileges.
The Bylaws actually say ” ‘Sustaining Member’ is any Party member who has given at least $25 to the Party in the prior 12 months, or who is a life member.”
“Prior 12 months” is almost completely unambiguous, and those of you who heard the Judicial Committee debate over the Wrights expulsion will remember there was a disagreement as to whether “12 months” was 365 days or the 12 past named months, but not whether it was “12 months.”
The new Motion would, of course, legitimate the effort to remove Lee Wrights from the LNC, namely, Wrights never received any membership renewal requests.
A reasonable man would propose that support of the following motion is Advocacy of Theft — of your membership rights — and Fraud — publishing public Bylaws that are contradicted by the widely unavailable Policy Manual — in the sense these phrases are meant in the Party Statement of Principles.
And here, folks, is the motion:
“Section 2.05 MEMBERSHIP POLICIES
1) Membership Forms Membership forms produced by the LNC shall include a membership statement that meets the requirements of Article 5, Section 1 of the Party Bylaws. Any new wording for the membership statement shall be subject to the same review process as all other Party Literature.
2) Association Levels The following levels of association are recognized by the Party:
o Basic $25 annual dues payment
o Regular $50 annual dues payment
o Supporting $100 annual dues payment
o Sponsor $250 annual dues payment
o Patron $500 annual dues payment
o Torch Club $1,000 in dues or contributions prior twelve months
o Chairman’s Circle $5,000 in dues or contributions since last convention
3) Life Membership Status A member who contributes at least $1,000 during any twelve-month period shall be granted life membership in the Party.
4) Benefits Non-member contributors shall be provided all benefits provided to member contributors, except for those rights specifically granted only to members or sustaining members by the Party Bylaws or this Policy Manual.
A member or non-member contributor with a future benefits lapse date shall be entitled to the following basic benefits:
o Customized Party membership card, updated annually, identifying the individual’s level of association and lapse date
o Subscription to LP News Those maintaining Torch Club status shall also be entitled to the following benefits:
o Special mailings
o Invitation to the Torch Club event at the convention. Those maintaining Chairman’s Circle status shall also be entitled to the following benefits:
o Special mailings
o Invitation to the Torch Club event at the convention
o Invitation to the Chairman’s Circle event at the convention
o Participation in special conference calls with the Chair Staff shall have the discretion to create and bestow additional benefits.
5) Benefits Lapse Date An individual’s benefits lapse date is independent of the sustaining membership lapse date defined by the Party’s Bylaws.
Individuals making a first contribution shall have a benefits lapse date established one year from the date of receipt. Individuals who remit the required amount of dues in response to a membership renewal request shall have the benefits lapse date extended by one year from the existing lapse date or one year from the date of receipt, whichever is later. Contributions in response to other than a membership renewal appeal shall not as a policy extend the benefits lapse date, however Staff shall have the discretion to extend a contributor’s benefits lapse date up to one year from the last contribution date, if failure to do so would damage donor relations.
Notwithstanding the above, an individual who has contributed an amount sufficient to have qualified for life membership status shall be entitled to lifetime basic benefits.
Section 3.03 AFFILIATE RELATIONS
2) Data Sharing with Affiliates LPHQ will provide all officially recognized state-level affiliates with a list of Constituents residing in the area covered by that affiliate, within the first 5 business days of the month to the affiliate chair, or his designee. Such list shall include the following data elements (where available and applicable):
o A unique ID
o First, Middle and Last Name
o Postal mailing address
o Home and work phone and email address
o County of residency, if that information can be obtained via commonly available sources within reasonable cost
o Join and Expiration Dates
o Donation classification level (basic, life, etc)
o Existence of signed certification
o Sustaining membership status
o Other data elements, at the discretion of LPHQ
The affiliate chair may request that additional people receive copies of the constituent list. LPHQ will establish and publish formal procedures for state chairs to follow in this regard.
The LPHQ will endeavor to provide the list in the file format requested (PDF, Excel, CSV, etc), but is under no obligation to do so, as it cannot guarantee that all file formats will always be available.
Should the LPHQ desire to change the quantity or order of the data elements, it will provide one month’s notice of such change.
The LPHQ makes no further guarantees regarding the format, method of delivery or structure of the data.
All official communications regarding the database export format will be made via the state chairs e-mail list and a moderated database announce e-mail list to be administered by the LNC and that it is the responsibility of the affiliate chair to make sure the appropriate database contacts are on the database announce e-mail list.
i Authorized by Bylaw 5.2.
ii Qualifications for sustaining membership are defined by Bylaw Articles 5.3 and 5.5.”
George Phillies is a contributing editor for Liberty For All. You can contact Dr. Phillies at phillies@wpi.edu.
