Draft Minutes - Convention 2009

DRAFT MINUTES

Libertarian Party of Washington State (LPWA)
State Annual Convention Business Meeting
Saturday, March 28, 2009; Hilton Garden Inn, Issaquah

BUSINESS MEETING CALLED TO ORDER by Scott Lindsley, Chair, at 10:03 AM.

Quorum report: 29 persons present, including 27 LPWA members, of whom 18 are credentialed.

Rules: Accepted as presented.

Agenda: On suggestion of the chair, Treasurer's report was added to the agenda and the agenda was accepted as modified.

"State of the Party" Chair's Report: We have experienced great connections and advancements, and great setbacks. Work continues on the top-two suit; we now have Orrin Grover representing us, since Richard Shepard has been unable to continue. Our website was hacked, and shut down by the provider; it's proving difficult to re-establish. We do have an on-line database accessible by members to update their own information: see lpwacommunity.org. The LPWA needs to put more energy and resources in supporting candidates for office.

M/S/P: Bruce Guthrie moves to accept all LPWA members present as voting delegates. Seconded and passed without dissent. (M/S/P will be used to indicate a motion was made, seconded, and passed.) We now have 29 voting delegates, as two more members have signed in since the quorum report.

Treasurer's report: Per the Treasurer, we're not in the red. We have a bank balance of $4272.38, compared to last years $4309.27. An itemized list of expenses can be made available. Note that fixed monthly expenses run about $700.

Next year's convention chair, and sub-committee chairs, will be named by the SEC at their next meeting, in late April or early May.

Election of SEC officers: Each office has a term of two years, starting in 30 days.

Chair: Rachel Hawkridge nominated, unopposed, and elected.

Vice-Chair: Dave Wordinger nominated, unopposed, and elected.

Treasurer: Ruth Bennett nominated, unopposed, and elected.

Secretary: Tamela Supchak nominated, unopposed, and elected.


Election of at-large SEC members: the following were nominated and elected:

Michael Donahue
Larry Nicholas
Gene Hawkridge
Michael Wilson
Richard Bonesteel
(Travis Wright was also nominated, but declined.)

Elect Judicial Committee Members: Need three for new three year terms, and one for a two year term to replace Ruth, who is now Treasurer.

Nominations for three year terms:

Tom Spanos
Robert Scott
Travis Wright
All elected on voice vote.

Nomination for two year term:

Jason Constantino
Elected on voice vote.

(The Judicial Committee is now:

One year remaining: Janet Anderson, Ed Pole, Brett Wilhelm.

Two years remaining: J. Mills, Richard Shepard, Jason Constantino.

Three years remaining: Tom Spanos, Robert Scott, Travis Wright)

Resolutions: Several resolutions were in hand, purportedly submitted by one 'Anton Grambihler'. No person of that name appears on our membership rolls, nor was anyone of that name present at the convention. Hence, it was M/S/P that all Anton's resolutions be referred to the SEC for appropriate action.

Candidates for Public Office: None presented themselves.

Platform revisions: Jason Constantino reports on behalf of the Platform Committee, suggesting several revisions. First, Jason moves that “Governments should not incur debt, which burdens future generations without their consent” be added to the third paragraph of the preamble. This fails.

Jason moves that we add “making all medical expenses fully tax deductible” to the second bullet in the plank on healthcare. This fails.

Jason moves that we add a third plank, “Government Finance”, renumbering “Elections” as plank

4. Ruth moves to amend by combining first two bullets with a comma: “ . . responsibility, so governments should not . .”. After discussion, this motion fails.

(M/S/P) Pavel moves to divide the question into each bullet point (five sections).

(M/S/P) First bullet, “Fiscal responsibility”, carries.

Second bullet, “Governments should not . . .”, attracts much discussion.

(M/S/P) Bruce moves to substitute “Deep tax cuts and even deeper spending cuts to reduce the size of government and government debt.”

(M/S/P) to remove the first “Deep”.

(M/S/P) to remove “even deeper”.

Passed the substitute motion, which had become “Second bullet: Tax cuts and spending cuts to reduce the size of government and government debt.”

Third bullet: (M/S/P) to suspend the rules to consider last three bullets together.

Third, fourth, and fifth bullets Fail on voice vote.

(M/S/P) Bruce moves to add new third bullet, “Balanced budgets.”, to new third plank.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee: Jason presents the report of the committee, and (M/S/P) moves to accept Proposal B (adding “Paid current dues . . .” to the Delegate eligibility requirements). A motion to amend, addling life members and past officers to the eligible list, failed.

Good of the Order: Nothing presented.

At 12:29PM, a motion to adjourn was passed.

Submitted by Peter Wilkie, Secretary, LPWA.

April 2009