LNC Motion to Remove the LNC Public List

As submitted for this Sunday’s meeting:

Adam Haman:

I am noticing the attached at the request of Mr. Chadderdon. He will speak to the motion at the meeting.

Motion to amend policy manual to remove the “public list” for discussions and debate, encourage substantive business requiring debate to be done in meetings.

In Section 1.02 – Meetings,
– Strike subsection “4) Open Emails”, and renumber following subsections.
– In current subsection “7) Electronic Mail Ballots”,
o Amend the second sentence in subsection 1, to remove the text “though subsequent posting with votes may contain debate”

▪ Current Text:
Notification of an electronic mail ballot shall be made by the Secretary or Chair by electronic mail within two (2) days of the question being submitted by the Chair or cosponsored by a sufficient number of LNC members. This notification shall not include an accompanying argument for or against passage of the motion though subsequent posting with votes may contain debate. An LNC Member may change their vote on an electronic mail ballot, provided that the change is received by the Secretary by the deadline for return of ballots or the entire LNC has either voted or expressly abstained, whichever comes first. In the event that a Regional Representative expressly abstains, that Regional Alternate’s vote shall not be counted.

▪ Amended Text w/ Markup:
Notification of an electronic mail ballot shall be made by the Secretary or Chair by electronic mail within two (2) days of the question being submitted by the Chair or cosponsored by a sufficient number of LNC members. This notification shall not include an accompanying argument for or against passage of the motion though subsequent posting with votes may contain debate. An LNC Member may change their vote on an electronic mail ballot, provided that the change is received by the Secretary by the deadline for return of ballots or the entire LNC has either voted or expressly abstained, whichever comes first. In the event that a Regional Representative expressly abstains, that Regional Alternate’s vote shall not be counted.

o Create new subsection 2 and renumber following subsections.

▪ New Text:
Electronic Mail Ballots shall be limited to voting only. This rule can be suspended at the request of a committee member, absent the objection of more than 1/3 of the committee being sent in reply to the request. Objections must be sent within forty-eight (48) hours of the request for debate within the electronic mail ballot. If the forty-eight (48) hours elapse without sufficient objections, then debate shall be allowed for that ballot.

Rationale: This proposal is intended to adopt the best practice that business which necessitates substantive discussion or debate be incentivized to be conducted in a meeting. Email is not a good medium to conduct such business, and the public list has been used extensively to the detriment to the party for grandstanding, insults, and all forms of unprofessional behavior. It intends to establish electronic ballots as primarily being used for menial and / or uncontroversial items of business, for which a meeting is not justified. A suspension mechanism to allow debate, in line with the typical requirement of 2/3 votes required to suspend a rule, is provided in case of unforeseen circumstances in which it can be in the LNC’s interest to conduct an email ballot including discussion/debate, while the low threshold to deny the request is intended to prevent overuse. By promoting the disposition of more substantive business in meetings, business conducted by the LNC remains transparent to the membership and is conducted in a forum that better supports professional and constructive discussion and debate of motions.