Secretary Responds to LNC Chair

We are supplied documents by our many friends on the LNC. And one of them warns us: The LNC did not return Secretary@LP.org to Caryn Ann Harlos.  This address still forwards to Adrian Malagon.  Any email you think to Secretary@LP.org will go instead to the wrong person.]

Here we have Caryn Ann Harlos’s response to Angela McArdle’s response to the Judicial Committee, explaining which of her rights as an LNC member need to be restored:

This is my response to the email from the Chair on January 11, 2025.

First, I would like to reiterate the JC Order portion that is relevant (emphasis added):

“This notification affirms that this committee orders the immediate reinstatement of Caryn Ann Harlos to the position of Secretary with full duty and rights of the elected position.”

I have not been restored to my full duty and rights. As we are a non-profit corporation, I have a legal duty to fulfill those which cannot be hampered by the LNC. (see DC Code §29-406-40(b) and §29-413(a).

The Bylaws mandate more than what is specified in 6.5, and that is, that I am a member of the LNC. The Bylaws incorporate RONR which gives basic rights of members as follows (bold added, italics is in original):

1:4: A member of an assembly, in the parliamentary sense… is a person entitled to full participation in its proceedings…. The right to attend meetings, to make motions, to speak in debate, and to vote. No member can be individually deprived of these basic rights of membership—or of any basic rights concomitant to them, such as the right to make nominations or to give previous notice of a motion—except through disciplinary proceedings.

Nearly every single of the rights that I maintain are being violated flow from my basic rights as a member, and a particular kind of member, an officer, specifically, the Secretary.

Bylaws 6:5 also states, as you acknowledged, that I am the recording officer. RONR 47:32-47:37 gives duties for that position which does certainly include “keeping such minutes and records as necessary” but goes beyond just that. For instance, additional items I am required to do include (emphasis added):

• To keep on file all committee reports.
• To make the minutes and records available to members upon request.
• To notify officers, committee members…. of their election or appointment, to furnish committees with whatever documents are required for the performance of their duties…
• To maintain… the bylaws, special rules of order, standing rules…. In a “record book” [which can be electronic]
• To send out to the membership any required notice of each meeting, known as the call of the meeting, and to conduct the general correspondence of the organization.
• To prepare, prior to each meeting, an order of business for the use of the presiding officer…

Request One: Secretary Email

We had such disciplinary proceedings, and I was ordered to be fully restored to my prior state with all my rights. That is the authority of the JC under Bylaws Article 6:7. I had a right to the Secretary email prior and that cannot be removed when I successfully prevailed in a disciplinary proceeding. In other words, a return but to a “lesser status” violates the Bylaws duty to follow the order of the JC. Further under RONR 1:4, this would be a right concomitant to my basic rights as a member, in my case, a specific kind of member, the Secretary. The title is a concomitant right to my membership as the elected Secretary to which I cannot be deprived in an official setting. The official email secretary@lp.org goes with the title, and I was fully restored, which would fully restore me to accoutrements of my office such as the email. Further, if the other officers have a title plus @lp.org email, I cannot be individually denied the same as that would be an individual denial of a right concomitant with membership and prohibited under RONR 1:5. Thus, I maintain the LNC is not in compliance with the Bylaws in one of the most fundamental senses.

Further, for anyone other than me to receive those emails is misleading to anyone writing who would expect secretary@lp.org to go …. The secretary. That is my title. I must receive emails that go to that address and no one else has that inherent right such as Mr. Malagon, and the emails I receive as secretary are “records” of the organization, and I must legally be able to be access. That is my legal duty, and I cannot be deprived of it. Giving anyone else, such as Mr. Malagon, control and access to that inbox is de facto giving him my title, which the Bylaws grant to the person elected to that title: me.

That email also receives requests for things mandated under the bylaws such as affiliates sending their governing documents (Bylaws 5:2), region formation notices (Bylaws Article 7:2), and requests for delegate lists (Bylaws 10:5).

The Secretary email must be returned to me. It is a blatant violation of the JC Order, the Bylaws, and RONR and is preventing me from carrying out the duties of my office and of my concomitant rights of membership which cannot be abridged.

Though I do not agree it would be sufficient, Mr. Thompson’s suggestion as a forwarder should be done immediately. There is no colorable reason for that, at a minimum, not to be implemented while we work out the rest. The chair, treasurer, and vice-chair emails are forwarders. The only reason the secretary one is not a forwarder is because the secretary is obligated to keep records and to preserve them for turning over to their successor.

Request Two: Email lists

You have acknowledged you are getting me added to the internal email list. Please let me know when that is done which I would expect would be Monday. I need to be added to the Executive Committee email list and the public email list as well. The need for the Executive Committee email list is obvious as I am a member of that Committee, but the public email list is required for email ballots which must be handled by the Secretary or the Chair (Bylaws 13) unless you are going to handle all email ballots. If I posted anything to the public list that was improper that would be subject to censure or other discipline, and I will not post anything other than what current policy dictates

Request Three: WordPress Access

I am required to post certain things on the website per Bylaws Article 7:14. I understand that you have acknowledged you are working on getting me this access. There is a small backlog of minutes and a policy manual update I need to post. Bylaws 7:14 says “or designee” but I do not designate anyone but myself to handle my legal duties. I also know that this is tedious work the staff does not need. We will also have a meeting coming up that will need to be posted.

Request Four: Picture and name on roster on website

This is one of those rights concomitant with membership of which I cannot be individually deprived. If there is a roster and photographs (or at least an opportunity for such) of everyone else, I must be included.

Request Five: Google and SharePoint Drive

As the recording secretary that must keep records and be able to provide them, I need access to where I had stored them and where they might be stored in the future. These records that I am required to provide and maintain are not just the most current ones, but the ones going back into the past that have been preserved. Thus, I have to have this access or I am being prevented from doing my job which is a violation of the JC Order, Bylaws 6:5, and RONR 47:32-47:37. I request access to the Google drive be restored on Monday.

Request Six: Recission of Advisement that Violates my (and others) basic rights of membership

Advising others not to speak to me from the position of authority of the Chair influences them to deprive me and them of basic rights of membership and those concomitant to them as required by RONR 1:5 and with all due respect is both outside the authority of the Chair and outside the authority of LNC. I cannot make a motion which requires co-sponsors or perhaps needed clarification if others are ordered not to speak with me. The examples can be multiplied. One person simply cannot be isolated in that fashion and be said to have the full rights of participation in the assembly and to fulfill the duties of an officer. This is a violation so basic, and so profound, that it is simply given me the illusory shell of membership and not actual membership. And once again, if other LNC members are not ordered to talk to each other as a group (which of course would be nonsensical), I cannot be individually singled out as communication is a basic right concomitant with membership.

Further, previous notice needs to be given to me, and I need to be able to give previous notice to everyone. There may be questions or other information needed to be imparted on more issues than I can anticipate at the moment. I have a right to participate, and participation is a multi-way enterprise.

I will voluntarily recuse myself from any official discussions regarding the derivative suits of myself or Ms. Vest. If people talk to me in private, they have that right, but I agree to not be present or receive any official LNC discussions about that subject, and it would be appropriate to have any such discussions on those that occurred in my absence purged from the Secretary inbox as long as they were preserved by the Chair.

Lastly, blocking prevents full and equal participation which is a serious breach of duty that should not be condoned or facilitated by the Chair.

Request Seven: Word copies of Recent Documents

• The latest Policy Manual (including the extensive Ballot Access Procedures I had asked for before my access was revoked)
• All of the minutes from the end of August forward
• The latest updated conflicts of interest

These are all records I am required to keep on file (which means again I need to place them with the rest of the records on the Google Drive). I am required to have a Word copy of the most current Policy Manual as maintenance of special rules of order and standing rules are a duty of the recording officer. The Policy Manual requires me to keep an updated conflict of interest (PM 107.2). I must maintain all minutes, and I asked for a Word copy as I am going to move a correction to my name which is incorrect in the minutes. I further believe that the October 6, 2024 and November 9, 2024 minutes should be amended to reflect the decision of the JC as a marginal note (see RONR 48:15). That is not something I could do unilaterally but it is something the LNC should order.

Request Eight: Zoom access

In giving and posting notice of meetings, I need to be able to schedule them and make the necessary technical arrangement such as pre-arranged breakout rooms. This also comes back to being able to communicate freely to let LNC members know if they are not registered.

Request Nine: OneNote Access

I need this in order to prepare properly for meetings. I do not think this requires further explanation, but please let me know if there is disagreement.

Request Ten: Teams Access

If this is being used as a communication tool as an LNC, it is a right concomitant to membership that cannot be denied to me individually.

Misc.:

The JC Order would also restore me to all present committees I was removed from including the Executive Committee, APRC, and Ballot Access. I was not removed from the Historical Preservation Committee. I hereby tender my resignation from the APRC and Ballot Access.

In sum, this is not full restoration to my rights and accoutrements of office as I held before as ordered by the JC, it is not Bylaws compliant, and it is in violation of my rights.

As the Chair has favored before, if we cannot resolve this informally, I am suggesting professional mediation with an outside disinterested mediator on these issues of full restoration only. The mediator would be one both the Chair and I agree upon and I would be responsible for half the costs. JC clarification on my “full rights” would be appreciated.