Temporarily Lowering the Quorum from 50%-40%
Sunday January 13, @08:07PM, by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
Subject : improve the Operations of the State Committee
from the State Committee dept.
Summary :
Context: In the past, there have been times when we have had meetings and lacked quorum. More often we have wasted time waiting for representatives who arrive late so we could have quorum. Attending meetings 4x a year is a major collective undertaking. We spend time preparing for our meetings and donate an entire day on the weekend. Let’s not continue to waste time.


Text :
The quorum for State Comm. meetings will be changed from 50% to 40%. This is a temporary measure as we work to strengthen our State Committee and Party. We will revisit this provision at the first State Committee meeting in 2009.


Reply

• Re: Temporarily Lowering the Quorum from 50%-40%
  Wednesday January 16, @09:45PM, by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
  > Context: In the past, there have been times when we have had meetings and lacked quorum. More often we have wasted time waiting for representatives who arrive late so we could have quorum. Attending meetings 4x a year is a major collective undertaking. We spend time preparing for our meetings and donate an entire day on the weekend. Let’s not continue to waste time.
  >
  >
  > The quorum for State Comm. meetings will be changed from 50% to 40%. This is a temporary measure as we work to strengthen our State Committee and Party. We will revisit this provision at the first State Committee meeting in 2009.
  
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  On the Statecom-discuss list, some members epressed their opposition and no one has spoken in favor. I have decided to withdraw this proposal.
  
  Mike Heichman
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  Reply
  
  
• Re: Temporarily Lowering the Quorum from 50%-40%
  Saturday January 26, @04:26PM, by merelice
  Since Mike has withdrawn his withdrawal of this proposal, I offer the following comments:
  
  I question the timing of this proposal. While it might have seemed
  needful a year ago, is this the time to re-introduce it?
  
  At the last StateCom meeting (for which we had well above quorum), new
  members were added to StateCom. And we are about to elect
  representatives both at the presidential primary election and at the
  Regional conventions. While we are in this process of electing a new
  StateCom, this might not be the time to lower standards and
  expectations of the responsibilities of statecom members.
  
  Further, one fall-back solution for those who can try to fulfill
  requirements but can't promise to do so has been for them to be
  ALTERNATE representatives. Their attendance helps meet quorum, whereas
  their lack of attendance does not harm reaching quorum. And we also
  have the provision of not counting reps who are missing their third
  meeting in determining quorum. These approaches already reduce the
  number of people needed to do business, and it wouldn't be in the
  spirit of decentralization to reduce the numbers even more.
  
  It's true that it is genuinely frustrating to wait for quorum or not
  to reach it. But as a maturing organization, it would be encouraging
  to have higher expectations about people fulfilling their commitments.
  
  
  Reply