Re: [LPVA-CONSTITUTION-COMMITTEE] Amend Constitution Article IX

[Paul Bracco]

Hi Joseph,

Yes this is intentional. In both cases it’s due to the fact that regular conventions almost always have a higher attendance than either of the other two kinds.

In the case of the 4/5 amendment restrictions, these have been put in place to protect very specific sections of the constitution from being touched without significant agreement from as many members as possible. This is why amendments can only be done at regular conventions so as to maximize attendance.

In the case of the 1/15 of membership, this is a general restriction on changing anything at a low attendance convention. This too prevents a smaller group at a less well attended convention from making changes which would impact the party as a whole.

The idea behind both is to protect the governing documents from being changed by a smaller group. One method creates a very high threshold for changes but applies to specific sections only, the other applies a much lower bar for changes but is applied generally. In either case the overall goal is the same.

Sincerely,

Paul Bracco

Vice Chair - Libertarian Party of Virginia

On Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 5:05 PM, josephw...@gmail.com <josephw...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here's the link to one of the two proposals on the current agenda for the August 14 meeting: https://tinyurl.com/LPVA-Proposal-A

Regarding this proposal, I have a question about section 3 (both in its current form and the proposed amendment). Both versions require that "at least 1/15 of the state Party membership have registered at the Convention," but that requirement is only applicable in the case of a "Special or General State Convention." The minimum member registration requirement does not appear in the previous section which imposes a higher vote threshold for amending certain sections at a Regular Convention.

Perhaps there is a very good reason that I'm just not aware of, but do we really mean that the Constitution could be amended by 4/5 of whatever number shows up at a Regular Convention, but requires a certain proportion of the entire Party to be registered for a Special or General Convention to amend the "less important" sections? Should the membership registration requirement also apply to amendments under section 2?

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