Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Bound To The Phone Bank
For most of history and prehistory a large portion of the human race was
Bound to the Land a form of Involuntary Servitude not a whole lot different from Slavery
Attitudes from those days linger in some who have positions which give them power over others,.
Even in Volunteer Association their actions seem to be tainted by an unspoken atttitude that the volunteers are "bound" to the Task set them,
In my last post I discussed how the LCRCC MAY be getting ready to institute proportinal respresentation which will make more ( how many more is under distpute) of our members FULL members.
When you give people New Rights there is often a positive reaction.
HOWEVER I understand there may also be a move to eliminate or curtail the rights of the Assistant Committee Persons that are listed in our By Laws
II. ASSISTANT COMMITTEE PERSONS The County Central Committee shall have the power to designate and select additional members from each precinct to assist the Committee persons. They shall have the right to attend meetings and to be heard. They shall not have the right to vote, except in the absence of a Committee person form their own precinct.
They constitute about 25 percent of the members attending meetings and IMO are among the more active members doing volunteer work
It is not uncommon for someone in the Excitement of Caucus to Stand for the position of Committee Person.
Then make one or two meetings and never be heard from again.
But someone who stands before the Body in the two years between Caucuses and says "Yes I want to Join this Body and take part in its activiities"
They usually stick around and come back month after month and become involved in the SubCommittee (Team Now) activities that occur between the meetings
So if we are planning to disenfranchise almost 25% of our Body we need to be pretty sure that they do not leave as a result.
I have been led to understand that while they may no longer be allowed to vote in the meeting of the Full Body, they could still participate and vote in the Sub Committees (Teams Now)
OH DARN I just remembered that may not happen either
The Executive Board has ALREADY decided which few members are going to be allowed to vote in the teams
SORRY
But the disenfranchised former Asssistand Members will STILL be allowed to do the work
And THIS is how you motivate and keep a volunteer force?
I hope I am wrong about what is going to be presented to the Body
Because if what I described is what they push through by say
one of those tight 25 to 21 votes like the did other things?
They may end up with meetings of no more than 25 members
On the Bright side however they will have NO problem adjourning by
8:30
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Power To The People
As the last half of the 20th Century got under way the was a drive to awaken the political consciousness of the masses.
To in a few words give
Power to the People.
There also seemed oddly enough an unspokne assumption that in turn for this boon the masses would
Do what their betters told them to do,.
After all the masses NEEDED the intelligentsia, to Guide them
It was a great shock to our self proclaimed leaders when many of the masses decided to think for themselves and make their own choices.
That lapse of appreciation by the masses has been the impetus for attempts at corrective action for the 50 or 60 years since then.
There are continual attempts to fine tune how things are done so that decisions are made by the "right" people.
The Linn County Central Committee is a csse in point.
I understand that there is a adhoc committee looking at redoing the By Laws to allow proportional representation based on the last major elections.
Johnson County has such a system.
But for some reason there is resistance to using their method
It seems that it might allow too many people to become members of the LCRCC?
That's a Problem?
Why do we have membership drives then?
The rationale is because we have contention with the small amount of members attending meetings now and they are afraid that more members, I heard a potential fo 350 or so would make this worse.
What we are seeing is what I consider faux logic based on faulty assumptions,
Yes we have right now about 40 or so voting members at meetings.
Yes we have contenion
Yes we have seen contention before.
No when we have seen contention before it was not a result of large numbers at the meetings
A few years back we had sometimes 200 + attending,.
We have 86 precincts a maxium of 172 committee persona plus assistants.
The meetings went smoothly, we had no problem paying for anything, our funtions were roaring sucesses.
What has made the difference?
Whenc might the contention come from?
Well the Committee is pretty much the same but the Leadership has changed.
You tell me.
If we go to REAL proportional representation it might be a little bit harder for those who want to control every single aspect of the LCRCC to be sucessful.
They would be smaller fish in a bigger pool
What is wrong with that?
Monday, 22 June 2015
Crawling Chaos
I had thought about making the title of this post
Personal Responsibility
That being what Republicans have always said they stand for, but in the LCRCC we have some many more willing to
Talk the Talk
than we have willing tp
Walk the Walk
That I decided to make the title more fitting to the character of the Linn County Cental Commitee these days and call it
Crawling Chaos
Now Crawling Chaos or Nyarlathotep may be one of\
the malign deities from the Lovecraftian Pantheon but it is
a good description of the Reality of the LCRCC
Let us take one example in order to prevent this post from being too lengthy.
Voting
I dare say if you ask Any Republican where they stand on Voting
You will get an oration on how important it is to protect the sanctity of the ballot box
How EVERY Decent Republican would do anything they can to prevent Illegal Voting
And ensure that everyone who does vote is legally entitled to
Unless they are members of the Linn County Central Committee
Now there WAS a time we did stand up for such things
And we insisted on Personal Responisibility if they were violated
Some of us recall a member being removed from the Body for Voting Violations,.
Not any more
A while back ballots were being passed out
Now everyone who has been attending for any length of time knows those who are credentialed to vote have a big plastic sleeve on a lanyard in which a BRIGHT LIME GREEN Credential Card is placed.
So when one of the members of the Membership and Meeting Setup Team spotted someone NOT wearing credentials sneaking a ballot under the table and hiding it,
They told another member to watch that person and if they did try to vote stop them
Which is what happened
and the consequences were
NOTHING
During May's Meeting a Credentialed Voter left the room and also left his Credentials on his table
Which they were not supposed to do.
If you leave the room the Credentials are to be turned in.
While they were gone there was a vote
And someone sitting at their table
Held up both their own credentials and the ones left on the table
First you do not get to vote for others and
Second you do not get to vote twice
They were caught Red Handed or maybe more appropriately
Bight Lime Green Handed
And the Consequences were
NOTHING
I am sorry but it does seem ridiculous for any of us to talk about how much we care about the sanctity of the ballot box while at the same time turning blind eyes to voter fraud in our own midst.
If there should be a third event?
I am for a Motion AT THAT MOMENT to remove the person for Voter Fraud
And if ANYONE should bring up the FACT that these two did the same without any consequences
Reply that point is well taken I wish to amend my motion to include Mr James Knox and Mr Mike Dupree
And if they have some Valid defense they can present it to the Body
Friday, 19 June 2015
Curse Of The Were Pumpkins
On the Third Tuesday of each month at a place called the Longbranch
If you are sufficiently sensitive you might be able to detect the silent psychic screams of the Were Pumpkin.
For most of the month they appear much as the rest of us,
But if they do not leave and find shelter on the Third Tuesday of Each Month before
They Metamorphise into hideous Orange Monstrosities
Which accounts for the desperate need to leave the Linn County Central Committee Meeting
Now if they were content to just leave it would be understandable.
I mean who would want to be seen in public like that?
It is their insistance that everyone leave that is the problem.
But as Robert Heinlein said
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
If they have to leave
EVERYONE has to leave
The Problem is it seems to always leave things not done.
So I have a couple of sugesttions for future meetings
First We could AMEND the Agenda
That only takes a majority vote, changing the Agenda to say put off adjourning til after 8:30 takes a Two thirds vote
So a tad more than one third of those attending can at that time force everyone to leave for the night,
Another thing we could do is
Follow our By Laws.
Which state
Robert's Rules of Order Revised shall prevail unless modified by these by-laws
Now it is true unlike some of the LCRCC membership Robert's Rules of Order seem to assume everyone is there to actually get the work of the Committee done.
Instead of Rushing out at a specific time
But it does say what to do if a meeting adjourns before all business is completed.
The Effect upon Unfinished Business of an adjournment, unless the assembly has adopted rules to the contrary, is as follows:
(a) When the adjournment does not close the session [63], the business interrupted by it is the first in order after the reading of the minutes at the next meeting, and is treated the same as if there had been no adjournment, an adjourned meeting being legally the continuation of the meeting of which it is an adjournment.
Here is June's Agenda
Welcome / New LCRCC Members Vote
Old Business/ New Business
SO at July's meeting after we have the reading of the minutes
We need to DO these items
I mean it is REQUIRED by our By Laws
But it would be nice if the FOUR people who expressed an intereedto join during the June
meeting return.
At another time the Body might want to address the habit of not adopting the minutes until after One Third of the Meeting is over
That does seem Odd
Thursday, 18 June 2015
A Matter of Jurisdiction
At the June meeting of the LCRCC there was some confusion at least on the part of one of our members over a ruiing on the minutes
It seems that in the past the Body has Voted and Ruled that No Attendence List of the Members should be included in the Minutes put online by the Secretary
That should on the face be simple enough to do.,
Just don't put a list of those who attend a meeting in the version of the Minutes put online,
But with our Exective Committee simple things can become complex
We have been told that it does not matter because the information is public record.
True but that does not replace the fact that the Secretary is REQUIRED by the County Constitution to follow the orders of the Body,.
The Chair made the claim that all motions passed were voided by the last Executive Officers Election
We know that is not true
We also know that James Knox asked that very same question of the Robert's Rules of Order Online Discussion Forum
And was told that unless the a motion has a sunset clause it stays in efferct until the Body votes otherwise
They even gave Mr Knox the page number of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised 11th edition where that is stated Page 111 footnote ***
We also know that Ms Althea Cole READ that footnote off that page in that edition during the meeting to the Chair
Who ignored it
So the question, Constutionally, as to what the Secretary is supposed to do is quite evident
That our Executive Board ignores such things is also quite evident.
At the end of all this one of our more informationally challenged members Huffily brought up the issue of a recording of the meeting being placed on line.
If my readers will recall the requirement was
That the Secretary of the Linn County Central Committee refrain from putting an Attendence List of the Meetings in the Online Minutes
This is our Secretary Gary Ellis
This is the Secretary when the Motion was originally passed Mary Ernzen
This is Me Dan Kauffman
We are not the same people. It would be really hard to confuse me with one of the two people above that are required to follow that rule.
To clear up any further confusion that may remain let me state for the record that what you are reading now is NOT
The Linn County Central Committee Minutes
And while I retain my right, if I so chooae, to post audio files of our Montly Meetings
So that the Country Republican Community may hear for themselves the Violations of our Contitutiion and Rules of Order are quite common during them
I will promise NOT to post an Attendence List of any kind
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Sounding Brass
For sometime the question has not been will our LCRCC leadership violate the Rules of Order,
But how many times in a meeting will this happen?
The June meeting of the Linn County Central Committee had no surpriseds.
Some of my readers might have noticed I have not posted earlier this week as I normally do,
That may be a disspointment for some and welcomed by others.
I have been a tad ill and am still not fully recovered so instead of listing the entirety of Tuesday Nights Transgressions,
I will present the most flagrant.
The single most importand defense of the Body from Abuse of Power from the Chair.
Is the Right to Challenge or Appeal the Decsion of the Chair
It is described in Robert's Rule of Order as
When a presiding officer makes a ruling and a member disagrees, the proper thing to do is to rise and say, "Mr. President, I appeal from the ruling of the chair." If another member seconds the appeal, the procedure is rather simple: The president puts the question to the members, who decide whether to sustain his ruling. But under Robert's Rules, the presiding officer gets to speak first and last in any discussion about the appeal or her decision.
An appeal from the ruling of the chair
Can interrupt a speaker who has the floor.
Needs to be seconded.
Is debatable unless the immediately pending question is not debatable.
Can't be amended.
Requires a majority vote to overturn the decision of the chair.
Can be reconsidered.
That seems pretty simple and straight forward, Or it would be if our Chair FOLLOWED our Rules of Procedure
Rather than IGNORING A Challenge of the Chair's Decision as the Linn County Central Committee Chair Cindy Golding did during the June Meeting
The Republican Party or most of it stands for adherence to Constitutions and Rule of Law
Some of us Walk the Walk,
Some of us just Talk the Talk
Some do not bother to do either,
Unfortunatelu the LCRCC seems to be burdened with Leadership of the latter sort,
To paraphrase a section from Corinthians
Though They speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not Truth, They are become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
I will try to go into this matter in greater detail in a later post
Friday, 12 June 2015
Setting The Record Straight
I have discovered I need to "Set the Record Straight" and present a retraction for a charge I have made in a previous post.
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Section V Paragraph 4 Sentence 3 which states
Checks in excess of $500.00 and not previously budgeted shall have the approval of the County Central Committee
That Claim was
WRONG
The check in Question was in Fact less than $500.
This lapse of mine was first brought to my attention by Jim Conklin a Former Treasurer while we were discussing some of my newest Hate Mail and later by Robin Tucker our Present Treasurer left a message for me on the subject in my Voice Mail,
The other Two Charges that
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Removed funds from the Treasury with a Check that was NOT Signed by the Duly Elected Treasurer in Viiolation of the
Section V Paragraph 4 Sentence 2 which states
All checks shall be signed by the Treasurerand countersigned by the Chair or Co-Chair
And
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Refused to sign checks presented to her in payment for the efforts of volunteers.
Said payments authorised by a Vote of the Linn County Central Committeee
In Violation of the
Section VIII Sentence 3 Which States
The Executive Committee is subject to the orders of the Linn County Central Committee, and none of its acts shall conflict with actions of the Linn County Central Committee.
AND
the Constitution of the Republican Party of Iowa
Article VI Section 3 Sentence 1 which states
Any County chair or co-chair may also be removed by the Republican State Central Committee upon recommendation of the appropriate District Executive Committeefor failure to fulfill the duties of the office
Still Stand
Thursday, 11 June 2015
A Question Of Loyalty
It would appear that the Loyalty of one of Our Exectives has been called into question by another.
What is of concern is a perception of a lack of Loyalty to the Chair.
I am not certain from where this stems
The Exectuives are Co Equal Soveriegn Entities
There are no words anywhere in the County Constitution, the By Laws or Roberts Rules of Order giving any Officer such as the Chair any Authority over any other Officer
As a matter of fact the ONLY mention of authority or someone being under the "Orders" of someone else
Is in the Constitution where it specifically states that the Executive Committee is under the Orders of the Central Committee and that NONE of the actions of the Executive Committee SHALL conflict with those of the Central Committee
Reading that portion of the Constitution might make one think that they were trying to prevent some future Abuse of Power by the Exective Committee and/or the Chair?
The offense was based on the contention that the Officer in Question
Had been talking to ME
And some others of my association and members of the Iowa Conservative Union
This constituting Heresy and Breach of Loyalty to the Imperial Chair.
But I got to thinking and realised there was another way to look at this
You see-- I and my friends and members of the ICU SUPPORTED this person when they ran for office.
We are his CONSTITUENTS
We also helped him get a higher vote count than any other officer that night.
And THEY
What were THEY doing that night
Why THEY were trying to get SOMEONE ELSE Elected to the postition that this Officer now holds.
Tell me.
Loyalty goes WHICH way in this picture??
I mean just imagine a Tea Party Candidate who got elected and to curry favor to and to show Loyalty to the Party Leaders, decided they no longer had time for the people who worked to get them elected,
What would we be calling them?
Besides Loyalty needs to be earned and I dont't see much of that happening
I do hear that the Same officer is not that thrilled with the Loyalty of some of the Teams,
Such as the Convention Team
Seems they got in a rush the night of the St Patrick's Day Massacre
They did get rid of all the Sub Committees and replace them with Teams controlled by their friends
But they forgot one small detail
There is Not One Word in their
2016 Victory Plan
That gives them any Authority over the New Teams
I know they have ASSUMED such Authority but that is all it is an ASSUMPTION it is backed up by not one single word
In their Plan
the County Constitution
The By Laws
Or
Robert's Rules of Order
OOPS
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
Say It Isn't So Cindy
Along with the claim that I insinuate there are also claims that what I report
Isn't So
Let me try to expound in a simpler and easier to understand manner
By asking Questions.
UPDATE: Retraction
Item number one is Incorrect the expense was not over $500
Items Two and Three still Stand
1) Did or Did Not
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Pay an Insurance bill over $500 in Violation of the
Section V Paragraph 4 Sentence 3 which states
Checks in excess of $500.00 and not previously budgeted shall have the approval of the County Central Committee
Please respond with a Yes or a No, the word But or any other verbiage is not an acceptable answer.
2) Did or Did Not
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Pay the above mentioned Bill with a Check that was NOT Signed by the Duly Elected Treasurer in Viiolation of the
Section V Paragraph 4 Sentence 2 which states
All checks shall be signed by the Treasurer and countersigned by the Chair or Co-Chair
Please respond with a Yes or a No, the word But or any other verbiage is not an acceptable answer.
3) Did or Did Not
the Linn County Central Committee Chair
Cindy Golding
Refuse to sign checks presented to her in payment for the efforts of volunteers. Said payments authorised by a Vote of the Linn County Central Committeee
In Violation of the
Section VIII Sentence 3 Which States
The Executive Committee is subject to the orders of the Linn County Central Committee, and none of its acts shall conflict with actions of the Linn County Central Committee.
AND
the Constitution of the Republican Party of Iowa
Article VI Section 3 Sentence 1 which states
Any County chair or co-chair may also be removed by the Republican State Central Committee upon recommendation of the appropriate District Executive Committee for failure to fulfill the duties of the office
Please respond with a Yes or a No, the word But or any other verbiage is not an acceptable answer.
These items come associated with checks that are dated and have signatures
A person may indeed Say it isn't so but
I sit pat in the words of Mark Twain
"With the Calm Confidence of a Christian holding 4 Aces"
Waiting for Ms Colding or one of her supporters to lay down something like a Busted Flush
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Thou Shalt Not Muzzle
When the Executive Board hit the Central Ciommittee with the Gang Rush of the St Patrick's Day Massacre
There were a few clever surprises that got slipped in during the confusion.
You can look at the entire motion made by the Executive Board HERE
And one of the sneaky little details was
LCRCC members are asked to signup as a voting member for one team. Each team starts with 5 voting members. The objective is to match volunteer time and skills with the mission or activity of the team.
It also looks like one of the MAJOR objectives was to make certain their people had majority control of the important Teams
Notice how a controlling number of each team's "voting" members had already been selected by THEM?
So much for showing respect for our Volunteers,
Not that they had done much of that in the Past.
Ask them how many of the major volunteers were invited to the Inauguration in Des Moines?
I was given the explanation by one of the Executives that the new system was to prevent a small number of people from having undue influence by being on more than one Committee/Team
So instead they just made sure THEIR people were the only ones who had influence by appointment rather being more involved than in just one Committee/Team?
I mean the people who DID actively participate in multiple Committees/Teams were among the more active Volunteers so it make perfect sense to penalize them..
Also under the Old System we went from a Committee which HAD to take up a collection during each meeting because we did not have enough money in th bank to cover one meeting to-
One that sometimes had as many as 200 attending our meetings, highly sucessful Events and when Cindy Golding took over 20K in the Bank
God FORBID we continue a system that was SO sucessful
No foiks it was never about
Respecting our Volunteers
Or their Time
It was always about
POWER
and CONTROL
The members of the Committee cannot be allowed to make their own choices those choices must be made FOR them by their Betters,
The Exectives will ensure that the "Right" people are in charge of the Teams and the Peons can do what they are told and remember to keep their places,
Unless they vote differently?
Remember there IS a section of the County Constitution which says.
The Executive Committee is subject to the orders of the Linn County Central Committee, and none of its acts shall conflict with actions of the Linn County Central Committee
All it would take would be one motion
I move that the members of the various Teams shall ALL have the same voting rights
And a majority Vote.
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