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BGM Resolutions Part 2: General Meeting and Party Procedure

Submitted by Dave Bagler on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 10:36

GPC LogoHere is part 2 of the Governance resolutions, General Meeting and Party Procedure.  If you missed part one please read it here.  I know that BGM resolutions are dry.  But they are crucially important for the growth and smooth operations of our party.  I'm providing my opinions to add a little to the debate but please read each of the resolutions before voting.  Also I know that there are many references to Articles and Bylaws both in my opinions as well as in the resolutions so it might be helpful to when reviewing the resolutions to refer to our current Constitution and Bylaws.

Resolution code Resolution title and my thoughts on the resolution
G10-c02 Member Register
I agree with the intent of the motion. I think that EDA executives need ready access to an up to date membership list. However I don't like the idea of this being federal council's responsibility. This is a functional task, not a governance task. I would like to see this be a responsibility of the organizers. I like this resolution so I'll probably vote to workshop it (I think that's an option) in hopes that the responsibility changes form federal council to the organizers.
G10-c03 Local-level email reliability
Two relatively small Bylaw changes here. The second change (Bylaw 1.2.1) is simple housekeeping. It makes the wording a little more clear (in my opinion) but doesn't change the meaning. The first change (Bylaw 1.4) ads a line that the bodies listed under the Bylaw 1.2.1 must have an active email account. I would hope that each EDA would already have an active email address but making it explicit might be a good idea. I'll most likely vote yes on this one.
G10-c05 Clarifying the Nature of Directive Resolutions
This motion is a good idea but it (I assume by accident) limits resolutions to Federal Council. I agree with the party opinion G10-c28 achieves the same goal without the accidental limitation so I wont be supporting this resolution.
G10-c13 Delegate Proxy voting Bylaw
This motion would allow members at general meetings to carry proxy votes. I'm for proxy votes in principal but I think there needs to be an upper limit (The GPO has an upper limit of 9 proxies per attendee) and the language of the proposed Bylaws needs to be improved. I'll vote to workshop in hopes that we can design a functioning proxy system.
G10-c24 Housekeeping Motion on Motion Submission Consistency
In our Bylaws we have 3 different numbers for how many members are required to sponsor a resolution for it to be brought to a general meeting. This resolution removes the inconsistency by change each of the numbers to 20. Three cheers for consistency, I'm for it.
G10-c26 Housekeeping Motion on Article 7.2 (Units)
This one makes sense. It has been something that has been happening anyway so it's a good idea to have it explicitly written in our constitution.
G10-c27 Housekeeping Motion To Changed The Definition of Articles 7.2.2 and 7.2.3
Redefining regional, territorial and provincial associations as a coalition of EDAs is a good idea. I do have some concerns over whether or not the EDAs themselves should have voting rights in this associations. It has the potential to place too much control in the hands of too few. I'll support this resolution but I would want this associations that they need to be careful regarding how and who votes. Putting our members in charge makes us a grass roots party not our EDAs: member rights before EDA rights.
G10-c28 Housekeeping Motion to Specifying Federal Council's Constitutional Role
This resolution in my opinion is a better alternative to the issue of who is responsible for resolutions than G10-c05. It states clearly that unless otherwise specified the resolutions, directives and other decisions made at a general meeting are the responsibility of federal council.
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