By- Laws
I have been consist ant about at least one thing. The party needs By-Laws.
There has been little discussion about what By-laws should look like. I would like to throw out a radical model for consideration (on the off chance someone actually considers by -laws).
I would suggest a corporate model. The Chairman and a Board of Directors are elected by the county committee. The stakeholders could be expanded to include more then just the committee for the election of the Board. For the chairman I believe that by statute that is limited to the committee. The Board could all be at large members or it could be by region or it could be a combination of both.
I would create a paid position of Executive Director. Pay just enough to make it interesting. say $20,000.00 or more. That position would go to the Chairman as a matter of course. This would make the job attractive to a broader candidate pool. Quite frankly if we do not want a chairman to make money off the influence that comes with the job we should offer compensation. Lets face it not many people can afford to take the job of Chairman as it currently exists.
There is a bonus. If the chairman gets out of hand you are stuck with him until the end of his two year term. However with this model he can be removed from the paid position of executive director and limited to his statutory duties. Which are in reality very few. A nice stick to go with the carrot, It is assumed that a democratically elected board would collectively be less likely to run amok. It could happen I admit but there are more checks and balances in this model.
This may need some work but It is a starting point.
I have been consist ant about at least one thing. The party needs By-Laws.
There has been little discussion about what By-laws should look like. I would like to throw out a radical model for consideration (on the off chance someone actually considers by -laws).
I would suggest a corporate model. The Chairman and a Board of Directors are elected by the county committee. The stakeholders could be expanded to include more then just the committee for the election of the Board. For the chairman I believe that by statute that is limited to the committee. The Board could all be at large members or it could be by region or it could be a combination of both.
I would create a paid position of Executive Director. Pay just enough to make it interesting. say $20,000.00 or more. That position would go to the Chairman as a matter of course. This would make the job attractive to a broader candidate pool. Quite frankly if we do not want a chairman to make money off the influence that comes with the job we should offer compensation. Lets face it not many people can afford to take the job of Chairman as it currently exists.
There is a bonus. If the chairman gets out of hand you are stuck with him until the end of his two year term. However with this model he can be removed from the paid position of executive director and limited to his statutory duties. Which are in reality very few. A nice stick to go with the carrot, It is assumed that a democratically elected board would collectively be less likely to run amok. It could happen I admit but there are more checks and balances in this model.
This may need some work but It is a starting point.
posted by Teddy Roosevelt at
2:01 PM
6 Comments:
You said:
"It is assumed that a democratically elected board would collectively be less likely to run amok. It could happen I admit but there are more checks and balances in this model."
Yes, look at NJ, they are elected and the mess we are in. But I do think your by-laws idea if done right would be good to have. The point is it must be done right.
The party needs candidates of quality. The party needs issues. The party needs people of honor with compassion and energy. In the current climate the party needs money, the cleaner the better. The party needs people willing to lead and people willing to follow witout asking what they will get in return. The party needs unity. All the rest is intellectual window dressing that helps our enemies and distracts good people from the work at hand.
Now this is what I am talking about.
Some good comments. People are actually thinking.
I do disagree about the intellectual window dressing comment.
Pointing out that are party needs by laws does not help our enemies that I can see.
I agree we need all the things you mention. I contend that if we had put bylaws in place 5 years ago our need would not be as great as it is today.
We need by-laws in order to stop our county party from being controlled by a handful of lawyers, engineers, and other vendors who earn their substaintial livings off the tax payers of the county.
The leadership will fight this at all costs. To my thinking there are two ways to make this happen. 1)Elect county committee members are reformers. 2) Prepare by-laws and promote them to the county committe prior to the next convention and pass them with a floor fight. This will take a great deal of preparation and work but is probably the way to go.
The turnout for the 08 convention should be huge, as we will be nominating a President and US Senator. Now is the time to start organizing. email me if you're interested in working together to make this happen.
For those who want bylaws, the time to start is the day after election day in November and right through the primary and chairman elction season next spring. Any waste of energy or signs of divisiveness now only aid the enemy. Having bylaws is nice, but if we have nobody in office its not going to make much difference. Bylaws are not going to help us lower our taxes or see that the towns and county are developed intelligently. We need to get our Republican candidates elected in the next 90 days and then we can go back to fighting among ourselves - for those who think that is a good and productive pastime.
Its Divsive to suggest that our party adopt bylaws?
that is an interesting position.
I see nothing divisive about that. What would be divisive is if I attacked our candidates or personally attacked an active member of the party or spread scurrilous rumors about people on the internet. Of course I am doing none of that at least not untill after the election.
I will however continue to advocate that the party do things that will make the party better and stronger because that is what this blog is about. I will reiterate we would not be in as difficult a position as we are in today if we had adopted by-laws 3 years ago.
Every time the issue has been raised the answer has always been not now we have more important things to worry about.
I disagree we do not have anything more important then fixing what is broken and the sooner we do it the better.
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