2006 Convention Heads Up

It's not too early to start planning for Portland. This is a message from LNC Secretary Bob Sullentrup to the State Chairs' list:

The 2006 Convention is more than a half year away, but the July 1-2 Convention in Portland, OR will be upon us soon. This is a quick note to remind state chairs what lies ahead.

Deadlines for State Chairs include:

February 28 (large states name Credentials and Platform Committee members)
June 1 (your delegation named and submitted to HQ, first pass), and
July 2 (LNC region formation)

1. Delegation Chair’s Manual and Your Delegation’s Size

For a complete account of what lies ahead, go to http://www.lp.org/organization.shtml and have a look at the Delegation Chair’s Manual and the Convention FAQ. These are documents first produced in 2004, and are now updated for 2006.

Since your state’s delegate allocation depends in part on membership numbers as of December 31, 2005, I will provide an update to the Delegation Chair’s Manual in January to reflect the final membership numbers an resulting delegate allocations.

The component of your delegation’s size that depends upon the 2004 Badnarik vote is already in place. It turns out certain states lost a total of 69 delegates relative to the 2000 Browne vote while others gained a total of 71 delegates.

2. Credentials Committee

In Baltimore at the November 12-13 LNC meeting, the following five individuals were named to the Credentials Committee:

Emily Salvette (MI)
Dena Bruedigam (OH)
Gary Johnson (TX)
Jack Tanner (FL)
Michael Houze (IN)

Alternate: Ronda Birr

The five states with the largest memberships on December 31, 2005 get to appoint another five members. As of October 31, 2005, those five largest states were: California (2737), Texas (1065), Florida (960), Georgia (698) and Pennsylvania (672). Michigan was in sixth place with 641.

California has named Kevin Takenaga to the Credentials Committee and Florida has named Vicki Kirkland. Both appointments are subject to their states’ membership totals remaining in the top five on 12-31.

Meanwhile, Texas, Georgia and Pennsylvania should be lining up prospective nominees to the Credentials Committee, as should Michigan or any other state that thinks it can overtake Pennsylvania by the end of this month. The deadline for the top five states to name their Credentials Committee appointments is February 28.

Please notify interim chair Emily Salvette, Salvette@ameritech.net, and me of your nominations.

3. Platform Committee

In Baltimore at the November 12-13 LNC meeting, the following 10 individuals were named to the Platform Committee:

Lorenzo Gaztanaga (MD)
George Squyres (AZ)
David Aitken (CO)
Robert Murphy (OK)
Trevor Southerland (GA)
David Owens (PA)
Adam Mayer (OR)
Tim West (WV)
Donny Ferguson (VA)
Lee Wrights (NC)

Alternates Include:
1st Alternate: Chuck Williams
2nd Alternate: Jim Duensing
3rd Alternate: Greg Clark
4th Alternate: Beatrice Jones
5th Alternate: Bill Van Allen, Jr.

The 10 states with the largest memberships on December 31, 2005 get to appoint another 10 members. As of October 31, 2005, those ten largest states were: California (2737), Texas (1065), Florida (960), Georgia (698), Pennsylvania (672), Michigan (641), Ohio (617), Virginia (596), New York (581), and Illinois (558). Washington was in 11th place with 533.

California has named Brian Holtz to the Platform Committee and Florida has named Bill Van Allen. Both appointments are subject to their states’ membership totals remaining in the top 10 on 12-31.

Meanwhile, the other states named above should be lining up prospective nominees to the Platform Committee, as should Washington or any other state that thinks it can overtake Illinois by the end of this month. The deadline for the top 10 states to name their Platform Committee appointments is February 28.

Please notify interim chair George Squyres, gsquyres@gotsky.com, and me with your nominations.

4. LNC Region Formation

The state (and affiliate – we have not forgotten you, D.C.) membership totals are also needed to form LNC regions for 2006-2008. Any group of states whose combined membership accounts for 10% or more of the total is entitled to one LNC rep for each 10% they encompass.

The region formation period extends from April 2 through July 2. Notify me of regions that are formed. Please use the form provided in the Delegation Chair’s manual.

Once again, I will NOT include members registered with Canadian, Puerto Rican, military or other addresses that are not assigned to any affiliate in the membership total. The Bylaws award one LNC rep for each 10% or more of total membership, allowing at least for the possibility of a 10-member region encompassing all affiliates. That would not be possible if the total membership denominator for this calculation included foreign addresses, since that would leave the region’s membership percentage at around 99.7% rather than 100%.

In 2004 and well after the convention and region formation deadline, an anonymous ‘LibertyForMe@yahoo.com’ saw fit to challenge the denominator of the calculation with the apparent purpose of removing an LNC rep. Region 1’s total had barely surpassed 20%. Changing the denominator would have made the region’s total fail to reach 20%.

At its August 2004 meeting in Cleveland, the LNC deferred the matter to the Bylaws Committee for its deliberation and recommendation. Meanwhile, the LNC endorsed the Convention’s action to seat two representatives from Region 1 as final and unchangeable and without regard to its correctness.

Thanks for your attention, and I’m looking forward to seeing all of my friends again in Portland. I’m no longer MO chair, so I won’t be seeing you in Phoenix at the end of January. If someone sees fit to produce a conference write-up, please forward it to me and I’ll include it in the 2006 Convention CD.

[back to Sean:] Ain't Sully the most diligent Secretary we have ever had? I think so.