Good decisions are seldom made on the basis of distrust, suspicion, accusation, and insinuation. Yesterday, the EC brought a recommendation concerning convention voting procedures. An amendment was brought to keep the quorum provision in place. His reasoning had to do with suspicions that the powers-that-be would try to sneak through business at odd hours so that the messengers wouldn’t have a fair chance to vote.
I was shocked to see that the convention bought that argument. Every piece of business transacted is publicly announced from the stage. The man who spoke was dead wrong. You simply cannot have a vote without an announcement. The Committee on Order of Business announces that a vote will be scheduled for such-and-such a time. The only way you don’t know that a vote is taking place is if you aren’t in the convention center when the announcement is made.
Now, though, we’ve left a weapon in the hands of those who might want to wreak havoc on the convention. We gather to do business, but at odd times, peopele are still at other meetings, are in the display area, or are taking a potty break, and the number in the room may fall below a quorum.
Now, if someone doesn’t like a motion, he can just go to the mic and call quorum count. I’m annoyed enough that I might do it just to show how bad this decision was. We have not protected ourselves from nefarious leaders, but we’ve put power in the hands of the people who might want to disrupt business and now are aware they have a tool to do so.
We biffed on this one.
The Executive Committee had a good proposal and we listened to a voice of anger and suspicion, That was foolish.
