Adopted
February 15, 2024
Rob opened the meeting at 6:45pm when we had hit quorum. There were 100 members present, 55 online and 45 in person.
Wendy Hart, Utah County, led the prayer. Marci Campbell, Davis County, led the pledge. Fred Cox, Salt Lake County, read “Our Mission” platform plank.
We had a discussion about the impending impeachment of Natalie Cline. Rob clarified that the party had taken no action and no position on this matter. We will leave this up to the voters.
Rob introduced the convention committee.
- Nicki Brammer — Chair —*Former SCC —Approved
- Shawn Milne — Logistics — SCC — Approved
- Mac Sims — Credentialing — SCC
- Emily Ekins — Comms —*Not SCC
- Dan Burton — Elections — SCC
- Gina Worthen — Rules — *Former SCC
- Chuck Wood — Tech — SCC
- Chris Null — Tech — SCC
- Erin Axson — Volunteers — SCC
- Wendy Hart — MISC — SCC
- Lesa Sandberg — MISC — SCC
- Peter Greenhouse — MISC — SCC
- Jennifer Garner — MISC — SCC
- Jessica Christopher — MISC — SCC
Brad Bonham moved to adopt the convention committee as presented.
Jason Hackett, made a motion to divide the vote to consider the individuals individually instead of as a slate. We took a vote on whether we wanted to consider them individually. The motion failed. Division was called. There were 46 for and 54 against. The motion failed.
Becky Hope, Davis County, made a motion to amend the committee but it was ruled out of order. The function of the SCC as it pertains to the convention committee is to ratify the chair’s choice of convention committee members but Rob indicated that he was open to working with folks to add other volunteers to the committee.
Tom Hansen, Emery County, called the question. The motion passed.
We returned to the original motion, which was to adopt the convention committee. The motion passed.
Fred Cox made a motion that we continue to have multiple round voting at our convention. It was seconded.
There was a discussion about the method of voting for convention. Rob explained that the only item that would have been in front of the SCC would have been to review the method of voting at convention, of which there are two options in the constitution: multiple rounds of voting or ranked choice voting. Other discussions about the type of election are out of order and any action we take tonight would only apply to a future convention because we are already within the six month window. Our party has been under the long standing multi-round method of voting for the last several conventions. Neither our party rules nor Robert’s Rules require this motion to come up every year. The last action stands until the body decides to choose another path. When no method of voting is chosen by the SCC, the method defaults to the last method chosen by the SCC. In this case, the last method of voting approved by the SCC was multiple round voting. The six month timeline did not go unnoticed by the leadership team; we didn’t bring it to the October meeting because we have no desire to move away from multiple rounds. Any member of the body could have come forward with the motion to move us to rank choice voting and nobody did.
Rob’s prepared statement (which he did not read verbatim but summarizes the issue) is included here for clarification:
The next requested item of business on the special call is tied to Article XII (12), Section 2.H that says that the State Party Central Committee shall certify the method of election for the State Convention at least 6 months prior to the convention.
This section of the Constitution specifically refers to whether the State Convention shall use preferential voting or multiple round voting. The Central Committee made the decision years ago to use the multi round voting method - this was definitely at least 6 months prior to the convention. There has been no inclination to return to preferential voting, so there was no need to make a new motion. It is when someone would like to bring the convention back to preferential voting that a new motion will be required, and this would have to be done 6 months prior to the convention.
Any motion at this time to change the method of election at the convention would be out of order because it is within 6 months of the convention.
The Constitution says the decision must be at least 6 months in advance, but there is no mention of the decision expiring. In Robert’s Rules of Order it says that unless an adopted main motion specifies a time for the termination of its effect, it continues in force until it is rescinded. (RONR 12th ed. 10:26 footnote 3). This means that until the SCC adopts a motion to move the convention back to preferential voting, the motion to use multiple round balloting is still in effect.
We considered Fred Cox’s motion and the motion passed.
The meeting stood adjourned at 8:21pm for lack of quorum.
