Register for the assembly
Sunday June 12th is the Maryland Green Party Annual Assembly, The Assembly will take place via zoom from 1:00 PM- 5:00 PM. Register here
Bylaws
Baltimore City Green Party Steering Committee Member Andy Ellis served as the BGP representative to the Maryland Green Party Bylaws Review and Rules committee this year. Below is his report of the process and the recommendations of the committee.
The voting on bylaws is open to all registered Greens in Maryland. voting ends at Noon on June12th.
The Maryland Green Party Bylaws Review and Rules Committee met biweekly from October to May in order to do a thorough and much needed review of the Maryland Green Party bylaws. We had representatives from each active county chapter of the MGP. The committee embraced our core values and only put things in front of the membership that we had reached consensus on.
The result of that consensus approach is nine proposed bylaw amendments that address a wide range of topics, many of which have been the source of conflict within the state party over the last several years. The topics include: creating a stable definition for delegate apportionment, streamlining the committee structure, simplifying the dates for the primary election, establishing basic guidelines for how locals nominate candidates, creating a code of conduct for MGP committee members, aligning the bylaw voting process with the officer voting process, removing references to outdated materials, and removing 20 year old references to interim bylaws. The Committee recommends a yes vote on proposals 1-9.
Two other amendments were submitted by members. One of them removes the requirement to have a primary in federal races when there is only one candidate. The other compels the MGP-CC to approve all endorsements local chapters make, with no condition. The committee does not support proposals 10 and 11.
I am excited to put forward this set of bylaw proposals for the state party; over the last several years unresolved conflicts within the MGP have created a lot of tension and a lot of work. This effort reflects a combined commitment from Greens across the state to come together and offer solutions to many of those problems.
If anyone would like to learn more feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]