SCGOP Attendance Requirements for County Committeemen
Definition and Role
A County Committeeman in the South Carolina Republican Party (SCGOP) is the duly elected Republican representative from a precinct to the Republican county executive committee in their county.
Attendance Rules
The SCGOP Rules specify that any County Executive Committee may declare the office of any member of the County Executive Committee (including county committeemen) vacant if that member is absent from three (3) consecutive County Executive Committee meetings without good cause, and has not been represented by a designated proxy or by the precinct president in attendance in their place.
Before declaring the office vacant, the committeeman must be notified by certified mail by the county chairman and given an opportunity to show cause before the County Executive Committee as to why they should not be removed from office.
The spirit of the Rule
The intention behind the design of the CEC is that every precinct has a vote on every matter. That should not be difficult, because if the EC cannot attend, the precinct president can vote as an automatic proxy for the precinct. If the precinct president cannot attend a particular meeting either, or if there is not a precinct president, the EC can also assign a proxy to any registered voter from the same precinct by filling out the short form below. Just print it out, complete it with the selected person, and give it to them. That person simply brings the completed form to the meeting and gives it to the secretary. (Melinda Kneece.) Asking someone new to attend a meeting in your place is actually a good way to acquaint them with what we do. Who knows? A proxy may become a new Party Member!
Every Committeemen should be aware of the rules on absences, however. This is not to criticize anyone for missing meetings – this is a volunteer organization and most of us are very busy. This is simply to point out that if you are an EC and are unable to come to a majority of our meetings, you may be blocking the ability of someone else from your precinct who might like to serve.
Additionally, if you are an EC in a precinct that does not have a precinct president, contact me and we will do everything we can to help your precinct elect a president. There is far more flexibility on attendance for the EC when a precinct has both an EC and a president.
Precinct organization in Saluda is in its infancy. Most people, even those who participated, do not fully understand how it all works yet; but, every single person who came out during the ReOrg process1, whether it was to one meeting or every meeting, has played a big part in our success so far.
Please understand that, as an EC, if you ever find yourself unable to participate fully, please contact your County Chair who can advise you on how to arrange to be replaced in that position. You would not be resigning from the party, just allowing someone who can attend more regularly to represent your precinct.
- The ReOrg process has four parts. (1)An initial Precinct ReOrg meeting where precinct officers are elected and Delegates are selected to attend the County Convention, (2) a Makeup Meeting for those who could not attend the ReOrg meeting, but would like to fill empty delegate slots (3) making arrangements to fill out the proper form to fill remaining County Delegate slots between the Makeup Meeting and five days before the County Convention, and (4) the County Convention. ↩︎
