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National Fantasy Fan, v. 5, issue 6, September 1946
Page 14
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SPEER SPEAKS re the amendments Proposed III-/A-3-7d: Why grant the secretary discretionary power to grant or not grant membership to individual applicants? That is virtually the only change wrought by this amendment. Repeal of V-A-1-d: This removes the prohibition against multi office holding. The plain effect of it is to make possible the concentration of more discretionary power into one man's hands. What hypocrisy to claim that the old constitution's essential features of "checks and balances" should [be] preserved, yet advocate allowing the same man to hold several offices! VII-B: The fantastic argument that the official editor should be elective, because this year's president has not been able to find a person to handle it for the whole year, hardly requires refutation. If the president can find no suitable person to appoint the job, how could the nominating committee find a suitable person to be elected to it? The appointive method at least has the merit of flexibility, in that more than one person may be appointed to handle the job, and that unforseen interferences with an appointee's ability to discharge his duties can be met by replacing him with someone else who can handle it a few months. III-A-1-d: Here is a prize piece of denseness. A method is provided by which any official can be removed --- except the president! It is obviously motivated by and framed only to meet, the situation we had this year. (Altho there is no reason why a leader with a grasp on the realities could not have said to the Board: "Joe Fortier has ceased to function as a director. (Citing evidence.) To replace him, I nominate Carl Smith." If the Board approved his choice, the directorate would be complete again, and they could go on to do something else instead of waiting for a constitutional amendment to rescue them.) But the amazing thing is the omission of any provision for removing the president, when that is the very thing which, according to the sentiment of the Pacificon, was needed this year! This amendment, I might mention, was Dunkelberger's, not Tarr's, and Tarr is no longer in favor of any of these piecemeal amendments. Repeal of III-B-1-e: This is complementary to the above, taking out of the hands of the directors the power to initiate a removal, and also depriving them of their power to issue temporary restraining orders when officials have acted wrong. In general the draftsmanship of these amendments is poor, and likely to cause trouble. An extreme case is the mentioning of the official editor in the section on the official organ, but failing to include him in the section listing other elective officers. One may lightly wonder whether, if these amendments were adopted the spelling "official" would have to be retained. Several proposals are obviously ad hoc, inspired by difficulties which have arisen this year, and do not go to the basic faults, excessive verbosity and detail, and cumbersome machinery, which have produced these difficulties, and will produce more in the future. 14
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SPEER SPEAKS re the amendments Proposed III-/A-3-7d: Why grant the secretary discretionary power to grant or not grant membership to individual applicants? That is virtually the only change wrought by this amendment. Repeal of V-A-1-d: This removes the prohibition against multi office holding. The plain effect of it is to make possible the concentration of more discretionary power into one man's hands. What hypocrisy to claim that the old constitution's essential features of "checks and balances" should [be] preserved, yet advocate allowing the same man to hold several offices! VII-B: The fantastic argument that the official editor should be elective, because this year's president has not been able to find a person to handle it for the whole year, hardly requires refutation. If the president can find no suitable person to appoint the job, how could the nominating committee find a suitable person to be elected to it? The appointive method at least has the merit of flexibility, in that more than one person may be appointed to handle the job, and that unforseen interferences with an appointee's ability to discharge his duties can be met by replacing him with someone else who can handle it a few months. III-A-1-d: Here is a prize piece of denseness. A method is provided by which any official can be removed --- except the president! It is obviously motivated by and framed only to meet, the situation we had this year. (Altho there is no reason why a leader with a grasp on the realities could not have said to the Board: "Joe Fortier has ceased to function as a director. (Citing evidence.) To replace him, I nominate Carl Smith." If the Board approved his choice, the directorate would be complete again, and they could go on to do something else instead of waiting for a constitutional amendment to rescue them.) But the amazing thing is the omission of any provision for removing the president, when that is the very thing which, according to the sentiment of the Pacificon, was needed this year! This amendment, I might mention, was Dunkelberger's, not Tarr's, and Tarr is no longer in favor of any of these piecemeal amendments. Repeal of III-B-1-e: This is complementary to the above, taking out of the hands of the directors the power to initiate a removal, and also depriving them of their power to issue temporary restraining orders when officials have acted wrong. In general the draftsmanship of these amendments is poor, and likely to cause trouble. An extreme case is the mentioning of the official editor in the section on the official organ, but failing to include him in the section listing other elective officers. One may lightly wonder whether, if these amendments were adopted the spelling "official" would have to be retained. Several proposals are obviously ad hoc, inspired by difficulties which have arisen this year, and do not go to the basic faults, excessive verbosity and detail, and cumbersome machinery, which have produced these difficulties, and will produce more in the future. 14
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