I think the first step should be to find out the minimum requirements to officially register a political party in the State of Florida.
For example:
Also, what should it be called?
E.g. the Florida Meritocracy Party, the Florida Meritocratic Party?
I already looked into it a bit. There does not appear to be a fee to get a minor political party registered. See the following:
The group of citizens must submit a certificate showing the name of the organization, the names and addresses of its current officers, including the members of its executive committee, accompanied by a completed uniform statewide voter registration application as specified in section 97.052, Florida Statutes, for each of its current officers and members of its executive committee which reflect their affiliation with the proposed minor political party, and a copy of its constitution, bylaws, and rules and regulations to the Division of Elections, Department of State, R.A. Gray Building, Room 316, 500 S. Bronough Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250. (Section 103.095(1), Florida Statutes)
Please also note the officers must include a chair, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer elected by the members of the executive committee who must be members of the minor political party and no member may hold more than one office, except one person may hold the offices of secretary and treasurer. (Section 103.09(3), Florida Statutes)
Once received, the Division will review the documentation for legal sufficiency and notify the group if the party is approved as a minor political party in Florida. Once approved, the Division shall process the voter registration applications submitted by the members of the executive committee of the minor political party.
Recognition of the group in Florida as a minor political party does not mean the group is recognized as a party in other states or at the federal level. (http://election.dos.state.fl.us/gen-faq.shtml#link10)
I think this would be a good first goal for the local swarm. The first goal could be to get enough local members to fill all the needed positions to official register the party as a minor political party in the state of florida.
As for getting on the ballet after that you can either pay a qualifying fee or collect signatures. Another good task for the swarm. Regardless we will need more local members to fill all the necessary positions in order to register as a minor party first.
Are we taking about 3-4 members then? 3 if someone holds both the position of Secretary and Treasurer?
How much is the qualifying fee and how many signatures would be necessary?
Yea it would be 3-4 for the Florida area depending on if one person elected to hold the Secretary and Treasurer position or not. Also we need to list the people in the executive committee who appoint the people to the positions. The government does not think like a swarm where people rise to fill their roles that suit their interests. They want a committee at the top delegating the work and for that delegation to be recorded. So that makes it somewhat difficult to follow what swarmwise says about allowing boxes to get filled on their own by people who are already doing the work for that position. It does not specify how many people must be in the committee, so I assume it is at least two or more.
As for signatures, it varies but you must have at least 1% of the population you are representing in signatures. And the fees are waived in that scenario otherwise the fees are different based on the position you are applying for. It is one tenth of the salary you will receive while in office.
See the following link for qualifying fees: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/pdf/2014_Qualifying_fees.pdf
Party’s always have a more permanent structure and that’s fine as long as we have candidates, officers and a membership base that further the meritocratic identity and culture.
What do you think should be the next action to take? Develop the website and look for more Meritocracy Florida members, or start drafting the constitution and paperwork?
I was thinking on developing the site and recruiting more members as to why we need Meritocracy but it would probably be better to draft the constitution first so therefore people have something concrete to see and believe in rather than just a possibility. We need something that can help unite the people under the cause of Meritocracy rather than supporting many other causes because Meritocracy addresses many issues that ultimately led to the situations that we have today. what do you think AJ?
Are there any model constitutions available to get an idea for the required structure? For example, constitutions of other Florida parties? Or maybe we could reuse whatever UKMP comes up with? After all constitutions tend to have similar requirements … you’d just have to edit the name and make it appropriate for Florida.
I found the Constitution of Florida at Florida Constitution
However when I searched for constitution for specific parties I did not find anything, however I did find a party platform for each and every party, So we could probably work on our party platform first therefore possible meritocrats are aware of what we represent.
I think we should do both. We need more members to establish the political party and fulfill all the required positions, but at the same time we should have a constitution ready before we start recruiting on a larger scale. Here is a list of what the constitution should include:
To be recognized as a minor party in Florida, a group consisting of more than one person must file a certificate and a copy of the minor party’s constitution, bylaws, regulations and rules with the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections. The certificate must include:
The copy of the minor party’s constitution, bylaws, regulations and rules must provide procedures for the following:
The members of the executive committee of the minor party must elect a chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer. Each of these positions must be filled by a member of the minor party, and no member may hold more than one office, except in the case of secretary and treasurer. One member may hold both of those positions.
Hi!
First, it is fantastic to meet everyone. I am truly thrilled to have found this forum and excited to get involved.
With regard to the above discussion, I would like to volunteer for any position that currently needs to be filled. In the long term I am not a person suited for many of the political party related tasks that lay ahead of us however I am exactly the kind of person that is willing to do what it is needed to get something like this moving.
I am currently situated in DC (temporarily with family) but will return to Florida at the end of the month. I have been living this past year in Fort Lauderdale but will be moving to just outside Tampa at the end of the month. I work best with people (as opposed to online) and would love to get together with anyone in or around either of those areas at the end of the month.
I will also be creating meetup groups in an attempt to find interested people locally and to establish a weekly meeting/discussion for interested individuals.
Ideally from these groups we can begin to develop the constitution (or contribute many ideas for the consitution) as well as start to build interest/gather signatures.
Beyond that, and with further regard to the discussion, I think its best to lock down a set name. In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, I think our name we identify with should reflect the global intention of the party as well as the local region. We could be identified as something as simpleas:
Global Meritocratic Movement
American National Meritocratic Party
Meritocratic Party for the State of Florida
Local Meritocratic Chapter
[General Format]
World Meritocracy
Country Meritocracy
State/Equivalent Region Meritocracy
Local Meritocracy Group
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I personally find it hard to move forward without a firm sense of identity and deciding on a name will help me to create the various meetup/social networking groups I intend to establish.
This is the first thread I have read and apologize if these ideas have already been discussed, I am new to the movement.
Again, fantastic to meet everyone and I look forward to a meritocratic society.
The Florida Meritocracy International
The Meritocracy International Florida
To achieve a fair and just Meritocracy…
I recommend phasing out the current currency (over the period of a generation), and instating a new currency that is subject to a 100% inheritance tax law. As far as tangible assets go (such as gold, clothes, houses, and vehicles), my best recommendation is that they be returned to the state upon the death of the owner, and reintroduced into the “market” to be once again purchased using the new currency.