Following the controversial “lockout” of Hasan Harnett, the duly-elected Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, in the news and social media can be very educational.
We here at NC4Hasan.com have learned many things that almost prompt us to run to the hills. But where would we go, to the Democrat Party? Not a chance. So, we’ll stay here and fight on. The right outcome of this dispute will go along way towards fixing problems. So we can’t give up. Chairman Hasan Harnett isn’t giving up. Don’t you give up. The more we dig into this pile of (insert scatalogical reference here), the more victory appears assured.
Among the disturbing things we have learned is that part of the price of admission to the rarefied heights of the NCGOP Central Committee is execution of a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) that attempts to restrict members from sharing outside the Central Committe that committee’s deliberations and actions.
We can’t speak for anyone else, but the image that suggests to us is that of a bunch of old fat white guys in a smoke-filled back room with cigars and tumblers of whiskey deciding the fate of NCGOP. Not a pretty picture.
Now we realize that there are factual problems with the image described above. The Central Committee members aren’t all old, all fat, all white, all male, or smoking cigars. I am quite sure that it is a pretty diverse group. I am also sure that quite a few of them are people of good character trying to the right thing. However what is left after removing most of the adjectives from the description above is still a group of people meeting in secret to chart the course of the North Carolina Republican Party. Not a pretty sight.
We have learned that those who sign such Nondisclosure Agreements are not provided copies of what they have signed. This makes it rather difficult to discover just what the language of the NDA contains. Isn’t that convenient?
The operation of the Central Committee is supposed to be governed by the NCGOP Plan of Organization and Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised. The Plan of Organization does not mention anything about NDAs for Central Committee members, nor does Robert’s Rules.
While we recognize that there may exist some situations in which application of NDAs to the business of the Central Committee might be appropriate, we are sure that they are by far the exception and not the rule.
I hope that someone will present a resolution to severely limit the application of NDAs to the Central Committee’s conduct of business.
Our NCGOP Central Committee should operate in the open for all of us to see.