Red Ribbon Task Force - Recommendations for Commissions

The Red Ribbon Committee Report has been released, here is the section that deals with Commission. I will comment on my thoughts after a thorough look at the ideas.
(But from the start, they don't look too bad, I actually like many of these ideas.)

Commissions

Commissions have become an integral part of the Party. There is seeming consensus
that each of the Young Liberals, Aboriginal Peoples’, Womens’ and Seniors’ Liberal
Commissions have provided net benefits to the Party. Their continued existence is
important to a great number of people. The Task Force is not inclined to challenge their
continued existence.

However, there are perverse effects commensurate with the establishment of
Commissions. First and foremost, anything that detracts from the core functions of the
Party and does not contribute – directly or indirectly - to the formulation of policy or the
ultimate election of Liberals to the House of Commons should be rejected.
Commissions exist, essentially, to increase the representation of their constituent
members in the Party and as Members of Parliament. They do this by encouraging the
Party to adopt policies that entice members of their constituencies to vote Liberal, and
L I B E R A L P A R T Y O F C A N A D A
by encouraging members of their constituencies to seek Party office and elective office.
They are not designed to be parallel organizations that dissuade people from adding their
energies to EDAs and the National Party. Rather, they are expected to add their unique
voices to the existing efforts of the Party. This means, in our view, that Commissions
must refocus their energies around adding energy and perspective to the Party’s core
functions.

There have been success stories in this regard. Liberals have fielded, and elected, more
aboriginal candidates than ever before. Legendary are those "former" Young Liberals
who have gone on to occupy positions of prominence in the Party. However, challenges
remain. Women still do not run as Liberal candidates for the House of Commons in
sufficient numbers, and the Seniors’ Liberal Commission, still in its early days, has not yet
attracted a significant number of eligible Liberals to its active ranks.

Perversely, Commission club provisions of the Constitution have also been used to
generate accredited delegate spots for Conventions, only to disappear once the
relevant Convention has ended. This should not detract from the excellent work done
by legitimate clubs, but clearly everyone has an interest in seeing the abuses end. The
Task Force believes that strengthened accreditation requirements should be adopted to
reward those clubs that have been established legitimately, and ward off establishment of
"paper clubs" that undermine the Party’s electoral processes and reputation. Clubs that
achieve the new accreditation threshold would receive delegate spots as follows: two
per women’s club, two (1M, 1F) per seniors’ club, and of course four (2m, 2F) per campus
club. Aboriginal delegates will be elected in EDAs, with two spots per riding.

Therefore, the Task Force recommends:
• That a minimum of 50 members be required to accredit a Commission club.
• That commission ceases to exist once Party members, at Convention
determine that they have completed or fulfilled their mandate.

The 50 member minimum for accreditation in no way discourages the establishment of
clubs of any size. In fact, the Party should encourage clubs of any size to be established.
However, only accredited clubs would be eligible to participate in activities established
pursuant to the Constitution of the Party, such as Conventions.