Why a member is suing a local Republican women’s group

The Bonneville County Republican Women are fighting against each other. New member Diane Jensen filed a lawsuit against the group, saying it is not following its bylaws.

Jensen joined at an October meeting. She also decided to run for president of the group at that meeting. According to the group’s rules, the dues of anyone who joins after Sept. 1 do not apply until the following year, meaning they are not members until the following year. But the group decided to adopt standing rules to allow women who joined between Sept. 1 and Oct. 17 to be members. Those rules would not be voted on until the following meeting in November. Jensen and other new members were nominated for positions, but the group says it wasn’t allowed; however, after a review of the bylaws, they determined it was allowed. At the November meeting, even more women attempted to join and vote, but the group said they were not members and could not vote. Jensen now says this is one of the points in the lawsuit.

“If they could extend that to Oct. 17, why couldn’t they extend that to Nov. 13, which was the date of the meeting?” she asked.

Stephanie Mickelsen, who was president at the time of the meeting and elections, says those who joined after Oct. 17 were not official because the last quarter dues had to be turned into the state prior to the November meeting.

“You have to turn in quarterly reports of whose your members and you have to turn in those dues to the state by certain dates,” Mickelsen said. “So we couldn’t, you know, we were following what our obligation was to the state Republican Women’s (organization).”

Jensen is also upset at not being allowed to speak during the November meeting. Mickelsen says, according to the bylaws, you cannot speak or participate in a meeting unless you are an active member in good standing. Those who joined in October were not members until the standing rules were passed at the November meeting. Those who joined in November would not be considered members until this year.

“It would’ve been inappropriate for us to allow all those people that showed up that day to be part of the discussion of whether or not we open up and change those standing rules because those rules had to apply to the people that were the active members in good standing,” Mickelsen said.

The group hired a parliamentarian to mediate the meeting, but a video of the meeting shows it getting out of hand.

“I felt like they were misinterpreting those bylaws and I wasn’t even allowed to speak,” Jensen said. “They brought in a man to kind of control the meeting, which is against their bylaws, and he bullied people and told them they couldn’t speak. Multiple times we were told, you’re not a member, you can’t speak.”

The bylaws say a parliamentarian may be appointed by the president. The video also shows Democrat Miranda Marquit. The bylaws say membership shall be extended to all interested persons. However, Jensen says the national bylaws say otherwise and must be followed.

“This was a rigged election and they manipulated it,” Jensen said. “And there were so many women that were disenfranchised, Republican women that were disenfranchised, and they’ve expressed to me their frustration and anger about how they were treated at this meeting.”

Mickelsen says she encourages new members to join and that they are respectful group that likes to educate and inform women on different topics.

“I think that there’s no problem having conversations with people that have differing ideas and to open the dialogue and to have those kinds of conversations, but there’s something to be said for treating people respectfully,” she said.

There is still a long way to go in this lawsuit. Mickelsen says those listed as defendants have not even been served yet.

Clarification: 1-8-19
Bonneville County Democratic Party Chair Miranda Marquit confirms she has regularly attended Republican Women meetings, but is not in leadership and does not set agendas.

In a statement she told us, “I’ve attended several Republican Women meetings in the last three years. I attend meetings because I think it’s important to have connections and foster bipartisanship. Supporting other women and bipartisan cooperation on various issues of importance in the community are important concerns, and so I make it a point to attend these meetings when I can. ”