[Lnc-business] Biographical information and goals, International Representative position, and other items

[James Lark]

Dear colleagues:

     I hope all is well with you.  I am writing to provide you with some 
information about various items; I hope you find this information 
interesting and helpful.

1)  In response to the request that LNC members provide some 
biographical information, I have enclosed below my "libertarian 
biography" for your consideration.  This biography contains some basic 
info about my professional life, and provides info about some of my 
major positions, responsibilities, and honors within the LP and the 
liberty movement.  I prepared the original version several years ago to 
have biographical material readily available for organizations that 
expressed interest in my serving as a speaker at their events; I update 
the bio on a regular basis.  If I may suggest, if you have not prepared 
such a biography, it may be worth your time to do so.  I have found it 
very useful to have such a bio readily available.

2)  To the extent that I have personal goals for 2014-2016, they are (in 
general terms) to continue to improve outreach to young people 
(especially high school and college students), to improve our media 
presence by obtaining more "earned media," and to prepare new and 
improved literature as part of a more general literature 
development/evaluation process.

3)  I am flattered by Ron Windeler's suggestion that I serve as an 
International Representative of the Libertarian Party, and by the 
willingness of Norm Olsen to offer a motion for my appointment to this 
position.  In response to Vicki Kirkland's question, I shall be 
delighted to accept the position of International Representative should 
the LNC consider me worthy of appointment.

     As I mentioned in a previous message, I have been invited to 
address libertarian conferences in Paris, France in September and in 
Madrid, Spain in October; I may visit Brazil and/or Argentina during 
December/January.  In addition, on Saturday I was invited to visit 
Mexico to discuss the formation of a libertarian party there.  Due to my 
service as secretary of the International Society for Individual Liberty 
and my work with organizations such as European Students For Liberty and 
the Freedom and Entrepreneurship Foundation in Poland, I anticipate 
making several trips to meet with libertarians in other countries during 
this LNC term.  Thus, I believe I can help the efforts to build the 
international association of Libertarian Party organizations.

4)  Allow me to share an observation you may find encouraging.  On 
Saturday evening I had the honor of delivering the keynote address to 
the annual Students For Liberty Campus Coordinator Retreat.  (As you may 
recall, SFL executive director Alexander McCobin addressed the LP 
national convention on the afternoon of Friday, June 27.)  If I 
understand correctly, there are at least 200 students in this year's 
class.  In contrast, the 2010 class (the first year of the Campus 
Coordinator program) consisted of 30 students.

     I believe you would have enjoyed meeting these students.  As far as 
I can tell, the campus coordinators are bright, talented, knowledgeable 
advocates for liberty; they are also very nice people.  I suspect they 
will do great things for the liberty movement.

5)  After sharing the encouraging observation above, I regret to report 
that a great libertarian has left us.  John Blundell, General Director 
of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, passed away yesterday.  
He served as the president of the Atlas Network (then known as the Atlas 
Economic Research Foundation) and the Institute for Humane Studies.  He 
was a major force in the development of several free-market 
organizations within the U.S.

     I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife Christine (who also 
worked at IHS) when I was the president of Students for Individual 
Liberty at the University of Virginia.  He was very helpful to me and 
others who were involved in growing the liberty movement on college 
campuses.  He was truly a scholar and a gentleman, and he will be sorely 
missed.

     As always, thanks for your work for liberty.  I look forward to 
seeing you at the September LNC meeting, if not before.

     Take care,
     Jim

     James W. Lark, III
     Advisor, The Liberty Coalition
     University of Virginia

     Region 5 Representative, Libertarian National Committee
-----

*BIOGRAPHY: JAMES W. LARK, III*

James W. Lark, III currently serves as a professor in the Department of 
Systems and Information Engineering and the Applied Mathematics Program 
of the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of 
Virginia. Prior to the 2003-2004 academic year he served as assistant 
professor in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering and 
as adjunct professor in the McIntire School of Commerce at U.Va.From 
2003-2009 he served as Assistant to the Athletics Director for Special 
Projects at U.Va.During the 2012-2013 academic year he served as a 
professor in the Department of Statistics at U.Va. in addition to his 
position in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering. He 
received a B.S. in Mathematics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and 
State University (Va. Tech) and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the 
University of Virginia.

Dr. Lark has served as visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of 
Public Choice at Virginia Tech.He was an Earhart Foundation Visiting 
Fellow at the Center for Research in Government Policy and Business in 
the Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester.He has 
also served as a visiting scholar in the Department of Mathematics at 
the University of California, Berkeley, and the Department of 
Mathematics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.He is the author 
of publications in mathematics, operations research, and artificial 
intelligence.His solution procedure for finite-horizon partially 
observed Markov decision processes is known in the research literature 
as the "Lark algorithm" (or "Lark filtering algorithm").

He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 1983.He currently 
serves as the Region 5 representative on the Libertarian National 
Committee.In addition, he is a member of the LNC's Executive 
Committee.He served as chairman of the Libertarian Party during the 
2000-2002 term, and as secretary pro tem during part of the 2012-2014 
term.He served as an at-large member of the LNC during the 1998-2000 
term, and as a regional representative during the 2004-2006, 2006-2008, 
2008-2010, 2010-2012, and 2012-2014 terms.He was a member of the 
Libertarian Party's Platform Committee in 1991, 1998, 2010, and 2012, 
and a member of the Bylaws Committee in 2000.He was a founding member of 
the Board of Directors of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee.

Dr. Lark is the recipient of the 2008 Thomas Jefferson award (the 
Party's highest honor), given at national LP conventions for lifetime 
achievement.He is also the recipient of the 2004 Samuel Adams award 
(given at national LP conventions to the member deemed the most 
effective activist) and the 2012 Thomas Paine award (given at national 
LP conventions to the member deemed the most effective communicator).He 
is the only person to win each of these awards.

He currently serves as the vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of 
Virginia; he also serves as Local Affiliate Parties Committee chairman 
and the campus coordinator for the LPVA.He is the secretary of the 
Jefferson Area Libertarians (Charlottesville, Virginia). He has 
previously served as vice-chairman and secretary of the LPVA.

Dr. Lark currently serves as advisor to The Liberty Coalition and its 
constituent organizations at the University of Virginia. He founded 
several of the Coalition organizations while a graduate student at the 
University of Virginia. He also serves as national campus coordinator 
for the Libertarian Party, and advises college and high school 
libertarians throughout the country on promoting libertarian ideas on 
campus. He has conducted several campus organizing tours on behalf of 
the LP. He has lectured and conducted workshops on campus organizing at 
many state Libertarian Party conventions, and at the Libertarian Party 
national conventions in 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 
2006, 2008, and 2014.He served as a member of the Libertarian Leadership 
School faculty, and as a member of the Libertarian Party's "Success '97" 
and "Success '99" Leadership Seminar faculty.

Dr. Lark is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Advocates for 
Self-Government.He is the secretary of the Board of Directors of the 
International Society for Individual Liberty, and serves as a member of 
the Board of Advisors of Students For Liberty.He is a member of the 
Board of Advisors of the Freedom and Entrepreneurship Foundation 
(Fundacja Wolnosci I Przedsiebiorczosci) in Poland.


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