[Lnc-business] Developing and approving new and revised outreach literature

[James Lark]

Dear colleagues:

     I hope all is well with you.  In a previous message I suggested the 
consideration of various goals for the LNC during the 2016-2018 term.  
In particular, I suggested that we consider adopting the following goal:

G4:  The LNC will develop and approve new and revised outreach 
literature, to be available no later than Sept. 15, 2016.  Some of the 
literature (e.g., issue pamphlets) should be available in the form of 
PDFs that can be downloaded from LP.org.

     I believe the LNC should pursue this goal as part of a more general 
process of literature development and evaluation.  Specifically, I 
believe we should institute an ongoing process that will accomplish the 
following tasks:


1)  Evaluate our current literature needs

     As part of this evaluation, we should address various questions, 
including the following:

*  Do we need new literature?  If so, what type of literature? Types of 
literature include:

(a)  Material focused upon a very narrow issue, such as the problems 
with the National Defense Authorization Act.

(b)  Material dealing with several issues bundled under a general topic 
heading, such as national defense, civil liberties, economic liberties, 
etc.  (A special case of this type involves literature that targets 
specific demographic groups.)

(c)  A general description of the Libertarian Party and a brief overview 
of our positions on several topics.

(d)  Material that can be readily adapted by our candidates (i.e., 
literature templates which our candidates can tailor to their specific 
needs).

(e)  "Inreach literature," which is designed to assist LP members in 
learning about the libertarian perspective, and to help our members 
become better advocates of liberty.

(f)  Material that is written in languages other than English.

*  Is it sufficient for the LP to produce a PDF of the literature that 
can be downloaded?  Should the LP arrange to have the literature printed 
in bulk in addition to making a PDF available for download?  (I suspect 
this will depend upon the particular piece of literature.)


2)  Develop our literature

     After ascertaining our literature needs, we must do the following:

*  Determine whether what we need is already available (perhaps in the 
form of something that can be readily adapted to our needs).  To assist 
in this determination (an ongoing process), I suggest that we build a 
repository of LP and "LP-friendly" literature.  We should request that 
all LP-affiliated organizations (as well as some "friend of the family 
organizations") send electronic copies of their literature (or perhaps 
links to such electronic copies) to LPHQ.

*  If what we need is not already available, determine who will design 
the literature and authorize those chosen to prepare and submit their 
designs.  Note:  I believe we should establish a process in which we 
routinely solicit literature designs from our members and "friends of 
the family."  In some cases, we may wish to establish competitions and 
prizes to encourage participation and reward excellence.

*  Determine and implement the means by which material under 
consideration will be "test-marketed" prior to selecting the literature 
to produce.

*  Determine the best designs and submit them for review to the 
Advertising and Publication Review Committee (APRC).

*  Produce the literature and make it available.  (As part of this 
process, we should consider the pricing of our literature.)


3)  Evaluate the effectiveness of our literature

     To the extent possible, we should seek to evaluate whether our 
literature is serving the purpose for which it was developed. Thus, we 
should design mechanisms to do the following:

(a)  Solicit and receive feedback about our literature from those who 
are distributing our literature and those who are reading our literature.

(b)  Solicit and receive feedback about our literature from selected 
target populations.

(c)  Evaluate the feedback and develop recommendations concerning our 
literature.


4)  Evaluate our future literature needs

    Perhaps it would be appropriate for the LNC to reconstitute the 
Outreach Committee for the purpose of overseeing the literature 
development and evaluation process, with the understanding that the LNC 
will make the final choices concerning what literature to produce. 
Presumably the literature development and evaluation process will be 
guided by the goals and strategies the LNC adopts.

     In considering the more narrow issue of what new and revised 
literature we should produce prior to Sept. 15, 2016, allow me to offer 
the following comments and suggestions:

     As we proceed, we should determine what we really need in terms of 
a pamphlet.  That is, perhaps what we really need is to develop an 
extensive series of issue papers for LP.org.  We would also develop 
associated pamphlets/flyers that provide basic info about a given issue 
and direct the reader to LP.org for more detailed information.

     By "issue paper" I do not mean a long, scholarly treatise along the 
lines of an academic journal article or a Cato Policy Analysis. Rather, 
I mean a reasonably short article that lays out the LP position and (if 
appropriate) contains relevant graphics and photographs to illustrate 
the main points of the article.  If possible, the issue paper would be 
linked to an assortment of scholarly articles to assist those interested 
in pursuing the matter in depth.

     If we choose to develop pamphlets that are more detailed than the 
"basic info + point the reader to LP.org" model mentioned above, it may 
be best to proceed by developing an extensive issue paper about a topic 
and designing a pamphlet based upon that issue paper. I suggest this 
because the marginal cost of designing a pamphlet based upon an 
extensive issue paper may be relatively small.

     Based upon my seat-of-the-pants empirical analysis, I believe we 
should consider producing pamphlets on the following topics (listed in 
no particular order):

*  Government involvement in health care
*  American foreign policy (in particular, the various conflicts in 
which we are currently (or were recently) engaged)

*  Government efforts to gut 4th Amendment rights
*  The massive amount of federal government spending
*  Efforts by governments to prevent people from monitoring the behavior 
of government officials (especially efforts to criminalize videotaping 
the conduct of police officers)
*  The extraordinary costs of Drug Prohibition, along with the 
increasing militarization of police
*  "Crony Capitalism"
*  Eminent domain abuses
*  "Food freedom" issues

     Some additional topics we should consider include the war on gaming 
(especially online gambling), government involvement with marriage, 
increasing efforts to regulate the Internet and tax Internet commerce, 
and government destruction of jobs via licensing laws.  Unfortunately, 
there is a depressingly long list of topics about which we can prepare 
pamphlets.

     As always, thanks for your work for liberty, and for your 
consideration of my comments and suggestions.  I hope these comments and 
suggestions are helpful to you.

     Take care,
     Jim

     James W. Lark, III

     Dept. of Systems and Information Engineering
     Applied Mathematics Program, Dept. of Engineering and Society
     University of Virginia


     Advisor, The Liberty Coalition
     University of Virginia

     Region 5 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

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