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

[David Demarest]

Well said, Dr. Lark! I support your LNC outreach proposals and would like to contribute to the enhanced LNC outreach program that you envision.

 

To add to your well-thought-out LNC pamphlet subject list:

 

-          LP economic analysis of the high time-preference rate of compulsory majority rule, i.e.: Does compulsory majority rule inevitably lead to crony capitalism, present goods at the expense of future goods and bankruptcy?

 

-          LP legal analysis of consent of the governed as a litmus test for the legitimacy of laws

 

-          LP political analysis of compulsory majority rule in terms of consent of the governed, i.e.: Does compulsory majority rule reflect consent of the governed or is it consent of the majority at the expense of the minority or more realistically, consent of the political elite and their cronies at the expense of the rest of us?

 

~David Pratt Demarest

Region 6 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

 

From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of James Lark
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2016 1:27 AM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: [Lnc-business] Developing and approving new and revised outreach literature

 

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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