[Lnc-business] Upcoming budget increase requests
Wes Benedict
wes.benedict at lp.org
Fri Sep 2 13:15:52 EDT 2016
I haven't taken the Policy Manual out to read it in detail before
providing this response, and I haven't taken the time to investigate
line-by-line every 2016 expenditure, but in general, unless I'm
mistaken, the budgets that the LNC passes are annual limits on
expenditures, not monthly limits. Some months we may go over the average
monthly budget limitation, and some months we may go under the average
monthly limit.
Beyond monthly variations, however, as you noted below, we have indeed
consistently spent at a rate that, if continued through to the end of
the year, would put us over the 2016 annual compensation budget.
My thinking for the 2016 effort was that we should plan for success, but
be prepared for the worst, and also front-load our expenses when it
mattered the most. So, I was comfortable spending over the average
monthly limits in the first two-thirds of the year when we had the very
large critical projects of the *national convention*, and *50 state
ballot access,* that take a lot of staff time. Had things gone really
poorly this year, we would still have had the option of cutting back
staff sufficient to meet whatever budget restrictions were in place
later in the year. As an exaggerated example, in theory, if things had
going really really poorly, we could terminate every staff member except
for Robert Kraus, terminate most contractors, and I could have resigned
myself (or be terminated). Again, that's not what we expected, or hoped
for, but it was a way to meet budget requirements if needed.
It turns out, things have gone really well--far better than the LNC or I
projected. And my thinking back in early 2016 was that if things did go
very well this year, the LNC would likely want to increase the budget
later in the year.
There have been some raises and bonuses given that also affect overall
compensation--with my own total compensation being the biggest factor
there (as you know I was given a new contract by the LNC in July 2016).
The bottom line is, we can add people and hours and pay and continue
working to grow this party, or we can cut people and hours and pay, and
shrink it. My recommendation is to grow.
In summary, we have been spending more than our average monthly budgeted
amount, and I recommend increasing the budget.
This email took me an hour to write because I was trying to be rather
careful. Hopefully I got all of my facts right, or at least close
enough. I'll be correcting a fact in a response to Alicia.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 9/2/2016 2:48 AM, Aaron Starr wrote:
>
> Wes,
>
> I’m still missing something here.
>
> The original budget for compensation was based on a particular
> staffing level at specific amounts of compensation.
>
> It looks like the activity of the first eight months is already
> running at a rate that will exceed the budget for compensation for the
> year. (If $314,155 is eight months of expense, a simple extrapolation
> would bring us to $471,233 for twelve months, which is well above the
> budget of $388,800.) I seem to recall that most of our compensation
> cost is based on fixed salaries, not hourly rates.
>
> During the first eight months we were spending just under $40K per
> month. For the last four months of the year you anticipate spending
> only $34K per month, so I’m not seeing how the need for a $60K
> increase in the budget is due to a need to cover increased people
> costs between now and the end of the year. It appears that we were
> spending well over our budget earlier during the year.
>
> Aaron Starr
>
> (805) 583-3308 Home
>
> (805) 404-8693 Mobile
>
> starrcpa at gmail.com
>
> *From:*Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Wes Benedict
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 01, 2016 4:25 PM
> *To:* lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Lnc-business] Upcoming budget increase requests
>
> I can't disclose exact pay rates and hours worked publicly on this
> email list, as you know. In any case, the increase in the budget is to
> cover more hours and more people than were originally budgeted for.
>
> Some contractors and staff have been working more hours, and I'd like
> to continue working more hours, than were in the original budget.
>
> I've got more contractors than in the original budget.
>
> I'd like to spend more on additional staff, including interns, as
> advertised here:
> http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/hiring-libertarian-packaging-interns
>
>
> With Robert's help, the numbers below show:
>
> FYI – Compensation:
>
> Compensation YTD * $314,155
>
> Est Amount for Sept-Oct (based on July/Aug) $69,000
>
> Est Amount for Nov-Dec $65,000
>
> TOTAL EST 2016: $448,155
>
> * Includes 09/07 payroll
>
>
> I'm prepared to scale back everywhere if needed as needed, including
> cutting people, hours, pay rates, etc., if activity drops post
> Election Day or whenever regardless of how far it drops. Of course we
> hope to win lots of elections and see activity skyrocket even higher
> after Election Day, but I'm prudently prepared for the alternate
> scenario as well.
>
>
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict at lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>
> facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
> Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
>
> On 9/1/2016 6:25 PM, starrcpa at gmail.com <mailto:starrcpa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the good news!
>
> I would like to understand in greater detail the need for a
> $60,000 increase in compensation.
>
> Aaron Starr
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2016, at 12:46 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org
> <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>> wrote:
>
> Dear LNC:
>
> I'd like to start a discussion about several budget increase
> requests before a formal motion is considered. I mentioned to
> the chair that I thought it would be good for me to put this
> before the LNC soon, and he agreed it was okay for me to get
> this discussion started on this list.
>
> To me, all of these budget increase requests are the result of
> good news -- our revenue, membership, and interest is very
> high, far higher than budgeted, and as a result, many of our
> expenses are higher as well.
>
> More revenue and members means more membership cards and LP
> News to mail out, and bigger lists to send fundraising letter to.
>
> The original 2016 Budget adopted for the entire year of 2016
> was *$1,474,561*. My preliminary estimate for August 31, 2016
> YTD revenue is $1,679,938 (July 2016 YTD) plus $412,425
> (August 2016) = *$2,092,363*. It's possible we could double
> the original revenue budgeted for the entire year (although
> I'm not ready to predict that).
>
> Dues-paying membership has increased from *11,693* at the
> start of January to approximately *19,300* at the end of August.
>
> The original budget for branding revenue was *$35,000*. We've
> already brought in *$205,862* in branding revenue (that's
> mostly the stuff we sell at LPStore.org <http://lpstore.org>).
>
> Again, all of these increases in donations, memberships, and
> store orders, means higher postage, credit card processing
> fees, purchases of items offered at LPStore.org
> <http://lpstore.org>, office supplies, and some labor to help
> process all that stuff.
>
> Robert Kraus and I have looked over the results of this year
> to date, considered what things could look like going forward,
> and are recommending that the LNC proposed and passes the
> following budget increases.
>
>
> 26-Brand Political Materials Revenue increase by $150,000 to
> $400,000
> 32-Fundraising Costs increase by $60,000 to $201,364
> 33-Membership Fundraising Costs increase by $35,000 to $127,200
> 40-Adminstrative Costs increase by $50,000 to $310,050
> 45-Compensation increase by $60,000 to $448,800
> 55-Brand Political Materials Expense increase by $150,000 to
> $400,000
> 85-Member Communication increase by $17,500 to $62,500
>
> We have the revenue to pay for all of these budget increases.
> I'm pretty certain we have more money in the bank for the
> September of a Presidential election year than ever before in
> the history of the Libertarian Party, and that's in spite of
> paying what it has taken to achieve 50 state ballot access for
> the first time since 2000.
>
> While we are not technically over budget in most areas, we are
> trending in that direction and certainly will go way over
> budget by the end of the year unless I proactively cut back on
> fundraising letters, LP News, shipping LPStore.org
> <http://lpstore.org> materials, staff levels, and other areas.
> That could be done, but I don't think it's the right thing to
> do. For example, instead of focusing my time on trying to
> continue the growth of membership and fundraising by hiring
> another intern to fill boxes with campaign materials, I could
> spend my own time stuffing envelopes and filling boxes with
> yard signs--something I do actually enjoy and find to be
> therapeutic.
>
> I'd be happy to try to respond to any questions you have on
> these items.
>
> Thanks for your consideration. I'm hoping we have a productive
> discussion on this, and then the chair or treasurer can
> propose a motion that fits a consensus for you to consider of
> the Labor Day Weekend.
>
>
> --
>
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
>
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
>
> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
>
> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict at lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>
>
> facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational
>
> Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business at hq.lp.org>
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Lnc-business mailing list
>
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business at hq.lp.org>
>
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20160902/0d9b81e1/attachment-0002.html>
More information about the Lnc-business
mailing list