[Lnc-business] Upcoming budget increase requests

Mon Sep 5 08:10:13 EDT 2016

I support a meeting on adjusting the budget, as this is an item that is
fluxuating and has immediacy. 

I would still prefer holding the transparency discussion in person in
November. Are there committees spending money before November? (I
honestly don't know the answer to that question.) 

I have to get this LPKY drive finished up. We're almost there. So close
to 50+DC. 
---
Ken C. Moellman, Jr.
LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative
LPKY Judicial Committee 

On 2016-09-04 22:45, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote: 

> Joshua, how about you make the call for a meeting? The only day off the table for me is 9/17 due to the Social Media training- which I hope other regionals might take advantage of. 
> 
> I will support an online meeting whether or not my transparency proposal gets heard, though I respectfully suggest that it be included. I think the goals that I suggested would fit in with this budget discussion. 
> 
> -- 
> 
> IN LIBERTY, 
> CARYN ANN HARLOS 
> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org 
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado [5] 
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus [6] 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 8:41 PM, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I agree. I would join in a request for such a meeting, including a budget piece, so long as the total length is not expected to exceed 3 hours, preferably 2. That is, I would not want to simply add the budget item to the proposed agenda that is already circulating, but if we removed enough items to make room for it, I'd support that. 
> 
> We're talking about a rather significant change, and one with strategic importance. I think it deserves to at least be discussed in person. It's a primary responsibility of ours. It can probably also be handled in relatively short order if we first get everything in a row and get the relevant facts before us, as we've been doing. 
> 
> Joshua A. Katz 
> Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat) 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 9:24 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that this continues to be an excellent argument for a September meeting. I know I feel less and less comfortable supporting or opposing anything without an actual deliberative assembly. That has also been the sense of my regional members so far. 
> 
> -- 
> 
> IN LIBERTY, 
> CARYN ANN HARLOS 
> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org 
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado [5] 
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus [6] 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 5:00 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
> 
> Aaron , I'll try to answer that exactly on Tuesday. 
> 
> In advance of my exact answer, would you care to suggest an amount you think would sound concerningly high to you, an amount you think is expected or completely reasonable, and an amount you think is comfortably low? 
> 
> Do you have other questions you'd like us to work on that you can ask now? 
> 
> On Sep 4, 2016, at 6:32 PM, Aaron Starr <starrcpa at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> At first I understood that "all of these budget increase requests are the result of good news". 
> 
> With further inquiry I now understand that is not the full explanation: "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)." 
> 
> We are certainly aware of the change caused by the new executive director contract. That explains some, but not all, of the requested $60K increase for the balance of the year. 
> 
> Before supporting an increase in budget for compensation we should all understand that there is a distinction to be made between increased expenditures due to timing differences (or even an increase in activity) versus increased expenditures resulting from pay raises. 
> 
> How much was paid in bonuses so far during 2016? 
> 
> Not including the Executive Director, how much has the annualized cost of compensation increased on account of changes in pay rates? 
> 
> Aaron Starr 
> 
> Sent from my iPad 
> 
> On Sep 2, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
> 
> 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 [1], wes.benedict at lp.org
> facebook.com/libertarians [2] @LPNational
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership [3]
> 
> 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 [7]
> 
> 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 [1], wes.benedict at lp.org
> 
> facebook.com/libertarians [2] @LPNational
> 
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership [3]
> 
> On 9/1/2016 6:25 PM, 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> 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 [8]).
> 
> 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 [8], 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 [8] 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 [1], wes.benedict at lp.org
> 
> facebook.com/libertarians [2] @LPNational
> 
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership [3]
> 
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 -- 

IN LIBERTY, 
CARYN ANN HARLOS 
Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) -
Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org 
Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado [9] 
Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus [10] 

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 -- 

IN LIBERTY, 
CARYN ANN HARLOS 
Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) -
Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org 
Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado [9] 
Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus [10] 

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[6] http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/
[7] http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/hiring-libertarian-packaging-interns
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