[Lnc-business] Transparency and the budget
Wes Benedict
wes.benedict at lp.org
Fri Dec 2 16:41:27 EST 2016
Sorry, one more comment.
Kind of like with ballot access. You gained a lot more insight what it's
like to do ballot access after managing the drive in CT.
Josh did a fantastic job by the way - we probably would have failed if
he hadn't stepped in.
I think if the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee at a
minimum, tracked their hours according to Policy Manual FAE requirements
for a month, your committee would be very well-prepared to coach me and
staff about manageable effective efficient ways to track the
information. You would be helping out staff, and then you could also
speak to the LNC with authority on this subject.
I think perhaps the LNC would value the feedback of the EPCC on this
issue more than it values staff feedback, particularly if you had
firsthand experience using yourselves as participants.
Thanks,
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 12/2/2016 4:31 PM, Wes Benedict wrote:
>
> It's not just the time tracking, it's the categorization that can be
> tough. Tracking your time in .1hour increments isn't so hard if you
> typically stay on the same task for an hour. If you switch categories
> every .03 hours, it gets messy.
>
> If I get a call from an irate state chair about something a candidate
> said, is that considered affiliate support, candidate support, or
> member services?
>
> Would you try tracking your efforts according to the LNC categories
> for a week? I know you do ballot access, admin, APRC work (what
> category is that? - does it depend on whether you're reviewing LP
> News, something for LP.org, or a candidate piece?)
>
> Try tracking your hours for the national LP for just one week. I
> realize you are a volunteer, and it's staff paid time that is
> important to track to allocate to the financials. I just want to be
> sure you realize what you are asking for because I'm not sure you'd be
> asking for it if you really understood the outcome.
>
> See attached financial report plus image below. We track this stuff,
> but it's inherently fuzzy input numbers chopped up into fine detail.
>
> The image below from our financial report shows an example of how we
> allocate our time (it looks like it's time allocated to LP News, but
> it's not just that).
>
>
> If we provide unhappy members even greater financial detail than
> what's on the attached 14 pages, I suspect they'll still be unhappy.
>
> Be advised I wrote this note quickly and apologize if I've got some
> facts and interpretations wrong and shouldn't spend anymore time on it.
>
> Still hoping to see you track your national LP hours for a week and
> apply them to the proper categories.
>
>
> 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 12/2/2016 3:49 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
>> Interestingly enough, my LP class requires timesheets in .1hour, so
>> I've been doing this since August. It is frustrating, but I do not
>> stop what I am doing every few minutes to log hours; I sum up every
>> so often. I recognize that timesheets are not perfectly accurate,
>> and I would not object to a standard of 1 hour rather than .1. If
>> the system is too cumbersome and you have particular feedback on how
>> we can allocate hours more effectively, the EPCC is eager to hear it,
>> and I know I am very open to modifications. I'm not open to the idea
>> of dropping all staff time into a black box, personally. What I
>> object to, additionally, is having a policy but then budgeting as if
>> it didn't exist.
>>
>> Joshua A. Katz
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org
>> <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>> wrote:
>>
>> An interesting experiment would be for each LNC member to track
>> its hours for one month according to the Functional Allocation of
>> Expenses procedures requested. It would give you some hands on
>> experience in dealing with the reality that we switch categories
>> often every few minutes, like from:
>>
>> 40 - Admin (this conversation)
>>
>> 88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
>>
>> 80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message
>> the LNC wants)
>>
>> 85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the
>> membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
>>
>> 40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving
>> staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
>>
>> I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this
>> in detail is very tough.
>>
>> I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month.
>> You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
>>
>>
>> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
>> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
>> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
>> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,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
>>
>> On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
>>> I pointed out earlier the concern I am expressing here, but I
>>> did it briefly and without much explanation, because I wanted to
>>> know if, in fact, I have misunderstood, if I was making a big
>>> mistake, and if my concerns were unfounded. All of that remains
>>> perfectly possible, but the fact that I have not received an
>>> explanation making those points suggests to me that perhaps I am
>>> onto something important.
>>>
>>> 80% of the proposed budget is accounted for by administration
>>> and compensation. A member seeing that might be excused for
>>> believing that the national party simply consumes 80 cents of
>>> each dollar received. This would be a mistake, but it would be
>>> an understandable mistake - and one we can easily prevent.
>>>
>>> This member would be mistaken because compensation is not
>>> consumption. Staff does a lot of things. Staff work is a very
>>> large proportion of what the national party does. When we see an
>>> affiliate support line with a rather small number on it, it
>>> conceals the fact that staff spends a good amount of time
>>> supporting affiliates. Since staff time is split between
>>> different functions, we have a timesheet policy allowing staff
>>> time to be billed to different lines.
>>>
>>> So this brings us to, perhaps, a bigger problem: even knowing
>>> this, the member reading this budget has no idea how much of
>>> staff time is spent on what projects. Perhaps most importantly,
>>> neither does the LNC. Certainly the LNC is not giving direction
>>> as to how staff time should be spent. We have, essentially,
>>> created a black box into which we place 50% of the annual budget.
>>>
>>> A budget that breaks down staff time the way it is to be billed,
>>> and that funds staff time from line items, also allows members,
>>> at a glance, to see what priorities the national party has, and
>>> to know easily and quickly what staff is doing. Most
>>> importantly, it assures members that these priorities are being
>>> set by those they elect to make such decisions, not being left
>>> to the ED, or to chance, or to "whatever is most pressing at the
>>> moment." I have said before that my most pressing
>>>
>>> After all, functional and operational transparency require not
>>> only that members see and hear us talking, but that we are
>>> talking about the things that members need to know. If we make
>>> ourselves open, but exercise no control over fully half the
>>> budget, we are not transparent.
>>>
>>> This is not at all hard to fix. We know the proposed total
>>> compensation. We may modify it at our meeting. A portion of
>>> that, perhaps 20%, should be left in the compensation
>>> black-box. The LNC can decide what we'd like to prioritize by
>>> setting percentages to various functional lines. The remaining
>>> compensation multiplied by the percentage gives the amount to be
>>> moved from compensation to the appropriate line item.
>>>
>>> Maintaining is also easy. Simply fund compensation from the
>>> various lines, in accordance with the timesheets received. The
>>> Treasurer can, in turn, keep an eye on the lines, and see if
>>> some lines are over or under funded. If so, the board can
>>> decide how to react - by amending the budget, or by instructing
>>> staff to respect the priorities set.
>>>
>>> I am not known as a transparency champion. In large part, I have
>>> a different notion of transparency from many of my colleagues.
>>> The above shows the sort of transparency I worry about. I hope,
>>> though, that my colleagues who are known as transparency
>>> champions will join me on this issue, and join me in requesting
>>> that we not place 50% of our annual expenditure in a black-box
>>> line item such that members cannot use the budget to determine
>>> what it is that we do, and we cannot use the budget to govern
>>> the organization.
>>>
>>> For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that
>>> black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
>>>
>>> Joshua A. Katz
>>>
>>>
>>>
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> From FCC: im
>
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