[Lnc-business] Transparency and the budget

Fri Dec 2 20:31:14 EST 2016

I would be happy to try to find a coding system.

And I'm no expert but have worked inde such a system for decades.

As possibly has Nick.

On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:

> You are clearly an expert and so rather than doing it to prove something
> to me, would you consider working with the EPCC Audit Committee, and
> Treasurer, to generate a good coding system that answers the questions of
> how to allocate?
>
> Perhaps test it for a few weeks once a draft plan is created.
>
>
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict at lp.org');>facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
>
> On 12/2/2016 7:05 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
>
> I have done it twenty years in my job.  As do attorneys all over the
> world.  I don't need to prove it further.
>
> The issue is a good coding system that answers the questions of how to
> allocate.
>
> On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict at lp.org');>> wrote:
>
>> Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully.  I'm not saying it
>> can't be done.
>>
>> So, I hereby challenge you to do it, if you can do it without my help
>> (meaning don't ask me what goes in what category).
>>
>>
>> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
>> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
>> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
>> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
>> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
>>
>> On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
>>
>> Wes I'm not the best person to make that challenge to.  I'm a paralegal.
>> My entire work day requires me to keep track of every six minute block by L
>> and A codes.  I have done it for twenty years.  It does require setting
>> guidelines for what things get calculated as and tolerance levels on level
>> of granularity.
>>
>>
>> --
>> *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
>> <http://www.lpcolorado.org/>
>> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
>> <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
>>
>>
>> On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <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 <%28202%29%20333-0008>, wes.benedict at lp.orgfacebook.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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business at hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>> Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business at hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>>
>> --
> *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 <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org');>
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
> <http://www.lpcolorado.org>
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
> <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business at hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business at hq.lp.org');>http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>

-- 
*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 <Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org>
Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
<http://www.lpcolorado.org>
Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
<http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20161202/db771fd2/attachment-0002.html>