[Lnc-business] SPAM Re: Email Ballot 2017-06: Move Archive Records to CO

Fri Mar 24 16:10:59 EDT 2017

This is not a budget meeting.  There should be plenty of time in Pittsburgh to deal with this issue.  Bill
--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 3/24/17, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-06: Move Archive Records to CO
 To: "William Redpath" <wredpath2 at yahoo.com>, "Libertarian National Committee list" <lnc-business at hq.lp.org>
 Date: Friday, March 24, 2017, 3:37 PM

 Bill, I try to get
 things done that can be done ahead of time to leave time for
 other in-depth discussions.  We always seem to not have
 enough time.
 -Caryn Ann
 On Fri, Mar 24, 2017
 at 11:53 AM, William Redpath <wredpath2 at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 The
 Pittsburgh LNC meeting is only three weeks away.  Can't
 we discuss all this in person there, and then vote?  Bill
 Redpath

 ------------------------------ --------------

 On Fri, 3/24/17, Caryn Ann
 Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>
 wrote:

  Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-06: Move
 Archive Records to CO

  To: "Libertarian National Committee list"
 <lnc-business at hq.lp.org>

  Date: Friday, March 24, 2017, 1:00 PM

  Okay I

  think I answered everyone's post.  I will say the
 one

  thing I said when I was looking at taking five years to
 get

  a two year degree because I waited until I was out on my
 own

  to go to school.  Five years will come no matter what. 

  The only question is where I will be when they do.  

  Similarly, the years will pass here.  Do we want a pile
 of

  unorganized stuff in two years or do we want to take

  advantage of this opportunity (that may in fact be very
 low

  costs because Wes will do a few fundraising emails for
 it,

  and I have committed some money).

  - Caryn Ann

  On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at

  10:58 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>

  wrote:

  Wes, I cannot promise we will not need an offsite

  storage any longer, for instance there are a few items to

  add to the historical collection (Nolan's widow has
 his

  personal correspondences and some early Party stuff I am

  securing), but it will certainly be compact and lean and

  useable.  While I am passionate about Party history, I
 am

  not sentimental to the extent of "OMG The Nolan may

  have this touched This Piece of Paper, it Must Be

  Saved!" but any culling decisions will be brought to

  the LNC, and you will have thorough

  recommendations. 

  I also

  think we can use this project as a means of

  "touch" to the members to garner some

  excitement.  Whether one thinks my interest is silly (as

  some do), there is no doubt, that I am infectious with

  it. 

  - Caryn Ann

  On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at

  10:55 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>

  wrote:

  Starchild, thank you for your trust in me.  So

  far I believe I have demonstrated it - I *could* have
 easily

  spent up to a thousand dollars already but I have sought

  volunteers with skills to do professional scanning and as

  long as I can tap into those (and not burn out their
 time),

  I will do so.  I  treat OPP very seriously.  I have
 also

  committed to being completely transparent and forthcoming

  with monetary decisions (and we have a public committee

  discussion list) and accountable to members.  There have

  been some minimal costs that I have gotten donated.  And

  that will be the case whenever I can - and it is in the
 best

  interest of the project (i.e. volunteer work has to be of

  the quality we need - a home scanner will not do when we

  need a professional scan job, but fortunately I have a

  volunteer with access to the genealogical scanner used by

  the LDS church- PRO!).

  - Caryn Ann

  On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at

  10:51 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>

  wrote:

  Alicia,

  The issue of common carrier versus

  U-Haul is something I discussed with Wes.  In order to
 pack

  things up so that it can be transported would take staff

  time.  And Wes wants to send the shelving, and just send

  things "as is" and let me straighten it up. 
 With

  the U-Haul it can just be put in and sent with no
 re-packing

  needed.

  As far as

  whether or not everything can be organized and scanned

  before the end of next term, there are several issues
 there.

  First, the committee itself. While this committee ends at

  that time, it is my intention to prove its value, have a

  good working model, and move for a permanent historical

  committee next year.  In any event, LPedia must be

  maintained, and I expect the LNC will appoint a new

  committee- and if I am not on the LNC, I will apply to be
 on

  the committee.  Even if not, I will continue my
 volunteer

  work.  I think Starchild covered this well.  As far as

  goals, I am very sober-minded as to our goals.  I

  absolutely do not expect (nor is there budget for, though
 I

  am doing pretty well at finding no-cost volunteers) the

  entire archives to be scanned by the end of this term. 
 I

  do realistically expect it to be organized and
 inventoried

  and the most critical items uploaded. And with the

  organization, the next committee will be able to continue
 to

  prioritize until it is done.  Without the organization,
 I

  cannot wisely spend the initial budget on the most
 critical

  and most  general interest items. While I might be in

  rapturous delight over a handwritten note by Gary Nolan
 on

  the back of a memo, our membership is more interested in

  news items. training items, press releases, and minutes. 
 I

  am prioritizing to the needs and wants of our members. 
 And

  as Daniel and Wes said, there is a lot of duplicates and

  items that do not need to be saved.  I will be able to
 make

  culling recommendations to the LNC and to Wes and to
 carry

  those out.

  I expect

  these records will remain here for at least a few years.
 And

  I have a volunteer that drives cross country often, and I

  might be able to find someone to bring them back at
 little

  to no cost - the volume will be less in any event, even
 if

  we have to pay.  And they could come back by common
 carrier

  as I will be able to have the volunteers to re-pack as

  necessary.

  I went

  quickly through a representative portion of the offsite

  storage. Everything I saw were items to be saved (in

  general, most certainly there is redundancy and culling
 and

  curating to do).  It is interesting you mention the

  "so and so's desk" boxes... that is part of

  the problem. Who is ever going to go through that
 stuff? 

  Wes thinks there might be minutes and other important
 items

  there, if not, I will straighten it out and solve that

  problem.  And when I say "I" I don't mean
 I

  am super woman to do it all myself, but with a home base
 in

  CO, the birthplace, of the Party, and my volunteer

  connections in neighboring states, I can manage this

  properly, as a Chair should.  

  In any event, it will be cheaper to

  come back after several years, in great shape with

  professional organization and of use to the Party and its

  members.

  -Caryn Ann

  On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at

  10:40 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <carynannharlos at gmail.com>

  wrote:

  I have a bunch of commentary to add that I will

  take one at a time.

  Daniel,

  that is exactly what I was thinking.  I think this

  Committee may find some auction items and may be able to
 put

  together a nice historical interest display, and you
 might

  want to consider having one of us speak.

  -Caryn Ann

  On Fri,

  Mar 24, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Daniel Hayes <danielehayes at icloud.com>

  wrote:

  Us finally throwing away

  a bunch of sacred invoices and other magical papers and

  stuff we don't need was my motivation to sponsor . 
 It

  might take 5 years to recoup but it is money we can

  save.

  Also,

  keep in mind that if we can monetize some of this stuff,

  even better.  As Sam and a couple of others know, we are

  looking to hold a silent auction at convention in NOLA. 

  Caryn Ann may find some things that we don't want to

  throw away but don't have space to display that a
 member

  might have interest in.  I'd rather see us put some

  cash to the use this party exists for and allow a member
 to

  have some enjoyment instead of sticking it in a box on a

  shelf.  One person's junk is another person's

  treasure.

  Daniel

  HayesLNC

  At Large Member 

  Sent from my

  iPhone

  On Mar 24, 2017, at 11:07 AM, Wes Benedict

  <wes.benedict at lp.org>

  wrote:

      Actually, if Caryn Ann does a good enough job, we

  should no

        longer need an off-site storage unit. The unit

  we're in now just

        went up to $248 per month starting in March 2018
 (up

  about $20

        from February).

      William Redpath, can you calculate the Prevent
 Value

  of the

        saving of $248 per month in perpetuity?

      And if you can do that, can you then get a bit more

  precise by

        making the assumption the $248 per month
 spending

  won't stop for 2

        years?

      Thanks Bill, that'd be great.

      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

  3/24/2017 11:43 AM, Wes Benedict

        wrote:

      Around 300 boxes with the

  miscellaneous "slips of

        paper" have been shredded since 2013. I
 spent

  many days on that

        work myself doing a first and second pass through
 the

  mountain of

        junk in the cool, damp, rat-infested dungeon
 storage

  underneath

        the Watergate complex, and then doing 3rd and
 4th

  passes at our

        storage units after moving the stuff to
 Alexandria. (I

  did not

        shred the stuff myself--just identified the boxes
 and

  then had a

        professional service handle it).

        I am not exaggerating about the rats. I do not
 recall

  finding dead

        rats in any boxes and did not necessarily see
 rats

  inside our

        particular unit, but there were dead dried out
 rat

  carcasses less

        than 20 feet outside the door to our unit and in
 the

  hallway

        leading up to our unit and inside adjacent
 units.

        In addition to things that have been shredded, I
 did

  not count the

        number of boxes of stuff that I threw away that
 did

  not need to be

        shredded. I also personally tore apart,
 dismantled,

  and sawed when

        necessary (with my personal Bosch circular saws
 and

  drill), large

        painted plywood structures that I think were used
 in

  the 2000 and

        2004 national conventions (along with the wooden

  pallets).

        For a decade, it seemed, no one was willing to
 throw

  things away.

        I can't blame them. Who wants to throw
 something

  away when someone

        might complain later? Plus, it's easier to
 just

  box up an old

        employees stuff and push it aside rather than go

  through it and

        sort it all out.  The result was valuable things
 were

  getting

        buried by old broken furniture and useless pieces
 of

  returned mail

        slips that had no value. Boxes of potentially
 valuable

  documents

        were getting crushed and split and were spilling
 in

  the damp

        basement of the Watergate. The basement of the

  Watergate obviously

        wasn't climate controlled and the storage

  facilities were down an

        underground hallway from the dumpsters for CVS
 and the

  grocery

        store Safeway, and just 200 yard crawl for rats
 from

  the shores of

        the Potomac. Grocery stores generate a lot of
 smelly

  garbage that

        attracts rats.

        For the most part, I did not go through many

  individual boxes and

        sort through individual pieces of stuff. I either
 kept

  the whole

        box, or through the whole box out (or shredded
 if

  necessary).

        We still have over a dozen 4-drawer file cabinets
 and

  maybe 100

        boxes of stuff that needs to be gone through
 more

  carefully. That

        takes a lot of time. When it's time to bring
 the

  stuff back from

        Colorado, I expect the content to be 15% of
 it's

  original size.

        That's because there is still stuff to throw
 away,

  and also, for

        things like fundraising letters that were sent
 in

  1992--there are

        probably 5 or 10 copies of each.

        That stuff is getting older every day, but at
 least we

  now have it

        stored in a climate controlled storage unit in

  Alexandria, instead

        of the basement of the Watergate.

        I probably inadvertently  threw some things out
 that

  we wished I

        hadn't, but I feel like my actions to
 jettison

  some garbage even

        if there was some collateral damage, was urgent,
 and

  necessary for

        the greater good of the documents that were
 saved, and

  because we

        needed space for our more recent documents.

        A few photos attached.

        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 3/24/2017 4:43 AM, Alicia Mattson wrote:

        Having spent some time digging

  through

          these materials a few years ago, I know there
 are a

  LOT of boxes

          of old membership forms with hand-written
 signatures

  on the

          membership certification.  I don't
 imagine

  those going online

          for the world to see, so why ship 50 boxes to

  Colorado and back?

          I don't recall a terribly high percentage
 of

  those files being

          things that are of historical value that
 would

  belong in an

          online archive.  Some of it was, but much
 was

  not.  Old invoices

          and vendor contracts.  Miscellaneous contents
 of

  the desk

          drawers of former employees.  Is there
 really

  enough historical

          material to fill a UHaul?

        ______________________________ _________________

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  Lnc-business at hq.lp.org

  http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listi

  nfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org

  ______________________________

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  mailing list

  Lnc-business at hq.lp.org

  http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listi

  nfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org

  ______________________________

  _________________

  Lnc-business mailing list

  Lnc-business at hq.lp.org

  http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listi

  nfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org

  --

  In

  Liberty,Caryn Ann

  HarlosRegion 1

  Representative, Libertarian
 National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado,