[Lnc-business] Seeking Co-Sponsors For a Motion to Give Staff the Authority to Select the number of issues of LP News

Tue Jun 20 19:32:31 EDT 2017

The short answer is "everything I do except LP News." But let me 
elaborate on some of the things I need to get done that I've had time 
giving enough attention to:

Interviewing prospects and hiring: Press Secretary, Candidate Support 
Specialist, Members Services manager (we have a temp member services 
manager, Mat, who I want to get back on phoning for renewals).

Working with those new people to insure good integration into the 
organization.

Our website still needs plenty of improvements, like our current list of 
candidates.

Well thought-out facebook prospecting ads where we monitor closely the 
R.O.I. (you don't want to just spend money and count views and clicks).  
Eric produced profitable facebook membership ads for us in the past. 
Others haven't been able to do that for me.

More press releases on current issues.

We've done some prospecting to the Johnson for President 2016 list, but 
need to do more of that via email, facebook, and snail mail. Our 
contract for that data makes the process a bit more cumbersome than 
would be obvious.

Better integration or at least syncing between Raisers Edge and our 
email blast service.

Our attorney is waiting on me for some info a ballot access case.

A state affiliate is waiting on me for some helpful registered 
libertarian data that I'll also make available to other states if I have 
time to let them know about it.

Membership numbers are going down. Need to work on that more.

Take the time to respond to Andy, the petitioners, collecting of names 
for us to send membership invitations to to say "thanks, we'll send 
membership inquiry packages--of the 60 or so that we've sent in recent 
years that were legible enough, we raised $10, so worth doing when we 
have the names, but not worth making a top priority compared to just 
getting our petitioners to focus and do good work getting signatures."

Eric's a big help to me on a lot of important things I need help with 
(he's already started making website fixes that used to take me long to 
describe in detail--now I can tell him real quick in person and he's 
getting things working better).

But seriously, I'm overloaded with many major things. Outside help is 
sometimes helpful, but not always so easy to use--I've spent quite a bit 
of time lately explaining FEC rules and regulations to people who are 
helping--takes time with new folks--some outside help from volunteers 
ends up taking a lot of time perhaps counter-intuitively.

When I can't give staff the attention they need to make themselves 
helpful, it hurts their productivity.  I think I'd be better off having 
staff work on other projects than that 6th issue of LP News this year.

I do try to prioritize. There are 4 major inputs that affect my 
prioritization: 1) my thoughts of course, 2) the chairs, 3) the LNC's, 
4) significant opportunities that pop up out of the blue that are worth 
taking advantage of.

We can do all 6 LP News issues if that's what the LNC requests. It's a 
minor decision for you all regardless of which direction you go and will 
have a minor impact--not a major decision in my opinion.

Thanks for asking.

I am unable to answer all the emails and calls I get.

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 6/20/2017 7:06 PM, Starchild wrote:
>
> Before voting on this, I'd like to hear what Wes wants to spend staff 
> time on that would otherwise be spent producing an issue of LP News. I 
> don't see how we can make an informed decision on the merits of the 
> motion without that information.
>
> Love & Liberty,
>
>                                      ((( starchild )))
> At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
> RealReform at earthlink.net <mailto:RealReform at earthlink.net>
>                                    (415) 625-FREE
>                                      @StarchildSF
>
>
> On Jun 20, 2017, at 6:32 AM, Daniel Hayes wrote:
>
>> Once somebody objected this was inevitable. Here comes a request for 
>> cosponsors of a motion by email at the bottom of this missive .
>>
>> Our staff has asked for the discretion to cut an issue of LP news 
>> this year.  The rationale seems to be with lots of transition in 
>> staff and some other projects there isn't the time to do it well.
>>
>> I was the main driver of reducing the number of physical issues of 
>> LPNews at the December meeting.  That said, Lauren Daugherty our Head 
>> of Development was not in favor of that.  She likes to have more 
>> touches in between "asks" for money.  It's part of cultivating 
>> donors. Nobody likes to feel like an ATM.  I totally get that though 
>> I think there are other ways to do it and still believe we should 
>> start to transition to an all digital format. That said I believe in 
>> giving our staff the tools they ask for to succeed.
>>
>> In this case, the person tasked with raising our donation levels and 
>> maintaining and increasing our dues paying members prefers more 
>> touches.  Our executive director who has a good understanding of what 
>> a can of worms the LPNews "issue" is has asked us to cut an issue.  I 
>> don't think he would do that without good reason.
>>
>> Nick has the authority to direct staff(or let our executive director 
>> do it).  From the technical aspects Joshua mentions, there doesn't 
>> need to be a motion for Wes to do this, especially with Nick's ok. 
>>  Caryn Ann objects because of underlying arguments made in the 
>> unsuccessful attempt to limit the number of LPNews issues to 4 during 
>> the December 2016 LNC meeting.  That motion failing didn't mandate 
>> more issues. It just did not set a limit of 4. I may be wrong on the 
>> specifics but it becomes moot either way if this motion passes.
>>
>> If we don't amend the budget line, that leaves the funding there for 
>> 6 issues.  Let's say things go smoother or other things shift and Wes 
>> changes his mind on being able to put out 6 well produced issues. By 
>> giving him discretion to select between publishing 5 or 6 issues that 
>> removes at least the objection of going against the sentiment that 
>> may or may not have been codified in December. It also lets him do 
>> his job we hired him for which is to allocate staff resources with 
>> the chair's guidance.
>>
>> I can already sense that while we may not technically need a motion, 
>> despite how painful email motions can be, not having one is going to 
>> be made much more time consuming and painful by cries of "foul".
>>
>> So I am seeking cosponsors for the following motion:
>> *"Move to allow staff the discretion to choose between publishing a 
>> total of five or six physical issues of LPNews for the year of 2017, 
>> subject to the approval of the Chairman."*
>> *
>> *
>> Daniel Hayes
>> LNC At Large Member
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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>

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