[Lnc-business] The Libertarian Party only has 2 full-time staffers?!
Alicia Mattson
agmattson at gmail.com
Mon Jul 17 19:24:33 EDT 2017
I do need to point out that p. 8 of the New Orleans contract shows that we
executed that contract on 4/27/17.
We approved the date/location for that meeting with email ballot 2017-08,
which began on 4/21/17 and ended on 5/1/17. That means the contract was
signed 4 days prior to the end of the email ballot which authorized it.
That should not have happened.
We would have been up a creek had the votes shifted before the end of the
email ballot, and the LNC ultimately did not approve the date/location
motion. We would have already been legally obligated.
What was the reason for the premature contract execution before it had been
approved?
-Alicia
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 2:51 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:
> Starchild,
>
> If I thought this information would be useful for an upcoming decision,
> I'd make sure we bumped other things back and moved this forward.
>
> Robert has kept a spreadsheet detailing the LNC meeting costs. It's
> significantly out of date and will take time to update.
>
> If I get a sense from a significant number on the LNC that it is important
> enough for us to stop other work and get that spreadsheet updated, we could
> certainly do that.
>
> Or, if the LNC would be satisfied to get a list of meetings from the past
> just to get a sense of the costs, Robert has provided that and it's
> attached.
>
> I don't personally see much coming from providing that information
> urgently, but again, we could certainly get it done if it was a top
> priority.
>
> In general, staff has usually included in our suggestions and research
> low-cost options like Oklahoma and Alexandria, and the LNC has chosen
> places that were not the lowest cost options staff has provided. I point
> that out, because I want to make it clear that, if the costs of LNC
> meetings is your concern, I don't want our membership or the LNC to think
> that staff requires expensive meetings. We go with the flow of the LNC. Of
> the 5 to 10 times I've suggested a specific location for an LNC meeting, I
> don't think the LNC has taken my suggestion. I don't mind. I've thought
> most of the places we've had meetings were reasonably decided.
>
> I think Robert has shown many of the contracts to you in person when
> you've visited LPHQ.
>
> I believe Robert has offered to email all the contracts to you if you sign
> the standard Non-Disclosure Agreement. I believe you have so far chosen not
> to sign the non-disclosure agreement for certain reasons that you're in a
> better situation to explain than me. It's not a big deal to me personally,
> just has been our practice related to contracts.
>
> I don't think there's anything especially interesting or "secret" in any
> of the contracts we've had with hotels to have LNC meetings. Payments to
> hotels can be found in detail on the FEC website.
>
> I think sometimes vendors offer "discounts" and sometimes put in their
> contracts terms requesting confidentiality, but I'm not going to go through
> and dig up a bunch of contracts to see for myself unless I get a sense from
> the LNC that that is what they want staff to spend time on.
>
> If the LNC could pass a motion requesting staff to provide all the LNC
> meeting contracts to Starchild and other LNC members without requiring an
> NDA, I'd feel more comfortable stopping other work and doing that, and not
> requiring an NDA.
>
> We did not find the word "Confidential" in the upcoming LNC meeting in
> Kansas City and New Orleans. Those contract are 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 7/13/2017 10:03 AM, Aaron Starr wrote:
>
>> "Do you agree with Alicia and I that the LNC should be provided with data
>> on
>> our meeting costs as I've been requesting? Going forward, I would like to
>> see those costs disclosed upfront, before a meeting site is selected, and
>> I
>> would also like to see the our past costs for each meeting this term,
>> within
>> some reasonable frame of time."
>>
>> While I am not personally fixated on the costs of meetings, I do believe
>> that it is perfectly reasonable for a member of this committee to request
>> past data on our meeting costs and copies of contracts. That information
>> was
>> requested on June 6 and should have been provided by now.
>>
>>
>> Aaron Starr
>> (805) 583-3308 Home
>> (805) 404-8693 Mobile
>> starrcpa at gmail.com
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of
>> Starchild
>> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 1:22 AM
>> To: Nick Sarwark
>> Cc: Libertarian National Committee list
>> Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] The Libertarian Party only has 2 full-time
>> staffers?!
>>
>>
>> Thanks Nick. So I guess the question remains, who is answering the
>> phones and handling routine office tasks? Austin Petersen says that during
>> his time in the office, he developed a strong intern program. If so, I'm
>> wondering what happened to that program. Do we have any written records of
>> it, and if so, can those records be sent to the LNC?
>>
>> My understanding - correct me if I'm wrong - is that we don't
>> currently have any interns, but if we have names and contact info of past
>> interns, I'd volunteer to call them and ask about their experience working
>> as interns for the LP. That could help us rebuild a program and start
>> getting more bodies in the office getting stuff done, including routine
>> tasks.
>>
>> Do you agree with Alicia and I that the LNC should be provided
>> with
>> data on our meeting costs as I've been requesting? Going forward, I would
>> like to see those costs disclosed upfront, before a meeting site is
>> selected, and I would also like to see the our past costs for each meeting
>> this term, within some reasonable frame of time. Do you have any objection
>> to this, and if not, what time frames seem reasonable to you?
>>
>> Love & Liberty,
>>
>> ((( starchild ))) At-Large
>> Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>> RealReform at earthlink.net
>> (415) 625-FREE
>> @StarchildSF
>>
>>
>> On Jul 12, 2017, at 9:08 PM, Nicholas Sarwark wrote:
>>
>> Starchild,
>>>
>>> At present, the LNC has Wes Benedict, Eric Dixon, and Robert Kraus
>>> full-time and based out of the Alexandria office. My understanding is
>>> that Nick Dunbar and Mat Thexton are also based out of that office,
>>> though not full-time. We also have a number of contractors working
>>> remotely, including Andy Burns, Lauren Daugherty, Jess Mears, Denise
>>> Luckey, Bob Johnston, and Elizabeth Brierly.
>>>
>>> Wes and I are in the midst of interviewing candidates for Press
>>> Secretary, which is anticipated to be full-time, and will be moving on
>>> to interviewing candidates for a Candidate Support Specialist shortly.
>>>
>>> Yours in liberty,
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Starchild <sfdreamer at earthlink.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thank you, Alicia. Coupled with the Convention Oversight Committee
>>>> experience you mention, this does raise questions. But beyond the
>>>> issue of getting the requested information, I was honestly shocked to
>>>> hear that only Wes and Robert are usually in the office full time. If
>>>> their time is valuable enough to justify what we're paying them,
>>>> surely we should not be having them routinely spend that time on
>>>> tasks that lower-paid staffers, or volunteers, could be handling.
>>>>
>>>> I would like to hear what Nick Sarwark as chair thinks about both the
>>>> data request compliance and how staff hours are apparently being
>>>>
>>> allocated.
>>
>>> Love & Liberty,
>>>>
>>>> ((( starchild ))) At-Large
>>>> Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>>>> RealReform at earthlink.net
>>>> (415) 625-FREE
>>>> @StarchildSF
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jun 7, 2017, at 3:02 PM, Alicia Mattson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Starchild,
>>>>
>>>> I have a lot of disagreements with your other ideas about how we
>>>> should find meeting locations and what arrangements are workable.
>>>>
>>>> However, I do agree with you that it should not take so long to
>>>> provide the LNC with basic data about the routine costs of our
>>>> meetings, and provide copies of the meeting space contracts showing
>>>> which of those expenses are required performance. You've been asking
>>>> for some time, and it's not that large of a data request.
>>>>
>>>> Recently, the Convention Oversight Committee was not in agreement
>>>> about whether to again use an outside professional to assist with the
>>>> 2020 site search, or whether to do it in-house with Robert Kraus as the
>>>>
>>> point person.
>>
>>> When the issue of asking a staff member to take on such a
>>>> time-consuming job was discussed, the COC was told that when Wes
>>>> tells the LNC that staff is overloaded, that characterization does
>>>> not necessarily include Robert Kraus, and he was willing and able to
>>>> add such a large project to his plate. If that's the case, then I
>>>> don't see why there isn't time to fulfill this data request of yours in
>>>> a
>>>>
>>> more timely manner.
>>
>>> -Alicia
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 4:34 PM, Starchild <sfdreamer at earthlink.net>
>>>>
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>>> Maybe I just haven't been paying attention. That's what LP
>>>>> operations manager Robert Kraus suggested when I spoke with him
>>>>> today and expressed surprise at his statement that he and Wes
>>>>> Benedict are the only paid staff working full time at our office. He
>>>>> said that if I'd read the report Wes presented at the last LNC meeting,
>>>>>
>>>> I would have been aware of the situation.
>>
>>> Robert told me this by way of explaining why he has not yet sent the
>>>>> LNC the details of how much we are paying for hotel meeting space,
>>>>> food and beverage obligations, staff airline flights, shipping
>>>>> costs, etc., in connection with LNC meetings. At the last LNC
>>>>> meeting in Pittsburgh in April, he told me in response to my asking
>>>>> him for this information that he would send it within a week or so.
>>>>> When I spoke with him today, he said that if I wanted him to stop
>>>>> what he was doing and send the information now, he would have to
>>>>> stop working on updating donor information to help us raise money,
>>>>> because he was the only person in the office right now. When I asked
>>>>> whether he could get us the meeting information prior to the next
>>>>> LNC meeting on August 19 (over 2 months from now, and 4 months from
>>>>> when
>>>>>
>>>> he originally said he'd provide it), his response was "possibly".
>>
>>> We have 11 people listed on our staff page
>>>>> (https://www.lp.org/staff/), not even counting individuals like our
>>>>> legal counsel and our FEC consultant who are kind of "on call", and
>>>>> although political director Carla Howell's contract wasn't renewed,
>>>>> the chair recently proposed adding an additional lower-level
>>>>> staffer. With that many folks on the roster, I don't understand why
>>>>> the two highest-paid individuals on staff are the only ones who are
>>>>> being paid full-time salaries and asked to staff the office largely
>>>>> by themselves. If this is true, it means that our highest-paid
>>>>> staffers are likely spending a significant part of their time doing
>>>>> routine office tasks like answering phone calls which could be handled
>>>>>
>>>> by lower-paid staffers or even by volunteers.
>>
>>> Robert did say he agreed with me that staff should not be asked to
>>>>> monitor or be involved in the party's social media outreach, which
>>>>> would potentially take a lot of their time away from other tasks. I
>>>>> also suggested that volunteers, instead of staff, could be the ones
>>>>> to research LNC meeting locations and present options to the LNC.
>>>>> Local activists in the cities where we're considering holding
>>>>> meetings would be the logical people to do this. If we don't have
>>>>> any local activists in a particular area able to help us find free
>>>>> or low-cost meeting venues there and help with details such as
>>>>> coordinating local transportation and folks able to host out-of-town
>>>>> visitors, it would beg the question of why we are meeting in that
>>>>> location instead of somewhere there is an active local Libertarian
>>>>> organization that can support us and which we in turn can support by
>>>>> seeking to arrange to have visiting LNC members make press appearances,
>>>>>
>>>> attend local campaign events, do fundraising, etc., while in town.
>>
>>> But if what Robert says is correct, it seems to me that we are not
>>>>> running our office efficiently. It also seems to me that LNC members
>>>>> being made to wait months and months after an LNC meeting to see
>>>>> what the actual expenses were for that meeting is unreasonable.
>>>>> Actually, we should be seeing such expenses listed before each
>>>>> meeting, since expenses like hotel meeting space fees, food and
>>>>> beverage obligations, staff airline flights, and shipping costs are
>>>>> in most cases known in advance. And we should be seeing estimates of
>>>>> these costs prior to even making a decision on where to meet, since
>>>>> such
>>>>>
>>>> costs ought to factor into our decisions.
>>
>>> Love & Liberty,
>>>>>
>>>>> ((( starchild ))) At-Large
>>>>> Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>>>>> RealReform at earthlink.net
>>>>> (415) 625-FREE
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
>>>>> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>>>>>
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>>
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