[Lnc-business] LNC goals for 2018 and the 2018-2020 term
James Lark
james.lark at lp.org
Mon Jul 9 18:39:48 EDT 2018
Dear colleagues:
I hope all is well with you. I am writing to initiate a discussion
of LNC goals for the rest of 2018 and the 2018 – 2020 term.
In what follows, I offer some comments and suggestions about
selecting our goals for 2018 and the 2018-2020 term, in addition to
comments about some projects and outcomes I would like the LNC to
consider.I hope you find my comments to be helpful.(Those who served
with me during previous LNC terms may recall that I sent similar
messages concerning goals for those terms.)
Allow me to emphasize that the purpose of this message is to
initiate a discussion of goals.While I have enclosed below some
prospective goals for your consideration, I have not offered suggestions
concerning the specific strategies, tactics, and resources required to
achieve such goals.I believe we should prepare a list of reasonable
goals for consideration, determine the ones for which suitable
strategies and tactics exist (given our resource constraints), and then
select and prioritize the goals we deem most appropriate.
I. Assumptions and Preferences
In offering these comments I have the following preferences and use
the following assumptions:
1) Based upon information provided at the initial LNC meeting by
treasurer Tim Hagan, I believe it is possible the LNC will conclude the
2018 fiscal year with a net operating surplus. However, since I prefer
to be very conservative in estimating revenues, I shall assume for the
purpose of discussion that the LNC will conclude the 2018 fiscal year
with a net operating deficit between $50,000 and $125,000.
2) At this time, I believe it is not unreasonable to assume the LP will
have between 15,000 and 17,000 sustaining members by Dec. 31, 2018.
3) I have a very strong preference for selecting goals involving matters
over which the LNC has the ability to control or to influence
substantially. For example, the quality of LPHQ service to our members
and the suite of goods and services available to our members are matters
over which the LNC has effective control.
Although I have this preference, I have suggested below membership
and fundraising goals for the 2018-2020 term; these goals are in some
sense exceptions to this preference. That is, to a substantial degree
our membership and fundraising levels are influenced by events outside
our ability to influence substantially, much less control. For example,
actions taken by President Trump may generate substantially increased
interest in the LP. In addition, an endorsement of the Libertarian
Party and its candidates by a prominent celebrity with no previous
connection to the libertarian movement could help us greatly.
4) At the risk of belaboring what may be obvious, I believe it is very
important for the LNC to ascertain to the extent possible the
preferences of our members and affiliate organizations. In particular, I
hope my fellow regional representatives are soliciting information about
such preferences from their state affiliates.
II. Goal Categories
For the purpose of exposition, I shall use the list of categories
below; they are listed in no particular order of importance. I hope you
find this categorization method to be helpful.I realize there are other
ways of categorizing our activities; you are welcome to recommend other
ways for our consideration.Please note that these categories are not
mutually exclusive; many goals can be included under several categories.
1) Financial Resources
This category concerns issues associated with raising funds for our
operations. Specifically, we should determine our financial needs in
relation to our goals for the year and term, and identify the means by
which we obtain funding for those needs. As part of determining goals in
this category, we should consider the following:
* How much do we need during the 2018-2020 term to accomplish our goals?
* How do we attract new donors (including those who are not LP members)?
* How do we encourage current donors (including LP members) to increase
their donations?
* How do we recognize and reward donors for their generosity?
* Are our current methods of fundraising appropriate?
* Should we increase the amount we allocate to a reserve fund (e.g., a
"rainy day fund")?
I believe we should continue to enable our donors to select more
easily the budget categories (or perhaps specific projects) they want
their donations to fund.While LP.org already provides special webpages
for affiliate support, ballot access, the building fund, historical
preservation, the Legal Offense Fund, and the State CRM project, it may
be helpful to provide a larger menu of choices (e.g., candidate/campaign
staff development, youth outreach) to which donors can direct their
donations.
2) Member and Affiliate Support
This category involves several areas of activity. I consider these
issues to be of particular importance:
* Do we have an acceptable level of performance in providing service to
our members? In what ways can we improve our service?
* In what ways can we improve our support to our affiliate
organizations? This support can occur in many ways, such as funding
ballot access activities and/or outreach activities, providing advice on
improving organizational structure (e.g., filling potentially dangerous
lacunae in organization bylaws), and providing legal advice on dealing
with government regulations (e.g., campaign finance regulations).
* How do we help our members become better activists and candidates? In
particular, what educational and training programs should we sponsor?
* In what ways can we improve the process of recognizing and rewarding
our members?
* In what ways can we improve LP.org, /LP News/, /Liberty Pledge News/,
and our social media webpages to provide useful information to our members?
If I understand correctly, the work performed by Andy Burns (State
Affiliate Development Specialist) has been very well received by many
state affiliates.The LNC should consider in what ways the program
supporting Mr. Burns can be improved.
During my service as national chairman (the 2000-2002 LNC term),
executive director Steve Dasbach and I considered the possibility of
funding a "regional director" to assist the state affiliates of New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. We thought a "regional director"
might be able to take advantage of economies of scale to improve the
ability of these affiliates to respond to prospect inquiries, to
generate media coverage, to monitor important legislation, and in
general to make the affiliates more effective in their efforts. The LNC
may wish to consider a similar idea.
I am investigating ways in which to fund "field organizers" to
assist with building Libertarian groups on college campuses, perhaps as
part of a broader program to provide assistance to affiliate
organizations. The LNC may also want to consider the possibility of
funding "field organizers" as part of its support to affiliate
organizations.
Incidentally, the LNC has funded such programs in the past.For
example, Joe Knight of New Mexico served as a "field organizer" to
assist in building campus organizations during the early 1990s. If I
remember correctly, by 1993 the LNC had discontinued the program.I
believe the LNC decided that the program did not produce results that
justified the cost. I believe the LNC also funded a position of "field
organizer" for Marla Bottemiller during roughly the same time period.
Again, the LNC eventually chose not to continue the program. I suspect
the position was not continued for the same reason the campus field
organizer program was not continued; however, I do not know this with
certainty.
3) Membership Recruitment and Retention
This category involves issues of how we recruit new members and
retain current members. Of course, our ability to recruit and retain
members depends upon many factors, such as the success of our candidates
and the quality of our service to our members. Some questions for our
consideration include:
* Should we target specific population segments for recruitment efforts?
For example, should we emphasize outreach to college students, owners of
small businesses, members of certain demographic groups, etc.?
* In what ways should we seek new members? These ways could include
direct mail (both postal and Internet), advertising in various media
(including radio and cable TV ads, YouTube videos, Google ads,
billboards), and outreach efforts at conventions of various organizations.
* In what ways can we improve our literature, website, and social media
to facilitate our recruiting efforts?
* In what ways can we improve the process of recognizing and rewarding
our members? (This issue is common to several categories.)
As you may know, I am involved in various ways in libertarian
outreach to high school and college students. In addition, some of the
funds I have donated to the LNC are under my control as the campus
outreach coordinator. Also, I am a member of the board of directors (and
member of the board of advisors) of libertarian organizations that
promote outreach to college students.
Thus, I may have conflicts of interest with regard to the approval
of LNC goals involving campus outreach.Should I believe such conflicts
exist, I shall bring them to the attention of the LNC and refrain from
voting on such matters.
4) Influence/Impact
This category involves issues of how we can influence the political
landscape, and how we can increase the impact of our activities.Some
questions for our consideration include:
* In what ways can we improve our influence with various news media and
information channels? (I use the term "information channel" to describe
entities such as blogs.) For example, should we issue more press
releases? Should we devote more effort to finding interview
opportunities for LP members and candidates?Should we invest more
resources in “social media”?
* In what ways can we improve our ability to mobilize our members and
friends to support specific projects? For example, if we need to
mobilize our members to support/oppose a specific piece of legislation
in Congress, how can we best achieve this? (One important aspect of this
may involve how we recognize and reward those who respond to our calls
for action.)
* In what ways can we establish and improve relations with "libertarian
movement" organizations (e.g., Cato Institute), "friend of the family"
organizations (e.g., National Taxpayers Union), and issue-oriented
organizations (e.g., Marijuana Policy Project)? For example, should we
make a greater effort to obtain speaking invitations for LP members at
conferences sponsored by the aforementioned organizations? Should we
invest more resources in sponsoring information booths at such conferences?
* In what ways can we benefit by working with other organizations on
specific projects, such as promoting good legislation/defeating bad
legislation in Congress?
* Should we consider participating in litigation to achieve specific
results? For example, should we consider additional challenges to
campaign finance regulation?
* Should we increase our participation in organizations that seek to
make redistricting less partisan? Should we be more involved with
efforts to move toward voting methods such as ranked choice voting?
(Note: Our distinguished colleague Bill Redpath serves as treasurer of
the Board of Directors of FairVote. In addition, former LP stalwart
Paul Jacob serves as vice chair of the Board.)
I believe an important component to our increasing our
influence/impact is for the LNC to improve its capacity for strategic
thinking and long-range planning. In particular, I believe we must do a
better job of anticipating opportunities for the LP to make a positive
impact on the political landscape.
5) Candidate Support
This category involves issues of how we can best support our
candidates at all levels.Some of the questions in this category include:
* In what ways can we support candidates for election this year?
*In what ways should we support the 2020 presidential campaign? For
example, in what ways can we generate support for inclusion of the 2020
LP presidential ticket in the debates?
* What programs should we sponsor to train our candidates and campaign
personnel? These programs should include not only training in the "nuts
and bolts" of running successful campaigns, but also helping candidates
to develop platforms that are both Libertarian and appealing to voters.
(Note: It may be appropriate for us to outsource certain types of
training to organizations such as the Leadership Institute.)
* In what ways should we publicize our candidates, both inside and
outside the LP? In what ways should we recognize and reward our candidates?
* In what ways should we support our elected and appointed officials?
As part of candidate development and support, I believe we need to
develop and maintain a high-quality repository of information about
prior campaigns, both to provide information about what ideas have been
tried and to compile a list of "best practices" for campaigns.
6) Operations Issues
This category includes various issues involving the operations of
the LNC and our responsibility to conduct the affairs of the Libertarian
Party. Some of the issues we should address include:
* What are our goals for the 2020 national convention in Austin, Texas?
* How should we evaluate prospective national convention sites for 2022
(and perhaps 2024)?
* Do we need to review our internal rules and procedures? For example,
do we need to conduct a review of the Policy Manual?
* Should the LNC adopt a more formal (or perhaps, more extensive)
committee structure to assist us in our efforts?
* Should we conduct a formal evaluation of the LP Bylaws and Convention
Rules, with the purpose of offering suggestions for improvement to the
2020 Bylaws Committee? (Various problems associated with the LNC
at-large and Judicial Committee elections at the 2018 national
convention suggest that an evaluation of the Bylaws and Convention Rules
could be helpful.)
* Should we evaluate the current organizational structure of the LPHQ
staff? (Of course, such an evaluation would require the participation of
Wes Benedict in his capacity as Executive Director.)
III. Suggested Goals
Allow me to suggest that we consider adopting goals along the
following lines. They are listed in roughly a descending order of
importance. Please do not hesitate to offer comments and suggestions
about the goals we should consider.
G1: The LP will have at least 20,000 sustaining members as of May 1, 2020.
G2: The LNC will take action to see that each state has an operational
affiliate party by July 1, 2019. I suggest that "operational affiliate
party" be defined in the following manner:
* There is a properly maintained website for the affiliate (perhaps the
website is paid for and maintained by the LNC).
* There is at least one LP member in the state who actively serves as an
official contact for the affiliate in its dealings with the LNC, and
there is at least one LP member in the state who actively serves as a
contact for the affiliate in its dealings with the state government.
* LPHQ has a copy of the current bylaws and associated documents for the
affiliate, along with a copy of the relevant laws of that state
regarding political parties and ballot access.
(We may wish to add to the definition something along the lines of
"Inquiries to the affiliate receive a response in a timely manner.")
G3: The LNC will raise at least $3.5 million from July 1, 2018 until
May 1, 2020.
G4: The LNC will develop and approve new and revised outreach
literature, to be available no later than Dec. 31, 2018. Some of the
literature (e.g., issue pamphlets) should be available in the form of
PDFs that can be downloaded from LP.org.
Note: I believe the LNC should pursue this goal as part of a more
general process of literature development and evaluation. In a separate
message I shall send you some suggestions concerning this more general
process.
G5: The LNC will sponsor a series of seminars/workshops in 2019 at
various locations around the country.The workshops could be structured
largely along the lines of the "Success '97" and "Success '99" seminars
(instruction on the basics of affiliate development and candidate
development).Note: Approval of this goal should be contingent upon the
degree of interest demonstrated by our members and affiliates.
As far as I can remember, the LNC did not vote to adopt goals for
the 2016-2018 term. I believe it would be appropriate to discuss
prospective goals for the term (along with goals for the remainder of
2018) between now and the next LNC meeting (probably to take place on
Sept. 29-30), and to adopt goals during that meeting.
IV. Additional Considerations
In addition to the suggested goals, I hope the LNC will accomplish
the following during the next several months:
* Develop a well-maintained calendar of the events at which it is
desirable to have an LP presence (e.g., speaker, information booth,
literature distributed to attendees, advertising in conference program).
For example, the calendar would include the dates of the national
conferences of "friend of the family" organizations. Presumably the
calendar would also include information as to event location, contact
information for event coordinators, etc.
* Utilize /LP News/ and LP.org more effectively to recognize and reward
quality activism. For example, I would like to see an article in each
issue of /LP News/ that recognizes an outstanding effort by an LP
activist, affiliate organization, and/or candidate. Similarly, I would
like to see at least one article per month on the website that
recognizes such outstanding efforts.
As an aside, I realize the work required to identify and recognize
outstanding efforts can be substantial. Moreover, I realize that such
recognition can actually cause problems. (Some members may believe the
honorees do not deserve such recognition. Other members may feel
slighted by the fact that their efforts have not been recognized.)
However, all things considered I believe we shall benefit by including
more material in our "house organs" about fine work by our members.
* After analyzing the results of the 2018 elections, develop and approve
a plan by Feb. 15, 2019 for dealing with ballot access issues during the
2019-2024 time period.
I shall greatly appreciate any comments and suggestions you have
concerning LNC goals and projects for this year and this term. In
addition, I would be grateful if Mr. Benedict and his staff colleagues
would review this message and offer their comments.
I consider it likely that I have omitted some issues you will deem
worthy of discussion.Hence, I may send a revised version of this message
in the near future, along with a revised list of goals for consideration.
Thanks for your work for liberty, and for your consideration of
this message. Best wishes to you in all your endeavors; I look forward
to seeing you in late September, if not before.
Take care,
Jim
James W. Lark, III
Professor, Dept. of Systems and Information Engineering
Professor, Applied Mathematics Program, Dept. of Engineering and
Society
Affiliated Faculty, Dept. of Statistics
University of Virginia
Advisor, The Liberty Coalition
University of Virginia
Region 5 Representative, Libertarian National Committee
-------------- next part --------------
Dear colleagues:
I hope all is well with you. I am writing to initiate a discussion
of LNC goals for the rest of 2018 and the 2018 – 2020 term.
In what follows, I offer some comments and suggestions about
selecting our goals for 2018 and the 2018-2020 term, in addition to
comments about some projects and outcomes I would like the LNC to
consider. I hope you find my comments to be helpful. (Those who
served with me during previous LNC terms may recall that I sent similar
messages concerning goals for those terms.)
Allow me to emphasize that the purpose of this message is to
initiate a discussion of goals. While I have enclosed below some
prospective goals for your consideration, I have not offered
suggestions concerning the specific strategies, tactics, and resources
required to achieve such goals. I believe we should prepare a list of
reasonable goals for consideration, determine the ones for which
suitable strategies and tactics exist (given our resource constraints),
and then select and prioritize the goals we deem most appropriate.
I. Assumptions and Preferences
In offering these comments I have the following preferences and use
the following assumptions:
1) Based upon information provided at the initial LNC meeting by
treasurer Tim Hagan, I believe it is possible the LNC will conclude the
2018 fiscal year with a net operating surplus. However, since I prefer
to be very conservative in estimating revenues, I shall assume for the
purpose of discussion that the LNC will conclude the 2018 fiscal year
with a net operating deficit between $50,000 and $125,000.
2) At this time, I believe it is not unreasonable to assume the LP
will have between 15,000 and 17,000 sustaining members by Dec. 31,
2018.
3) I have a very strong preference for selecting goals involving
matters over which the LNC has the ability to control or to influence
substantially. For example, the quality of LPHQ service to our members
and the suite of goods and services available to our members are
matters over which the LNC has effective control.
Although I have this preference, I have suggested below membership
and fundraising goals for the 2018-2020 term; these goals are in some
sense exceptions to this preference. That is, to a substantial degree
our membership and fundraising levels are influenced by events outside
our ability to influence substantially, much less control. For
example, actions taken by President Trump may generate substantially
increased interest in the LP. In addition, an endorsement of the
Libertarian Party and its candidates by a prominent celebrity with no
previous connection to the libertarian movement could help us greatly.
4) At the risk of belaboring what may be obvious, I believe it is very
important for the LNC to ascertain to the extent possible the
preferences of our members and affiliate organizations. In particular,
I hope my fellow regional representatives are soliciting information
about such preferences from their state affiliates.
II. Goal Categories
For the purpose of exposition, I shall use the list of categories
below; they are listed in no particular order of importance. I hope
you find this categorization method to be helpful. I realize there are
other ways of categorizing our activities; you are welcome to recommend
other ways for our consideration. Please note that these categories
are not mutually exclusive; many goals can be included under several
categories.
1) Financial Resources
This category concerns issues associated with raising funds for our
operations. Specifically, we should determine our financial needs in
relation to our goals for the year and term, and identify the means by
which we obtain funding for those needs. As part of determining goals
in this category, we should consider the following:
* How much do we need during the 2018-2020 term to accomplish our
goals?
* How do we attract new donors (including those who are not LP
members)?
* How do we encourage current donors (including LP members) to increase
their donations?
* How do we recognize and reward donors for their generosity?
* Are our current methods of fundraising appropriate?
* Should we increase the amount we allocate to a reserve fund (e.g., a
"rainy day fund")?
I believe we should continue to enable our donors to select more
easily the budget categories (or perhaps specific projects) they want
their donations to fund. While LP.org already provides special
webpages for affiliate support, ballot access, the building fund,
historical preservation, the Legal Offense Fund, and the State CRM
project, it may be helpful to provide a larger menu of choices (e.g.,
candidate/campaign staff development, youth outreach) to which donors
can direct their donations.
2) Member and Affiliate Support
This category involves several areas of activity. I consider these
issues to be of particular importance:
* Do we have an acceptable level of performance in providing service to
our members? In what ways can we improve our service?
* In what ways can we improve our support to our affiliate
organizations? This support can occur in many ways, such as funding
ballot access activities and/or outreach activities, providing advice
on improving organizational structure (e.g., filling potentially
dangerous lacunae in organization bylaws), and providing legal advice
on dealing with government regulations (e.g., campaign finance
regulations).
* How do we help our members become better activists and candidates?
In particular, what educational and training programs should we
sponsor?
* In what ways can we improve the process of recognizing and rewarding
our members?
* In what ways can we improve LP.org, LP News, Liberty Pledge News, and
our social media webpages to provide useful information to our members?
If I understand correctly, the work performed by Andy Burns (State
Affiliate Development Specialist) has been very well received by many
state affiliates. The LNC should consider in what ways the program
supporting Mr. Burns can be improved.
During my service as national chairman (the 2000-2002 LNC term),
executive director Steve Dasbach and I considered the possibility of
funding a "regional director" to assist the state affiliates of New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. We thought a "regional director"
might be able to take advantage of economies of scale to improve the
ability of these affiliates to respond to prospect inquiries, to
generate media coverage, to monitor important legislation, and in
general to make the affiliates more effective in their efforts. The
LNC may wish to consider a similar idea.
I am investigating ways in which to fund "field organizers" to
assist with building Libertarian groups on college campuses, perhaps as
part of a broader program to provide assistance to affiliate
organizations. The LNC may also want to consider the possibility of
funding "field organizers" as part of its support to affiliate
organizations.
Incidentally, the LNC has funded such programs in the past. For
example, Joe Knight of New Mexico served as a "field organizer" to
assist in building campus organizations during the early 1990s. If I
remember correctly, by 1993 the LNC had discontinued the program. I
believe the LNC decided that the program did not produce results that
justified the cost. I believe the LNC also funded a position of "field
organizer" for Marla Bottemiller during roughly the same time period.
Again, the LNC eventually chose not to continue the program. I suspect
the position was not continued for the same reason the campus field
organizer program was not continued; however, I do not know this with
certainty.
3) Membership Recruitment and Retention
This category involves issues of how we recruit new members and
retain current members. Of course, our ability to recruit and retain
members depends upon many factors, such as the success of our
candidates and the quality of our service to our members. Some
questions for our consideration include:
* Should we target specific population segments for recruitment
efforts? For example, should we emphasize outreach to college
students, owners of small businesses, members of certain demographic
groups, etc.?
* In what ways should we seek new members? These ways could include
direct mail (both postal and Internet), advertising in various media
(including radio and cable TV ads, YouTube videos, Google ads,
billboards), and outreach efforts at conventions of various
organizations.
* In what ways can we improve our literature, website, and social media
to facilitate our recruiting efforts?
* In what ways can we improve the process of recognizing and rewarding
our members? (This issue is common to several categories.)
As you may know, I am involved in various ways in libertarian
outreach to high school and college students. In addition, some of the
funds I have donated to the LNC are under my control as the campus
outreach coordinator. Also, I am a member of the board of directors
(and member of the board of advisors) of libertarian organizations that
promote outreach to college students.
Thus, I may have conflicts of interest with regard to the approval
of LNC goals involving campus outreach. Should I believe such
conflicts exist, I shall bring them to the attention of the LNC and
refrain from voting on such matters.
4) Influence/Impact
This category involves issues of how we can influence the political
landscape, and how we can increase the impact of our activities. Some
questions for our consideration include:
* In what ways can we improve our influence with various news media and
information channels? (I use the term "information channel" to
describe entities such as blogs.) For example, should we issue more
press releases? Should we devote more effort to finding interview
opportunities for LP members and candidates? Should we invest more
resources in “social media”?
* In what ways can we improve our ability to mobilize our members and
friends to support specific projects? For example, if we need to
mobilize our members to support/oppose a specific piece of legislation
in Congress, how can we best achieve this? (One important aspect of
this may involve how we recognize and reward those who respond to our
calls for action.)
* In what ways can we establish and improve relations with "libertarian
movement" organizations (e.g., Cato Institute), "friend of the family"
organizations (e.g., National Taxpayers Union), and issue-oriented
organizations (e.g., Marijuana Policy Project)? For example, should we
make a greater effort to obtain speaking invitations for LP members at
conferences sponsored by the aforementioned organizations? Should we
invest more resources in sponsoring information booths at such
conferences?
* In what ways can we benefit by working with other organizations on
specific projects, such as promoting good legislation/defeating bad
legislation in Congress?
* Should we consider participating in litigation to achieve specific
results? For example, should we consider additional challenges to
campaign finance regulation?
* Should we increase our participation in organizations that seek to
make redistricting less partisan? Should we be more involved with
efforts to move toward voting methods such as ranked choice voting?
(Note: Our distinguished colleague Bill Redpath serves as treasurer of
the Board of Directors of FairVote. In addition, former LP stalwart
Paul Jacob serves as vice chair of the Board.)
I believe an important component to our increasing our
influence/impact is for the LNC to improve its capacity for strategic
thinking and long-range planning. In particular, I believe we must do
a better job of anticipating opportunities for the LP to make a
positive impact on the political landscape.
5) Candidate Support
This category involves issues of how we can best support our
candidates at all levels. Some of the questions in this category
include:
* In what ways can we support candidates for election this year?
* In what ways should we support the 2020 presidential campaign? For
example, in what ways can we generate support for inclusion of the 2020
LP presidential ticket in the debates?
* What programs should we sponsor to train our candidates and campaign
personnel? These programs should include not only training in the
"nuts and bolts" of running successful campaigns, but also helping
candidates to develop platforms that are both Libertarian and appealing
to voters. (Note: It may be appropriate for us to outsource certain
types of training to organizations such as the Leadership Institute.)
* In what ways should we publicize our candidates, both inside and
outside the LP? In what ways should we recognize and reward our
candidates?
* In what ways should we support our elected and appointed officials?
As part of candidate development and support, I believe we need to
develop and maintain a high-quality repository of information about
prior campaigns, both to provide information about what ideas have been
tried and to compile a list of "best practices" for campaigns.
6) Operations Issues
This category includes various issues involving the operations of
the LNC and our responsibility to conduct the affairs of the
Libertarian Party. Some of the issues we should address include:
* What are our goals for the 2020 national convention in Austin, Texas?
* How should we evaluate prospective national convention sites for 2022
(and perhaps 2024)?
* Do we need to review our internal rules and procedures? For example,
do we need to conduct a review of the Policy Manual?
* Should the LNC adopt a more formal (or perhaps, more extensive)
committee structure to assist us in our efforts?
* Should we conduct a formal evaluation of the LP Bylaws and Convention
Rules, with the purpose of offering suggestions for improvement to the
2020 Bylaws Committee? (Various problems associated with the LNC
at-large and Judicial Committee elections at the 2018 national
convention suggest that an evaluation of the Bylaws and Convention
Rules could be helpful.)
* Should we evaluate the current organizational structure of the LPHQ
staff? (Of course, such an evaluation would require the participation
of Wes Benedict in his capacity as Executive Director.)
III. Suggested Goals
Allow me to suggest that we consider adopting goals along the
following lines. They are listed in roughly a descending order of
importance. Please do not hesitate to offer comments and suggestions
about the goals we should consider.
G1: The LP will have at least 20,000 sustaining members as of May 1,
2020.
G2: The LNC will take action to see that each state has an operational
affiliate party by July 1, 2019. I suggest that "operational affiliate
party" be defined in the following manner:
* There is a properly maintained website for the affiliate (perhaps the
website is paid for and maintained by the LNC).
* There is at least one LP member in the state who actively serves as
an official contact for the affiliate in its dealings with the LNC, and
there is at least one LP member in the state who actively serves as a
contact for the affiliate in its dealings with the state government.
* LPHQ has a copy of the current bylaws and associated documents for
the affiliate, along with a copy of the relevant laws of that state
regarding political parties and ballot access.
(We may wish to add to the definition something along the lines of
"Inquiries to the affiliate receive a response in a timely manner.")
G3: The LNC will raise at least $3.5 million from July 1, 2018 until
May 1, 2020.
G4: The LNC will develop and approve new and revised outreach
literature, to be available no later than Dec. 31, 2018. Some of the
literature (e.g., issue pamphlets) should be available in the form of
PDFs that can be downloaded from LP.org.
Note: I believe the LNC should pursue this goal as part of a more
general process of literature development and evaluation. In a
separate message I shall send you some suggestions concerning this more
general process.
G5: The LNC will sponsor a series of seminars/workshops in 2019 at
various locations around the country. The workshops could be
structured largely along the lines of the "Success '97" and "Success
'99" seminars (instruction on the basics of affiliate development and
candidate development). Note: Approval of this goal should be
contingent upon the degree of interest demonstrated by our members and
affiliates.
As far as I can remember, the LNC did not vote to adopt goals for
the 2016-2018 term. I believe it would be appropriate to discuss
prospective goals for the term (along with goals for the remainder of
2018) between now and the next LNC meeting (probably to take place on
Sept. 29-30), and to adopt goals during that meeting.
IV. Additional Considerations
In addition to the suggested goals, I hope the LNC will accomplish
the following during the next several months:
* Develop a well-maintained calendar of the events at which it is
desirable to have an LP presence (e.g., speaker, information booth,
literature distributed to attendees, advertising in conference
program). For example, the calendar would include the dates of the
national conferences of "friend of the family" organizations.
Presumably the calendar would also include information as to event
location, contact information for event coordinators, etc.
* Utilize LP News and LP.org more effectively to recognize and reward
quality activism. For example, I would like to see an article in each
issue of LP News that recognizes an outstanding effort by an LP
activist, affiliate organization, and/or candidate. Similarly, I would
like to see at least one article per month on the website that
recognizes such outstanding efforts.
As an aside, I realize the work required to identify and recognize
outstanding efforts can be substantial. Moreover, I realize that such
recognition can actually cause problems. (Some members may believe the
honorees do not deserve such recognition. Other members may feel
slighted by the fact that their efforts have not been recognized.)
However, all things considered I believe we shall benefit by including
more material in our "house organs" about fine work by our members.
* After analyzing the results of the 2018 elections, develop and
approve a plan by Feb. 15, 2019 for dealing with ballot access issues
during the 2019-2024 time period.
I shall greatly appreciate any comments and suggestions you have
concerning LNC goals and projects for this year and this term. In
addition, I would be grateful if Mr. Benedict and his staff colleagues
would review this message and offer their comments.
I consider it likely that I have omitted some issues you will deem
worthy of discussion. Hence, I may send a revised version of this
message in the near future, along with a revised list of goals for
consideration.
Thanks for your work for liberty, and for your consideration of
this message. Best wishes to you in all your endeavors; I look forward
to seeing you in late September, if not before.
Take care,
Jim
James W. Lark, III
Professor, Dept. of Systems and Information Engineering
Professor, Applied Mathematics Program, Dept. of Engineering and
Society
Affiliated Faculty, Dept. of Statistics
University of Virginia
Advisor, The Liberty Coalition
University of Virginia
Region 5 Representative, Libertarian National Committee
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