[Lnc-business] Ideas for Change

[Craig Bowden]

Starchild,

My thoughts on your proposals:
1. Transparency I agree with 100%. This is a must, especially since the 
"big  two" do a lot of backroom stuff. If we are more upfront, we offer 
another contrast for the people.

2. I LOVE the idea for more interactive capabilities on the website. The 
blog idea should be fairly easy to do too. I think most people don't 
know who many of the members are. I would add that I think staff should 
be more able to do this as well, especially our candidate support, 
affiliate support, and our development staff. We can definitely have 
more ability to showcase what is going on and the ideas we all have to 
move the party in a good direction.

3. I'm not as particular here. I think we can accomplish this whether or 
not we use a hotel. I would leave this more up to each CoC to form the 
plan on this. But having a better rotation of individuals on that 
committee may bring new ideas forward.

4. LOVE the RV idea. I do worry about cost, but I would love to see this 
if it could be justified. Or outreach vehicles we can display at events 
(vehicles with vehicle wraps).

5. I definitely want more members on more committees so we don't have 
the same handful doing everything.

6. I don't think this necessarily is needed per se. As we are a bottom 
up organization, you don't really need to wait for delegated tasks to 
get some things done. For example, I used to wait on the Utah Executive 
Committee for approval to do some outreach events. This became laborious 
waiting for the "authority" to do this. So I started a county affiliate 
that now does its own. We ended up doing more events than our state EC 
and are one of the strongest county affiliates because we didn't wait 
around.

7. I would add that on top of showing the overall struggle, we also need 
more stories about the grassroots people doing amazing things. We see 
some of the more top level candidates getting news. I think the Larry 
Sharpe and Laura Ebke types are needed and should be showcased, but what 
about the petition gatherer in the rain? Or the door canvasser that gets 
a huge stack of yard signs for a candidate displayed? We need local 
"hero" stories too.

8. Kind of ties in to my thoughts above.

9. I agree. I sent a possible coalition when I first came on the LNC for 
everyone to look at. Didn't seem to go anywhere. We should be finding as 
many opportunities for bridges as we can.

10. Or work to increase our budget so this isn't an issue. Retention and 
recruiting. Meetings do need to take place. I personally don't mind if 
they are at a Motel 6 though.

11. Kind of ties in to #9, but yes, the youth are typically going to go 
one of two ways: Bernie types or Libertarians. Getting the college 
students, and I am going to throw high school seniors in here as well, 
puts them on a better path. I have had some of my biggest campaign 
successes with students that were in college or seniors in high school.

12. I believe this is something that should be done if a person is 
willing to do it, but not an official attempt. I am not above protests 
and unconventional politics when needed, but as a policy for a political 
party, I don't like it. If someone does see an opportunity, however, 
bring it up and see where it goes.

13. I would tie in that you could use these same individuals to go to 
more functions like conferences. The Libertarian Party does send the 
Chair to do things like FreedomFest. But imagine if we could get several 
activists on panels and speeches on a host of issues where they are 
subject matter experts. We need more ambassadors in more areas. I think 
its time to stop only focusing on the political side. We need more 
business involvement, more issue based involvement, etc.

I like where you are going with a lot of suggestions. We should also be 
encouraging our state affiliates to be dong the same. We need all levels 
finding new opportunities.

Regards,

Craig Bowden
Region 1 Alternate

On 2018-06-17 07:12, Starchild via Lnc-business wrote:
> I recently posted some ideas on IPR (IndependentPoliticalReport.com)
> for changes I believe would benefit the Libertarian Party and our
> cause of freedom. Some of these ideas will not be new to some of you,
> but I'm posting the full list here for the record.
> 
> 
> 1) More transparency in things like committee meetings, staff
> salaries, contracts, leaders’ contact information, and party
> governance in general; make our commitment to institutional
> transparency much stronger and more ingrained in our structure and
> culture than it is now
> 
> 2) Turn LP.org into a much more interactive, participatory website
> (more polls, more calls to action, let LNC members blog again, let LP
> members comment on stories, have social media profiles, etc.)
> 
> 3) Get our conventions out of hotels and without sacrificing business
> sessions or speakers, make them more like festivals, with more music,
> art, workshops, outdoors activities, and a variety of events to
> attract a more diverse range of supporters and attendees, including
> having lots of opportunities and reasons for non-libertarians to
> attend and be exposed to libertarian ideas without paying
> 
> 4) Make party headquarters more of a community center and activist
> workspace open to everyone, so it feels less like the private domain
> of staff and we can get more use out of the space, and put a “mobile
> HQ” on the road (an RV or some similar large vehicle or vehicles
> emblazoned with libertarian messaging to travel around the country
> participating in local events, candidate rallies, affiliate support,
> etc.)
> 
> 5) A functional committee system (more committees staffed with more LP
> members doing more work in a more open, democratic, and accessible
> manner, with regular, detailed public reports and Q&A sessions before
> the entire LNC)
> 
> 6) Less of a “strong chair” system – preferably this would entail a
> bylaws change, but a chair could unilaterally delegate significant
> powers and relinquish power in practice without altering the bylaws
> 
> 7) Revamp LP News to publish monthly, and both this and other written
> and online communications to include more news of the broader struggle
> for freedom, rather than the current narrow focus on the party, with
> an emphasis on seeking to appeal to non-traditional libertarian
> constituencies and people on the left at least as much as people on
> the right
> 
> 8) Take a stronger line in support of Libertarians and other
> pro-freedom activists who really stick their necks out for the cause,
> e.g. suffer arrest, make major sacrifices, etc.; honor these
> individuals and hold them up as role models
> 
> 9) Do more coalition-building around specific pro-freedom issues, with
> other groups both inside and outside the libertarian movement and make
> more party publicity and resources available to empower victims of
> government aggression and small marginalized groups fighting for
> legitimate rights that do not enjoy much public or institutional
> support (their numbers add up!)
> 
> 10) Stop wasting party money by flying multiple staff members to LNC
> meetings and paying for fancy meeting rooms and catered food for those
> meetings
> 
> 11) Strengthen our ties and increase our communications and
> collaborative efforts (e.g. joint press releases and declarations,
> summits etc.) with other libertarian movement organizations both in
> the  U.S. and around the world, including student organizations – make
> campus outreach a much higher priority and do more to integrate
> student groups into the party
> 
> 12) Engage in more “guerilla activism” such as civil disobedience,
> unorthodox and unexpected tactics, adopt more of a “revolutionary
> spirit” and less of a bourgeoisie, white collar approach
> 
> 13) Mobilize the resources of our membership (e.g. tap Libertarians
> with knowledge and expertise in specific areas to speak out about
> those issues on behalf of the party, identify Libertarians who own
> land, commercial offices, etc., that can be used for billboards or
> signage to increase our visibility, host meetings, conventions and
> events, etc.)
> 
> 
> 	Do you like any of these ideas? If so, let me know which, and perhaps
> we can craft some motion language and get something going.
> 
> Love & Liberty,
> 
>                                     ((( starchild )))
> At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>                          RealReform at earthlink.net
>                                  (415) 625-FREE
>                                     @StarchildSF