[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2018-20: AMEND BUDGET
Wes Benedict
wes.benedict at lp.org
Mon Aug 6 10:20:36 EDT 2018
Alicia,
In April the LNC approved up to $15,000 to support the Ebke campaign but
did not increase the budget to accommodate that. LPHQ ended up spending
about $8,300 for Laura's campaign. I believe there were discussions at
that LNC meeting where it was acknowledged that a budget increase in the
future would be possible given that there wasn't an increase for the
Ebke campaign effort.
Andy Burns and Ken Moellman started a program offering websites for
certain candidates. That added $200 per month in expenses.
Apollo is focused on 10 races for state rep--mostly in the mountain
west. He's recruiting a team of canvassers to provide GOTV efforts,
similar to what he did with the Ebke campaign in May. We're estimating
approximately $20,000 in LPHQ expenses to cover all ten campaigns (a
bargain). The campaigns are also raising money for their own efforts,
but the national GOTV efforts are to be separate.
The chair and I instructed Apollo to recruit and/or identify candidates
most likely to win state representative races significantly based on the
number of votes required to win.
While I understand the question (did we hire more staff than we have
budgeted for?), the answer is a little complex. We knew about upcoming
budget limitations and with the knowledge that we had the option to cut
campaign staff and to not do GOTV efforts if continued services weren't
desired or feasible. We can increase the budget to retain existing
campaign staff and do a strong GOTV effort for the targeted races if the
budget is increased, or we can stop those efforts if the budget isn't
increased and avoid going over budget.
I'm not recommending an overall increase in the budget. Rather,
recommending a shift from ballot access to candidate support.
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 8/4/2018 11:38 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos via Lnc-business wrote:
> I think so too Elizabeth and am pleased we are at a break even point.
> I did not vote for the deficit budget as I am pretty risk-averse
> though I understood the ambitious plans that were behind it.
>
> -Caryn Ann
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 4, 2018 at 8:21 AM Elizabeth Van Horn via Lnc-business
> <lnc-business at hq.lp.org <mailto:lnc-business at hq.lp.org>> wrote:
>
> Alicia, you bring up very good points, and I don't think it's
> unreasonable to ask questions. The specific questions you've
> asked are good.
>
> I'm aware of some of the candidate field support efforts that'll
> be upcoming, and there will be some expense involved. Some of it
> involves on-the-ground canvassing, and there's also an upcoming
> phone-banking effort. Although, a lot can be done with
> volunteers, there are costs that'll be incurred.
>
> I'll leave the formal explanation to the person who created the
> motion, and to staff, as they'd know the details better. But, I'm
> pretty positive that these are legitimate expenses that the LP
> will need to handle it we want to see our candidates have a chance
> at success. Timing is crucial.
>
> ---
> Elizabeth Van Horn
>
> On 2018-08-04 01:13, Alicia Mattson via Lnc-business wrote:
>
>> I'll not yet my vote until I get some additional information.
>>
>> I'd like to remind my colleagues that budgets are just guesses
>> written down on paper. With this motion, we're not just
>> shuffling numbers around on paper, but we're also approving
>> spending it for very specific purposes. Before we start
>> shuffling budget numbers, we need to be looking at how actual
>> performance is running versus budget projections.
>>
>> Unless I've overlooked it, I don't think we've yet received June
>> financial statements. It could be that the convention put that a
>> little behind schedule. Since I was on the previous LNC, I have
>> the end-of-month May 2018 financials which our newer members will
>> not have seen. This will at least give you something, rather
>> than nothing, to consult.
>>
>> The budget adopted by the previous LNC for 2018 had a $350k
>> deficit, essentially betting on revenues to come in higher than
>> budget. Is that the case? So far this year, we're running $69k
>> below budget on revenues, and that was a deficit budget. The
>> cost of raising those revenues is running within $2k of budget.
>> We're afloat because our program expenses are running $100k under
>> budget. At the bottom line, we're running a $33k surplus so far
>> this year.
>>
>> Now we're planning to take $34k of budgeted expenses that we
>> weren't going to spend at all, and we're going to spend them.
>> This will wash out our surplus and put our actual performance
>> (not budget) at break-even for the year.
>>
>> I'd like to hear more about what exactly the spending plan is.
>> Two things are listed in the motion:
>> 1) cost of existing candidate recruitment and campaigns advisor
>> support staff, and
>> 2) to provide up to $20,000 for candidate field support expenses
>> though the end of the budget year.
>>
>> Parsing the words here, it says we've hired more staff than we
>> budgeted for? This will be an ongoing expense, not just a
>> one-time cost that will be fixed by this one shuffle. Can we
>> have specifics of what the over-budget costs are?
>>
>> For the candidate field support expenses, my guess is that this
>> is perhaps intended to help incumbents such as Brandon Phinney
>> and Laura Ebke. If so, I'm inclined to support, but I would like
>> more details about whether that's the intent. Or are we planning
>> to give token contributions to candidates in other situations?
>>
>> -Alicia
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 3, 2018 at 2:08 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos via Lnc-business
>> <lnc-business at hq.lp.org <mailto:lnc-business at hq.lp.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Email Ballot 2018-20: AMEND BUDGET
>>
>> We have an electronic mail ballot.
>>
>> Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by AUGUST 10, 2018 at
>> 11:59:59pm Pacific time.
>>
>> Co-Sponsors: GOLDSTEIN, HARLOS, LONGSTRETH, O'DONNELL,
>> PHILLIPS, VAN HORN
>>
>> Motion: Decrease the budget for line 70-Ballot Access VR &
>> Related Exp
>> by $34,400 from $250,000 to $216,600 (a $34,400 decrease) and
>> increase
>> the budget for line 60-Candidate, Campaign & Initiatives from
>> $58,800
>> to $92,200 (a $34,400 increase) to cover the cost of existing
>> candidate recruitment and campaigns advisor support staff, and to
>> provide up to $20,000 for candidate field support expenses
>> though the
>> end of the budget year.
>>
>> =============================================
>>
>> You can keep track of the Secretary's manual tally of votes here:
>> https://tinyurl.com/lncvoting. Votes are noted with a link to the
>> actual ballot cast for verification. You can find the time
>> that the
>> manual tally was last updated at the bottom of the sheet.
>>
>> Please notify me of any discrepancies.
>>
>> --
>> In Liberty,
>> Caryn Ann Harlos
>> Libertarian Party and Libertarian National Committee Secretary -
>> Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org or Secretary at LP.org.
>> Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee - LPedia at LP.org
>>
>>
>> A haiku to the Statement of Principles:
>> We defend your rights
>> And oppose the use of force
>> Taxation is theft
>>
> --
> --
> *In Liberty,*
> *Caryn Ann Harlos*
> Libertarian Party and Libertarian National Committee Secretary -
> Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org <mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org> or
> Secretary at LP.org.
> Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee - LPedia at LP.org
>
> A haiku to the Statement of Principles:
> /We defend your rights/
> /And oppose the use of force/
> /Taxation is theft/
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