[Lnc-business] Proposed

[Elizabeth Van Horn]

Steven,

You make some good points.  The issue of the Chair changing over time, 
and not all Chairs being as well suited for fundraising, is also a 
concern I had.

Although, if the Chair position were known to also to be a paid 
fundraiser position, hopefully our LP delegates would support a person 
better suited for that skill-set.

This may change what delegates see as necessary for Chair. Which may 
solve the issue of different Chairs, as overall the candidate selection 
would filter toward those with multiple skill-sets.

Not just: "Can you Chair a meeting?"

When in Austin, I look forward to hearing more on this overall idea 
presented by our ED, and from others who have opinions on this topic.

Cheers,
EVH


---
Elizabeth Van Horn

On 2019-07-07 13:21, Steven Nekhaila via Lnc-business wrote:
> Dear Mr. Fishman & Colleagues,
> 
> I want to take a moment to say I appreciate you stepping forward with
> this new idea and hope that you will not be deterred to present many
> others. I for one welcome brainstorming and creative solutions to
> problems and look forward to what else you have to present to the
> board at the Austin meeting.
> 
> Having said that, here are my thoughts on this proposal. First and
> foremost, we are in need of a new fundraiser, this is one of the most
> foundational positions in the Party and without a solid fundraiser
> with relationships with donors project and operations flounder. I look
> forward to the findings from Mr. Larks Employment Policy committee in
> their post-employment interview with Ms. Daughtery, I would also
> encourage the ED to speak with Ms. Daughtery while she is still with
> the organization to determine in frank terms what resources we are
> lacking and what opportunities we have to get better.
> 
> Secondly, I am not completely against the idea of a paid LNC member
> for fundraising purposes, however, I believe the Vice Chair or an
> At-Large Director seat would be better suited for a full time
> fundraising position for several reasons. One, while we want our
> Chairperson in the spotlight and in the media, that would be better
> achieved by a third party or in-house press company that create and
> maintains contacts with the press. Second, the Chairperson must
> maintain impartiality, a paid position may interfere with this not
> only for financial conflicts, but political conflicts as well. Also
> there may be issues with generous donors who are voting party members
> who may disapprove of the job of the Chair at the time, where a
> fundraising director would be a neutral entity. Third, there is no
> guarantee that each Chair will be well suited for the particular
> position of fundraising, term over term there may be those who are
> better suited than others, however, it would be beneficial for the
> fundraising director to maintain long term relationships with our
> donors and staff.
> 
> On the other hand, the Chairperson is the face of the party and as
> such will be in a better position to charm donors and be the voice of
> the party as a paid staffer. I would like to hear from Mr. Sarwark as
> to what he believes are the potential and experienced impediments of a
> financially independent Chair when it comes to performing those
> functions and how things might be different if paid. The other issue
> is an issue of time, does a Chair, even full time paid, have enough
> time to perform his Chair duties and also, say, run a business or work
> in their career. We could save money by not paying the Chair person to
> be "full time" but instead perform certain functions, but without a
> single minded commitment to the task of fundraising would the Return
> on Investment be as much or less than a full time, higher paid,
> fundraising director?
> 
> I am willing to examine the idea further at the in person meeting but
> I have many questions and would like to seek more perspectives on the
> idea. I believe building a fundraising department with the tools
> needed to succeed is our highest priority this body should pursue
> right now.
> 
> In Liberty,
> 
> Steven Nekhaila
> Region 2 Representative
> Libertarian National Committee
> 
> Impotentes defendere libertatum non possunt
> "Those without power cannot defend freedom"
> 
> On 2019-07-06 10:36 PM, Daniel Fishman via Lnc-business wrote:
>> One of my long range goals is a permanently paid chair for the LP. It 
>> was
>> further down my agenda list, and I had presumed it would happen when 
>> we had
>> greater financial stability. When the opportunity presented itself now
>> though, I decided to try it out. And that means if it works we are 
>> talking
>> about the same option for whomever the chair is (and we've never 
>> elected a
>> chair to a 4th terms as far as I'm aware).
>> 
>> Of course a permanently paid chair is a convention level decision, but 
>> one
>> that can only be made if we can indeed afford it. Getting the 
>> financial
>> legs to stand on is what you brought me here for.
>> 
>> I'm a big believer in not being afraid to fail. In order to not fear
>> failure you must have metrics that can tell you if you are failing. 
>> This is
>> a pretty clear cut one. Any fundraising contractor will be expect to 
>> be
>> raising enough to cover their costs within a few months. And that 
>> includes
>> the Chair. If they can't, that's gets deemed a fail. We terminate the
>> experiment, learn from our mistakes and proceed to the next attempt.
>> 
>> To me this seems like a good roll of the dice, with relatively minimum 
>> risk
>> to the LNC. Almost all of the risk is borne by the Chair. I am asking 
>> to
>> put the Chair on the hot seat. Should any chair be contracted as a
>> fundraiser for the LNC and fail, the ramifications would reverberate 
>> till
>> the next convention. Should the chair succeed he benefits every future 
>> LNC
>> chair and future LNC by establishing the precedent that (I hope) will 
>> lead
>> the delegates to approving a permanently paid chair. I have 
>> essentially
>> asked the chair to put his head on the chopping block.
>> 
>> And it should be pointed out too Mr. Chair, that when I asked you if 
>> you
>> would be amenable you suggested I bring the idea to the LNC first. I 
>> have
>> done so, but you still have not actually indicated that you would 
>> indeed
>> accept the contract. I'm assuming you have been seeking counsel of 
>> your
>> own? Are you prepared to firmly commit to accepting a contract should 
>> one
>> be offered?
>> 
>> The chair is in a unique position to do things that will affect
>> fundraising, such as media appearances, published articles. As such 
>> the
>> unique position is one I think the LNC should try paying for to see if 
>> it
>> increases our revenue.
>> 
>> ---
>> Daniel Fishman
>> Executive Director
>> The Libertarian Party
>> Join Us <http://www.lp.org/join>
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Jul 6, 2019 at 3:45 PM Caryn Ann Harlos via Lnc-business <
>> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> It is already all of our jobs to fundraise.  Pay expenses? Certainly.
>>> Salary?  No.
>>> 
>>> I volunteer - expenses only.
>>> 
>>> Seriously after the shitstorm last year for legitimate fundraising 
>>> it’s all
>>> of a sudden different because it’s Nick and with salary?  I was in 
>>> danger
>>> of (ridiculously) of bribing votes with t-shirts but this is okay?
>>> 
>>> Is Nick re-running?  Would there be no using of a salaried position 
>>> to
>>> influence internal politics?
>>> 
>>> I’ll say it right now, then every chair candidate must be given equal
>>> opportunity.
>>> 
>>> On Sat, Jul 6, 2019 at 12:20 PM John Phillips via Lnc-business <
>>> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> > I think other people said that more recently than I, its been a few
>>> months
>>> > since I did 😂, tho I hinted at it.
>>> >
>>> > Well thought out as always.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > John Phillips
>>> > Libertarian National Committee Region 6 Representative
>>> > Cell 217-412-5973
>>> >
>>> > On Jul 6, 2019 12:59 PM, Joe Bishop-Henchman via Lnc-business <
>>> > lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > I guess Mr. Fishman's honeymoon period is over!
>>> >
>>> > I'm willing to hear out our ED and not shoot it down immediately, but
>>> > for my part I will need a lot more details when we consider it. If we're
>>> > hiring a contractor, I want to know precisely what tasks the contractor
>>> > will be doing on at least a quarterly basis if not a monthly or weekly
>>> > basis, and how (and who) will be actively monitoring progress and
>>> > adjusting based on the results.
>>> >
>>> > I will also need to review the information addressing whether this
>>> > violates the Bylaws or common past understandings of the role of the
>>> > Chair or LNC members.
>>> >
>>> > This contractor-who-knows-us approach would be preferable, in my view,
>>> > to hiring a commission fundraiser who knows little about us and
>>> > therefore will be ineffective at securing major donors willing to invest
>>> > long-term with us. In-person telemarketing, which is effectively what
>>> > that is, can be effective for raising money quickly, but only at
>>> > enormous expense (as a percent of dollar raised), great risk of
>>> > misrepresentation, and at the expense of a continuing relationship.
>>> >
>>> > Ideally we need to construct a fundraising department, essentially from
>>> > scratch now. We have two main donor audiences - major donors and small
>>> > dollar donors - and each of them needs attention as to their
>>> > prospecting/qualification/opening doors, asking/closing, and
>>> > stewardship/cultivation. That's essentially six completely different
>>> > skills (2 audiences times 3 jobs each) and we can't have one person do
>>> > all of it and expect them to do better than Lauren could. We also can't
>>> > hire six people, so the answer is going to be a mix of LNC members, the
>>> > ED, staff, and contractors.
>>> >
>>> > If we're going to get to a place where we are raising millions of
>>> > dollars or more each year, building a fundraising department is an
>>> > essential second step. (The first step is doing exciting things donors
>>> > want to support, or at least proposing to focus on those things. On that
>>> > part, I'd like to invite Apollo to the next Board meeting and tell us
>>> > what he has up his sleeves.) If what Mr. Fishman proposes is a step in
>>> > that direction, I'm more inclined to support it. If not, not.
>>> >
>>> > As Mr. Phillips I think noted, if we say no to everything and propose
>>> > nothing we will quickly realize in a bad way how important fundraising
>>> > is.
>>> >
>>> > JBH
>>> >
>>> > ------------
>>> > Joe Bishop-Henchman
>>> > LNC Member (At-Large)
>>> > joe.bishop-henchman at lp.org
>>> > www.facebook.com/groups/189510455174837
>>> >
>>> > On 2019-07-05 16:50, John Phillips via Lnc-business wrote:
>>> > > Then lets get hiring.