[Lnc-business] Colorado Membership Recruitment Effort

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

While I am prejudiced in favor of Colorado, I agree with Ms. Mattson.

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 4:07 AM Alicia Mattson via Lnc-business <
lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:

> I am not convinced that this is not a special agreement with a state.
>
> My question about who is paying the credit card processing fees was not
> answered, so I presume that means that the LNC is eating that cost.  Let's
> suppose our discount rate is 4%.  If the LNC processes a $50 payment and
> sends a full $25 to the state, our own credit card processing fees just
> doubled to 8%.  In addition to that amount, which can potentially add up to
> non-trivial money when you get a lot more states involved, we're also
> expending our staff time on the state's fundraiser, with all that invested
> time eating into the $25 - $2 credit card fees = $23 donation that the LNC
> received.  Our staff has to track the numbers, cut checks to each
> affiliate, etc.  Our staff routinely tells us they don't have time to do
> the things that the LNC has directed them to do, and this is tasking them
> with an extra arrangement not even agreed to by the LNC.
>
> This free labor and free credit card processing deal is only being offered
> to FEC filing affiliates, not to all our affiliates.  In this instance, it
> was first offered to only one state right before a critical deadline in
> which they are competing with other states, and once other states found out
> that it was available they will have little time to plan and make use of
> it.
>
> All of this feels like a special agreement to me.
>
> -Alicia
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 1:16 PM Nicholas Sarwark via Lnc-business <
> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> > As you are aware, there is a deadline for convention delegate allocation
> > that comes up at the end of this month.  Many of your state parties, as
> > well as mine, are doing what they can to sign up additional national
> > members.
> >
> > A Colorado member contacted me around October 5 with a plan to solicit
> > registered Libertarian voters to encourage them to join both the Colorado
> > and national Libertarian Party at the same time. The challenge he had was
> > not soliciting the potential members, but having a way to make sure that
> > they would also be able to sign the pledge to become sustaining members
> of
> > the national party and not violate any FEC rules.
> >
> > Since there is not a legal barrier to transfers between FEC reporting
> party
> > committees, I suggested he contact Dan Fishman to figure out how to get
> the
> > Colorado effort a mechanism to process these new memberships and
> renewals.
> >
> > The solution he came up allows the LNC to collect a minimum of $50, with
> > the prospective donor being clearly informed that $25 of their donation
> > will be given to the LPCO, which allows them to recoup their marketing
> > expenses. Since the Colorado group is soliciting the extra amount to be
> > sent back to LPCO, there is no cost or loss to the party for sending that
> > amount back, but it's logistically easier for the new member to only have
> > to fill out one web form.
> >
> > Prior to this request, there was not a way for an FEC filing state to
> > solicit joint donations to the national party.  Now there is a mechanism
> to
> > do so and Mr. Fishman also informs me that the same form can be adapted
> for
> > any other FEC filing state affiliates. I do not interpret this as a
> special
> > agreement with with the state affiliate, just an implementation of a
> single
> > form that will allocate the donors funds as the donor wishes.
> >
> > The Colorado team took the initiative to recruit new members and have
> > started their work to mail and call people, including a link to the web
> > form that was implemented. I will be instructing Mr. Fishman to activate
> > that link as well as to make a similar form available to any other FEC
> > filing state affiliates who request it.
> >
> > Yours truly,
> > Nick
> >
>
-- 

*In Liberty,*

* Personal Note:  I have what is commonly known as Asperger's Syndrome
(part of the autism spectrum).  This can affect inter-personal
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pas), please contact me privately and let me know. *