[Lnc-business] Director of Development

[Richard Longstreth]

Too many threads out there. I'm going to break this down as simply as I can
and put it here and here only. I have feelings on all of this but if I take
a step back, here is how I am seeing things at this point. It is ok if you
disagree but let's figure out the next steps.

1) A contract was offered and was sent to the EPCC even though that part of
the PM deals with 'Directors'. The role in question was changed to a
contracted director (read contractor) and so there is definitely some grey
as to how all of this should have been handled. I also note the lack of
clear definitions. If the contract was required to be submitted, it did not
receive approval but if it was for a contractor, no approval needed. News
flash: our policy manual needs some work to fix and clarify these things
for the future. Mr. O'Donnell had several suggestions at a previous meeting
and it may be worth revisiting them.

2) Our new DD is not 100% in line with our philosophies. I agree that this
is a concern, however, I would also note that very rarely does someone
score a 10-10 on the Nolan quiz and we still welcome them into our folds
and plant more liberty seeds along the way. The selected candidate meets
all of the criteria that we voted on and approved, albeit, the feeling of
the room was clear, but it was not in our explicit direction. Do I wish she
was more libertarian, absolutely - I look forward to getting to know her
more and find out where she disagrees with us and seeing if we can change
that. Until that time and given where we are at in the process, offer, etc
now, should we not utilize her skills and experience and trust in our ED's
selection and Chair's approval? Our only other option is to revoke the
contract, pay her whatever severance fee and start over. I'm not over the
moon on that one.

3) So, where exactly do we go from here? Do we harass Dan until he says he
has done wrong? Resigns? Do we go after Oliver and Nick for approving? Are
we just raising flags to bring public attention and if so, what's the
actual point unless you are campaigning (which is not the purpose of this
email list)? Do we demand the contract be cancelled and start the search
over? All of these are options I suppose. Or, as a suggestion, we could
recognize this opportunity to move our organization forward and ensure that
future LNCs have a clearer procedure and policy manual? First, I suggest we
let up and give the new DD a chance. Second, I propose we redirect this
conversation to policy manual fixes and workshopping a hiring policy. Off
the top of my head, we need to clarify in a real way what the LNC should be
involved with at the very least - all hiring at an arbitrary line or, my
suggestion, should we restrict the LNC to only be involved in employment
matters concerning the ED and evaluating their performance?

4) I will say that thus far our discussion has not been largely productive.
What do we, as the governing body of the world's largest Libertarian Party
intend to do in an effort to ease the future growth and expansion of our
Party? How can we use this to set an example for affiliate parties? I am
happy to take part in any discussion that focuses on where we go. What's
been done is done and as far as I can tell, nobody actually did anything
wrong outside of optics and a very large grey area in our policy manual was
discovered. Let's figure out how to fix it.

Richard Longstreth
Region 1 Representative (AK, AZ, CO, HI, KS, MT, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY)
Libertarian National Committee
richard.longstreth at lp.org
931.538.9300

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