<div dir="ltr">Hi all,<div><br></div><div>I have had a similar experience to Kevin on this. When introducing new people to the LP, I find the reactions to the website to be less than positive. I've lately been showing people the convention website first, since it looks at least reasonably polished.</div><div><br></div><div>Our website is a bit of an embarrassment, to say the least. Organizationally, it is a failure. I routinely use google search rather than even attempt to find something through the byzantine navigation. The appearance is even worse, and screams every negative stereotype about Libertarians (out of touch, socially obtuse), with none of the positive ones (pro freedom, indomitable, respectful, etc.).</div><div><br></div><div>The money issue is significant. At the very least, we should upgrade to nationbuilder, or even squarespace for that matter. </div><div><br></div><div>For the logo, we tried project fundraising. It worked less well than I hoped it would. It may be worth considering trying some project fundraising for a website. </div><div><br></div><div>Failing that, I think we should very strongly consider going ahead with a website redesign regardless.</div><div><br></div><div>If you look at the libertarian organizations that are growing, especially among younger activists, you'll notice that their websites are highly presentable. That's no surprise. Young people often judge businesses by their websites.</div><div><br></div><div>Put another way: each year, maybe 200 people will see our office. Tens of thousands will see our website. If our website looks better, it could be tens of millions, as Libertarians proudly forward parts of it to their friends, instead of just praying they don't see the site until they are already convinced.</div><div><br></div><div>-Arvin</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:16 AM, Kevin Ludlow <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ludlow@gmail.com" target="_blank">ludlow@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>I'm really not sure I follow that at all, Wes.<br><br></div>For one, it's not MY website I'm interested in building. It's our website that needs to be built. As for getting people to pay for it, I did meet with a very wealthy donor last week. You know him well. As I wrote, he is not willing to donate another dimer to us until we make some visible forward progress. I don't know what's so objectionable about that.<br><br></div>And I've not said I can't get anyone to join or support the LP. What I've told you is that I'm consistently hearing the same stories from people. If you want to talk down and ridicule because that doesn't automatically sit positively with your feelers, then by all means. But I'd much rather share the information candidly in hopes that we actually do something about it. My point being that if you just want a bunch of yes-men telling you what an absolutely amazing job we do as a party, then seek counsel in your family or something of the sort. I spend WAY too much time (and no doubt others spend way more time than I do) working with this organization. There's no benefit in sugar coating this.<br><br></div>And for that matter, my god the thin-skin we have around here. I sent you guys an incredibly nice, warm, thoughtful, thankful email just yesterday describing the new email layouts and what an amazing job you guys did. So the notion that I don't praise and just want to shit all over you is false. The website sucks ass. 100% of people I ask about it say the same thing. I'm asking the board to help me fix it. Period. No additional motive.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">-Kevin<br></font></span></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 6:35 AM, Wes Benedict <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div>Kevin, I think I fronted $30,000 to LP Texas in 2004 for ballot access. If you can pay your employees $150,000, you take a risk, build your website, and when it's done, ask the LNC for $20k. Or go ask that donor you met with to pay for it. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm concerned that you keep talking about how you can't get anyone to join or support the LP. Only you personally. How can you oversee a project geared towards donating to the LP.?</div><div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br>On Feb 19, 2016, at 1:22 AM, Kevin Ludlow <<a href="mailto:ludlow@gmail.com" target="_blank">ludlow@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Mr. Wiener,<br><br></div>Thank you for the response.<br><br></div>First, let me say that I appreciate your position that unlike our friends running the country, we cannot spend money that we do not have. That part is quite well taken and respected. So let's get the money.<br><br></div>Look guys, I get that everyone on this board is risk-averse to a collective degree that is kind of unimaginable. I really do get that. I think many people cite risk aversion as being a Libertarian ideal. I disagree with this, but we can definitely agree that risk aversion is a common trait of Libertarians. I have many theories as to why; I'll save them.<br><br></div>There's this kind of cheesy quote that you tell kids. Sometimes the quote makes it onto posters for bedroom walls and such. It's this little girl leaning into her mom. She's upset, scared, and tugging at the mom shirt with clear fright in her eyes. The caption reads, "But mom, what if I fail?". To which the mom lovingly leans in, smiles in earnest at the little girl and replies confidently, "What if you fly?"<br><br></div>You guys want to challenge the status quo with every breath you take. You want to run in the face of every single cultural norm we have and shout "there's a better way to do this - just hear me out!". Hell, you guys want to challenge the contender(s) for arguably the most powerful position in the entire world - the president of the US.<br><br></div>We want to do all of these things. So I'm asking you, just stop what you're doing for 30 seconds, reflect what could happen if we actually tried to accomplish this one little task. What is the WORST that could happen? We fail? We're in a very slightly worse financial position than we already are? But now consider what is the BEST that could happen? Maybe this tailspin of a cash hole we're in stops. MAYBE people would see that the LNC is doing something external. MAYBE people would have their morale boosted just a little bit and be more inclined to donate. MAYBE we could use it as a way to leverage requesting donations from people.<br><br></div>I give you guys a hard time a lot for thinking so analytically. I apologize for sounding rough, but most all of you have to know that this line of thinking can hurt us as much as it can help us - it just depends on the circumstances. People are not as motivated by cerebral action as this group thinks. Even the people inside of this party aren't, despite many thinking that they are. People are easily motivated by change they can see. It's a well documented scientific reality and is the basis for lots of marketing and advertising science. People don't always care if you rebuild the engine and shave 8% off of your car's annual petrol bill. They can't see it. It's meaningless outside of your own brain. But get a new $500 coat of paint and all of a sudden your old clunker is being talked about by everyone on the block. That talk prompts people to be excited. Excitement lends to spending money.<br><br></div>I'm just asking you to think of the upside for a change instead of the downside. As Libertarians, our entire lives are spent on the downside. Literally every single thing in this modern world is stacked against us. It's nice to give people a win every once in awhile.<br><br></div>I've heard Nick say to this board on many occasions that if we're trying to get new office supplies, donors won't give us a dime. BUT, according to this same chair, he can go to people on the idea of ballot access and convince them it's important enough to donate to the cause. And he has done it - several times. Kudos, good sir!<br><br></div>Ss let's do it again!!! We have a good brand. We're going to have a phenomenal presidential year. Hell, we're going to have a televised Libertarian debate for goodness sake! You're a salesman, Nick. I have the utmost of confidence that you can sell the importance of our brand image to some of our donors. I'm asking for almost nothing here.<br><br></div>I'm asking you all to put your risk aversion to the side, take a chance, and let me personally take on a project that I am highly confident we can accomplish. If you wait 4 more months on this then you're ultimately going to be waiting 4 more years for another real shot at market glory. We have an amazing list of opportunities coming up for us. Please do not let this slip through the cracks just because you're afraid to imagine what it might be like to fly. It's a hell of a lot nicer in the clouds than on the ground.<br><br></div>Thank you for your time.<br></div>Kevin Ludlow<br><a href="tel:512-773-3968" value="+15127733968" target="_blank">512-773-3968</a> <br><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 5:24 PM, Daniel Wiener <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wiener@alum.mit.edu" target="_blank">wiener@alum.mit.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Kevin, my concern is similar to Alicia's. Namely that the LNC is in a cash crunch. I'm not arguing about whether we should or can somehow create a high-quality website at a cheaper price than the $20,000 you are quoting. I'm worried that we simply don't have sufficient money readily available, no matter how desirable a goal it is. The LNC has decided to spend money on other projects, such as $100,000+ to get ballot status in Oklahoma. (I voted against that, not because it was a bad idea, but because of our extremely limited resources.) And we are planning expensive petition drives in many other states.<br><br></div>There are a lot of really important things that the Libertarian Party needs to spend money on, including redesigning the website. I'd love to do all of them. But unlike the government, we can't spend money we don't have. It doesn't help if <u>everything</u> is considered to be a top priority, and we refuse to make trade-offs.<br><br></div>All of which is not to say that I'm opposed to your website proposal. But as a minimum condition, I'll only vote for it if I'm convinced that we have the necessary cash on hand and anticipated future revenue to remain financially solvent, and/or we decide to cut other planned expenditures to compensate.<br><br></div>Dan Wiener<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div>On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Kevin Ludlow <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ludlow@gmail.com" target="_blank">ludlow@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>All:<br><br></div>I've only heard back from 2 people with respect to me putting the website redesign into high gear. It would be a combination of getting a proper design from a high-end design firm and then having it implemented into NB by the NB team.<br><br></div><div>Could everyone give me an idea of where they sit with this idea in general. Are there concerns? Are there impasses I'm unaware of? Do we just not think the website needs an overhaul? Does it require more discussion?<span><font color="#888888"><br><br></font></span></div><span><font color="#888888"><div>-Kevin Ludlow<br><br></div><div>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>========================================================<br>Kevin Ludlow<br><a href="tel:512-773-3968" value="+15127733968" target="_blank">512-773-3968</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.kevinludlow.com" target="_blank">http://www.kevinludlow.com</a><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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