<div dir="ltr">Thank you. This all makes sense to me.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Joshua A. Katz<div>Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)</div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 6:52 PM, 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 bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<p>I have been intentionally price things so that branding revenue
is approximately the same as branding expenses, but I don't go to
great lengths to try to make them match exactly. We sell most
things for a tad more than they cost us. One notable exception is
the door hangers -- we sell those for less than they cost us. Last
year a donor contributed $20,000 in support of subsidizing door
hangers.</p>
<p>The staff time put into LPStore.org is not factored into my
pricing of the things we sell. The feeling I've gotten over the
years from our members and most LNC members is that we should be
providing materials as a service more so than a profit center. <br>
</p>
<p>My goal is to get as much stuff out there into the hands of our
activists as is feasible, to help them help our candidates and
party, not to maximize LPHQ profits on sales. Although sometimes
these things are capable of generating significant profits.<br>
</p>
<p>We are working on a new website, LP.org. That takes a significant
amount of staff time (salary, hourly, and contractor). <br>
</p>
<p>We sent Nick Dunbar to New Hampshire to help with an emergency
ballot access situation. As a result, he worked a lot more hours
lately than he had been. He normally works less than 20 hours per
week for LPHQ.</p>
<p>We sent Andy Burns to help with an emergency ballot access
situation in Illinois, New Hampshire, and Iowa.</p>
<p>Casey Hansen used to prepare membership cards, inquiry mailings,
and pack most of our store shipments all by himself. It's way too
much work for him now.</p>
<p>Fundraising costs are higher partly because with a bigger
membership list we send to more people so more copies are printed
and more postage is paid. Another reason fundraising costs are
higher are because, instead of sending the dirt-cheap Urgent
Grams, we've been sending much nicer looking higher cost
fundraising letters printed in full color. The thinking is those
improve our image overall compared to the dirt-cheap black and
white or yellow Urgent Grams or simple letters and reply forms.<br>
</p>
<p>If you go back and check your email broadcasts from national,
you'll see very few fundraising emails over the summer. Had I been
sending daily fundraising emails like the RNC and DNC, our revenue
would be a lot higher than it is today, but also, some associated
expenses like processing fees would be a lot higher. <br>
</p>
<p>With a bigger fundraising budget, we could try more prospecting
via mail and Facebook ads, or at least keep up what we're doing.</p><span class="">
<p><br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
<a href="tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232" value="+12023330008" target="_blank">(202) 333-0008 ext. 232</a>, <a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>
<a href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a href="http://lp.org/membership" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
</span><div><div class="h5"><div>On 9/1/2016 6:48 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I am happy to hear this good news, and thank you
Wes for having done the preliminary work and for getting the
discussion going.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I have a few questions, mainly just to clarify a few items.
26 and 55 continue to match in the budget. Do they match in
real life, or do we make a profit on these items? I don't
have a problem with doing this at cost in order to brand
ourselves - I think that's a great thing, I just want to know
which it is. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I expected to see an increase in fundraising costs, but I'm
surprised at the size. I hope the idea is to do different
sorts of things and reach out to new markets. </div>
<div><br>
Like Mr. Starr, I am interested in the compensation increase.
Will this be more time, more contractor time, or more staff?
Does it include the interns we've hired for product
distribution?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I agree with the ED that the cutbacks proposed do not make
sense, and I think the proposed changes make sense. </div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all">
<div>
<div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">Joshua A. Katz
<div>Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 2:46 PM, 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 bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Dear LNC:<br>
<br>
I'd like to start a discussion about several budget
increase requests before a formal motion is considered. I
mentioned to the chair that I thought it would be good for
me to put this before the LNC soon, and he agreed it was
okay for me to get this discussion started on this list.<br>
<br>
To me, all of these budget increase requests are the
result of good news -- our revenue, membership, and
interest is very high, far higher than budgeted, and as a
result, many of our expenses are higher as well. <br>
<br>
More revenue and members means more membership cards and
LP News to mail out, and bigger lists to send fundraising
letter to.<br>
<br>
The original 2016 Budget adopted for the entire year of
2016 was <b>$1,474,561</b>. My preliminary estimate for
August 31, 2016 YTD revenue is $1,679,938 (July 2016 YTD)
plus $412,425 (August 2016) = <b>$2,092,363</b>. It's
possible we could double the original revenue budgeted for
the entire year (although I'm not ready to predict that).
<br>
<br>
Dues-paying membership has increased from <b>11,693</b>
at the start of January to approximately <b>19,300</b> at
the end of August. <br>
<br>
The original budget for branding revenue was <b>$35,000</b>.
We've already brought in <b>$205,862</b> in branding
revenue (that's mostly the stuff we sell at LPStore.org).<br>
<br>
Again, all of these increases in donations, memberships,
and store orders, means higher postage, credit card
processing fees, purchases of items offered at
LPStore.org, office supplies, and some labor to help
process all that stuff.<br>
<br>
Robert Kraus and I have looked over the results of this
year to date, considered what things could look like going
forward, and are recommending that the LNC proposed and
passes the following budget increases. <br>
<br>
<br>
26-Brand Political Materials Revenue increase by $150,000
to $400,000<br>
32-Fundraising Costs increase by $60,000 to $201,364<br>
33-Membership Fundraising Costs increase by $35,000 to
$127,200<br>
40-Adminstrative Costs increase by $50,000 to $310,050<br>
45-Compensation increase by $60,000 to $448,800<br>
55-Brand Political Materials Expense increase by $150,000
to $400,000<br>
85-Member Communication increase by $17,500 to $62,500<br>
<br>
We have the revenue to pay for all of these budget
increases. I'm pretty certain we have more money in the
bank for the September of a Presidential election year
than ever before in the history of the Libertarian Party,
and that's in spite of paying what it has taken to achieve
50 state ballot access for the first time since 2000.<br>
<br>
While we are not technically over budget in most areas, we
are trending in that direction and certainly will go way
over budget by the end of the year unless I proactively
cut back on fundraising letters, LP News, shipping
LPStore.org materials, staff levels, and other areas. That
could be done, but I don't think it's the right thing to
do. For example, instead of focusing my time on trying to
continue the growth of membership and fundraising by
hiring another intern to fill boxes with campaign
materials, I could spend my own time stuffing envelopes
and filling boxes with yard signs--something I do actually
enjoy and find to be therapeutic. <br>
<br>
I'd be happy to try to respond to any questions you have
on these items. <br>
<br>
Thanks for your consideration. I'm hoping we have a
productive discussion on this, and then the chair or
treasurer can propose a motion that fits a consensus for
you to consider of the Labor Day Weekend. <br>
<span><font color="#888888"> <br>
<pre cols="72">--
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
<a href="tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232" value="+12023330008" target="_blank">(202) 333-0008 ext. 232</a>, <a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>
<a href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a href="http://lp.org/membership" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
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