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<p>Dear LNC:</p>
<p>The new website has some problems and we are working to resolve
them. <br>
</p>
<p>We are making progress, but there are several significant
problems and probably several dozen minor ones. This is not a big
surprise to me. Major I.T. projects often have problems. <br>
</p>
<p>Based on some of the emails I've seen, I think people are looking
to point fingers. I think if we went ahead and did some
finger-pointing, it might be good to get that out of our systems.
And then get back to working on fixing the problems as well as
considering various paths forward.<br>
</p>
<p>A little background:</p>
<p>At the February 20-21, 2016 LNC meeting in Phoenix, the LNC
passed the following motion by a vote of 13-1:</p>
<p>"Mr. Goldstein moved to appoint Kevin Ludlow to chair a Website
Redevelopment Committee with two other Party members of his
choosing from this body. The committee is appointed with power to
execute contracts on behalf of the Libertarian Party for
redesigning the LP.org website for an amount up to $10,000 plus
any additional funds raised for this specific purpose."</p>
<p>You can find the vote on the minutes posted at the (complex) link
below:<br>
</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://d1pxvgfbl3s7lq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160220_LNC.pdf">https://d1pxvgfbl3s7lq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160220_LNC.pdf</a></p>
<p>As directed by the LNC, Kevin signed a contract and hired a firm
to design the new website. I think Kevin Ludlow underestimated how
difficult the new website rollout would be. It's not uncommon for
I.T. projects to take longer than expected. Kevin has volunteered
a lot of his time to help deploy the new website. That deployment
turned out to be more cumbersome than expected and still has some
major issues that keep showing up that we need to resolve. Also, I
think staff underestimated how long it would take to have the APRC
review each individual page of content for compliance, make edits,
review again, etc. <br>
</p>
Mostly for technical reasons, and because of so many projects on our
plates, we haven't prioritized putting up lots of old content. We
need to make sure the site is set up well and running smoothly
before investing lots of time adding lots of content and we need to
make sure we find efficient ways to do it and don't create too many
new problems as we tweak it and use it.<br>
<br>
Just to make that point clear, I do not think it would be wise to
prioritize putting up old press releases, blog entries, and some
other old documents right now. It's not because I deliberately want
to hide them. It's because I don't want to waste a lot of time
loading stuff inefficiently or that is full of bugs (like bad links
and images that aren't going to look right). The intent isn't to
hide old meeting minutes or other things. The website design firm is
not loading the content. Staff is tasked with loading all the
content (all the LNC photos, blog entries, press releases, etc.). I
believe the original discussions implied that the design firm would
be loading all the old content, but that's not how things have gone.
<br>
<br>
The basic donation function works. We are getting new members and
new donations at the website. That's a top priority, as well as
having the home page look at least decent. <br>
<br>
I realize rolling out a new website approximately two weeks before
election day was risky. I probably would have waited until after the
election for this entire project. But I want to temper that risk by
pointing out that donations at LP.org followed a curve this year
that I think was similar to previous years as well. Revenue started
going up a lot in March, peaked in July and August, and then started
going down quite rapidly. When we switched to the new website in
October, the rate of donations online was already much lower at the
old website, so at least on that point, the risk was lower than if
we had switched and had major issues during peak revenue season. <br>
<br>
Additionally, there has been a whole lot of commentary for the past
couple of years about how ugly and out of date the old LP.org
website was. The new LP.org website is in fact "new" and some would
say "nice looking," but opinions on the look of a website vary as
much as opinions on a logo. The point being a new imperfect website
is in some ways better than an old imperfect website, even if the
problems are different. <br>
<br>
So, if you want to point fingers, you can point them at the former
LNC for their motion. Then you can point at Kevin Ludlow and the
design firm he hired. Then you can point them at me and the rest of
staff. <br>
<br>
Going forward, we have a combination of the LNC, the Chair, a newly
forming I.T. Committee, the Executive Director plus other staff, the
design firm as well as perhaps outside experts that may be involved
in what steps are taken next with the website. I've been having
conversations with the Chair to establish who has what authority to
make what decisions going forward so I at least know what decisions
I'm empowered to make. I believe we should discuss that particular
issue (who decides what) in depth at the upcoming LNC meeting. If
you put staff in charge of website decisions going forward, then you
will definitely know who to point the finger at when problems arise.
<br>
<br>
In the mean time, I'll keep working with all to move the LP.org
project forward where we can. <br>
<br>
And just one more reminder about how bad so many of you and others,
including me and staff, said the old website was. At least that
clunker's gone.<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lp.org/membership">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
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