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<p>I would also like you to ask your state chairs and members if
they would rather staff spend more time functionally allocating
expenses, or if they would rather us spend that time improving our
new website, LP.org, or helping our state affiliates with
fundraising.</p>
<p>Please send them a copy of our financial statements, and ask your
members and state chairs if they understand all the detail.</p>
<p>And ask your state chairs if they'd like my help getting their
state financial statement to be as complex as nationals, or would
they be happier to simply have a higher revenue number? <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<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>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/2/2016 7:57 PM, Wes Benedict
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:b2df1a3b-4715-036c-5c7f-9a3e410886ec@lp.org"
type="cite">
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<p>You are clearly an expert and so rather than doing it to prove
something to me, would you consider working with the EPCC Audit
Committee, and Treasurer, to generate a good coding system that
answers the questions of how to allocate? <br>
</p>
<p>Perhaps test it for a few weeks once a draft plan is created.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<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 moz-do-not-send="true" 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 moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lp.org/membership">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/2/2016 7:05 PM, Caryn Ann
Harlos wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAL4U=_p4RaTykJvmndCJ6zJpOuyLi51NJ_T5PtANhDva4s8JgQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I have done it twenty years in my job. As do
attorneys all over the world. I don't need to prove it further.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The issue is a good coding system that answers the
questions of how to allocate.<span></span><br>
<br>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>>
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>Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm
not saying it can't be done.</p>
<p>So, I hereby challenge you to do it, if you can do it
without my help (meaning don't ask me what goes in what
category).<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://lp.org/membership" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
<div>On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Wes I'm not the best person to make that
challenge to. I'm a paralegal. My entire work day
requires me to keep track of every six minute block by
L and A codes. I have done it for twenty years. It
does require setting guidelines for what things get
calculated as and tolerance levels on level of
granularity.
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
-- <br>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font face="arial, helvetica,
sans-serif" color="#666666" size="4"><b>In
Liberty,</b></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, helvetica,
sans-serif" color="#666666" size="4"><b>Caryn
Ann Harlos</b></font></div>
<div><font size="1">Region 1
Representative, Libertarian National
Committee </font><span
style="font-size:x-small">(Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas,
Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington)
- <a moz-do-not-send="true">Caryn.Ann.
Harlos@LP.org</a></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small">Communications
Director, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.lpcolorado.org/"
target="_blank">Libertarian Party
of Colorado</a></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small">Colorado
State Coordinator, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/"
target="_blank">Libertarian Party
Radical Caucus</a></span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span></span>
<div><br>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');"
target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px
0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>An interesting experiment would be for each
LNC member to track its hours for one month
according to the Functional Allocation of
Expenses procedures requested. It would give
you some hands on experience in dealing with
the reality that we switch categories often
every few minutes, like from:<br>
</p>
<p>40 - Admin (this conversation)</p>
<p>88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)</p>
<p>80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications
(delivering the message the LNC wants)</p>
<p>85 - Member Communication (recording the
termination of the membership of person who
disapproves of LNC buying meat)</p>
<p>40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot
Access? - approving staff getting a poster
about ballot access printed.<br>
</p>
<p>I literally switch tasks every few minutes.
Trying to track this in detail is very
tough.</p>
<p>I really would like to see the LNC track
themselves for a month. You'll find out how
hard this is after one hour.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="tel:%28202%29%20333-0008" value="+12023330008" target="_blank">(202) 333-0008 ext. 232</a>, <a moz-do-not-send="true">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://lp.org/membership" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a></pre>
<div>On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>I pointed out earlier the concern I
am expressing here, but I did it briefly
and without much explanation, because I
wanted to know if, in fact, I have
misunderstood, if I was making a big
mistake, and if my concerns were
unfounded. All of that remains
perfectly possible, but the fact that I
have not received an explanation making
those points suggests to me that perhaps
I am onto something important.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>80% of the proposed budget is
accounted for by administration and
compensation. A member seeing that
might be excused for believing that the
national party simply consumes 80 cents
of each dollar received. This would be
a mistake, but it would be an
understandable mistake - and one we can
easily prevent. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This member would be mistaken because
compensation is not consumption. Staff
does a lot of things. Staff work is a
very large proportion of what the
national party does. When we see an
affiliate support line with a rather
small number on it, it conceals the fact
that staff spends a good amount of time
supporting affiliates. Since staff time
is split between different functions, we
have a timesheet policy allowing staff
time to be billed to different lines. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So this brings us to, perhaps, a
bigger problem: even knowing this, the
member reading this budget has no idea
how much of staff time is spent on what
projects. Perhaps most importantly,
neither does the LNC. Certainly the LNC
is not giving direction as to how staff
time should be spent. We have,
essentially, created a black box into
which we place 50% of the annual budget.
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A budget that breaks down staff time
the way it is to be billed, and that
funds staff time from line items, also
allows members, at a glance, to see what
priorities the national party has, and
to know easily and quickly what staff is
doing. Most importantly, it assures
members that these priorities are being
set by those they elect to make such
decisions, not being left to the ED, or
to chance, or to "whatever is most
pressing at the moment." I have said
before that my most pressing </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>After all, functional and operational
transparency require not only that
members see and hear us talking, but
that we are talking about the things
that members need to know. If we make
ourselves open, but exercise no control
over fully half the budget, we are not
transparent.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This is not at all hard to fix. We
know the proposed total compensation.
We may modify it at our meeting. A
portion of that, perhaps 20%, should be
left in the compensation black-box. The
LNC can decide what we'd like to
prioritize by setting percentages to
various functional lines. The remaining
compensation multiplied by the
percentage gives the amount to be moved
from compensation to the appropriate
line item.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Maintaining is also easy. Simply
fund compensation from the various
lines, in accordance with the timesheets
received. The Treasurer can, in turn,
keep an eye on the lines, and see if
some lines are over or under funded. If
so, the board can decide how to react -
by amending the budget, or by
instructing staff to respect the
priorities set. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am not known as a transparency
champion. In large part, I have a
different notion of transparency from
many of my colleagues. The above shows
the sort of transparency I worry about.
I hope, though, that my colleagues who
are known as transparency champions will
join me on this issue, and join me in
requesting that we not place 50% of our
annual expenditure in a black-box line
item such that members cannot use the
budget to determine what it is that we
do, and we cannot use the budget to
govern the organization.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>For my part, I am disinclined to vote
for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and
that charges 80% to administration.</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Joshua A. Katz
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
<br>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote></div>
</div></div>
<fieldset></fieldset>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
</div></blockquote></div>
--
<div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666" size="4"><b>In Liberty,</b></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666" size="4"><b>Caryn Ann Harlos</b></font></div><div><font size="1">Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee </font><span style="font-size:x-small">(Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org" target="_blank">Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Communications Director, <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.lpcolorado.org" target="_blank">Libertarian Party of Colorado</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Colorado State Coordinator, <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org" target="_blank">Libertarian Party Radical Caucus</a></span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">
</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">
</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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</pre>
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