November 2014 - Lnc-business - Moellman Enterprises Email

goals adopted today
by Alicia Mattson 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

I've had two region reps request that I provide copies of the 6 goals the LNC adopted today. They are (in descending order of support level): 1. 1000 candidates in 2016 2. Take action to see that each state has operational affiliate by June 1, 2015 3. 300 candidates by 2016 trained in Who’s Driving 4. Updated issue-based outreach literature this term 5. 38-state party-status ballot access as of Dec 1, 2016 6. 200 elected Libertarian officials in Dec 2016 Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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updated Judicial Committee rules
by Alicia Mattson 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

I have been notified that the Judicial Committee adopted amended rules for the 2014 term. They chose to merely make minor changes to the rules from the prior term. Attached are two documents, one showing the changes from the prior set of rules, and the other showing those changes accepted into the text. Per Bylaws Article 9.3, the JC submits these rules to the LNC for approval, "which approval shall be deemed given unless denied by a 2/3 vote of the National Committee within 60 days of submission." Unless the LNC decides to veto these rules with a 2/3 vote before January 12, 2015, these rules will be approved. Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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Previous Notice - Constructive Candidate Portrayal
by Alicia Mattson 08 Dec '14

08 Dec '14

Attached is another policy proposal I would like added to the agenda for the December meeting. My sense is that this will generate more debate than the previous one, so I'll ask for 15 minutes. This new policy would require that our public communications portray our candidates as people seeking to change public policy by getting themselves elected, not as spoilers who get their kicks by just being monkey wrenches in some other candidate's election plans. Over the past few years, a large number of state chairs have complained repeatedly about spoiler talk in national party communications. In the 2012 election cycle, one state chair repeatedly asked that one of their candidates not be portrayed that way, yet it continued. Half of the front page of the most recent LP News edition was a table of which candidates might be spoilers. First is the obvious philosophical point that other parties don't "own" anyone's vote, therefore we're not "stealing" votes from anyone. Second, I don't think it's true that the presence of our candidates frequently changes the outcome, as exit polls suggest that if our candidates had not been on the ballot, those votes would have been fairly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, or those people wouldn't have voted at all. Third, I think we just shoot ourselves in the foot for ballot access fights. The reason the GOP tries so hard to kick us off the ballot after we have qualified is because they believe we play the spoiler role for their candidates. Why would we perpetuate that idea, when we see how many hundreds of thousands of dollars it has cost over the years to defend ballot access challenges? Fourth, it tells the world that we don't even see ourselves as serious candidates. Overall, I think this approach to our image is self-destructive. -Alicia

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scheduling an LNC budget review session
by Alicia Mattson 04 Dec '14

04 Dec '14

The Executive Committee has reviewed and made some adjustments to the draft budget. You may recall that in the September LNC meeting in Alexandria, we adopted a motion, "that the LNC have an informal conference approximately 2 weeks prior to the December session in order to review the draft budget to be proposed at that session." In terms of scheduling a time for this review, Robert Kraus will be off work following the Thanksgiving holiday until December 2nd, and we need him to be available to field questions during this review. The current proposed time to have a budget review with the full LNC is December 3rd at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific. How well does that proposed schedule work for the rest of the LNC? Please respond to let us know if you would be available then or not. Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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adopting the convention minutes
by Alicia Mattson 01 Dec '14

01 Dec '14

As I mentioned in our previous LNC meeting, we had a draft of the convention minutes, but they needed a number of corrections before we adopted them. In the time since then, I've finished that work. During the Secretary's report in our December meeting, I intend to make a motion to adopt the convention minutes. The draft I am proposing for adoption is currently posted on the website on the minutes archive page, since the new bylaw requires that it be posted there for 14 days before the LNC can vote to approve it. Here is the direct link to it: https://www.lp.org/files/20140627-29_convention_minutes.pdf Alicia Mattson LNC Secretary

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FW: ASC 2014 Poll Results and Annual Report
by Guy McLendon 29 Nov '14

29 Nov '14

This is still draft, but it's getting closer ... -----Original Message----- From: Guy McLendon [mailto:guy@mclendon.net] Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2014 7:38 PM To: statechairs(a)hq.lp.org Subject: FW: ASC 2014 Poll Results and Annual Report FYI -----Original Message----- From: Guy McLendon [mailto:guy@mclendon.net] Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2014 7:36 PM To: lnc-asc(a)hq.lp.org Cc: 'Robert Kraus'; 'Wes Benedict'; chair(a)lp.org Subject: ASC 2014 Poll Results and Annual Report The ASC teleconference reviewed & approved the four recommendations listed in the attached MS Word report, and requested that I add an analysis section on the poll question related to income. Please review & comment on this draft. I'm also about to post the report to the state chair's list ... If you've got further comments, please share those ASAP ... the deadline to getting the report into the LNC Quarterly Meeting book is approaching. My intention is to incorporate cited Tables & Charts into the report to the extent it's practical. Guy McLendon LNC At Large Member Chair Affiliate Support Committee Libertarian Party National Committee www.lp.org Cell 832-372-8131

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Previous Notice - Awards Committee Appointment
by Alicia Mattson 29 Nov '14

29 Nov '14

Attached is a proposal I would like added to the agenda (10 minutes) for the December LNC meeting. The current language was presented as a concept, rather than as policy-ready language, but someone made a motion to adopt it just because it was the final meeting of the term. I was busy writing minutes and didn't speak up fast enough to stop the "without objection" approach. The language is problematic, though. It currently says the Awards Committee will be populated with volunteers, or by the chair if volunteers don't show up. What happens if we get more volunteers than there are positions available? Who picks? Technically it only says the chair picks if there's a shortage of volunteers, not if there are too many. And what if we get exactly 5 volunteers, but they are people that, if the LNC were to vote on it, would not be acceptable candidates? Are we just stuck with whoever raises their hand first? How can the chair appoint someone who isn't willing to volunteer for the job? He can't conscript service. In general, I prefer that the LNC appoint committees rather than just having one person do it, thus I have proposed that this language be changed to say simply that the LNC chooses the Awards Committee members. -Alicia

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Previous Notice - have COC maintain convention archive
by Alicia Mattson 29 Nov '14

29 Nov '14

Though I haven't yet found all of the material I wanted for the convention archive, I did find almost all of it. During the past week, I loaded the organized material into the staff wiki. I will keep my eye out for sources for the missing materials and add them if the opportunity arises. There is a lot of material missing for the 2008 convention because that was contracted out to the convention host committee with its restrictions on information sharing. But the 2010, 2012, and 2014 materials are fairly complete. With that now being a functional archive that future convention planners can reference, I want to increase the chances that it will be updated and maintained in the future. I want to task the Convention Oversight Committee with updating that archive after each convention. Attached is a policy change proposal I would like added to the agenda (10 minutes) for the December LNC meeting. Adopting this motion would expand the term of the Convention Oversight Committee so that it extends 90 days after a convention, rather than ending at the close of the convention. During that time, it tasks them with providing a final report to the LNC and with updating the convention archive materials while that data is still readily available. -Alicia

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Re: [Lnc-business] How many elections are "winnable" this November for the LP?
by Scott L. 28 Nov '14

28 Nov '14

From: Scott L. [mailto:scott73@earthlink.net] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 9:59 AM To: 'lnc-business(a)lp.org' Subject: How many elections are "winnable" this November for the LP? I just went thru the A to D section of our nationwide list of candidates for 2014. Total candidates 113 Total number of winnable races 18 Total # of ballot access retention races 14 Percentage of non-ballot-access-retention candidates that have a chance of winning 16%. Nevertheless - I will go out on a limb and predict that the LP will have 19 victories on Election Day next month. That includes incumbents running for re-election. Scott Lieberman HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh From: Scott L. [mailto:scott73@earthlink.net] Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2014 7:35 AM To: 'lnc-business(a)lp.org' Subject: How many Libertarians got elected in Nov 2014? According to my count, 17 Libertarians were elected or re-elected to public office in the November 2014 election. Of those, 7 were partisan offices, and 10 were non-partisan offices. This gives us an approximate winning percentage of 2%. It is difficult to recruit volunteers into a political party that has a winning percentage that low. Scott Lieberman GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGG I quote from the two e-mails above to show that my prediction of 19 victories on Election Day was very close to the actual number, which has not yet been released by LPHQ staff. On the one hand, I am happy that my political forecasting skills are that good. On the other hand, I am very sad that the LNC and many state affiliates still treat the "elect Libertarians to public office" part of our National Bylaws as an afterthought, rather than as a Mission Statement. Scott Lieberman

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Sec of Defense
by Joshua Katz 27 Nov '14

27 Nov '14

I've been hearing on the news that they're having trouble filling this job because no one wants it. Many of us have pointed out that seeking appointments is easier than winning in a rigged partisan system. Maybe we should find qualified LP members and take advantage of our HQ being located in DC in order to lobby for their appointment. Joshua A. Katz Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)

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