I'm pleased to announce the two newest members of the Libertarian Party headquarters staff: Lauren Daugherty and Andy Burns. *Lauren Daugherty* joins us from Texas where she previously served as the executive director of the *Libertarian Party of Texas*. Ms. Daugherty earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Economics from Emory University in Atlanta where she served as Chairman of the College Republicans (don't worry--she's a real Libertarian now). She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Statecraft and National Security from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, and a Masters of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. Her impressive resume includes previous work at *FreedomWorks* in Washington, DC, where she executed a rapid expansion of their direct mail program, and the *Leadership Institute*, in Arlington, VA, where she oversaw campus outreach at northeastern schools, managed four field staff, and spoke regularly at training seminars across the country. She served as executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas from 2013 to 2015. In 2014, LP Texas raised over $145,000, put 132 candidates on ballots across the state, and established branding standards for the organization. Ms. Daugherty will help us with fundraising and membership growth. *Andy Burns* joins us from Minnesota, where he has served as as executive director of the *Libertarian Party of Minnesota*. Mr. Burns earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he majored in Organizational Management and minored in Economics. As executive director for the LP Minnesota, Mr. Burns dramatically raised annual revenues from $5,800 before he was hired to over $45,000. Mr. Burns managed LP Minnesota's 2014 statewide petitioning effort which collected 13,000 signatures for 5 statewide candidates in just 14 days. This is the only time any minor party has accomplished this since 1998. During Mr. Burn's leadership, LP Minnesota also increased their non-partisan elected officials from zero to five and established branding standards for the organization. Mr. Burns will serve as our State Affiliate Development Specialist, in particular to improve the areas of fundraising, database management, and marketing. The addition of Mr. Burns to serve as our new State Affiliate Support Specialist was made possible by the generous contribution of $20,000 dedicated specifically for this position. Finally, I'd like to publicly recognize and thank *Arthur DiBianca* for his work for the Libertarian Party for over ten years in various roles. I first had the opportunity to work with Art significantly in 2004 while volunteering for the LP Texas petition drive that collected over 80,000 signatures. I was serving as the volunteer coordinator for that drive and Art was one of the rare volunteers who would actually go out there with me and collect lots of signatures without getting burnt out too easily. I then asked him to help me validate the signatures. He ended up setting up a database and validated probably over 40,000 (I don't remember exactly). I later hired him to work with me for the LP Texas where we broke fundraising and candidate recruitment records. He managed our database, helped assemble fundraising letters, edited nearly everything I ever wrote (including the book I wrote a few years ago), called people to get them to run for office, helped them fill out their applications, and even helped many candidates get fines reduced or waived for filing late campaign finance reports. His work was so versatile and productive, I just had to hire him to work for the national LP after I started working here myself. Art has worked just part-time for the national LP for the past year and recently decided it was time for him to move on other things. He remains a supporter of the Libertarian Party, I just couldn't convince him to continue making it a professional career. Once again, I'd like to thank Art DiBianca for his more than ten years of service welcome Lauren Daugherty and Andy Burns to the team. -- Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. *New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314* (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict@lp.org facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership