For those of you not addicted to FaceBook: Just to post something positive for a change, following is a excerpt from the current LPIN Liberty Beacon newsletter describing a new member's first visit to our state convention. John Pickerill <https://www.facebook.com/john.pickerill.5?fref=mentions>, by the way, is the former Chair of the Montgomery County (IN) Republican Party: Being a fairly new Libertarian, John Pickerill headed to Evansville on Friday, May 5th, with hopeful curiosity about how his own first LPIN convention would unfold. John happily reports that while driving home on Sunday, "I felt more politically energized than I had been in a long time. My sense of mission was restored." John came to the LPIN after dismay at major-party state conventions, whose agendas he describes as being "just-for-show". Having seen no real-time input at those gatherings, nor substantive on-floor debate, he characterizes their delegates as simply "expected to rubber-stamp top-down decisions" made in advance. In Evansville John saw the Libertarian contrast. He says, "The genuine political party experience was apparent on Friday when I witnessed a State Chair debate presented for the attendees. And on the convention floor Saturday, delegates were given the opportunity to speak for and against candidates" competing for LPIN office. John liked seeing for himself that "it was the LPIN delegates who elected their state officers and who voted to amend bylaws and rules -- as is supposed to happen at a convention. It wasn't just that the LPIN follows the rules, but also that guest speakers all focused, not on propaganda or personality, but on advancing the cause of liberty." "One speaker stressed bringing liberty topics to the media at every opportunity. Another spoke on ensuring that people attracted to the LP can be confident that we'll do what we say and say what we mean." A highlight for John was hearing an elected office-holder describe in detail "what it means to legislate as a Libertarian." John even appreciates that "the Chair and State Central Committee (SCC) held an ad hoc fundraiser Saturday evening, raising money yes, plus important confidence and energy." On Sunday he stayed to observe the post-convention SCC meeting and notes that it made "several key decisions to put the new Chair's plans into action." John summarizes our 2017 event in Evansviile: "I found a political party that is well-organized, that faithfully follows its own rules, and that passionately adheres to its cause of liberty. As said by our Libertarian National Committee member Sam Goldstein publicly to me on this convention's floor -- 'John, welcome home.'" Sam Goldstein Libertarian National Committee Member at Large 8925 N Meridian St, Ste 101 Indianapolis IN 46260 317-850-0726 Phone 317-582-1773 Fax