Transparency and the budget
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration. Joshua A. Katz
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: 40 - Admin (this conversation) 88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website) 80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants) 85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat) 40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed. I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough. I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour. Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
Interestingly enough, my LP class requires timesheets in .1hour, so I've been doing this since August. It is frustrating, but I do not stop what I am doing every few minutes to log hours; I sum up every so often. I recognize that timesheets are not perfectly accurate, and I would not object to a standard of 1 hour rather than .1. If the system is too cumbersome and you have particular feedback on how we can allocate hours more effectively, the EPCC is eager to hear it, and I know I am very open to modifications. I'm not open to the idea of dropping all staff time into a black box, personally. What I object to, additionally, is having a policy but then budgeting as if it didn't exist. Joshua A. Katz On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <(202)%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
It's not just the time tracking, it's the categorization that can be tough. Tracking your time in .1hour increments isn't so hard if you typically stay on the same task for an hour. If you switch categories every .03 hours, it gets messy. If I get a call from an irate state chair about something a candidate said, is that considered affiliate support, candidate support, or member services? Would you try tracking your efforts according to the LNC categories for a week? I know you do ballot access, admin, APRC work (what category is that? - does it depend on whether you're reviewing LP News, something for LP.org, or a candidate piece?) Try tracking your hours for the national LP for just one week. I realize you are a volunteer, and it's staff paid time that is important to track to allocate to the financials. I just want to be sure you realize what you are asking for because I'm not sure you'd be asking for it if you really understood the outcome. See attached financial report plus image below. We track this stuff, but it's inherently fuzzy input numbers chopped up into fine detail. The image below from our financial report shows an example of how we allocate our time (it looks like it's time allocated to LP News, but it's not just that). If we provide unhappy members even greater financial detail than what's on the attached 14 pages, I suspect they'll still be unhappy. Be advised I wrote this note quickly and apologize if I've got some facts and interpretations wrong and shouldn't spend anymore time on it. Still hoping to see you track your national LP hours for a week and apply them to the proper categories. Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 3:49 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
Interestingly enough, my LP class requires timesheets in .1hour, so I've been doing this since August. It is frustrating, but I do not stop what I am doing every few minutes to log hours; I sum up every so often. I recognize that timesheets are not perfectly accurate, and I would not object to a standard of 1 hour rather than .1. If the system is too cumbersome and you have particular feedback on how we can allocate hours more effectively, the EPCC is eager to hear it, and I know I am very open to modifications. I'm not open to the idea of dropping all staff time into a black box, personally. What I object to, additionally, is having a policy but then budgeting as if it didn't exist.
Joshua A. Katz
On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org> facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business@hq.lp.org> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business@hq.lp.org> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org From FCC: im
Sorry, one more comment. Kind of like with ballot access. You gained a lot more insight what it's like to do ballot access after managing the drive in CT. Josh did a fantastic job by the way - we probably would have failed if he hadn't stepped in. I think if the Employment Policy and Compensation Committee at a minimum, tracked their hours according to Policy Manual FAE requirements for a month, your committee would be very well-prepared to coach me and staff about manageable effective efficient ways to track the information. You would be helping out staff, and then you could also speak to the LNC with authority on this subject. I think perhaps the LNC would value the feedback of the EPCC on this issue more than it values staff feedback, particularly if you had firsthand experience using yourselves as participants. Thanks, Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 4:31 PM, Wes Benedict wrote:
It's not just the time tracking, it's the categorization that can be tough. Tracking your time in .1hour increments isn't so hard if you typically stay on the same task for an hour. If you switch categories every .03 hours, it gets messy.
If I get a call from an irate state chair about something a candidate said, is that considered affiliate support, candidate support, or member services?
Would you try tracking your efforts according to the LNC categories for a week? I know you do ballot access, admin, APRC work (what category is that? - does it depend on whether you're reviewing LP News, something for LP.org, or a candidate piece?)
Try tracking your hours for the national LP for just one week. I realize you are a volunteer, and it's staff paid time that is important to track to allocate to the financials. I just want to be sure you realize what you are asking for because I'm not sure you'd be asking for it if you really understood the outcome.
See attached financial report plus image below. We track this stuff, but it's inherently fuzzy input numbers chopped up into fine detail.
The image below from our financial report shows an example of how we allocate our time (it looks like it's time allocated to LP News, but it's not just that).
If we provide unhappy members even greater financial detail than what's on the attached 14 pages, I suspect they'll still be unhappy.
Be advised I wrote this note quickly and apologize if I've got some facts and interpretations wrong and shouldn't spend anymore time on it.
Still hoping to see you track your national LP hours for a week and apply them to the proper categories.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 3:49 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
Interestingly enough, my LP class requires timesheets in .1hour, so I've been doing this since August. It is frustrating, but I do not stop what I am doing every few minutes to log hours; I sum up every so often. I recognize that timesheets are not perfectly accurate, and I would not object to a standard of 1 hour rather than .1. If the system is too cumbersome and you have particular feedback on how we can allocate hours more effectively, the EPCC is eager to hear it, and I know I am very open to modifications. I'm not open to the idea of dropping all staff time into a black box, personally. What I object to, additionally, is having a policy but then budgeting as if it didn't exist.
Joshua A. Katz
On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org> facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business@hq.lp.org> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <mailto:Lnc-business@hq.lp.org> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org From FCC: im
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
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. -- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/> On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <(202)%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done. 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). Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,wes.benedict@lp.org facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
I have done it twenty years in my job. As do attorneys all over the world. I don't need to prove it further. The issue is a good coding system that answers the questions of how to allocate. On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done.
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).
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <%28202%29%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');>http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
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? Perhaps test it for a few weeks once a draft plan is created. Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 7:05 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
I have done it twenty years in my job. As do attorneys all over the world. I don't need to prove it further.
The issue is a good coding system that answers the questions of how to allocate.
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org>> wrote:
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done.
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).
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');> facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,wes.benedict@lp.org facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
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. Please send them a copy of our financial statements, and ask your members and state chairs if they understand all the detail. 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? Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 7:57 PM, Wes Benedict wrote:
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?
Perhaps test it for a few weeks once a draft plan is created.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 7:05 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
I have done it twenty years in my job. As do attorneys all over the world. I don't need to prove it further.
The issue is a good coding system that answers the questions of how to allocate.
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org>> wrote:
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done.
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).
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');> facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008>,wes.benedict@lp.org facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians> @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org <http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org>
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
I would be happy to try to find a coding system. And I'm no expert but have worked inde such a system for decades. As possibly has Nick. On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
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?
Perhaps test it for a few weeks once a draft plan is created.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 7:05 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
I have done it twenty years in my job. As do attorneys all over the world. I don't need to prove it further.
The issue is a good coding system that answers the questions of how to allocate.
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>> wrote:
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done.
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).
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <%28202%29%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org');> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');>http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
Well, sure, I'm game for this, and I might learn something. You're right, I learned from doing CT ballot access last summer. I do want some additional clarification, at the same time. (I would advise charging the time to provide it to administration.) To be honest, I'm confused because I do not see how this line of discussion is responsive to what I said. If I had proposed, for example, a timesheet policy, I'd understand this response. I'm not proposing one - we've had one for years. I'm proposing that the LNC budget a certain way. So what is the reason for responding as if I were proposing something new for staff? In fact, off-list, I received a report showing what 2014 would look like if allocated according to 2013 timesheets. I don't know why it is shown that way, but regardless, this shows me that time is, in fact, being allocated. So how would it impose anything new on staff for the LNC to budget accordingly? The numbers I received came, presumably, from somewhere. I have also received some comments and feedback. Some point out that months are different, which makes perfect sense. I'm not sure why this prevents us from funding compensation from the appropriate line items on an annual budget, though - in some months, some lines will be drawn down more than others, but I'm not convinced that's a problem. I've seen concern about having to vote more often to amend the budget if we're off. This is certainly a possibility, and likely to occur more often in the first year than it will with more practice. However, I think a point is being missed here. While a large part of what I'm trying to do is show how time is spent, I am also trying to have the board use the budget to govern. Sure, staff could simply not react to what we do, and then come to us with amendment requests, but in a healthy organization, staff works within board governance. In other words, I am not assuming we will simply be ignored, and I do not think that would be appropriate. I'd also point out that I'm not suggesting anything new, bold, or revolutionary. I'm not claiming to have chanced upon a genius idea. It is standard practice to fund compensation from the appropriate lines. Nor are we too small: I served on a (public) board with 3 staff members, and we allocated their time rather than dumping it into a single line item. This is part and parcel of how well-functioning boards operate because it gives them levers of control without requiring them to jump into the weeds. I understand that, as you write, it gets fuzzy. I think I acknowledged in my first message that this is not a search for perfection; estimates and inaccuracies tend to come out in the wash. If you spend .03 hour on something, it won't get reported. Next time, you might overestimate the time you spend on that item. There is space - the space where board directions are followed and useful information produced - between perfect recording and dumping 50% of the budget into a black box. When the current proposal is simply to not budget staff time by function at all, I don't consider it persuasive to point to the fact that there would be some inaccuracy in a functional budget. I also am not proposed to send unhappy members a 14 page report. I am proposing that they not be made unhappy (at least in this regard) by being shown a black-box budget in the first place, and that they instead be able to look at a budget much like this one, except that the Compensation line is reduced and other lines increased. You spend a lot of time supporting affiliates - a member should be able to see that, at a glance, by looking at the budget and seeing a chunk of money allocated to Affiliate Support, not seeing a rather puny number there and half the budget in Compensation, then trying to imagine how much of that compensation translates to affiliate support. Finally, Wes, while I consolidated my responses, don't feel that this entire message is directed at you. It is mostly to the LNC, and I'm not trying to step on the chair's prerogative to manage as CEO by debating with you or giving you instructions. For example, if you don't feel like answering my question above, feel free not to. As a board member, I have no power except to vote on the board. Also, as I said before, I am happy (with my EPCC hat on) to hear suggestions as to how we can allocate compensation in other ways. If the policy needs to be modified, I am open to modifying it, but not by giving up on the idea of governing this item. Joshua A. Katz On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 5:39 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
Caryn Ann, I don't mind if you do it successfully. I'm not saying it can't be done.
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).
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <(202)%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 5:11 PM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
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.
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/>
On Friday, December 2, 2016, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict@lp.org> wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <%28202%29%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
This is a good illustration of why I believe we need a simple "ledger" budget that shows each line item of income and each line item of expense, instead of just high-level documents that lump things into broad and often somewhat arbitrary categories. In other words, a long list of items formatted something like this: EXPENSES Date Amount Item or Service Purchased / (Source) Purpose and Context of Expenditure 12/1/16 $5.99 stapler (Office Depot) Wes's old stapler broke 12/1/16 $59.42 monthly utility bill (Northeast Power Co.) Office gas & electric 12/1/16 - 12/31/16 REVENUES Date Amount Source of Funds Nature of Donation / (Restrictions on Use of Funds, if any) 12/1/16 $25 Jane Doe Basic membership renewal (Unrestricted) 12/1/16 $10,000 John Smith Estate bequest to party (Restricted to paying for office) With this approach, staff could simply record each transaction into the ledger as it occurred, provide updates to the LNC on a quarterly or monthly basis, and not waste time trying to categorize stuff. It would then be the Treasurer's job to analyze the data, break it down into categories, provide additional historical context based on previous Treasurer's records, etc. as s/he deems most useful and appropriate, but members would also have access to the raw ledger data. I agree with Joshua that "If we make ourselves open, but exercise no control over fully half the budget, we are not transparent." Without this ledger detail, we are effectively seeing only half the budget – we can see overall numbers broken down into various large categories, but within these broad numbers and categories, all kinds of pertinent details may be invisible to us. Similarly, I would rather see staffers simply keep logs of what they are specifically spending their time doing, and provide those records periodically to the LNC, perhaps to be analyzed by a subcommittee, rather than wasting time trying to figure out how to log things, e.g. whether a conversation with an LNC member should be logged under Admin, Outreach, Branding, or whatever. That kind of of categorization is more of an oversight function, and not something staff should have to worry about. If, after seeing the detailed records and the analyses of those records by the Treasurer and others (perhaps the Audit Committee), the LNC decides staff are spending too much time or money on administration and not enough on outreach, then instructions could be communicated to them accordingly. Love & Liberty, ((( starchild ))) At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee (415) 625-FREE @StarchildSF On Dec 2, 2016, at 12:38 PM, Wes Benedict wrote:
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: 40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed. I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
During Ballot Access I was running about 30 hours per week. When Ohio was rolling I was going up to Columbus a lot. For the first time in my decade of involvement and action in the LP, my wife said it was a ridiculous amount of time and someone should get paid for doing that. --- Ken C. Moellman, Jr. LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative LPKY Judicial Committee On 2016-12-02 15:38, Wes Benedict wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 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 [2]
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org [1]
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org [1]
Links: ------ [1] http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org [2] http://lp.org/membership
Ken, first, thank you for all your work. Second, I think your suggestion that the LNC utilize, at least during the main petitioning season, a paid project manager, has a lot of merit and should be seriously considered. Joshua A. Katz On Sat, Dec 3, 2016 at 2:01 PM, Ken Moellman <ken.moellman@lpky.org> wrote:
During Ballot Access I was running about 30 hours per week. When Ohio was rolling I was going up to Columbus a lot. For the first time in my decade of involvement and action in the LP, my wife said it was a ridiculous amount of time and someone should get paid for doing that.
---
Ken C. Moellman, Jr. LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative LPKY Judicial Committee
On 2016-12-02 15:38, Wes Benedict wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <(202)%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.orgfacebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.orghttp://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
I tried to like your email. I've been on FB too much On Saturday, December 3, 2016, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty@gmail.com> wrote:
Ken, first, thank you for all your work. Second, I think your suggestion that the LNC utilize, at least during the main petitioning season, a paid project manager, has a lot of merit and should be seriously considered.
Joshua A. Katz
On Sat, Dec 3, 2016 at 2:01 PM, Ken Moellman <ken.moellman@lpky.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ken.moellman@lpky.org');>> wrote:
During Ballot Access I was running about 30 hours per week. When Ohio was rolling I was going up to Columbus a lot. For the first time in my decade of involvement and action in the LP, my wife said it was a ridiculous amount of time and someone should get paid for doing that.
---
Ken C. Moellman, Jr. LNC Region 3 Alternate Representative LPKY Judicial Committee
On 2016-12-02 15:38, Wes Benedict wrote:
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:
40 - Admin (this conversation)
88 - Outreach (LNC photos on the website)
80 - Media or 85 - Member Communications (delivering the message the LNC wants)
85 - Member Communication (recording the termination of the membership of person who disapproves of LNC buying meat)
40 Admin? or 55 Branding? or 70 - Ballot Access? - approving staff getting a poster about ballot access printed.
I literally switch tasks every few minutes. Trying to track this in detail is very tough.
I really would like to see the LNC track themselves for a month. You'll find out how hard this is after one hour.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director Libertarian National Committee, Inc. 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314(202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <(202)%20333-0008>, wes.benedict@lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','wes.benedict@lp.org');>facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
On 12/2/2016 3:21 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
For my part, I am disinclined to vote for a budget that black-boxes 50%, and that charges 80% to administration.
Joshua A. Katz
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing listLnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');>http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
_______________________________________________ Lnc-business mailing list Lnc-business@hq.lp.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Lnc-business@hq.lp.org');> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-- *In Liberty,* *Caryn Ann Harlos* Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org>
participants (5)
-
Caryn Ann Harlos -
Joshua Katz -
Ken Moellman -
Starchild -
Wes Benedict