As many of you know, Scott and I have tried to do outreach to elected Libertarians lately. We looked up those listed on the website, contacted everyone we could find information for, and invited them to join a mailing list for discussing what they were doing, as well as where officials could provide advice to each other. It was intended as a low-volume list, open to Libertarians serving in public office or not, but focused on this topic. To date, less than 10 have joined the list, and three messages have been posted - one introduction to the list, one post about stopping a ban on donation bins, and one post by a new member expressing enthusiasm for joining. Similarly, the LNCC sponsored a luncheon at the convention for elected officials, which Scott hosted. Understandably, we started (tricky language here - the LNCC paid, Scott organized, I invited people, hence the we) rather late, so the low turnout was not unreasonable. My point is, there's not a lot of participation by Elected Libertarians. Carla reached out to me shortly after I was elected, and I'm assuming this is done with all of our elected officials. Do we also reach out to them after they've been in office a while? More importantly, do we offer our officials any value-added for participating? We have a lot of members with specific skills, it might be a good idea to form volunteer databases of those qualified to provide support to our officials (lawyers, (P)RPs, accountants, etc.) In addition, I think we should encourage state chairs to solicit information from their elected officials about the goings-on, if any support is needed from the affiliate or from national, and for those state chairs to pass on needed support to HQ, as well as to pass on news for LP news and the blog. I would love for the blog, website, and LP news to feature small pieces, often, about what our officials are doing in office. Membership is encouraged by success, and having this sort of thing in LP News and the website would promote a more inspired membership (and membership retention.) It would also be a nice thing for our elected officials to know we care about them. Also, there are some things we need to stop doing. If we're going to have an elected Libertarians panel at the convention, it should not be held as a break-out session, unless for some reason we don't want our elected officials to be able to fully serve as delegates if they so choose. I did not participate in the panel, specifically because I was not, as state chair, an elected delegate, and presumptive regional alternate, going to miss LNC elections, which is when the panel was held in Ohio. If that's how I feel, as an elected official, what about delegates who are elected officials? Their only opportunity to hear from elected Libertarians would have meant giving up their right, as delegates, to vote for their leadership. More importantly, I don't think we should have an elected officials panel as the only opportunity for our elected officials to speak. During the convention itself, on the floor, we heard from the head of a conservative/libertarian organization (one I love dearly, by the way, and where I spent many summers, before they moved to Georgia), and several candidates who earned as much as, I think, 5% of the vote. We didn't hear from a single elected official from the floor. Not a single elected official was a meal speaker. Many state affiliates have invited elected officials to speak at their conventions, from their own states or from nearby states. Why wouldn't national also? This is not a plea, by the way, for "speaking welfare." Certainly, there's no reason not to have quality speakers - but presumably among our elected Libertarians, there must be some energizing speakers, since speaking is a part of campaigning. We want "the best" speakers - but we have different speakers every year, so surely we're not having "the best" every year - we're having a variety of good speakers. I'm just suggesting that one of those categories to be represented should be the people from this party who have helped us to achieve one of our key purposes - the moving of public policy in a libertarian direction by electing Libertarians to office. Many of our members, I've found, do not value winning local elections, and sometimes refer dismissively to such elections by the catch-phrase "dog-catcher." (Joe Biden, on the other hand, in 2007 said that there were too many judges appointed to the Supreme Court, and that instead a dog-catcher should be appointed. He was chair of the Judiciary Committee at the time.) Perhaps hearing from such people about how we are, in fact, moving liberty forward would be helpful. Also, I mentioned above that Scott and I searched for contact information for officials. Checking just now, I found that I don't have my contact information on the website, and a random sampling of 10 elected officials revealed that none did. Can someone at HQ please put my contact information up, and can we please encourage state chairs to ask their elected officials if they'd like their contact information displayed, and to provide it to HQ if so? People like success. We need to keep our elected officials involved and let them inspire our members. We also need them to serve as examples that, yes, you can get elected as a Libertarian, and yes, you can do things in office to move public policy in a libertarian direction. Doing that means incentivizing participation, providing opportunities for participation, and putting our elected officials forward as being valued. It also means providing our elected officials with any needed support we can offer - and seeking them out to offer that support. Joshua A. Katz Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate Libertarian National Committee Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut