[LPIL - Board of Directors] Comments in support of the motion to contract with Moellman Enterprises

[Bob Blair-Smith]

Due to my travels I am going to miss tonight’s board meeting.  

Here are my comments in favor of the proposed motion:

1) While not a perfect environment for LPIllinois, The proposed contract at $50/mo does help the Libertarian Party of Illinois maintain all continuity for most functions that we need as a party particular in the next few months including LP Illinois Convention and 2026 lead up to state office races.
Under a new agreement we also can expand capability with fundraising events and webpages, allow for better organizing by political districts and regions, without waiting for a central IT Admin to do it for us.

2) Ken from Moellman Enterprises has already improved server response times on the LPStates platform so far, and has committed to allowing us more customization and independent operations than has been possible up to now with the previous CiviCRM.  Example would be fundraising pages for conventions, paid sponsor/supporter ads/impressions, and more.

3) The experience from those using a potential alternative, Zoho, and migrating to it, requires more technical, database, and website “starting over” resources than LPillinois can afford or that we already have on hand at this time.

Furthermore, the National IT admin who attended a recent Dialpad meetings call, Eric Fowler, did not recommend moving to Zoho from Civi based on his personal experience from recent past unless we in the LP of Illinois have or obtain a lot of budget, and time and technical resources at our disposal.

4) The contract term is just 12 months.  If we find that LPStates and the support from M.E. is NOT the best path long-term for Libertarian Party of Illinois, we have some time to re-assess and explore different CRM and hosting environments before November 2026.

5) a “No" vote puts us in what I would call an untenable situation to scramble to build or buy more website hosting, fundraising CRM tools, and other platforms on short notice in a manner and timeframe that could harm our ability to raise funds, collect donations, and manage current and membership activities and disable our Cook County and other statewide and local candidates in the short term this year.  

6) Supporting a one-year agreement, on the other hand, gives us the best “try first” solution at minimal expense and with solid all-around expertise supporting us, our candidates and our current and future members.


Live Free,

Bob Blair-Smith II