[Steven Nekhaila]

Dear All,

One of the most crucial opportunities we have as a body is to create an executive vision as a board that gives members metrics to judge us by and incentivizes us to work together to maintain those objectives in a timely and effective manner. 

When I became Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Florida in 2019, my first objective was to create such a vision. Attached is the 2021 vision deck (V2 as we had added more goals), which acts as an outline used as a shared trajectory of our wants and progression. I had worked with the Executive Committee and individual committee Chairs to create the Vision Deck along with my own thoughts and ideas where I saw opportunities, these combined to a vision in which we as a Party were all "bought in" and working together, sometimes even competing to get these items done.

I believe it's high time for the LNC to work together to do the same, if we do not have concrete and actionable objectives then we have no real direction which in time devolves into self-interest and ultimately inertia. Make no mistake, I understand our staff are making tremendous progress behind the scenes, but we as a board need to hold ourselves accountable to objectives that we set, and work together to make them happen.

I would like to open up discussion on a proposed vision deck for exactly that purpose, and I would encourage committee Chairs to reach out to me so that I may hear their goals and work that in with the LNC's vision. There will be a lot of ideas, so I hope to gain alignment on all items. The idea is to finalize the deck and then propose it as an official agenda item once we are all aligned.

Please let me know your thoughts, ideas, and questions while we go through the process.

Sincerely,

Steven Nekhaila

Region 2 Representative

Libertarian National Committee

305-393-6412

Impotentes liberatum defendere non-possunt

Those without power cannot defend freedom

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

Certainly.  Our former chair had a strategic vision that we should revisit as well.  My issue with the prior strategic vision is that virtually no one else from the LNC gave input - leading to the whole issues many had during his tenure with the strong chair model.

   In Liberty, 

LNC Secretary | secr...@lp.org | 561.523.2250

[Steven Nekhaila]

I think the failure is exactly that, the LNC was not bought in to the plan, let alone did we have a hand in executing it as the plan wasn’t frequently revisited. Speaking for myself at least, it was hard to give an accurate summary of exactly what the was in it as there was nowhere to reference.

Sincerely,

Steven Nekhaila

---

From: Caryn Ann Harlos <secr...@lp.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2021 2:43:57 PM
To: lnc-business <lnc-bu...@lp.org>
Subject: Re: [lnc-business]

 

[Dustin Nanna]

We seem to have no real plan and aren't doing much of anything at all. Thanks for submitting this. Hopefully we become a board who actually does things other than podcasts and social media posts.

Dustin Nanna

Region 3 Representative, Libertarian National Committee

740-816-9805

[Erin Adams]

We aren't a functional board at this point.

 I think it's going to take more than a strategic vision to solve that. Unfortunately I don't see widespread willingness to do so.

Erin Adams region 7 Representative

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

I disagree with Ms. Adams, with respect.  One of the huge reasons we are not a functional board is because the LNC has been  treated as mere figureheads.  We have never had a coherent plan and when complaints about issues were brought up, they were soundly ignored or shot down.  That creates chaos and bad feelings.  And is a direct product of the strong ChaIr model.  Any recent events were predicated by past events, and mostly a growing disgust (I have to use a strong word) with the way the national party has handled COVID.  And nothing was ever done - that has been the elephant in the room and the cause of much of the events.  The other cause - and no one wants to say it - is the LNC getting too involved in outside Party politics - particularly this absolutely ridiculous nazi-hunt which culminated in our former chair trying to help a NH coup.  Both of those things are the real issue.  And that is what needs to be faced.

   In Liberty, 

LNC Secretary | secr...@lp.org | 561.523.2250

[Rich Bowen]

WRITTEN board goals, both operational and aspirational, are a REQUIREMENT to be successful IMO.  The ultimate goal being how the board will add value to the party overall each cycle, and by its nature lessening a strong chair or top heavy committee. 

At a minimum, board goals should outline agreed upon quantifiable priorities of what is to be accomplished during the cycle, by when and by whom.  They should be monitored and measured at regular intervals.

I strongly agree with Mr. Nekhaila that a process such as his is badly needed by this and future committees.    Without proactive goals and a strategic plan, boards tend to become disorganized, only react, stagnate, and make little or no progress for the organization overall.  Sound familiar?  Although late in our current cycle, it is not too late.  Even if we just leave something for the next iteration of the board to work with.

Rich

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

Hear hear 

--

[Whitney Bilyeu]

Too often committees are where ideas go to die...

I agree we need a shared vision, plans, and measurable goals. Mr. Nekhaila is on to something, and I'd like to see teams of us executing plans, not just forming more subcommittees.

It only takes a few of us to choose a project from the ones suggested in this deck, and the LNC to adopt it, to give us a meaningful activity on which to focus forward.

-WB

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

I agree with Madame Chair that too often committees are where ideas go to die, but I think all organizations need to ask why - and the buck falls on the appointing body and institutional inertia not to replace members of nonfunctioning committees.  There are multiple examples of very productive committees of this body - the CoC for instance.  I would also add the HPC and there are many others.  There are also committees that have gotten nothing done for two terms, and what should happen is after two reports of basically nothing, the committee gets examined and the entire committee or the committee chair gets replaced.  That would solve that problem right quick.

   In Liberty, 

LNC Secretary | secr...@lp.org | 561.523.2250

[Richard Longstreth]

I'd like to reconsider talks on developing our strategic vision. Especially as we head into setting the budget at our next meeting, planning ahead and knowing what our priorities are will certainly help in the decision making and planning processes.

Richard Longstreth
At Large Representative
Libertarian National Committee
richard.l...@lp.org
931.538.9300

Sent from my Mobile Device

[Pat Ford]

I am interested in participating in this.

Pat Ford

[Steven Nekhaila]

Hello folks,

I am pleased to see renewed interest in creating a strategic vision. I would be happy to assist in spearheading this project and getting us as aligned as possible on goals.

The first order of business would be to work with all of the committee chairs to volleyball ideas and come up with concrete goals for the 2021-2022 term and beyond. I would recommend coming up with a list of committee's with their contacts and setting up a meeting with each to go over exactly that and penning down bullet points for overarching goals for that committee.

Does anyone have the list onhand of committee's with Chair info?

Sincerely,

Steven Nekhaila