[Lnc-votes] [Lnc-business] Seeking Co-Sponsors For a Motion to Give Staff the Authority to Select the number of issues of LP News

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

Once somebody objected this was inevitable. Here comes a request for cosponsors of a motion by email at the bottom of this missive .

Our staff has asked for the discretion to cut an issue of LP news this year.  The rationale seems to be with lots of transition in staff and some other projects there isn't the time to do it well.  

I was the main driver of reducing the number of physical issues of LPNews at the December meeting.  That said, Lauren Daugherty our Head of Development was not in favor of that.  She likes to have more touches in between "asks" for money.  It's part of cultivating donors. Nobody likes to feel like an ATM.  I totally get that though I think there are other ways to do it and still believe we should start to transition to an all digital format. That said I believe in giving our staff the tools they ask for to succeed.

In this case, the person tasked with raising our donation levels and maintaining and increasing our dues paying members prefers more touches.  Our executive director who has a good understanding of what a can of worms the LPNews "issue" is has asked us to cut an issue.  I don't think he would do that without good reason.

Nick has the authority to direct staff(or let our executive director do it).  From the technical aspects Joshua mentions, there doesn't need to be a motion for Wes to do this, especially with Nick's ok.  Caryn Ann objects because of underlying arguments made in the unsuccessful attempt to limit the number of LPNews issues to 4 during the December 2016 LNC meeting.  That motion failing didn't mandate more issues. It just did not set a limit of 4. I may be wrong on the specifics but it becomes moot either way if this motion passes.

If we don't amend the budget line, that leaves the funding there for 6 issues.  Let's say things go smoother or other things shift and Wes changes his mind on being able to put out 6 well produced issues. By giving him discretion to select between publishing 5 or 6 issues that removes at least the objection of going against the sentiment that may or may not have been codified in December. It also lets him do his job we hired him for which is to allocate staff resources with the chair's guidance.

I can already sense that while we may not technically need a motion, despite how painful email motions can be, not having one is going to be made much more time consuming and painful by cries of "foul".

So I am seeking cosponsors for the following motion:

"Move to allow staff the discretion to choose between publishing a total of five or six physical issues of LPNews for the year of 2017, subject to the approval of the Chairman."

Daniel Hayes

LNC At Large Member

Sent from my iPhone

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

I will co-sponsor.

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I will co-sponsor Mr. Hayes' motion on the number of LP News issues.

Sam Goldstein

Libertarian National Committee

Member at Large

8925 N Meridian St, Ste 101

Indianapolis IN 46260

317-850-0726 Phone

317-582-1773 Fax

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

I will co-sponsor. Bill Redpath
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 6/20/17, Sam Goldstein <goldstei...@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Seeking Co-Sponsors For a Motion to Give Staff the Authority to Select the number of issues of LP News
To: lnc-bu...@hq.lp.org
Date: Tuesday, June 20, 2017, 12:16 PM

Daniel HayesLNC At

Large Member


Sent from my
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[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

I will co sponsor.

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 10:17 AM Sam Goldstein <goldstei...@gmail.com> wrote:

I will co-sponsor Mr. Hayes' motion on the number of LP News issues.

Sam Goldstein

Libertarian National Committee

Member at Large

8925 N Meridian St, Ste 101

Indianapolis IN 46260

317-850-0726 Phone

317-582-1773 Fax

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 10:50 AM, Whitney Bilyeu <whitn...@gmail.com> wrote:

I will co-sponsor.

On Jun 20, 2017 8:33 AM, "Daniel Hayes" <daniel...@icloud.com> wrote:

Once somebody objected this was inevitable. Here comes a request for cosponsors of a motion by email at the bottom of this missive .

Our staff has asked for the discretion to cut an issue of LP news this year.  The rationale seems to be with lots of transition in staff and some other projects there isn't the time to do it well.  

I was the main driver of reducing the number of physical issues of LPNews at the December meeting.  That said, Lauren Daugherty our Head of Development was not in favor of that.  She likes to have more touches in between "asks" for money.  It's part of cultivating donors. Nobody likes to feel like an ATM.  I totally get that though I think there are other ways to do it and still believe we should start to transition to an all digital format. That said I believe in giving our staff the tools they ask for to succeed.

In this case, the person tasked with raising our donation levels and maintaining and increasing our dues paying members prefers more touches.  Our executive director who has a good understanding of what a can of worms the LPNews "issue" is has asked us to cut an issue.  I don't think he would do that without good reason.

Nick has the authority to direct staff(or let our executive director do it).  From the technical aspects Joshua mentions, there doesn't need to be a motion for Wes to do this, especially with Nick's ok.  Caryn Ann objects because of underlying arguments made in the unsuccessful attempt to limit the number of LPNews issues to 4 during the December 2016 LNC meeting.  That motion failing didn't mandate more issues. It just did not set a limit of 4. I may be wrong on the specifics but it becomes moot either way if this motion passes.

If we don't amend the budget line, that leaves the funding there for 6 issues.  Let's say things go smoother or other things shift and Wes changes his mind on being able to put out 6 well produced issues. By giving him discretion to select between publishing 5 or 6 issues that removes at least the objection of going against the sentiment that may or may not have been codified in December. It also lets him do his job we hired him for which is to allocate staff resources with the chair's guidance.

I can already sense that while we may not technically need a motion, despite how painful email motions can be, not having one is going to be made much more time consuming and painful by cries of "foul".

So I am seeking cosponsors for the following motion:

"Move to allow staff the discretion to choose between publishing a total of five or six physical issues of LPNews for the year of 2017, subject to the approval of the Chairman."

Daniel Hayes

LNC At Large Member

Sent from my iPhone

_______________________________________________
Lnc-business mailing list
Lnc-bu...@hq.lp.org
http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org

_______________________________________________
Lnc-business mailing list
Lnc-bu...@hq.lp.org
http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org

_______________________________________________
Lnc-business mailing list
Lnc-bu...@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. Har...@LP.org

Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado

Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus 

Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee

A haiku to the Statement of Principles:

We defend your rights

And oppose the use of force

Taxation is theft

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

Before voting on this, I'd like to hear what Wes wants to spend staff time on that would otherwise be spent producing an issue of LP News. I don't see how we can make an informed decision on the merits of the motion without that information.

Love & Liberty,

                                     ((( starchild )))

At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee

                           RealR...@earthlink.net

                                   (415) 625-FREE

                                     @StarchildSF

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

The short answer is "everything I do except LP News." But let me elaborate on some of the things I need to get done that I've had time giving enough attention to:

Interviewing prospects and hiring: Press Secretary, Candidate Support Specialist, Members Services manager (we have a temp member services manager, Mat, who I want to get back on phoning for renewals).

Working with those new people to insure good integration into the organization.

Our website still needs plenty of improvements, like our current list of candidates.

Well thought-out facebook prospecting ads where we monitor closely the R.O.I. (you don't want to just spend money and count views and clicks).  Eric produced profitable facebook membership ads for us in the past. Others haven't been able to do that for me. 

More press releases on current issues.

We've done some prospecting to the Johnson for President 2016 list, but need to do more of that via email, facebook, and snail mail. Our contract for that data makes the process a bit more cumbersome than would be obvious.

Better integration or at least syncing between Raisers Edge and our email blast service.

Our attorney is waiting on me for some info a ballot access case.

A state affiliate is waiting on me for some helpful registered libertarian data that I'll also make available to other states if I have time to let them know about it.

Membership numbers are going down. Need to work on that more.

Take the time to respond to Andy, the petitioners, collecting of names for us to send membership invitations to to say "thanks, we'll send membership inquiry packages--of the 60 or so that we've sent in recent years that were legible enough, we raised $10, so worth doing when we have the names, but not worth making a top priority compared to just getting our petitioners to focus and do good work getting signatures."

Eric's a big help to me on a lot of important things I need help with (he's already started making website fixes that used to take me long to describe in detail--now I can tell him real quick in person and he's getting things working better).

But seriously, I'm overloaded with many major things. Outside help is sometimes helpful, but not always so easy to use--I've spent quite a bit of time lately explaining FEC rules and regulations to people who are helping--takes time with new folks--some outside help from volunteers ends up taking a lot of time perhaps counter-intuitively.

When I can't give staff the attention they need to make themselves helpful, it hurts their productivity.  I think I'd be better off having staff work on other projects than that 6th issue of LP News this year.

I do try to prioritize. There are 4 major inputs that affect my prioritization: 1) my thoughts of course, 2) the chairs, 3) the LNC's, 4) significant opportunities that pop up out of the blue that are worth taking advantage of.

We can do all 6 LP News issues if that's what the LNC requests. It's a minor decision for you all regardless of which direction you go and will have a minor impact--not a major decision in my opinion.

Thanks for asking.

I am unable to answer all the emails and calls I get.

Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.be...@lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

A quick follow-up: I will not be upset regardless of how the LNC votes on this. I'm a bit flattered (for the organization) that many of you would feel like you were missing out by missing one issue of LP News--glad you all want to keep it going and many thanks to Carla who has served as editor for a couple years on that.

Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.be...@lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

Thanks, Wes. I'm glad you clarified, because your initial message had given me the impression that unexpected and possibly important stuff had come up. Here it sounds like you are talking about just the usual competing priorities. It seems to me that the pressure to reduce newsletter production in favor of doing things like fundraising, writing press releases, improving the website, corresponding with state affiliates, etc., will always be there, and maybe even more so during campaign season when things are presumably busier. If we succumb to this pressure, I think the tendency over time will be to put out LP News less and less frequently. I don't recall, but wouldn't be surprised if the initial move to stop publishing the newspaper monthly and go to a less frequent schedule was prompted by a similar rationale about needing to focus on other stuff, and put forward as a temporary measure, and that this is how we lost our monthly publication.

It's not so much that I miss getting LP News every month, or would miss that extra issue if we drop below publishing bi-monthly, as what I think is best for the party. Although I think the publication could use a broader focus (e.g. more coverage of government injustices, especially those likely to generate passion and outrage, more inspiring stories of people who aren't necessarily big-L Libertarians fighting for freedom, etc.), I would rather see it improved than cut back. You mention membership numbers going down, and that something needs to be done about that. I'd suggest that cutting the most concrete thing we give dues-paying members (a physical copy of LP News), would not be productive in this regard. Especially during a post-election year when we historically expect many members to drop, it seems unwise to short people on receiving this tangible benefit of membership without a stronger reason than the competing demands of the regular workload. That's my 2¢ anyway.

Love & Liberty,

                                     ((( starchild )))

At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee

                        RealR...@earthlink.net

                                  (415) 625-FREE

                                    @StarchildSF

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]