George Phillies: What Should The Libertarian Party Do? part two

How do we get there?
Step One — Quick fixes. Two years ago, the LNC was burning close to $100,000 a year on IT activity. New Path, which had IT professionals as candidates, demonstrated that the spending levels were way too high. We should change.
Second, the Watergate location is way too expensive. There are many far more suitable locations, well outside Washington, such as southern New Hampshire, San Francisco Bay area, or Colorado where the Party was founded.
Third, make enough progress on clearing the brush that we can convince members and former members to vote with their wallets.
Fourth, and most important, take that money discussed above, and point it at doing real politics, notably advertising.
Step Two — Do Real Politics. How?
Outreach and Advertising. Voter recognition.
Step Three — Raise and Spend Money Well. For some years, Massachusetts has had effective budget allocation schemes. They assure that when money comes in the door it is immediately assigned to the activities that we want done, not left in a pot for special interests. That scheme says that most money is not set aside for overhead and fundraising costs, as was the case in 2010.
Core to the Massachusetts plan are financial reports that include concrete dollar amounts and specific items on which they were spent. Those reports should correspond, as party bylaws re-quire, to the Federal Agency to which we make our financial reports — the FEC.
View money as something we must earn by achievement. Every new donor is a new person committed to the party.
Look carefully at actual dollar costs for items, and see that the things those items support are properly costed against them.
Second, prudent financial reserves — have money in the bank, so that when special opportunities appear we can exploit them. Also, there are always possibilities for disruptions. A reasonable insurance is six months’ net income as cash on hand.
The LNC’s most specific mission is coming up in 2014. The National Convention business meeting…set aside the money to pay for it.
Third, don’t waste money. Direct mail membership recruiting is the most important example. A decade ago, huge direct mail recruiting efforts directed almost exclusively to right-wing mailing lists almost drove our party into financial extinction.
Fourth, mobilize every libertarian as a libertarian volunteer. Some of us have money but not time, but far more have more time than money. Members should be viewed as potential activists, not just as wallets that walk.
Fifth, improve our marketing efforts. Republican religious extremists like Romney and Santorum are driving large segments of their traditional membership base out of their party. Those people are natural Libertarian recruits, but you won’t find them at tea party rallies and Sarah Palin appearances. You won’t find them through right wing hate radio, or listeners to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage.
Sixth, restore the productivity of the LNC. That means shut-ting down parliamentary games. It means giving the LNC a subcommittee structure, so that when proposals come to the full committee they have already been vetted by people the LNC trusts. Look at the old LNC. A typical 1991 meeting had reports from
Executive Committee
Headquarters
Membership Committee
Affiliate Parties Committee.
Affiliate Campaigns Subcommittee
Audit
Management Committee
Outreach Committee
Convention Oversight Committee
Advertising/Publications Review Committee
Convention Committee
Appointments Bylaws and Rules Committee
Media Relations Committee
Internal Education Committee
Program Committee
LP News
Legal Action Committee
Budget
These were real committees with multiple members. As can be seen from their reports, they were actually doing substantial work between meetings. And they delivered reports in advance as opposed to having people sitting their reading their reports out loud.
Of course, the 1991 LNC actually spent considerable time in days gone by on the substantive conduct of its operations, as witness the following motion by Karen Allard as passed by the LNC by 1991:

That’s how a serious LNC protects the moneys entrusted to it by the members. Well, that was how a serious LNC in days gone by protected the moneys entrusted to it by its life members. Those moneys are now gone.  Ho wever, we can bring that past back to life.
The Distant Prospect
Where do we want to go?
To bring the libertarian future to the United States, we need to become the majority party, with regular control of Congress, the White House, state legislatures, and state houses across America. We don’t need to reach a one-party state like Massachusetts — that would be bad for us as well as for our country. We do need to be the political movement that sets the agenda, our libertarian agenda in which private Americans are able to choose their own futures.
Clearly, we are not going to become the majority party over-night. We are not going to become the majority party during the terms of office of the next National Committee. However, we should never lose sight of the ultimate objective, for if we do we will wander lost in political fever-swamps.
What do we need to reach the Libertarian political majority?
On one hand, there are the factors that will define us as the majority party. On the other hand, there are the social struc-tures and groups of people that will win us our majorities. Finally, there are the methods and tools that will start moving us in the right directions.
Your National Committee is not an electoral majority. It is not by itself the social groups and individuals who will win us majority status. What today’s LNC can and must do is to start putting in place those methods and tools. That’s right, the LNC can lay the foundation for the great political engine that will move us from small minority to political majority.
Let’s go back to those needs.
First, what are the factors that will define us as the political majority? They include:
*an incumbent pool
*strong candidates for every office at every level
*a large, supportive voter base
*concrete libertarian policies that actually work and are seen as working.
Second, which social structures will create and sustain our libertarian majority?
*Effective political party groups:
National Party
State Parties
Local political groups
*Libertarian affinity groups
*Libertarian think tanks
*Libertarian political consulting and polling houses
*Libertarian main-stream media
*Libertarian litigators and journalists
Finally, what are the tools and methods the National Commit-tee can start creating *now*. That’s how we’ll begin this very long march. We start taking small steps that get us moving in
the right direction. I’ve already talked about some of those tools and methods. They include
*Activist support
*Volunteer mobilization
*Candidate recruitment, support, and training
*Group formation and development
*Vibrant, active parties in every state, D.C., Puerto Rico, and wherever else our flag flies
*Outreach and Advertising
*Web and internet mobilization
*Literature and web templates
*Sound resource management
*Effective fundraising
That’s why I am running for LNC Treasurer.
I hope that you will support me.