The Libertarian Party of Nevada held finally held its convention today. It had originally been planned for April of this year, but was cancelled about two weeks prior to the event by then chairman Joe Silvestri. Sylvestri resigned early in the day today, and did not run for re-election.
Here are the elected officers:
Elected Chairman: Brett H. Pojunis
Elected Vice Chair: Jason Smith
Elected Secretary: Lou Pombo
Elected Treasurer: Tim Hagan
Elected Northern Region Rep: Jim Keith
Elected Southern Region Rep: Ronald Johnson
Elected At Large Rep: Jimmy Johnson
Elected At Large Rep: David Colborne
Elected At Large Rep: Jim Duensing
Here is a copy of the Executive Committee Candidates and Strategic Growth Plan that was prepared before the convention by Pujonis and his slate of candidates.
And as you see I have, after a few of them responded 🙂
Also, so far the LPNV folks who responded have said they do not want to dignify it with a response, so I would not be able to write the story I would want to write unless they do.
It’s up now, no need to trash it. We can move the discussion of that story to there.
“Jill Pyeatt Post authorNovember 25, 2013 at 11:50 am
I posted the Raw Story article before I saw your comment, Paulie. I can trash it.”
I’d keep the story up and give everyone a chance to respond to it.
I posted the Raw Story article before I saw your comment, Paulie. I can trash it.
Looks like Jill posted it. I’ve asked LPN facebook folks to comment.
In other LPN news, folks on the facebook page report that Brackob/Treptow has so far refused to relinquish control of their website, so they may have to put up another one.
Erlier he was also holding the meetup group hostage, but he turned that over to Mike Wiley and IIRC Wiley finally turned that over, albeit not right away..
Other IPR writers can do as they wish, but I would rather not republish the blatantly one sided, factually inaccurate and distorted story as a standalone artcle here. However, I will attempt to contact current LPN exec comm and activists for their reply and the publish that as a story here along with Silvestri’s and Kaufman’s assertions. I might also ask Brackob to comment if I can get contact info for him.
He also parrots every claim Silvestri makes but does not mention any attempt to contact Pojunis (or for that matter Treptow/Brackob) to get their sides of the story.
Kaufman even throws in some things even Silvestri never actually claimed:
I’m not aware of Silvestri claiming that Pojunis fought to place Brackob on the registry. As far as I can tell this is a distortion of Silvestri’s claims.
I think that the article that I just posted above deserves to be post as its own article on IPR.
Interesting. The author of that story, Scott Eric Kaufman, refers to ex-chair Silvestri as chairman and makes no mention that Brett is now the chair, even though his column came out well after the state convention.
Wow, the nerve of this guy. It seems to me that he was one of the main sources of a lot of the problems that the LP of Nevada has had over the last few years. The LP of Nevada went down hill under his so called “leadership.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/24/chairman-claims-nevada-libertarian-party-infested-with-idiots/
Well at least they didn’t try to take over Elko, Ely or Winnemucca 🙂
Yep! Please keep us posted.
What kills me is I have issues organizing events in Carson City, which is only 30 miles away, yet certain people in Las Vegas thought they could effectively organize events in Pahrump (60 miles away) and Reno (430 miles away). The hubris is astounding.
Oh well – what’s done is done and now we’re moving on. Time to get to work and get some local affiliates going, sooner than later preferably.
David, that was my point earlier exactly. So far I have not heard any reasonable explanation how that type of centralization is supposed to succeed.
thanks David * bitch-slap-agus Coleborne….:)
How, exactly, would a state Executive Committee, especially in the 8th largest state in the US, especially in a state with isolated population centers, hold local outreach meetings, staff booths and so on? How would any Executive Committee members in Las Vegas be able to competently identify and select appropriate venues for such events?
Contrary to the thoughts of certain individuals, the LP Nevada is not a personal plaything where you can experiment with “strategic coherence” and “unified messaging” while dictating orders to people over 400 miles away from you. If you want local activism – and if you don’t, you’re a fool – you want locals to take control over their situations so they can do what they need to do without getting “authorization” and waiting around for responses.
Regarding the issue of “empty affiliates”, our updated bylaws have measures to address this. Namely, if financial reports aren’t filed periodically, the state LP is empowered to hold another organizing convention and provide existing and new members the opportunity to replace existing leadership.
i just realized we have 3 Jims on our excom , lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010KyIQjkTk
Chris Roberts , Kris McKinster
I thought the other guy was Chris, not Kris.
funniest coincidence ever is that it still applys!!!
And…of course my job should have been to see which Kris posted…oops. my apologies for the rant on you Kris, I thought I was speaking to a different Kris.
Kris: “LG: My mission was to challenge the unchecked distortion going on here about the fellow activists I worked with. I succeeded.”
No, Kris, your job, as vice chair, was to challenge the unchecked incompetence of leadership that allowed a secretary to not know he was to take minutes during meetings or even convention. Your job was to make sure the treasurer was doing his job and didn’t leave the party with a pathetic treasurer report that stinks of mismanagement and possibly theft. Your job was to call Joe out for lack of leadership and address the issues the members brought up countless times…but all you did was sit back and rubber stamp Joe, and then help cover up and divert the attention and blame. This party needed leadership, and you provided excuses. It’s time to stop defending and sharing blame with people who were not in leadership roles…there is a plan in place and new leadership. Growth is the answer.
To be fair to Kris he did not specifically say that you lied, he said that unspecified people have distorted the record by way of a response to you. You may have been one of those people, but he did not specifically say that.
I would also like to know which of the alleged facts I have been told by multiple sources were allegedly distorted. At Kris’ leisure, of course. Past threads remain open for comment, and/or copy and paste to here if he would like to respond to anything that has been said in the past. We have a search function and some of the old posts link to each other.
Kris , tell me where Iv’e lied about Joe? Iv’e not distorted a thing , gone on and on? – for sure …distorted , nope…
Likewise.
As fellow Libertarians I’m sure that is the case. It doesn’t get said often enough though, since we spend way too much time bashing each other (not that I am never guilty of same, I often am, but trying to improve).
LG: My mission was to challenge the unchecked distortion going on here about the fellow activists I worked with. I succeeded.
paulie: I’m glad to have this discussion with you. Thanks for taking an intelligent look at things and delving into some of these topics with me. We barely scratched the surface, and I’m sure we would agree most of the time.
I’m glad someone is giving us their side of things. I don’t think it’s a very strong case, but at least he is making some effort to make one.
we most certainly had our names smeared and the things he did to us were wrong but you NEVER address those things , never……….your mission is to defend joe and all his actions regardless of the truth
Another good point, thanks.
Having local affiliates that are subordinate groups rather than independent organizations raises issues related to FEC limitations, since subordinates are subsumed in your overall donation limits.
Sure, as we have all seen in government, corporations etc., kicking decisions to a larger level farther removed from the action, and operating in the dark is how you avoid mismanagement. Wait, no…
Most state LPs I have seen make their minutes available on their email list, newsletter and/or website, or at least make them available to members on request. The same is true of their financial disclosure.
How do you “do these things at the state level” if you live in Reno and your state level is in Vegas? That is just silly.
You lost me. The point of local affiliates is mainly to hold local activities without waiting who knows how long for some secret meeting which may be far away from them to approve them. Positions of supposed influence on that tiny secret meeting board are far down the line of what local affiliates should care about.
You did not have any new people just showing up to events or meetings who wanted to check out the LP and were not involved with any faction? I find that hard to believe. Maybe you just don’t know because you did not make any effort to let them know who you were (such as an LP banner or placard) or to find out who they are? And if you did have new people show up, the first step is not to hit them up for cash plus membership pledge and/or quiz them to see if they are aligned with your internal opposition. If I showed up to any group that I was curious about, political party or otherwise and was treated that way they would not see me again and if anyone asked me about them or mentioned a possible interest I would warn them away.
That’s what I was told. Social events such as drinking nights at loud music venues and sporting events; no attempt to advertise the LP presence, have any political content or welcome any newcomers if they showed up (if anything, just the opposite).
I hope not for exec comm meetings. Those should be public except for brief executive sessions held for a valid reason. At the very least their minutes should be public, along with detailed and timely financial reports.
paulie
November 22, 2013 at 6:38 am
>> Joe’s group meets in secret.
There is nothing wrong or unusual about that. Brett doesn’t have “secret” (private) meetings?
>> publishes no minutes or disclosure
Nothing new to Nevada and certainly not specific to Joe & crew.
>> holds social events with no political content
Examples?
>> and at those events, rather than welcoming new people, the insiders spend their time hanging out with each other and trying to make sure no one who is not 100% aligned with them on everything gets involved. They seem to spend the bulk of their time excommunicating one person or another from their tiny secret society and making sure no “unauthorized” activism on behalf of the LP takes place, while not actually doing any activism themselves. Meanwhile I talked to dozens of people ready, willing and able to do all kinds of outreach and stymied because of this clique’s refusal to let them do it.
In a vast majority of cases, those new people either refused to take the first steps necessary to get involved, (i.e. become a dues-paying member, then brigade member) before trying to be the one calling the shots, and/or they had already aligned themselves with others actively opposing same “insiders.” Joe accurately deemed it counter-productive to waste any energy on these people.
>> Why would that be a problem, if they made an actual attemt to organie a party up there? I don’t know if Rowan was on your ex comm but I do know she legitimately moved from Vegas to the Carson City/Reno area. That happens sometimes also.
Well, if you consider the point of local affiliates is local control because, as you stated, they are far apart geographically, and then you’ve got people instead using them as a means to obtain an Excomm position without taking geography into account, the very point for the affiliate’s existence is undermined.
>> No. They are far apart geographically, and even if they had a small number of dues paying members there is all sorts of things they could do – hold meetings where other people show up, run outreach booths, run candidates, issue press releases, do media interviews, and much more.
All of which could be done at the state level.
>> There’s a lot more to the LP than dues paying membership. It’s a long drive from Reno to Vegas, or even from Pahrump to Vegas for many people. Why would they want 100% of their activities on behalf of the party run through a tiny secret committee meeting at someone’s house in Vegas whose main activity is excommnicating people? Even in Vegas itself some people may have preferred to operate independently of the control of a small and secretive body that has no set meeting schedule, minutes or public input.
You are splicing two issues here. If we’re talking about the necessity of local affiliates when there are 40 members statewide, you haven’t demonstrated why all that couldn’t be done through the state level organization. If we’re talking about mismanagement at the state level, mismanagement more easilly occurs in a 10-member affiliate.
>> But then this was all extensively discussed at IPR at the time and remains available in the archives, so why go over it again?
Yes, why?
LibertarianGirl
November 22, 2013 at 11:31 am
>> joe doesnt deserve the flack for over a decade of service???
That’s not what I wrote. I wrote that he doesn’t deserve this kind of public lambasting. You, Tim, or I thankfully never had our names smeared like this across the Internet and beyond. Joe shrugs it off like nothing and doesn’t even bother responding, which is more than I’m able to do.
I think Kris was saying that two wrong don’t make a right. If so, he has a point. However, I think Deb is right too, the people who have been hurt are just reacting. The difference is that they are not doing it in any official capacity. If the new exec com starts to speak in their official capacity to denounce the old exec comm or its members, or to publicly excommunicate each other after falling out with each other, I would agree that this would be wrong and unbecoming. I also expect them to live up to their promises of greater activism and greater transparency. If they don’t, Joe and Kris can say “I told you so,” but IMO it is too early to say that yet.
For what it’s worth Joe did a lot of good work in his early years of leadership, and we should thank him for that. He hung on for too long and things turned bad towards the end, but he deserves his due for everything he did before that. He had a lot to do with that highly active LP I saw there in 2004 (and from what I understand for a few years after that) so let’s thank him for that and move forward with the new team. Dwelling on bitterness is not good except briefly to remember what not to do. Outreach is the way forward.
joe doesnt deserve the flack for over a decade of service??? well neither did myself , Tim hagan etc. Do you know Kris that Joe went and told people that Tim abandoned his responsibilities and thats why he was replaced? do you know that after 2 decades of service , 20 yearsof friendship etc, that joe didnt have the decency to congratulate tim on his win for national treasurer? do you understand that after a decade of service myself ( and you know I put some fucking time in ) how bad it hurt to be denied delegate status to national along with tim while nearly all the delegates had been around a year or less. If were talking bout giving credit where credits due perhaps you should remind your friend he gets what he puts out. deb
In the last few years he failed much more than in the years just before that. When I worked there in 2004, LPNV impressed me as one of the most active state parties I have ever seen, and I have been all over the country observing them for almost 20 years now. The reports I received on my last couple of visits and online have been that Joe’s group meets in secret, publishes no minutes or disclosure, holds social events with no political content, and at those events, rather than welcoming new people, the insiders spend their time hanging out with each other and trying to make sure no one who is not 100% aligned with them on everything gets involved. They seem to spend the bulk of their time excommunicating one person or another from their tiny secret society and making sure no “unauthorized” activism on behalf of the LP takes place, while not actually doing any activism themselves. Meanwhile I talked to dozens of people ready, willing and able to do all kinds of outreach and stymied because of this clique’s refusal to let them do it.
Also before that, my roommate in Alabama in the early 2000s who had lived and been very active in the LPNV in the early/mid 1990s (and is back there living now) told me a lot about how they were very active there back then.
There’s a difference. He was doing it in his capacity as chair. If Brett starts to issue a bunch of vindictive press releases/public statements denouncing the past leadership clique that would be more like the equivalent. Hopefully he won’t do anything that stupid and petty.
Duensing actually moved to Nye County. I don’t know off hand who the others were. It’s not unusual for libertarians to move up to Nye or have a second residence there. Why would that be a problem, if they made an actual attemt to organize a party up there? I don’t know if Rowan was on your ex comm but I do know she legitimately moved from Vegas to the Carson City/Reno area. That happens sometimes also.
No. They are far apart geographically, and even if they had a small number of dues paying members there is all sorts of things they could do – hold meetings where other people show up, run outreach booths, run candidates, issue press releases, do media interviews, and much more. There’s a lot more to the LP than dues paying membership. It’s a long drive from Reno to Vegas, or even from Pahrump to Vegas for many people. Why would they want 100% of their activities on behalf of the party run through a tiny secret committee meeting at someone’s house in Vegas whose main activity is excommnicating people? Even in Vegas itself some people may have preferred to operate independently of the control of a small and secretive body that has no set meeting schedule, minutes or public input.
But then this was all extensively discussed at IPR at the time and remains available in the archives, so why go over it again?
Fatsax: Strategic coherence…management…you had these things with Joe?
Me: No. My point is that they weren’t lost with Joe. If your charge against Joe is that he failed, like well every LPN chair before him, well then yes he is guilty as charged.
LG: I have pegged you as 1 of the first to tire of Silvestris bul;lshit. You used to speak to me privately about how he shouldnt talk to us like that or browbeat us etc, but Im sure you dont remember any of that….
Me: Oh I remember. After working with Joe, I’ll be the first to admit that he has his share of flaws. Actually I take that back. He’ll be the first to admit it. You have to admit that he doesn’t deserve this kind of public lambasting after over a decade of service. Otherwise, you become guilty of the very same thing you hate about him.
I stood up for you when I felt you didn’t deserve the abuse. And now I’m standing up for him… Funny you mention Duensing and Santucci in the same list. If Joe had quit then and Duensing had been reelected Chair, do you think Santucci would have stuck around? I think not.. Please stop scapegoating.
Paulie: I would say disaffiliating all of the state’s active counties is way too much. I can’t think of anything like that in the history of the LP nor have I seen any evidence that the experiment was a success. I stand by my opinions of it which were posted in the comments here back then.
Me: It is way too much under normal circumstances. But these weren’t normal circumstances. For example, at least three members, after failing to achieve influence in Clark County, changed their stated place of residence and took up Excomm positions in the newly-created affiliates. It would have been more had we not started scrutinizing credentials more…
Aside from all that and the other politics, infighting, drama, games, etc., isn’t it silly to have three affiliates, each with different bylaws and membership requirements, for a total of less than, what, 40 members statewide? And before anyone says that number was because of Joe, that has ALWAYS been the Nevada numbers as near as I can tell…
I would say disaffiliating all of the state’s active counties is way too much. I can’t think of anything like that in the history of the LP nor have I seen any evidence that the experiment was a success. I stand by my opinions of it which were posted in the comments here back then.
If anything, the LP should go in the other direction and start creating sub-county organizations, including precincts. I bet anyone who takes the time to walk their precinct would find a few libertarians willing to get together.
Is just about the polar opposite of what has happened with LPNV in the last two years.
What exactly did he say and when?
He was wrong. Luckily he is working with a better team now.
Let freedom grow!
KM_Paulie, centralizing power isn’t bad in itself. If done too much, yes. If done too little, you lose strategic coherence, management, etc. Brett seems to agree with this, if you read his blog http://www.biglsolutions.com/blog
me_what do you call axing 3 active counties , lessening the excom members , ditching the jud com , putting spending solely in the hands of the chair , making all conventions in 1 spot if not centralizing power too much ?? oh i know , i know , he was forced to because were LL IDIOTS AND KNUCKLEHEds and only joe does whats best for the party etc…..the funny thing is , back when we were friends , me and you that is , I have pegged you as 1 of the first to tire of Silvestris bul;lshit. You used to speak to me privately about how he shouldnt talk to us like that or browbeat us etc, but Im sure you dont remember any of that…. annd wtf is strageic coherence…for fucks sake , liberty isnt organized , itisnt built , you cant design it , its organic , IT GROWS . you plant it and tend to it and stay the fuck out of the way.
KM_Brett also was working with us during the deaffiliation discussions and was in agreement about it.
he sure did and I was a part of denying affiliation against my better judgement when i was on joe and co team. David did things he regrets , Jason did , Duensing , Santucci doesnt come around because of the time he wasted doing bullshit at joes bequest. ASK HIM…Brandon Robison – left because of Joe, and so on and so on and so on , most of us are ex hand-picks by joe and all of us have realized our mistakes and made amends……but you , you just keep defending the fray………
Strategic coherence…management…you had these things with Joe? We have three goals; Reaffiliate, grow membership and fundraise, elect Libertarians. Judge us on these things…not whether or not people fit into Joe’s mold of “his type of libertarian”. Had you and Joe listened to some of our “kooks”…maybe the LPN wouldn’t have the embarrassing initials of WAR come up so often to ruin our message. we can have strategic coherence without forced obedience.
I’ve contributed the alternative view you’ve seen here, Jill.
Paulie, centralizing power isn’t bad in itself. If done too much, yes. If done too little, you lose strategic coherence, management, etc. Brett seems to agree with this, if you read his blog http://www.biglsolutions.com/blog
Brett also was working with us during the deaffiliation discussions and was in agreement about it.
Just some things to think about before continuing on with all the Joe & Crew scapegoating….
I believe he was an officer in Silvestri’s exec comm/kitchen cabinet. In a prior thread, he takes credit for the idea of disaffiliating the counties and centralizing all power in the hands of the
sovietsLPNV exec comm.Kris, what have you contributed to the LPNV lately?
That turned out to be a good thing. I think we would have had a much bigger mess if national went through with it. I urged caution and patience at that time, too.
Unfortunately true. So can disaffiliations. Given what has happened the last couple of years there I can understand this move in reaction. I can also see ways it could come back in a bad way down the road. Unfortunately, right now anyone who wants to build a local group justifiably may feel a need to be assured it won’t get pulled out from under them (again) due to what recently happened. So, if it’s an overreaction, it didn’t come out of nowhere.
Perpetual affiliates? After all the complaining I saw here from Brett & crew about National not deaffiliating Nevada?
You won’t be labeled a traitor, but you’ll hand out the tyrant label?
Communication, negotiation, compromise? I know Joe is enjoying his retirement. You enjoy your honeymoon.
Just because someone has a “deep love for the libertarian message,” unfortunately doesn’t mean they can play well with others. Perpetual affiliates can unfortunately become the playthings of personal vendettas…
For real , and I know everyone always says this , but for real , this is the best team LPNevada has ever had, that includes any team I was a part of. Lou Pombo stepped up and did an excellent job as secretary and as you know keeping up with amending the amended amendments can be hard to keep track of. Everyone , save Silvestri’s team worked together , including the Jims. I would like to extend a special thank you to Chris Roberts who performed admirably , was fair and deserves to be set apart from the rest of his team. I am sooo stoked for what comes next………its nice to have this feeling again, so thank you brett , jason , tim , lou and everyone who hung in there to make this happen , WELL DONE !!!
The perpetuity affiliate issue was discussed…before I get to that…let me say that the manner in which this convention was run was vastly different than the way Joe has run the party in his tenure. The entire excom was involved in COMMUNICATING with people that Joe would not negotiate with. For example, a couple years ago, I was told Jim Duensing, Jim Burns and David Colborne were bomb throwing anarchist who only care about disrupting the party and playing politics. After ten minutes speaking with any of those three, if you don’t know for a fact that they have a deeper love for the libertarian message than most people you know, then you are either a horrible judge of character, or you know a lot of fantastic libertarians. During debate and breaks, we talked; we brought our opinions together and compromised…the dues were $50/yr with half to National. Jim suggested $0. Then, he suggested $5. I agreed that lowering the barriers to entry was a good move, and eventually someone suggested we get rid of the $25 to national…as it was not mandated by Nat’l bylaws. We AGREED! And nobody was called a nasty name. The next issue was an idea floated to allow students a chance to join without dues but instead donating some volunteer time and energy. Some people said that treating some members differently was not libertarian. Now, my slate or “faction” suggested this idea, and I disagreed with it. After speaking with Brett and hearing some very rational people say this was a bad way to get students involved…we agreed to strike it…also because the fee was lowered to $25 already, and that is not unreasonable to expect a college student to eventually save. All in all, this was the smoothest convention I have been to, and the reason is that we are already acting like we are on the same team…so with all due respect, mr silvestri, these knuckleheads and bombthrowers and anarchists and idiots are all agreed on one thing…the LP is better with you not leading it. You were a dividing force, a voice for tyranny, and a pain in the ass. I am beaming with pride that this party came together last weekend. I am excited at having affiliates organizing ALREADY!!! Now..back to perpetuity…we discussed this, and compromised with Jim Duensing’s suggested bylaw on this issue. The affiliate cannot be subservient to the state party, it needs autonomy to be effective. Since it’s status cannot be revoked, the only way it fails is if nobody is left to run it…but since we only require five interested members to run an affiliate, it will be up to the affiliates to stoke the fires of volunteering. I think we will see many affiliates by the end of 2014 turning out a lot of new members; and I think we will see many of our old problems become solvable as we grow. Whatever happens, one thing looks certain; we will be able to talk about any issue without being labeled a traitor. We will not wake up in the morning to read that the secret excom meeting forced through a solution nobody likes. We will not have people thrown off the excom, or mass resignations from it because it has to be one person’s way, or the highway…in summation…we are acting like adults who have some experience solving problems…not like a schoolteacher who is used to getting his way or punishing people who disagree. Enjoy your retirement from politics Joe…I know we are.
Mark Axinn said: “I also want to thank Joe for his years of service and extend a warm welcome to him if he wants to re-join LPNY (his first home).”
This is like thanking Tom Stevens for his “service” to the LP of Pennsylvania, which was so “great” that they had to call a special convention to remove him as Chair.
Mark Axinn said: “I also want to thank Joe for his years of service and extend a warm welcome to him if he wants to re-join LPNY (his first home).”
Why thank the person who was the root of many of the problems that the LP of Nevada has had over the last few years? This person’s “service” almost destroyed the LP of Nevada.
The “perpetuity” things is probably an overreaction to what happened two years ago, and I’m not sure how it would stand up in the face of future bylaws changes. It’s probably a good thing for now, since it gives would-be affiliates some assurance that the rug won’t get pulled out from under them again. Even if it’s a bit of a bluff, if it makes people more confident that they are not wasting their time, that’s a good thing.
Congrats to Brett and the entire new team at LPNV. Brett has been my regional rep. on LNC for the last 18 months and done a great job.
I am certain that he and the new team will do great things in Nevada too.
One observation on the by-laws: While I am a great supporter of affiliates and have created a few here in New York, I don’t think they should be created in perpetuity; sometimes everyone in a chapter moves away and there is a chapter without members! This happened to us in Ithaca (home of Cornell) where many Libertarians were affiliated with the university and when they moved, no one stepped up to fill the void.
But this is a small quibble. I expect the new team will have much success.
I also want to thank Joe for his years of service and extend a warm welcome to him if he wants to re-join LPNY (his first home).
I wasn’t very impressed by it, either. I can relate to the frustration and burnout, though.
RC
The point is that sometimes when you know that you are going to eventually be involved in litigation because the other side are aggressive belligerents, you take different actions than you would if you thought you were having a disagreement with reasonable people.
This will become more obvious once all the documents that are available are released and I can speak openly on these subjects.
David, sounds really good…I think you all are on the right track.
All things are possible.
I would note that one could be deranged — perhaps temporarily — and still be correct according to a court.
It’s my practice to recognize that the outcome of a court action is not necessarily “truth.” It’s simply a court’s opinion based on the law and the facts presented.
I finally have a chance to sit down and fill in a few more details, so here goes – and note that none of this is “official” or written down in my capacity as an At-Large Rep or any of that.
At the beginning of the convention, after Jim Burns spent some time warming the crowd up, Joe Silvestri stepped to the front of the convention hall and announced that he was resigning as Chair, “effective immediately”. Once that happened, Chris Roberts was appointed Chair since he was previously serving as Vice-Chair. To his credit, he did a fantastic job keeping things moving along and under control, with some friendly help and advice from both Lou Pombo, who was designated as Secretary after Jared Lord abdicated his responsibilities, and Alicia Mattson, who did a fantastic job keeping track of the parliamentary ins and outs of the convention and the bylaws amendments that were considered.
Speaking of which – county affiliates are not only back in Nevada’s bylaws, but we even made sure to avoid implementing any path for disaffiliation. Once an affiliate is created, it remains created perpetually. There was also a temporary proviso implemented to allow affiliate creation to be fast-tracked so they can get online and elect candidates in time for our next state convention in February. More details on this later this week.
Membership requirements are also going the right direction – we no longer require members to be dues paying members of the national LP, thus halving the fees required to become a voting delegate at our conventions. Meanwhile, many of us are starting to put in the effort required to bring in new revenue streams outside of dues so that we can hopefully retire state dues without shutting the lights off.
Officer elections were surprisingly low key. Most of the officers (everyone but the At-Large Representative candidates) ran unopposed, which was surprising, and there was little drama with the At-Large Representative slate.
The convention actually ended an hour and a half early, and that was after essentially rewriting nearly every single section of our bylaws. It really was incredible to watch.
I read Silvestri’s weak explanation of why he’s not running. What a complete jerk. He whines about the state of the party,and says he’s been sruggling for ten years. Even someone with no history is gonna think “Ten years? Then maybe you’re the problem, Joe!” So much for accountability.
I wish him well in his retirement and look forward to a good year for the Nevada LP.
Silvestri gives his side of things at http://votesilvestri.com/ for anyone who cares.
Paulie
Nope … but I never took RC literally when he made that post back in January of 2012.
You mean who you were in a past life is being concealed due to the lawsuit? 🙂
Woo… we made it to today without the world blowing up. I was worried after RC and I agreed so strongly on something 😉
BTW … RC, you once opined that in the entire Oregon fiasco:
” Robert Capozzi January 19, 2012 at 4:54 pm
39 mc: Wes Wagner spent years unsuccessfully trying to amend our bylaws to get rid of the pledge and the members wanted to keep it.
me: Based on his postings, I got the sense the WW is deranged. So much for perceptions vs. reality!
Pledges and simplistic nostrums are for obscure clubs, not political parties, so perhaps WW is actually Lao Tzu, reincarnated….
”
You are not too far away from knowing the answer to those questions. Soon the truth will come out now that the litigation is over.
ww: I think having a platform, for example, is one of the ways we are hypocritical
me: Yes! There was a vote IIRC in Portland in 06 to drop the entire platform, after most planks were (mercifully) dropped. Unfortunately, we radicals didn’t prevail. (I voted for the motion.) The de-neutered platform continued, limping along, including the infamous “private nukes” clause..
Paulie
I am not sure either. Anarchism is part of one of the roots of libertarianism, but it is an ideal, and we have to deal with practicality. Everything can’t be privatized and there will be commons … and the manner in which those commons are protected is often a good use case for democratic processes (it prevents minority exploitation). What is not a good use case for democracy is deciding individual rights 😉
I think having a platform, for example, is one of the ways we are hypocritical — by gathering together and using a voting process to define “what is a libertarian” as some form of dogmatic expression is really not appropriate for an organization that believes in free markets (of ideas? … well apparently not THAT! We can’t have people expressing new ideas that aren’t approved!! OMG Heresy!)
Gathering together to vote on a presidential candidate so that we can have enough electors for potentially win … a good idea and a small hint of centralization/statism we should accept as being necessary to the process.
I think Peregrin’s point was that the democratic process is not how we want to run society, unlike socialists, so we are being hypocrites if we run our party that way. So, perhaps we should auction off committee positons, or contested primaries, or platform planks? I’m not sure what Peregrin would consider a non-hypocritical way to run the LP.
I would argue that Oregon has a “more libertarian” model than the majority of state affiliates. That being said to exist as a political party you have to have a central committee for administering ballot access and someone who is the chairperson and someone who is the treasurer at a bare minimum. These are requirements of the state in order to have an authority chain for making determinations of who should be on the ballot.
We otherwise conduct most our other business through direct democratic process or an anarchistic process depending on the item in question.
A political party is not a model for society. It’s an instrument for change within the currently existing system. In many states there are rules for how political parties are organized. In other states where we are not recognized as a party we follow some of the general outlines of those rules in the hopes of being recognized one day, or in emulation of other parties or LPs in other states. However in a fully libertarian society we wouldn’t need a Libertarian Party at all, so it’s not meant to be a model of or for society.
I’m noticing the discussion of rules of the convention here, and that leads me to larger question: Are members of the Libertarian Party really exhibiting the values they want to impose on the U.S. government, in the way that they organize their own party? If libertarian ideals are enough for a nation, why can’t they be applied for the political party’s benefit? So many rules… so many committees… so much centralized power for the leaders.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of party members on this. How do you reconcile the American habits of political organization with the decentralized libertarian ideal?
http://irregulartimes.com/2013/11/18/why-isnt-the-libertarian-party-libertarian/
Glad to hear it and looking forward to it.
it went really well , so thrilled , will write more tomorrow, A big thank you to the 3 friends and family that showed up for me!
Chair and parliamentarian for the convention.
Yes
Congratulations to the Libertarian Party of Nevada on its election of new leadership. The Plan they put together was impressive and appealing. The candidates had diverse backgrounds which should help them create an effective synergy. Best wishes to them and I look forward to hearing about great things happening in Nevada.
I almost wish CA would implode so we could rebuild it. It’s nowhere near what it should be, IMHO.
Florida, maybe? Tennessee seems to be having some growing pains, too.
Jilly Pyeatt said: “Honestly, I’m so delighted this went well. It looks like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and now Nevada, are well on their way to being superstar states again!”
This is a good thing if it happens, however, I’ve got to wonder which state LP’s are going to “go off the rails” next?
What were the great performances by Chris Roberts and Alicia Mattson?
Does Alicia live in Nevada?
Thanks for the additional details.
unofficially, yes Paulie. I understand that Secretary Jared Lord said he was tired etc…but in fact, well into the convention, it was asked by someone “Who is taking minutes?” and after a few experienced delegates mentioned it should be the excom secretary, Jared actually looked shocked to hear this news…but I am not sure we can blame Jared, as Jim Duensing pointed out later during an amendment discussion, nobody really knows if the excom ever had meetings over the past year or so…because minutes had never been taken…or to that effect. End result, Lou offered and unanimously was thanked by everyone for offering to do it. After that, it seemed that things went very well, and I don’t think we had any issue that we couldn’t come to some agreement or compromise on…which I would like to say is an honor to have been part of. It speaks volumes as to the new attitude and work ethic of our party. I look forward to a very productive and reaffiliating few months before our Feb convention to nominate candidates for public office 2014. Way to go Libertarians of Nevada…you proved this weekend that we are a resilient and stubborn group of fantastic examples of libertarianism.
Jason
Parliamentarian, then.
No, the guy who was elected Secretary filled in, Louis Pombo, at least according to the photos I saw.
Chris chaired the convention and Alicia is a parliamentarian, so I imagine she filled that role. She has also been national secretary, so maybe she filled in for the secretary not being able to perform his duties.
Jill, I am delighted to do this, but what did Chris and Alicia do? George
Hopefully we’ll get a more detailed write-up. I think the big lesson is that these problems work themselves out faster and less painfully when national does not get in the middle of it.
Okay. And what about the great permances by Chris Roberts and Alicia Mattson?
Honestly, I’m so delighted this went well. It looks like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and now Nevada, are well on their way to being superstar states again!
He said he was too tired from working nights and turned over secretarial duties for the convention.
Yes, and what about the shameful performance by Jared Lord?
LOL. More details on that?
At least Elmer didn’t stand up and speak on my behalf like he did for mr di noto. So I guess I am lucky.
Congratulations to the new officers. Looking forward to good things coming out of LPNV. It took too long, but it finally got resolved peacefully and with no national intervention, which is good (No, I don’t count the forwarded email with Brett’s photo and contact info not stripped out by mistake back in April as national intervention).
If I’m not mistaken, Whittaker has the correct spelling of Silvestri’s name (no y).
More details via FB:
Elmer Whittaker
Elmer Whittaker 10:46pm Nov 16
Alright, since most of the newly elected leadership seems stuck at Gordon Biersch at the after convention party here is a brief summary of the most important convention results in my words:
Executive Committee was expanded from 5 positions to 9 positions.
County Affiliates have been re approved.
Resigned Chairman: Joe Silvestri
Declined nomination for Vice Chair: Cindy Lake
Lucky Break: Jason Smith
Shameful Performance: Jared Lord
Put into his place: Fil DiNorto
Great Performance: Chris Roberts and Alicia Mattson
Undervalued: Debra Dedmon
Historian: Jim Burns
Delegates: 51 (?)
Attendees: 60+
Success: Great
Convention After Party: Ongoing
Elected Chairman: Brett H. Pojunis
Elected Vice Chair: Jason Smith
Elected Secretary: Lou Pombo
Elected Treasurer: Tim Hagan
Elected Northern Region Rep: Jim Keith
Elected Southern Region Rep: Ronald Johnson
Elected At Large Rep: Jimmy Johnson
Elected At Large Rep: David Colborne
Elected At Large Rep: Jim Duensing
Next: County Affiliation Conventions
This elected group of people is going to do great things. Watch out for Nevada…. Good things are about to happen.