April 18, 2026
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This will be the post for IPR readers to live-blog the LNC Meeting taking place this weekend in New Orleans on December 9-10, 2017.
DETAILS AND REPORTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Reports are still being added and that page will be updated.
Live Broadcast: The LNC will attempt to stream the meeting live on the Internet. Be advised that broadcast quality has sometimes been low and intermittent. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/libertarian-party1
Caryn Ann Harlos is a paralegal residing in Castle Rock, Colorado and presently serving as the Region 1 Representative on the Libertarian National Committee and is a candidate for LNC Secretary at the 2018 Libertarian Party Convention. Articles posted should NOT be considered the opinions of the LNC nor always those of Caryn Ann Harlos personally. Caryn Ann's goal is to provide information on items of interest and (sometimes) controversy about the Libertarian Party and minor parties in general not to necessarily endorse the contents.
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It may seem stupid from the outside but think about if you unexpectedly had several armed officers pointing guns and barking commands at you with a complicated set of instructions and you are made to crawl along the floor and your pants are coming off it could just be a matter of instinct under stress. Even if he did reach for a gun there would have been non-lethal ways to subdue him with that many police there.
Thanks for explaining why he (stupidly) reached back to his pants. Now to read what happened at the meeting…
Far more seriously, for those who missed the reference, Nick Sarwark made me aware of it when we were milling around before the meeting on Friday. A businessman who was showing his pellet gun to friends at a hotel was confront by a team of heavily armed police who ordered him to crawl towards them on the ground with his fingers interlocked. He reached back to keep his shorts from coming off and was shot while crawling on the floor towards the barking officers by a cop who had “smile for the flash” and “you’re fucked” on the dust cover of his AR-15, and that cop has now been acquitted and is probably going to get his job back after getting a paid vacation.
https://thinkprogress.org/arizona-cop-who-shot-sobbing-unarmed-man-at-point-blank-range-acquitted-of-murder-53bbceda925c/
Thank you. I’m here all week. Try the matzo ball soup, and remember to tip your waiter.
“that’s the most entertaining comment of this entire thread.”
I second the nomination.
I can neither confirm or deny any dust cover inscriptions, but that’s the most entertaining comment of this entire thread.
I have long thought that Austin, TX would be a good location for a Libertarian National Convention. Hopefully the Infowars crew will show up (I know that Infowars reporter David Knight has a Life Membership in the Libertarian Party, but he was so angry about the Johnson/Weld ticket that he was talking about burning his LP membership card).
Thanks everyone and please note any corrections and ommissions….
Thanks to Paulie and Starchild for liveblogging!
Meeting adjourned.
If any of the LNC members who voted to throw money down the drain actually believe the delusion that she is going to win, I am willing to take wagers on that point. Put your money where your mouth is rather than wasting donor money.
3 abstentions on that one, I think.
Starchild wrote; “We’re in session. Straight into the budget. David Demarest proposing to add money to Donor Renewal Expense category (“we need to spend money to make money”).”
I think I may know what this position is about and with that said, how about encouraging the states to get on the ball and start doing this? Possibly it will take a financial reward to do so. Regardless the bulk of the renewal work should be at the state level and a reward for doing so might help.
Voting on a proposed $1000 donation to Alison Foxhall (sp?). Passed 6-5 with one or more abstentions. I voted no, with regrets. She’s in a single-candidate race, and has raised $14,000, has Jess Mears of LPHQ as her campaign manager, but we didn’t really get a full rationale for why this was a good investment, and we passed a budget with an already heavy level of deficit spending. Also, we continue to field and approve these requests in an ad hoc manner.
Regional reports, starting with Harlos.
Motion passes.
Redpath is against.
Another opportunity for the LNC to throw money down the drain supporting a candidate who claims she can win, when in reality she will do very poorly… when will the LNC learn to stop believing delusional candidates?
On the plus side, this is that rare candidate begging for LNC welfare that is not in Region 1.
Marsh moves for $1000 for FL-72 special election in February. Hayes seconds.
Marsh moves to consider financial contribution to Alison Foxall.
Starchild amendment fails on 7-5 hand vote. Original Bilyeu motion passes 12-2 on hand vote.
Starchild, Harlos want to also specifically ask Lauren to replace Minuteman and Patriot specifically. Daugherty says she has been wanting to do this already anyway.
Harlos has a house party host lined up for Denver area. Says Colorado people would be insulted if 420 fundraiser was anywhere else. Voting again in the same manner as the 2020 convention. Sharpe, Bilyeu want Lauren Daugherty to study membership names and present a proposal to next meeting, which the vote clarified will be in Denver.
Hewitt believes fundraising would be good in Los Angeles. Moellman, Hayes point out that they voted to have it in a medical marijuana state at the last meeting. Hayes wants it in Los Angeles for his birthday.
Harlos argues for Denver or secondarily Phoenix or LA 3rd. Too many meetings in the east. Starchild likes NoVA because it’s cheaper to have the meeting there. Daugherty says she has no strong preference. Redpath likes Denver.
Sounds like a lot of people agreed with that ranking.
Also Whitney pointed out that the Austin convention bureau will help advertise the convention.
Next deciding on the city for the April LNC meeting.
Austin wins 9-5 over Atlanta. No one voted for Arizona. Convention bureau will provide musician for opening night reception.
9 – Austin, TX
5 – Atlanta, GA
0 – Glendale, AZ
The 2020 LP national convention will be in Austin, TX on memorial day weekend.
The convention will be in Austin. Vote was by ranked-choice voting, 9 votes for Austin and 5 for Atlanta on the first ballot.
Austin does seem like a great location… despite the high room rates. I hope the financial problems Mattson is concerned about don’t materialize.
If I were voting, I would vote as follows:
1. Austin, TX
2. Atlanta, GA
3. Glendale, AZ
Redpath would personally prefer decision time, but said it sounds like there is a majority for Austin and because we can lose bids like happened with Los Angeles in 2016. Goldstein moves, Marsh seconds to vote now. Voting will be ranked choice with signed ballots.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether we should vote today or not. We’re unlikely to get anything more outside the box by waiting, and I doubt going to new hotels for better Food & Beverage deals is going to net much better than the Convention Committee’s process already has.
Of the three hotels on the table, after seeing the presentations today, I am supporting Austin as well. Of the three presentations, the Austin hotel’s representative seemed most flexible on various issues; the location seems better, given that we’ve already met in Atlanta in 2004 and held our last convention in Orlando, as well as various other factors.
Hewitt: Austin is in a good area for people looking to do stuff outside the hotel. Nice new hotel.
Hayes: hotels have been waiting for decision since August and we promised them we would decide today. Sharpe also likes Austin. Moellman pointed out that we have had 3 in a row in Southeast.
Arvin: many of our top donors are in or near Austin.
Also Austin is an open carry hotel…
Arvin likes Austin the best and says it won’t increase our chance of CNN coverage if we try Atlanta again.
Daugherty believes it will be easier to market Austin to our members and believes Arizona would be least good from that pov. Benedict and Sarwark not pushing any over the others but Wes may have been subtly suggesting Austin…maybe.
Kraus pitched Austin – unusually good rate for that city.
[email protected] via googlegroups.com
1:26 PM (25 minutes ago)
to lnc-business
The hotels may want the deal done by the end of the year for purposes of their bonuses, etc., but they will absolutely still do business with us in January if we don’t get it done by end-of-year.
Admiral Colley was able to drag the contract negotiations out for months on the 2010 space until he got what he wanted.
-Alicia
We are back. Discussion now is whether the LNC will decide on a location today, phone conference in a few days or email vote which takes ten days.
20 min break
Hotel representatives fielding questions about gun policies (do they allow open carry?), check-in policies (is government ID required? can people pay cash?) – good education for them. 🙂
Dustin Nanna explores one of Andy Jacobs’ favorite topics, bathroom fans.
It’s back up.
Wes is working on the stream. Austin and Phoenix presented, Atlanta is next.
The stream seems down.
Robert’s comparison chart http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20171210/fffdd7b4/attachment.pdf
Mattson further replies:
Mattson responds to Bilyeu:
WB: “What he doesn’t get to, you can call in and ask of the presenters who
will be here to represent their respective facilities tomorrow.”
Why should I now have to do it myself, when I was promised that someone
else would do it and that I wouldn’t have to? That was the whole point.
It really pushes my buttons when empty promises are made to influence a
vote, and once the desired vote outcome is reached, the promises are not
kept.
-Alicia
Bilyeu responds to Mattson:
Mattson re convention bids: http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/2017/010982.html
Now doing presentation of the three cities starting with Austin.
No, each volunteer signature counts as the equivalent of a paid signature for the purpose of determining a state contribution. For example if a state does 25k in paid sigs out of its own budget paying 2.50and 10k volunteer sigs it’s the same as if they paid 50k for paid sigs only and thus makes them eligible for 50k in LNC matching funds.
Kraus to LNC:
Mattson responds:
Katz also responds:
The LNC adopted a budget with an overall deficit of $338,664. If you adjust for the $15,000 pay down of the mortgage and the $66,800 collection on the bequest, the cash impact will be a deficit of $286,864.
At the beginning of 2017 we had $240K of cash in the bank.
As of October 31, 2017, the financials show $121K of cash in the bank and current liabilities of $62K.
Aaron Starr writes, “Starchild – The reason why you want the proviso to require the Executive Committee to authorize the ballot access spending is because in its absence staff would be able to spend the money based on the budget alone.”
Thanks Aaron, that makes sense.
On the Credentials Committee vote, this was to elect an interim chair. I supported Susan Hogarth because I think it’s healthy to have turnover in these positions, and Emily Salvette while experienced and generally seen as competent, has done it for a long time. In general we need to expand beyond the “usual suspects” and build a “farm team” or “deeper bench” of people who have experience in various positions and tasks.
Looking at the chart on convention sites, Atlanta seems like the clear winner… sad because we’ve already had a convention in Atlanta in the recent past (2004) and our last presidential convention was in the southeast (Orlando, 2016) — I’d like to see our convention move around to new locations.
http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20171210/b19db9fa/attachment.pdf
Glendale doesn’t seem to have enough rooms unless lots of people stay a mile away. Austin’s room rates are significantly higher than Atlanta’s. A/V costs at the 3 venues ought to have been included on this comparison. Wi-Fi in the business room is necessary in this day and age, so when Austin and Gendale only have free Wi-Fi using the in-house A/V, it’s important to know whether we will be using the in-house A/V and how much that will cost.
I am also very concerned about the food & beverage numbers Mattson pointed out.
http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/2017/010982.html
Budget passed overwhelmingly. Starchild and Lark voted no. Caryn Ann abstained, I think.
Break for 18 minutes. Hogarth edges Salvette for Credentials 8-7.
Overall proviso with the 2/3 passes 11-2. Starchild abstained, Moellman and Bilyeu voted no. There may have been other abstentions I missed.
Starchild – The reason why you want the proviso to require the Executive Committee to authorize the ballot access spending is because in its absence staff would be able to spend the money based on the budget alone.
Moellman, Redpath move to make the proviso for 2/3 for EC to encumber ballot access funds down to simple majority. Others including Hayes and Harlos say since it takes power out of hands of LNC to EC higher threshold is called for. Fails 6-8.
Aaron – I think Robert’s saying that when staff travel to meetings, they may or may not meet with donors, that this isn’t necessarily the purpose of the trip. But I think the whole approach seems like kind of a farce – there are so many categories that overlap, that whatever staff want to do, they can potentially just put it into whatever category they want to utilize.
Robert is incorrect. The end result of a travel expense is not the determinant of how it gets classified. If the intention of a travel cost is to visit a donor to solicit a donation, it is a fundraising expense whether or not the donor writes us a check.
The other abstention was Jim Lark.
Robert is confusing 7020 with 7010.
LP Store motion passes 12-0 with two abstentions on hand vote. One of the abstainers was Starchild. I did not see the other one.
Demarest moves to increase LP Store from 100k to 125 k. Daugherty says it helps with prospecting.
This budget is going more and more into deficit…
David Demarest proposes increasing the budget line for “Travel, Meeting, & Meals” expenses from $26,000 to $50,000, to enable more staff travel to meet with donors. 🙁
Demarest’s proposed motion to increase travel expense is to the administrative category 8140.
He should instead make the amendment to 7020-20 if he wants it to be for fundraising related costs.
Demarest moves to raise line 8140 (travel) from $26,000 to $50,000. This would allow Lauren Daugherty to travel more to meet with big donors.
Daugherty: successful organization have staff who travel to meet with major donors.
Demarest moves to increase travel and meeting expense from (26?) k to 50 k. I think Sharpe seconded.
Goldstein amendment passes 11-2, with one abstention. Arvin Vohra and Jim Lark vote no, Bill Redpath abstains. I voted yes.
Goldstein proviso passes 11-2 with (one?) abstention.
Contribution by states, as in money and sigs they contribute to the plan, leading to distribution by LNC of money to particular states to get ballot access. Redpath amendment passes 12-2 on hand vote.
Redpath suggests making volunteer petitioners put up the money first to pay for their own pledges then get the money back when they get their signatures. Starchild believes naming and shaming people who don’t follow through on their pledges would be sufficient. Redpath moves to amend Goldstein proviso can be overridden by a majority vote of entire LNC on case by case basis.
Various people agreeing that Ohio ballot access failure was regrettable. Bill Redpath suggests the idea of requiring people pledging to collect petition signatures to put up some money upfront to provide some guarantee those signatures will be collected. I say simply being willing to name names would be more practical – incentivize people to follow through on pledges by the prospect of public embarrassment if they do not, rather than requiring money upfront which might be problematic for some petitioners.
Contribution.
Hagan seconded Goldstein amendment.
Sam Goldstein proposing to limit ballot access funding for state affiliate parties unless a state party has provided “verifiable evidence” of “having achieved its planned distribution”.
Demarest amendment to hire membership/fundraisng people ($170k) approved 10-4. Goldstein proposes amendment that no LNC money will go to states until there is verified proof that the state completed its portion of the plan.
Hayes amendment failed. David Demarest orginal motion to increase (membership renewal) category proposed spending from $110,300 to $170,300 to fund an extra hire, passed (I believe by 10-6). I voted no.
I spoke in favor of using volunteers instead of hiring someone for membership duties. Pointed out that the stuff we’re talking about – making phone calls, stuffing envelopes, hosting conference calls – could be done by volunteers with a little staff guidance. As the Libertarian Party, we should be setting a good fiscal example, not engaging in deficit spending.
Sharpe: LNC is more like a company than like government and companies take on debt all the time.
Also discussing hiring part time fundraising contractor.
Daniel Hayes amended to reduce the amount of the proposed increase. Sam Goldstein asking development director Lauren Daugherty about ways to increase revenue.
Bitcoin like the Tulip mania is transparently ina speculative bubble. Selling while the selling is hot is a good idea.
I have the distinct impression that ballot access estimates have often been wrong, on the low side, and this should be examined systematically.
Past budgets that simply voted for 90% for “administration” and “salaries” are not the way competent boards advance to direct an organization.
Discussing hiring Membership Coordinator.
We’re in session. Straight into the budget. David Demarest proposing to add money to Donor Renewal Expense category (“we need to spend money to make money”).
I guess Wes is required for the stream?
Wes is now here and will be setting up the livestream shortly.
Wes still not here. Caryn Ann spoke in favor of Susan Hogarth for credentials. I think someone (Hayes?) spoke in favor of Salvette but I zoned out there. Ballots are now being tallied. There was a discussion of when in the agenda to take up the issue of disclosing part of what was said in executive session about ballot access and it was deferred to get input from Wes, but Nick said it was not about Alabama (and by implication me). Now moving on to budget.
MHW, I think that’s in staff reports. If not, ask Robert Kraus. Meeting is about to start but Wes Benedict is running late so stream is not up yet.
Each copy of the newsletter has an envelope. Does the LP office have any record as to how much in donations that effort brings in? If possible please post that figure. Thank you.
It was actually my idea for the LNC to accept donations in Bitcoin (and I of course received zero credit for it), and I posted it right here on IPR, and it was At Large Representative Starchild who took it to the national committee. Several committee members were skeptical, and one of the concerns they had was how to convert the Bitcoin donations into Federal Reserve Notes. I told them about a company that did just that, and after an LNC vote authorizing this, the LNC signed with this company (the head of which even joined the party), and the rest is history. I still have the time stamped emails from the discussion that led to this.
The LP should also be accepting donations in other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Monero, etc….
If it is legal for the LNC to hold donations in cryptocurrency, and to cash them in after they go up in value, the party ought to do this, as I think there are a bunch of them that will go up in value. If it is legal for the LP to mine cryptocurrency, and ruse mining proceeds to fund the party/campaigns, the party ought to do this (of course this may violate campaign finance laws).
Recessed for the day a little after 630pm. LNC meeting reconvenes tomorrow morning at 9am (Central Time).
We’re just wrapping up the secret meeting on budget.
Ditto on what Chuck just said. With the possible exception of the convention budgeting. It seems like the numbers are on track to exceed typical off-year convention revenues.
I completely agree with Aaron Starr about conservative budgeting and transparency of aggregate staff compensation.
We’ve been going around the table one person at a time and giving our thoughts on budget priorities/changes. I advocated the following:
• Fund 12 issues per year of LP News. It’s a concrete, tactile benefit we offer our members, which also serves as a fundraising mailing, but in a positive way by providing content people actually want to receive.
• Spend less money on LNC meetings. Thousands of dollars cost to the party on meeting rooms, catered food, and airline flights & lodging for staff makes no sense. There are free or lower-cost spaces available; we should not spend party money on food for ourselves, and we should hear from staff by phone and not take them away from their work at the office. One staffer at most should be present at most meetings, unless they want to attend on their own time and dime (there are 3 at this meeting).
• We need to see a ledger (line item) budget which lists each item of expenditure and revenue. There are broad spending and revenue categories which do not have sufficient explanations of what they include. I don’t feel I have enough information to make truly informed budget decisions.
• We should spend less money on direct mail – it’s reportedly bringing in less money, and I think there’s a hidden cost in sending people what many regard as spam; it’s a turnoff rather than an incentive to support the party.
• We should keep some of the cryptocurrency donations we receive in cryptocurrency instead of immediately converting them to dollars. If we’d done this earlier with Bitcoin, we could’ve realized a significant increase in revenue. Supporting cryptocurrency also has a freedom benefit aside from any revenue benefit.
I have some comments about the proposed budget figures that I hope LNC members will find useful.
General Comment. Given that October’s YTD financial statements had reserves standing at $82K, adopting a budget with a $254K deficit is probably not a prudent move. My general suggestion is that we should adopt budgets based on our fears, not our hopes. It’s easier to make additions later, if we outperform our budget, but far harder to make cuts effectively once the money has already been spent.
Confidential Salaries and Contractor Compensation. The sheet detailing these figures does not disclose all compensation (only the portions attributed to administrative expense). This makes it unclear to the LNC that built into this budget is a very large increase in staffing that is causing our budgeted expenses to well exceed our budgeted revenues. To make an informed decision, the LNC should insist on seeing a listing of all compensation paid to staff and contractors (both admin and non-admin) during 2017 (including those who are no longer employed) with a projection of what the full year figures will be. Those figures should be shown next to a similar listing for 2018 for comparison.
Recurring Pledges. The assumption is that the revenues will increase by 15%, starting with the first month. Given the challenges with membership levels, this might be optimistic.
Convention Revenue. Convention Revenue should be budgeted to match Convention Expense. The current budget shows a profit of $10,000.
Convention Banquet Fundraising. Using the average of the Presidential and Non-Presidential figures for Convention Banquet Fundraising is overly optimistic. It would be more appropriate to use the Non-Presidential figure of $23K. If our actual experience is better, we can modify the budget upward at that time.
Other Event Fundraising. I’d like to see better support for the $50K figure and the associated $7.5K expense.
Political Materials. I suggest that figures lower than $100K for revenues and expense would be more appropriate, as this is a non-Presidential year.
Direct Mail Fundraising Expense. The general and donor renewal expense include $48K of contract expense with notes suggesting there has been $4K per month in such expense during 2017. That does not appear to be true. Please look at that closely.
Online Contribution Expense – Donor Renewal. Budgeting $36K for Facebook and Text Messaging, methods for which we have no successful experience, seems high. I suggest that we start with a smaller figure and then only expand upon that amount once we have evidence that this is a productive use of funds.
Affiliate Development. I have seen no support for the $60K figure.
Media Relations. This figure is increasing $48K because of the addition of a contractor.
Candidate Support and Training. This figure is increasing $48.6K because of the addition of a contractor.
I’m not saying staff should never do outreach events. But I would prefer they be saved for events for which we do not have volunteers who are able and willing to go on their own dime. (Volunteers by the way could of course include staff, if a staffer really wants to attend a particular event – there’s nothing prohibiting them from volunteering for the party during their off hours, just as other LP members volunteer for the party during hours in which they are not working at their paid jobs.)
Chuck – If we have local volunteers willing to come and help out on their own dime, versus paying to fly staff from D.C. and taking them away from their other responsibilities there, I just question whether whatever added value a staffer’s presence might provide over and above what a volunteer could provide at an event in terms of fundraising and outreach exceeds both the cost of airfare and the opportunity cost of taking the staffer away from doing what they do at the office. Although if we were able to have volunteers fill in and do their jobs at LPHQ while they’re away, this cost could be ameliorated…
You did say that, and my attention is wandering so I had already forgotten. I’m not trying to keep you from your event and will certainly welcome all the help I can get tomorrow.
Agreed. The question was about staff travel to assist the chair at events like Freedomfest and Liberty Forum.
I think Starchild is being pennywise and pound foolish here. It’s clear that this particular event fundraising far exceeded the costs, and staff was necessary for that fundraising.
Sorry, but as I said I need to leave for the holiday party. It sounds like tonight will just be discussion of the budget… I gather the budget motion itself and subsequent amendments will be voted on tomorrow. I will help liveblog tomorrow morning.
Chuck, as I pointed out in seeking a seat on the IT Committee, I think it’s good to have at least one non-tech layperson’s perspective on the committee, and I’ve gotten the impression that all the existing members are techies of one stripe or another.
I’m trying not to glaze over myself… hanging out in the French Quarter until 3am last night didn’t help. 🙂
I’m going to need to pace around the back of the room some to stay awake …
Also this is the part where I often glaze over so more help for the next hour would help me not miss things.
Chuck, some redundancy would be fine if you want to help liveblog again. You are better at catching some things than I am such as roll calls, I am not fast enough for that.
Now starting the budget portion of the annual budget meeting, which will continue into tomorrow.
http://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-12-09_LNC_Meeting_Budget_2018_Draft5.pdf
You first suggested it but you were not at the table at that time as Ed Marsh was.
I’ve been listening, but you all have already been doing a good job liveblogging everything.
I am a little worried about Starchild on the IT Committee. Starchild has done great things several places, but IT clearly doesn’t seem to be an area of expertise.
Similarly, the Ballot Access Committee is a very important committee which deserves some sort of expertise in the subject.
I have to leave soon for the Montgomery County LP holiday party, with which the LNC has a habit of scheduling meetings.
Correction, I nominated Erin Adams.
Postponed by 8-4.
Lark seconded.
Ken Moellman moves to postpone that vote to email. Harlos agrees.
Hayes speaking for Social Media Process Review Committee. No meeting and no report. Hewitt, Starchild nominate Erin Adams to fill vacancy created by Brett Bittner’s resignation.
There was a motion related to Historical Preservation Committee which passed 13-0. I’ll need to find the motion.
That’s the reasoning behind the motion to postpone the vote to see if Dustin will become eligible by being elected to LNC. Do you have another suggestion?
How about an LNC member with some actual ballot access experience? It is absurd to have unqualified people holding these type 8f positions, especially when there are better qualified people in the party.
Also on Ballot Access, Nick indicated he will make Bill Redpath the new chair of the committee.
http://www.lncregion1.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/120917LPHPC.pdf
I think the Goldstein motion as amended by Redpath to postpone the vote to email passed. However there was something about a bad count that I did not quite catch so I could be wrong. Ken Moellman is presented by LNC with a plaque thanking him for his service. There is also a suggestion (Sharpe? Hayes?) to thank Bette Rose Ryan for her past service on Convention Oversight Committee. Next is Caryn Ann Harlos to present Historical Preservation Committee report.
There are 3 LNC member slots on the committee and Ken’s was one of them so has to be replaced with LNC member only. That’s why they are not able to appoint Dustin now.
Has to be LNC member.
Passes 9-2 (the two were Hewitt and Marsh) and express abstention from Starchild.
Redpath motion to amend to suspend to email vote in the next two weeks.
How about nominating somebody who has actual experience in ballot access to the Ballot Access Committee?
I am more qualified than anyone on there.
Goldstein motion to postpone.
Suggestion to postpone the vote so Dustin Nanna may become eligible if his region elects him to LNC.
Hewitt is the one pushing Nekhalia.
Nekhalia accepts nomination. I missed who made it.
Moellman resigns from ballot access committee. Seeking replacement.
Cole Ebel is new interim chair in TN.
Ohio most of the way done. Tennessee lagging. Alabama: “it’s complicated.”
Moellman, ballot access committee is next.
The link to the Ballot Access Committee report is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hi2dav_9dfwRURz4pv8K6wG5GDsJMYisc-83WW-jRfQ/edit?usp=sharing
Interim Credentials Committee chair appointment postponed until tomorrow morning after discussion, to see whether Susan Hogarth and/or Emily Salvette want the position. Perhaps other potential interim chair candidates may also materialize in the meantime??
Harlos moves to move consideration til tomorrow so we can check whether Salvette and/or Hogarth are willing to serve. Passes without objection.
Harlos, Starchild nominate Susan Hogarth.
Daniel Hayes moves to appoint Emily Salvette as interim chair of the Credential Committee. Caryn Ann Harlos nominates Susan Hogarth; I seconded.
Credentials committee needs interim. Hayes, Goldstein move for Emily Salvette. Starchild objects to putting the same person on over and over and over.
Platform and bylaws committee struck from the agenda as there is no report from them.
I was nominated by Whitney Bilyeu to fill the vacancy on the IT Committee vacated by Ken Moellman, and accepted. There being no other nominations, I was appointed to the position.
Bilyeu nominates Starchild. No one else is nominated. Appointed without objection.
Moellman resigns from IT committee. Now discussion of replacing him.
If anyone here is interested in volunteering with this, or knows someone who might be, prospective volunteers should contact Sean at [email protected].
[email protected] if anyone wants to volunteer to help IT committee.
Volunteers needed for the candidate database project are back end Ruby on Rails for server people.
The IT Committee needs more volunteer help in building a candidate database. Goal is to let people enter a zip code and see which Libertarian candidates they can vote for.
Bill Redpath was chosen to fill the slot on the Employment Compensation Committee. Voting method was approval voting by signed ballot. I also sought the seat; he got 13 votes to 5 for me (not a surprise to me; the LNC majority and I do not see eye to eye on a number of different matters, including staff compensation).
13-5 Redpath over Starchild for EPCC. Sean O’Toole presenting IT report. Most of these reports are at https://www.lp.org/event/lnc-meeting-new-orleans-la/ or http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/2017/date.html#start or both.
Sean O’Toole now presenting for the IT Committee.
Back in session. Nick Sarwark bangs his gavel which I think says “You’re fucked” on the dust cover.
Recess, then IT committee report.
EPCC. Bittner also needs to be replaced on that one, Dr. Lark says he and Joshua Katz (absent due to weather) thank Bittner for his service. Lark nominates Redpath to replace Bittner on EPCC, Redpath accepts; Starchild nominates himself.
The vote on contributions was to clarify that “donations” to the LP for which something of value was granted in return (e.g. buying convention packages) will NOT count toward a life membership. Language to that effect was added to the LNC Policy Manual.
The new language is more specific and detailed. Not just rooms but goods, services and quid pro quo but contributions to voting on convention theme do count. Next is Candidate Support Committee, the other one Bittner was on that I forgot earlier. Mark Miller and Jim Turney were non-LNC who were added to the committee. The meeting to present a report to this LNC meeting of that committee did not happen. Hagan elected to replace Bittner on the committee and Goldstein elected to replace as interim chair both without objection.
Sam Goldstein is appointed as interim chair of the Candidate Support Committee, and Tim Hagan added to the committee.
Discussion of what counts toward life membership. I think either way they would not allow convention packages and rooms to count towards that so I’m not sure exactly what changes.
Yeah. It was more expensive this weekend, I booked mine after LP block was sold out and before the weather caused anticipated prices to drop way down on a weekend in downtown New Orleans, so I screwed up on that one. I also booked a room for the convention at the same time.
I just booked my convention hotel room. Wow, that was expensive…
In response to my question about how comped guest rooms at the convention hotel are being handled and whether it will be transparent, Daniel Hayes says yes, and that plan is to make them available to donors, as way of bringing more revenue to the LP. This is good – sometimes in past such comped rooms have gone to convention organizers or insiders with little publicity/transparency.
LNC Alternate Sean O’Toole (one of the members who had difficulty getting to New Orleans due to the airport closure due to snow) has arrived at the meeting.
I think that’s room nights, correct?
The party “earns” a comped unit for every 45 paying booked rooms.
Our original room block was 1,018; we’re already at 80% of that. New addendum we’re shooting for room block of 1607 (?) rooms, and on track to meet that.
Daniel says convention is on track to be one of our most profitable conventions. Sales going very well, including sales of vendor tables (cost = $300 or $500 depending on table location).
Lark, Hagan, and Hayes were selected for the Awards Committee. There was an open advertisement by email to all LP members, but only Lark and Hagan had submitted applications. Hayes threw in his name at the meeting. Two non-LNC members are sought to fill the remaining committee slots. Starchild requested transparency from the committee. Lark and others believe discussing people’s reputations and picking award recipients ought to be confidential.
Daniel says they cut super early bird price from $525 to $399 for full package.
Daniel Hayes now presenting for the Convention Committee. He took over as chair from Bette Rose Ryan, who resigned from the committee for personal reasons.
Hayes, I believe he was also reappointed if I understood correctly. Next convention committee.
Jim Lark thanked Kevin Knedler for expanding the scope of the Awards Committee, and helping pay for the medals awarded.
Lark, Hagan and Hayes are on without objection. Looking for two non-LNC members to be appointed at…next in-person meeting? Email vote?
Jim Lark, Tim Hagan, and one other member whose name I just missed were appointed (or reappointed in case of Lark and Hagan) to the Awards Committee.
Talking about whether to populate the Awards Committee now or not.
Next, Awards Committee and election of awards committee. That was affiliate support before this, and there are a couple of vacancies on that … or there were some and were filled? Back to awards, Hagan, Lark, Hayes applying; up to two non-LNC members.
Now on Awards Committee.
Massachusetts is currently paying for nationbuilder, as a result of which I have repeatedly received notices that my membership — which was good until 2019 — has expired.
I think we are on Affiliate Support Committee but it sounds more like IT so far….
My sense as well. On the other hand Starr and Mattson are not here, and I don’t know where Joshua Katz comes down on this but he’s not here either.
Pennsylvania is going to NationBuilder. I strongly recommended against it. They didn’t listen to me.
Aaron Starr and Starchild wanted an expanded role for the audit committee — doing independent investigation beyond simply hiring an auditor. There did not seem to be support for that from the rest of the committee.
Nekhalia is also here from the alternates.
Up next, audit committee report. I know at least part of it was kept private. I think there was also a public report but I don’t remember the details. Here’s all I’m finding so this may be all that’s public:
http://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-12-09_LNC_Meeting_2016_Audit_Board_Disclosure_Letter.pdf
The audit report is being discussed in open session. However, the audit report itself was not made public as far as I know.
True. Luckily there is a small and shrinking number of states in that category.
We are back from lunch and tour of the hotel (where will also have the national convention next year). Wes says the feed is back on, meeting will be starting soon.
The stream is back.
I’m interested in whether Pazel takes into account whether a state has the party lever. I’ve found the party lever was a huge detriment to partisan candidates because more than 1/3 of the voters simply pull R or D without thinking about individual candidates.
Thanks for liveblogging.
I’m interested in Apollo Pazel’s plan.
Wes Benedict informal pitch for LP store items
Return to business at 1:30 local time (11:50 now).
Lunch is served.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/special-counsel-report_2017-12-09/
Now calling Oliver Hall.
Roll call vote on my motion to disclose contents of secret meeting with exception of names of persons mentioned who are not on this body:
Demarest – yes
Moellman – no
Lark – abstain
Hewitt – no
Redpath – no
Bilyeu – abstain
Starchild – yes
Sharpe – no
Hagan – yes
Vohra – yes
Harlos – yes
Marsh – no
Goldstein – no
Hayes – yes (initially voted no, tried to change to yes after the vote, but the chair disallowed, then allowed)
Sarwark – abstained
6 yes, 6 no, 2 abstentions (plus the chair also abstained), the motion failed
Sharpe in favor of Hewitt motion. Needs 2/3 handvote. Hewitt motion passes 10-4. Nos were Starchild, Bilyeu, Demarest and Harlos.
Lark abstained on first vote, speaks in favor of Hewitt/Redpath motion. Starchild speaks against postponing.
Redpath seconds Hewitt’s motion; would be taken up tomorrow morning.
Fails on a tie. Sarwark did not vote. Moellman moves to release contacts of exec session without any situation details that makes the individuals discussed identifiable. Hewitt moves to postpone vote to time certain so allow exactly what is to be released to be written up and deliberated on by LNC members.
Hayes changes his vote so it’s 6-6
7 no, 5 yes, 2 abstain
Moellman says that individual contractors will be identifiable from situational details even if names are kept out. Sounds like it was defeated but with some yeses and abstentions.
Starchild moves to disclose what was discussed in executive session other than names of the people being talked about.
Counsel’s report is next.
We’re out of the secret meeting and just had a 10 minute recess. Now waiting for Wes Benedict to return to restart live streaming. I requested we wait on that before we restart the meeting.
Meeting starting again. Starchild wants to continue til Wes gets back to start meeting. Robert Kraus informs us that Wes will be here in the next couple of minutes.
You’re welcome and thank you for yours.
Dustin Nanna is also managing the Ohio petition drive so it would have been germane for him to remain and comment. I do not know if he did or not, I walked down to Starbucks as I had been up til 4 am ish, up again at 7 am and my stomach did not feel like eating before the meetings so it was a good opportunity for me to grab coffee and munchies.
Discussion as to whether Dustin Nano (sp?) should be allowed to stay in meeting (Ken Moelmann requested it, on the basis that Dustin may be taking his seat after he resigns). I said it would be unfair to other potential members of the body to allow this exception.
They debated going into executive session to discuss ballot access personnel matters. There was a majority for going into executive session. Starchild voted against. Harlos and Bilyeu opposed in the discussion but abstained in the vote. The broadcast has stopped to facilitate the executive session.
I am going to step away from the computer for 2 hours to go to the gym and eat some food. Hopefully others will liveblog when the LNC rises from executive session. Thanks to Paulie and Starchild for their liveblogging so far.
Voting on going into secret meeting. Bilyeu abstains, Harlos abstains, Sarwark abstains, I vote no, all others at table (including alternate Larry Sharpe) voted yes.
Moellman: this is about specific people, not broader policies.
Issue would be contractual compliance and personnel matters.
Before I shut down: discussion over whether that should be kept secret. Suggested compromise is possibly retroactively making some of the exec session public after the fact.
Whitney Bilyeu speaking about her concerns about going into a secret meeting (aka “executive session”) to discuss ballot access petitioning.
Shutting down, exec session on ballot access.
Lauren Daugherty (development director) recommended that the chair/CEO become a paid position. Starchild suggested a better model would be a more horizontal structure so donors aren’t always looking to talk to the one person in charge. Daugherty disagrees because big donors are usually CEOs or former CEOs used to that model. Note: I serve on the bylaws committee and we have no proposal to make the chair/CEO a paid position. Daugherty also supports changing the membership level names, but suggests that it be done by staff in consultation with a special LNC subcommittee rather than off the cuff at this meeting.
Would require bylaws change so no action will be taken at this meeting, thus debate was cut off.
Heidi Aljenos(?) new member in the gallery comments on fundraising – says she’s a commercial driver, suggests that commercial drivers would be good prospects for Libertarian recruitment/fundraising, as many are libertarian-leaning.
Lauren suggests paid national chair who can go and fundraise as a significant portion of his/her time. I don’t think this is a good idea.
Paulie – I didn’t catch the number, but it would have been 10K raised last night, not 2K, because I was at the event and at one point it was reported that $7500 had been raised.
Development director Lauren Daugherty is now talking about some details of staff report (which is online at http://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-12-09_LNC_Meeting_Staff_Report.pdf)
Lauren Daugherty talking about fundraising. House party last night was not as well attended as hoped due to weather but raised what Lauren was hoping for under those circumstances. I did not understand whether she said 10k or 2k.
There has been snow in New Orleans, I was late getting to the meeting because a local bridge was shut down this morning (presumably due to ice, although we’d driven on it last night and there was hardly any ice and it hadn’t snowed since – typical government!)
Wes Benedict (executive director) giving staff report. Talking about two new employees, Cara Schultz and Apollo Pozell (sp?) who are involved in candidate recruitment. Cara doing wide recruiting, Apollo doing targeted recruiting for state legislative races we think we may have reasonable chance of winning. Wes says goal of 2000 candidates nationwide (past cycles have typically seen around 800). In response to my question, Wes clarified that not sure how many were recruited by staff versus simply decided on their own or by other prompts to run.
Cara Schulz (candidate recruiting specialist) has a goal of 2,000 LP candidates nationwide.
Apollo Pazell (campaign advisor) has a goal of 12-24 candidates in targeted “winnable” races for state representative in low population races that could potentially hinge on around $10,000.
Discussion of the job responsibilities and performance metrics of the two new staff members, Apollo Pazell and Cara Schulz.
Benedict – staff report. I saw it on the email list http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20171208/6ec708df/attachment-0001.pdf
I ducked out for part of the treasurer’s report. The highlights seem to be that even though last year a $237,000 deficit was budgeted (after some raises in sending throughout the year), they ended up and a surplus; the convention has been receiving a lot of early registrations adding up to around $81,000; and the mortgage will be paid off on time if the minimum budgeted prepayments of $60,000 in off-years are made.
Now the staff report is starting.
http://www.lp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-12-09_LNC_Meeting_Chairs-Report.pdf
Sarwark is running for mayor of Phoenix, AZ — leading by example.
https://sarwarkforphoenix.com/
Sarwark expects to run for mayor of Phoenix (non-partisan).
http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/2017/date.html#start may have some reports that are not at https://www.lp.org/event/lnc-meeting-new-orleans-la/
There were no further conflicts of interest beyond the ones included in Mattson’s supplemental report.
Sarwark is now giving the chair’s report. He is discussing the new hires for candidate recruitment and candidate support.
Membership level names is a proposal added to the end of the agenda without previous notice.
The agenda as modified is adopted.
I think I missed Goldstein and Sharpe as other LNC members who are also here.
Starchild is now here.
Adopting/rearranging agenda. Several items being removed from agenda due to absence of Mattson and Katz. Need to replace Moellman on IT and Ballot Access, Bittner on APRC, EPCC, Social Media Process Review Committee, one other I forgot just now.
I’m listening now. (I’m not so much a fan of mornings.)
They are about to vote on adopting the agenda.
Some people have been having problems setting up the new email setup.
Mattson is not at the meeting. Harlos is acting as secretary for this meeting.
They decided to leave Katz’s item on the agenda even though he’s not there — at the request of Lark.
Bittner has resigned and Moellman is planning to resign from region 3. This will create vacancies on several LNC committees that need to be filled.
Harlos roll. Bittner resigned, Moellman is at the table for region 3. Also here from LNC Redpath, Lark, Marsh, Hewitt, Demarest, Harlos, Vohra, Sarwark, Hagan, Hayes, Goldstein, Bilyeu. Erin Adams is the only alternate I see here at this time. Starchild is in town and running a little late but sent message that he will be here in a few minutes.
Jim Lark: Monday will be 46th anniversary of LP founding. Mattson is absent due to travel delays and will not be here in person this weekend. Harlos appointed Secretary Pro Tem without objection.
Public comments now. Richard Fast of Louisiana, suggests renaming contribution level names such as replacing “patriot,” “minuteman” etc. Nick Sarwark thanks Paul and Whitney Bilyeu for ride from Houston to New Orleans.
Meeting has now been called to order. Erin Adams introducing gov candidate Rex Lawhorn of Oklahoma. First ever Oklahoma LP primary.
Main Broadcast — Channel 1: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/libertarian-party1
Backup Broadcast — Channel 2: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/QhDdfs2AXHZ
Wes wants to know if the broadcast is working for everyone
https://www.lp.org/event/lnc-meeting-new-orleans-la/ has the meeting reports, broadcast links etc. I will also post them in the comments here shortly.
I am on the ground here. Meeting is set to start in just under half an hour.
We have quorum so we will meet.
In the staff report the development director recommends making the LNC chair a full time paid position. In my opinion this would be a terrible idea.
According to the LNC business email list, a lot of LNC members seem to have canceled flights due to weather in New Orleans.
I’ll try to help when I’m around the computer.
Thanks for the post, and I’ll help liveblog.
Might help if I hit subscribe.
Commenting to subscribe.