Libertarian National Committee November 5, 2022 Meeting Liveblog

The Liveblog will appear here, as amendments to this post, when the meeting starts.
A one-note folder with supporting documents is found at https://tinyurl.com/Nov2022Meeting

On-topic comments are welcome.

We are now starting. The camera work is unfortunate.  The camera direction drifts.  The split screen keeps changing.  The Vice Chair is absent.  Amended agenda being discussed.  (i) delete Vice Chair report, as there is no Vice Chair present. passed.  (ii) Staff report to tomorrow AM at their request.  Staff travel delayed by weather.  Passed.  Regions 3, 7 and 8 region reports to tomorrow.  Passed.  It appears that the regions 3 and 8 representatives are not there yet.  Standing Committee filling discussed.

National Chair reports.  Elections soon. Staff Gelling.  The committee is standing together.  Ballot access: Alabama is setting a fine precedent worth imitating.  Let us emerge after the election as leaders.

Secretary Report: We are saving our records on the LNC computer, not on my computer.  This is good.  Working on a Secretary’s manual. Important that each board member maintains records to pass on to the successor.Minutes up to date (GP: Relative to several past secretaries, that statement is highly meritorious.)

Treasurer: $150,000 in cash reserves at end of October.  September income above $120,000.   Expresses concern that net could sometimes become negative.

Postpone Counsel’s report to immediately after lunch. He was expecting to speak then. Passed.

Regional reports: Arizona being discussed.  Candidates get on the ballot by collecting signatures.  State party has no say in who runs.  Mark Victor, former Senate candidate, well known is Arizona LP, and was briefly a judge, not a random person off the streets.  Did not tell anyone before he dropped out.  LPAZ ballot access history is a mess.

Sound is poor. Region 1 report was read.  Arizona signature requirement for statewide said to be a bit over 3000.  Harlos discusses her local election race.  She reports getting calls from Republicans asking L candidates to drop out.  Her answer: You drop out. You’re stealing my votes.

Region 2: Lists candidates. Had candidates in debates. There are billboards in Georgia.  Ballot access suit ongoing.  Someone speaking…unintelligible.  Speaker refers to states by nicknames, making it impossible to tell which state he is discussing.  Florida has 30 candidates on the ballot.  They have a candidate for governor. Alabama doing well. Candidates statewide, some above 20%.  May win state legislature seats.  Many candidates in two-way races.  Role of Libertarian Policy Institute was not mentioned.

Region 4 — California Libertarians over 1% of registered voters.  Many LP statements in the official voter guides.  California is a top-two primary system so we have few candidates on the ballot for partisan office.  Top-2 scheme denounced.  Excludes our candidates.  Can be two Democrats or two Republicans as the only choices.  Is there some chance that the GOP will abandon California the way the Democrats abandoned Alabama?  Probably not.  RNC still supports them.

The National Secretary spends a lot of time talking, more than anyone else.

Region 5 — Virginia LP discussed.  State Committee had voted to dissolve the party.  Other members have organized a convention to revive.  There is a candidate running in a nonpartisan race.  Most other states have several candidates on the ballot.  In PA some candidates were knocked off the ballot.  One is running a strong writein campaign.  Moulton maneuver will be revived; they are hoping for 300 elected Libertarians. Delaware still having back and forth with the McVay group.  Other states doing well.  Various people: Library reading sessions for children with not strongly political books.

Region 6 — Illinois.  A number of our statewide Candidates polling at 6-8% with 5% needed.  Wisconsin — some chances for victory. New Mexico–Our prior affiliate voted to disaffiliate, so we disaffiliated them.  We started a new affiliate.  They held a successful organizing convention, with 38 attendees and high-20s voted.  LPNM convention was productive.

Region 0– The Idaho group is being reorganized.  McArdle is reading a report, very fast, with no breaks in volume or tone, making it very hard to follow.  Wyoming has a bunch of candidates.  Harlos asked who was supposed to submit this.  The Vice Chair.  He did not.

Moved to recess for five minutes.  Recess continues.

They are back. Some issue with the YouTube video. Live chat failed to activate.  They instead had youtube for kids.  A triumph of electronics, now being fixed. YouTube feed still paralyzed.

The restart is a new video which I missed.  There is an APRC report.  APRC will meet in November.  We are doing our job. APRC meets in secret.

Audit Committee:  Had first meeting. Laura Hackenberg as chair.  We are in place for our 2022 audit, come January.

Awards — no report.

Ballot access report:  Report is up. Speaker is mumbling.  He is reading a list of state names.  New Mexico — not clear who gets the access.  Report is preliminary.  Signatures are more expensive…$7.50 per valid signature or perhaps $8.  Massachusetts report  .. wants 50 signatures, then 10,000 signatures.

The report is here: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4D65F1DD88A2FD7F%211599&authkey=%21AEC0KTh9VKURfkM&page=View&wd=target%28Standing%20Committees.one%7C23ecd374-1c6c-4400-980b-fe2f85ebe873%2FBallot%20Access%20Committee%20Report%7C656be8bd-6226-4246-b12c-a68b2b6665d5%2F%29&wdorigin=NavigationUrl
The estimate for ballot access for all 50 states + DC is a bit over a million dollars. New Mexico — there will be discussion in executive session.  The million does not include state parties or other fundraising, that would reduce it.

Cost is the nature of the beast.  McArdle: Have we considered lobbying?  Court system supports the ballot access restrictions.  We have been lobbying in some states.
Hagopian:  States when we can start when?  Answer: Will have that post-election on this issue.

Harlos:  the real voter suppression is ballot access.  We should publicize this.  McArdle — we are working on this.

Voter suppression is very powerful tool especially in Blue States.  If there is only one choice, that is voter suppression, just like in the Soviet Union.

Bowen: Ballot Access is a great fundraising tool  People give for a target.  Fundraising for real candidates who are good is strong.

Tuniewicz:  Where have requirements been raised?  Answer Iowa, New York, perhaps in states where we already had access and kept it.  Minnesota: question as to what is going on.

Arkansas — video on ballot access has been very effective at getting publicity.

We have reached candidate support committee.  Report: We elected officers. Acoustics are terrible. We appear to be losing high sound frequencies. Thanks to the Secretary, you can read the report here https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4D65F1DD88A2FD7F%211599&authkey=%21AEC0KTh9VKURfkM&page=View&wd=target%28Standing%20Committees.one%7C23ecd374-1c6c-4400-980b-fe2f85ebe873%2FCandidate%20Support%20Committee%20Report%7C1f670cec-ecad-4994-bd4d-3e98cdafc2b3%2F%29&wdorigin=NavigationUrl  Total candidate support was under $10,000.

Convention Oversight: 2026 possible sites discussed.  Desirable that we have the convention in an airline hub city.  Reno convention location was challenging because the number of connections by airline was limited.  Texas asked for return given that 2020 convention was cancelled. 2020 hotel was not available in 2024.  Convention Local Host Committee, as an FEC rule, was pointed out. This was dropped after Denver.

EPCC Report: Very busy this term.  Lists all sorts of employment policy issues.

Historical Preservation:  Committee populated.  LPEDIA noted as a good candidate resource.  8000 document images have been preserved. Send documents you find to Caryn Ann Harlos.

Information Services Committee has not yet organized; they have to elect officers.

Discussion of amending the policy manual.  Amendment passed.  Moved to remove Mattson footnotes, which are references to Roberts, except a few moved into text. Policy manual will be shrunk from almost 90 pages to under 50. Policy manual amendment 3 adopted without objection.  Amendment 4: Move statements from Policy manual to employment manual.  No objections.  Passed.  Amendment 5: Move material from section 3 to section 1, without change  Amendment 6 passed.  Ballot Access Committee to report by date certain. Amendment 7: IS committee is to assist staff. Motion passed without objection.

They went to lunch.  They listened to a speaker.  It appears that they are in Executive session, since nothing can be heard or seen.

The session started again.  We missed the start because the YouTube threads were not named consistently. We are now running 11 minutes late.  The meeting consists so far of  Harlos talking.  They are now electing members for the Bylaws Committee and the Ballot Access Committees.  Bylaws volunteers: Ken Moellman.  Caryn Ann Harlos. Says the Bylaws have problems.  Ballot Access Committee: Candidates speaking for themselves — current chair applies to be re-elected.  Hagopian — says Ballot access needs 4 million over the next two years.  Bowen — we need to do the work. Harlos volunteered for ballot access, too.  Speaks up for Mike Seebeck and Sylvia Arrowwood (name unclear) for Bylaws.  Nominator for Chuck Moulton.  Nominator for Layla Bush.  Eric Cordova nominated for ballot access.  Motion: Elect the four interested LNC members to the Ballot Access Committees.  Done without objection.

LNC Counsel Hall gave a written report.  He said it was confidential unless the LNC wanted to make it public.  Motion Harlos to go to executive session to talk with Counsel Hall and to deal with the New Mexico issue.  They are now going into executive session.

They have returned from executive session. There is a motion to ratify what was done in executive session.  There is a motion to redact part of the counsel’s report and release the rest to the public.  The redacted part contains personal information.   Both motions passed without objection.

There is a motion to accept the petition for affiliation.  The petition has all the address data redacted.  There is a motion to affiliate with this new party group in New Mexico, the Libertarian Party of New Mexico.  Moved, Ecklund, seconded Harlos, I think.  At the organizing convention, 30 attended, 27 attended.  Four parliamentarians reviewed the bylaws.  Opinion of the possible new affiliate on the current candidates was not determined.  To become a minor party, you must petition. New bylaws are completely different from the other Arizona LP group’s bylaws.  Advance to vote, roll call?   Motion passes unanimously, including chair.

Raiser’s Edge migration: Update: Difficult to move data out of Raiser’s Edge when there  data going in.   We have about 550 transactions that need clarification.  We are on track.  We are well on our  way.  There will be data cleanup.  Phase one — data has been moved.  The contract with Raiser’s Edge ends December 31.  We will notify them after the meeting.  Technical issues related to data transfer are discussed.  There are vendors out there with demographic data.  Q: Where are we with respect to budget?  A: No funds were allotted.  We are using staff time.  Conversation hard to follow.

Harlos talking about a give or get program for the LNC members.  Proposal is $1000 from each LNC member.  Held for tomorrow.

Where and when should we meet next time? Discussing dates when people are not available.  Discussion on meeting in March.  Proposal is to meet in New Mexico.  There was warm positive response.  Conversation is disorderly.  Voting on meeting on March 10-12. Vote was 8 yes, 4 no.  Bids on any location will then be open for the next 10 days.  Vote was 12-0. Extended disorderly discussion.  Meeting recesses for a few minutes. Recess is prolonged.  Meeting is still disorderly.

Next item is discussion of selling the current building.  Bowen: Time for a public discussion.  This is due diligence.  I am undecided on best interests of the party. Concerns are location and layout of building.  Lobbying and media…no sign we have ever done this.  Layout is unsuitable.  One floor, more space, better parking needed.  Envision rural suburban, close to an airport.

Ford:hard to hear.

Emphasis: There is a call for a study not a motion.

Observe: HQ not suitable for a meeting.  We need an analysis.

Harlos:  Only the delegates at NatCon should decide not want an HQ.  Donors want a building.  Propose hiring real estate professionals.

Nekhaila: First ask what we can do with the current building.

Hagopian:  Ignore this until after the Presidential election.  Also, for next 2 years we should focus on Presidential election.

Ecklund: DC HQ could advance us.

Executive Director: FEC and donation issues exist.

Krauss: The building is worth less than we paid for it.  Building might sell for 725,000.    We originally expected to sell in five years. Prices have recently been unfavorable.

Alternative: We need a real estate plan.  What are the objectives?

Adjourn until tomorrow at 9AM.   We are adjourned.