Chuck Moulton has prepared charts showing how the voting went for the Libertarian National Committee for the 2010-2012 term. These might prove useful to the delegates for the Libertarian National Convention this week, which will be at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas May 2 through 6, 2012.
Chuck Moulton is a long-time Libertarian activist. He is currently the Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Virginia. You can find his website here .
At the LNC meeting this Wednesday, there will be a Building Fund discussion. I hope the members of the committee are announced. I was suggesting that we have members on the committee with the following skill sets: organizational, analytical, sales and fundraising, and real estate. I have seen a draft of the goals and it is far more solid of an approach to what was done previously. It appears that so far on the committee we have David Blau, Dan Weiner, and Wayne Root. Yes, there will be some others. This can be done, with proper preparation.
Paulie wrote (@26):
Sorry for my mistake. My mind must have been muddled by all the discussion I read of lease arrangements. Looks like the renewal motion did not mention a lease term. In my mind I conflated that motion with the earlier one about leases.
Lease renewal motion from p. 24 of the December 2011 minutes:
Mail ballot (rescinded) from p. 24 of the December 2011 minutes:
The landlord’s draft offer letter was not in the minutes, but I now see the following reference when I searched more closely. I could find no mention of the lease term in the March 2012 minutes.
Staff report on p. 51 of December 2011 minutes:
So I’m sorry for my error. I’m not on the LNC and I was just going by the minutes. I misread them.
Thanks! That seems to match my recollection better than what Chuck says in comment #3 which is 3 years.
I’m glad it is the shorter time frame.
Paulie, we’ve extended the Watergate lease for 14 months at a discount (same monthly rate but one month free), and we also have an option to extend it an additional 22 months after that (with another free month). So we have decide before the 14 months are up whether to (1) take the extension option, or (2) rent office space elsewhere, or (3) purchase an office.
Do any of them involve leaving H2Ogate in the upcoming LNC term without paying a large penalty for breaking a lease?
There are multiple options.
I had previously heard the Watergate was only extended for one year, it was three?
Chuck, thanks for extracting that information and putting it in a tabular format. It’s all available in the minutes of meetings which the Secretary provides, but this gives everyone a quick reference guide.
I’ve also joined David Blau’s building fund committee. There were some mistakes made last time, and we (hopefully) learned from them. A more focused and systematic effort should enable us to find a better building which will meet our criteria, while providing time to raise a larger down payment (if we can’t raise the entire amount and pay cash). And the large majority of cash which had been donated to the building fund remains in a segregated account. Some of the money which had been contributed was re-directed by the donors to other LP purposes, so very little was actually refunded.
David, Kevin and Wayne,
I hope you guys (or whoever ends up doing it in the coming term) get it accomplished this time. The rent is too damn high!
@14 And I have agreed to join the group David Blau has chosen to spearhead the Building Fund effort.
Glad to help if it’s done right- with concrete goals and a professional game plan. I hope we can get it done successfully and make the LP proud.
Proud to be working alongside Kevin and David.
Wayne
Chuck, thanks for the guide and Jill, thanks for posting it here. Since the guide itself is not editorial commentary I don’t think our rules would have precluded Chuck from posting it himself if he wanted to.
Posted at the LP Facebook.
Kevin–I don’t actually need to know those numbers. I was just suggesting Libertarians perhaps shouldn’t be questioning one of their biggest donor’s motives.
And of course I mis spelled David’s last name.
Sorry Mr. Blau .
It’s late, even for me.
# 12 post is VERY important. THe LP building fund is NOT dead. I am very supportive of Mr. Balu for stepping up at the LNC meeting in Orlando, this past December. “Thrilled ” might be a better use of words in my limited volcabulary. The building fund can work if the proper team is put into place, all aspects are considered, goals are set, and expectation levels are made clear. Key is it must be organized.
Kevin Knedler
LNC At-Large
If somebody has a question about the LPO Ohio, then just email me at [email protected]
OR see me at the national convention in a few days. Thank you.
Thanks for posting the chart. I will be happy to discuss my votes as Region 2 alternate.
I would also be happy to answer any questions about the building project, as I am now in charge of it.
#8,
I knew he contributed to the Ohio LP, but I can’t tell how much from publicly available records because that’s a state-level contribution, not a federal one.
Dunno about your question.
# 8
Is he a delegate to LP convention?
@ # 8
And he is a heavy contributor to the OHio LP. Best add in that figure. Heavy on the LP side.
Carol Moore–I don’t know. But he’s also donated to the LNC, Tiberi for Congress (R), John Boehner for Speaker (R), Stivers for Congress (R), Matthew Cantrell for OH Treasurer (L–to the tune of $11,000), McCain-Palin Victory Fund (R), Newt 2012 (R), and Atlas PAC Inc. (L).
Honestly, he’s contributes twice as much (or more) to L causes as to R. I wouldn’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.
Thanks Chuck!
I was at the LNC meeting in December at Red Rock and it was difficult to watch. . .
Joe
Now we need quick analysis of Libertarian National Congressional Committee contributions and why someone providing translation services to the US govt in Afghanistan is giving so much money. http://fec-political-committees.findthedata.org/l/13634/Libertarian-National-Congressional-Committee-Inc Sure he’s a vet, but he’s still making money off the war, so doesn’t sound like the thousands of vets supporting Ron Paul. Guess I’ll do a quick analysis. After finish off the leaflets for http://carolmoore.net/libertarianparty/bootroot Will report.
There are links to past terms at the top of the page for this term.
Additionally documents are available to assist state chairs and LNC regional representatives with region formation.
Thanks for making them, Chuck! They will be invaluable to those of us who will be attending the convention.
Would you like to post links to the past terms?
I know I saw them somewhere.
Brian Holtz wrote (@1):
It was exceedingly difficult to summarize the building fund votes in a short sentence fragment each because many of them were page long motions full of lots of different triggering conditions. However at the very least the vote charts provide a quick page number reference to find the text of the motions themselves in the minutes.
The votes show that although the building idea started with broad consensus support, later when the real decisions were being made some LNC members consistently supported purchasing a building and other LNC members consistently opposed purchasing a building. For example, Mark Rutherford’s plan for the LP’s future makes no mention of buying a building.
What is not explicitly spelled out (and I hope will be elaborated on a convention handout by Mark Hinkle or Stewart Flood or someone else) is that a large amount of money was pledged and cash donated by excited donors which was subsequently taken back when the building purchase fell through. The LP pretty much had the down payment ready to go and could have built equity paying down a mortgage rather than throwing a similar amount of money away each year on rent.
Mortgage interest rates are very unlikely to be this low in 3 years when the Watergate lease is next up.
My high end printer busted last weekend, so I had to get this literature produced at much higher expense at a local print shop. I will be focusing on my vote charts , leaving advocacy flyers detailing what is good and what is bad about what the LNC did to others — and I strongly encourage people to do so.
Thanks for posting this, Jill!
What should delegates know about the building fund developments for this term in order to guide their voting for LNC?