Document:LNC Minutes 11-12 August 1990: Difference between revisions

{{Docalt MULTI|MINUTES_1990-08-11-12.pdf|LNCMINUTES_1990-08-11-12.txt}}

The regular meeting of the Libertarian National Committee was called to order by Chair Dave Walter at 9:02am on Saturday, 11 August 1990, at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San

Francisco, California.

Dehn  reported [Attachment A] that a  mail

ballot had been  conducted on the  subject of  amending  the  employee

bonus plan, but that the motion had failed for lack of a quorum.

In response to  a question from  Thies, Redpath said he didn't know if

it we should  pursue this plan  further at  this  meeting, given  the

budget situation.

It was reported that we no longer need to report to the FEC  on LNC activity, and will therefore no longer need to ask for employment information on our contribution forms.  We will be filing reports for the BAC separately.

Black commented that the allocation of expenses to some committee budget lines needs to be clarified.  Walter commented that a lot of what looks like  "bureaucracy" is really a functional part of our membership or outreach activities, and pointed out that every organization has a certain amount of overhead that it is impractical to allocate to specific functions.

Thies moved that the Legal Action Committee look at whether we should incorporate now that we are not obligated to report to the FEC.  He said he thought that now we might be considered a "partnership", and that this would be a way of putting our bylaws on file. Redpath said we are an  "association". Negative comments were that we are currently missing a Legal  Action Committee and that incorporation would mean more work for the Secretary. The motion passed on a voice vote.

Dunbar said he had the general ledger with him in case anyone wanted to look at expenses. Thies and Walter commented on the improvement in financial reporting since the beginning of the year.

Dehn objected to the characterization that we  are on budget not counting the April changes, saying that revenue was not up to even the original plan.  There was a discussion of the feasibility of doing seasonal projections, of the difficulty of predicting the response to fundraising efforts, and   of uncertainty   about   which   expense activities, many of which are now under budget, might catch up toward the end of the year.  Thies pointed out our position is not quite as bad as it looks because we currently have very low accounts payable.

Dunbar reported that he considers office

procedures to be working well [Attachment J].

Dehn moved   that three appendixes

[Attachment L], consisting of registration statistics, a list of delegates and alternates, and the state-by-state votes for officers and committee members, be added to the previously approved convention report. There was no objection.

Alexander provided a written report

[Attachment Q].  He reviewed the direct mail activity and commented on

problems with telemarketing.  He said he will be pursuing ways to work

the pledger list without violating our promise not to bother them, and

will be working with Neale on plans for fundraising at the national

convention.  He noted that his written report included two policy

guidelines, one concerning use of names of individuals and the other

about promises regarding use of the money.

In response to questions from Walter,  he said that candidates could

not be used as a basis for the telemarketing pitch because we spend

little of the money we are raising on that, and that all the people

there are to call are being called.  In response to a question from

Gingell, he said he endorsed Fielder's revenue projections.  In

response to a  question from Gingell,  Dunbar said we don't have thank

you notes for contributors.  Black volunteered to review a  proposed

mailing to Secular Humanists.

There was a  discussion of whether to send fundraising letters to

pledgers.  Dasbach said that he thought people were mostly annoyed by

the phone calls, that we haven't even been sending pledgers a letter

asking them to raise their amount, that sending some mailings to

pledgers would not be a problem, and suggested that as an alternative

we could include them with the  Liberty Pledge News.  Black said that

some pledges had been solicited with the pitch "imagine never getting

a fundraising letter from the LP  again".  Givot said there are few

enough existing pledgers that we could send them personal letters

explaining the situation.

Givot moved to dissolve the Advertising  Development  Committee, deleting Resolutions 308 and 341. He said there was no point in having a separate committee since there is no money to do anything, that the only reason we produced any ads at all this year was to use the money previous raised for that purpose, and suggested the subject be handled as part of the Outreach Committee for now.  This said that the ADC's status as an  SFAC was a  sham since it has never provided financial statements and never raised money.  Several people cited the continuing enthusiasm for  TV ads among the membership as a reason to continue the activity in some form.  In response to a  question from Walter, Dunbar said the office had masters of the TV  and print ads. Ahmad commented on the continuing problem of the failure of SFACs to produce financial reports and suggested that we may not be recognizing the true cost of maintaining this arrangement.

Ahmad reported that nothing had been submitted for their approval.

==25A. ADVERTISING DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, continued:==   

In response to a request from  [[Lynn House]] of Alaska that the state chairs list be  included in every issue, someone said there was not enough room.

It was noted that although we

currently have no active committee, David  Bergland has done work on

some things for us.  Walter welcomed suggestions for a new committee

chair.

In reply to a question from  Redpath about the person who  had  been

repeatedly dialing our  800 number, Dunbar reported that we had gotten

a refund for the phone charges, that Bill Hall had written a letter to

the person, that the area code was no longer blocked, and that  it

wasn't happening any more.

Gingell mentioned that  the Alaska LP  may have a problem with another

group  identifying  itself  as  the  Libertarian  Party,  and  Nathan

It was reported that Alicia Clark did not

recall that she had been invited to talk to us.

Givot moved to suspend the rules to take up the question of presidential convention scheduling,  followed by approval of the new Program plank.  The motion passed on a 2/3 voice vote.

Ahmad moved to postpone this topic until the next meeting to give Givot and [[Richard  Winger]] a chance to prepare a detailed proposal. The motion to postpone passed on a voice vote.

The National Director shall require a 50% deposit on all mailing label or list orders, except for commercial mailing list houses or organizations that have a  perfect track record of paying within 30 days for the previous year.

Thies said he would be willing to do it, but others objected to having the Auditor and  the Management Chair be the same person,  especially since the Management  Chair is on the Executive Committee. Thies said he would plan on resigning one or the other position in December and would look for a new auditor in the meantime. Ahmad volunteered to be Management Chair.

Allard moved to suspend the rules to consider the 14  July resolution of the LPWS Executive Committee  (in Attachment F); there was no objection.

Alexander moved to adopt the LPWS  resolution as written, but said he opposed it.  After some discussion of the inappropriateness of the form of that text to be a resolution of the  LNC, Alexander withdrew his motion.

number of candidates to 500.  Johnson suggested doing some market research, such as conducting a poll.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:43pm.

Attachments:

G. LEI Material<br /><br />

[Attachments distributed at the meeting]<br /><br />

DD. San Diego Convention Proposal<br /><br />

[Attachments not previously distributed]<br /><br />