Planned State Commitee Meeting
June 29, 2002, 11am via freeconference.com.
Some regrettable miscommunication, but we did expect a quorum.
Attendees:
Marc Romain, James Eisert, Gary Snyder (over 20 minutes, but less
than or just an hour)
Steve Healey, John Clifton, Bonnie Scott (over an hour)
Bill McMillen, Jim Harris, Steve Becker (joined a few minutes after twelve)
There wasn't a quorum at any given point in time, so these are
my own meeting notes, not the official record of a State Committee
meeting. Some of them had been from my 'agenda' for the meeting,
brainstormed in the hour before the meeting, and abbreviated (or
expanded) for the meeting. Much is notes from other folks, credited
only where I managed to write it down at the time. Some is elaboration
written after the meeting in response to points raised there.
In general, we talked about the following topics, none of which
required votes at this point.
I. OUTSOURCING
II. CANDIDATE KITS
III. LAST WEEK TO GET CANDIDATES TO PETITION
IV. CALENDAR
V. TALK ABOUT REGIONS
--
I. Outsourcing
Here are the suggestions from the meeting, with my comments. I'd like
to ask widely if folks know of Libertarian providers who can offer us
at least as good a deal. We'd be ready to vote on this in a month or so,
using that time to solicit feedback via mailing lists and at local
chapter meetings.
A. Phone conferencing: Eagle conferencing, $60 month for an 800 number
At first I thought that was a lot of money, but then I realized
that if we used it at least monthly, with at least as many people as we
had today, it would pay off. (Until/unless everyone has flat-rate
long distance, like cell phone users currently do, effectively, and
assuming that freeconference services remain free that long. Two trends
we should watch.) We SHOULD have at least monthly communication, at
the various levels around the state and in various subgroups. I also
feel the State Committee should be having monthly phone conferences
to discuss "direction and action." In theory, we could be doing this
in email, but I don't see it happening. Not everything we need to do
requires a vote. We are frozen, apparently because we don't have enough
volunteer organization to do everything we'd want, and "it's not the
state committee's job, anyway." I hope that others are receptive to my
proposal to get us out of that rut. If you are active in your local
organization, I am encouraging that. I praise that which I know about:
Manhattan and Monroe. If you on Long Island and the Capital District and
Queens are doing more than I know about, my apologies. Please correct
that by sending me frequent notes of stuff of what your area is doing,
for me to highlight on the web site. Let me hold you up as an example
to others. Anyway, moving on to other possible outsourcing areas...
B. Credit card processing
Bill M. will set up PayPal, but we'll also look into
Click and Pledge. It's better, no monthly minmum, direct deposit
with about 5% charge.
C. Printing -- Berman(spelling?) mentioned, he knows about great
prices given for newsprint printings for libertarian-leaning
boiledfrognews(.com). Other formats probably also available and a
bargain. There are also printer-brokers (James has info), but the
previous source seems even better.
D. Mailing--volunteer effort is better for us, not outsourcing, we
all agreed
Scott's volunteers have done NYC mailings
6-8 in Rochester can do Monroe + five counties
bulk permit--need details on ours: did it lapse? Is it still
near Jeff's house?
E. Petitioning--optimism on volunteer effort and Scott, et al's
management of the statewide effort.
We know we have our traditional sources if necessary. No need
to discuss now.
---------------
II. Candidate Kits
Justification skipped here, we agreed it was a good idea.
In-progress description: http://ny.lp.org/campaign/campaign_kits.htm
Differences among different level races acknowledged (city council
candidate vs. state assembly race), but our job is to focus on
the commonalities and also in building infrastructure to spit out
the right info for a candidate based on the exact race (office,
geography, candidate's preferred issues) wherever we can, I think.
KIT ITEMS DISCUSSED
1. a "how to petition" video would be good
2. list of potential endorsers and affiliate groups
OR clearinghouse to get candidate's names in front of all
those committees, and questionnaires filled out.
Steve will look into SCOPE and NRA (NYSPRA) Jacob Reiper, Pat Brophy...
Bonnie is making sure we have reliable email communication with
all our candidates
3. Sample budgets -- best if WAY ahead of time, to let them know how
much they'll need to spend for media. Someone said he was interested
in this.
4. media contact info
5. Boilerplate copy--this could be a large category.
pitch for journalists
pitch for money and volunteers
pitch for talk shows: proposal letter for a show, including
ten provocative questions (many choices, and candidate
can create own)
press releases
6. list of volunteers in the area, and assistance promoting their
campaign to them (plus offer to do mailings to an even wider list
of LPNY contacts, at their cost)
7. BOE numbers and tips
8. summary of must-do's, like sending acceptance letters
etc.
-----
III. LAST WEEK TO GET CANDIDATES TO PETITION
We could get a list of potential candidates from the DB in districts
that aren't filled yet. (Al or Dave) Focus on one level, like state
legislature, in specific geographic areas. Given limited time, perhaps
we could focus on Buffalo and Syracuse (Rochester and Manhattan have
already been recruiting). We'd have to filter the lists a bit to people
we know or know of, because we can't spend time on interviewing. But I
didn't remember until I read it in George's paper that we actually have
a way to filter people who have expressed this interest.
Q: Who should call these folks during the next week, and in the future
when we have more of a head start?
A: State committee members, chapter committee members, and ...
If someone wants to run for a higher-ticket slot, ask them to take
responsibility for making a few phone calls for people to run
down-ticket of him or her.
1) like an MLM: helps them get sigs, publicity, votes
2) better response if you're actually getting called from a candidate
3) we _have_ to ask
Yeah, it's late, but what else are we doing in Buffalo and Syracuse
to make sure there's a reason for anyone to volunteer there for the
whole summer? Petitioning starts July 9, we can make up forms and send
them electronic copies up until then. It's now, or we just have races
in NYC and Lee's race, other than the usual 'top-of-the-ticket' race.
We give lip service to 'coat-tail effect' and 'updraft' and 'local
races,' but what do we do? Dave used to call folks and ask them to run,
and it produced some results. What happened? He gave up? He stopped
getting results? I know I thanked him for what he was doing. But anyway,
we do have a list. Dave or Al can produce it. We have a week to make a
few calls to people WHO TOLD US THEY'D BE WILLING TO RUN. We are at the
point where we can truthfully tell them that nobody stepped forward to
run for state legislature in their district.
IV. CALENDAR
** last chance to get someone to run: ask in person if we can, with
statewide petition forms in hand. Tell him/her that we'll get
him/her petitions just like that immediately with their name on it.
**Bonnie will send out mailings to lpny_announce
1. now: about Indianapolis, last exhortation for feedback for the
delegates (informed representation) along with FreeNY text, if it's
available (Al).
2. July 8th or so: Indy wrap-up, reiteration of petitioning info,
with specific info from candidates for (group) petitioning, petitioning
training, etc
I'd like to be able to plan ahead what we're sending on this list, and
get other folks to provide info! We need to raise the quality before
worrying about expanding its membership
** folks on the conference call supported Phillies for Chair, nothing
else too exciting expected at NatCon
**county fairs, events: I will be sending out to candidates list and
by region whenever I can. I would like to automate event calendar as much
as possible.
** we should get voter CDs for the larger cities and counties if we have
volunteers to petition there. I can process the data for the campaigns
if they don't have anyone else to: I have scripts written and used for
three different campaigns now for BOE data--it can handle local variations.
**things on my back burner that I thought I'd have done by now:
1. ny.lp.org email aliases for all (I'll see Joe Dehn in Indy)
2. a mysql database user ID at Netsville, for our website (I need to
remind them of my request)
3. that letter to the bank...I still don't have a printer. I'm not good
with envelopes and stamps, unless it's a whole pile to be stuffed. I
thought I just had to worry about keeping minutes as Secretary, not
producing actual paper letters!
**I DID do, OTOH:
1. created more regional email lists--LI, Central, etc. and invited
all I could find
2. summaries of Convention-related info (state and national)
3. state committee phone list
Buffalo/Erie, Western? Did I forget them? (Are they official or not?)
(FWIW, National just had John W's office number. I might have his home
number in my email somewhere. I had tried to call him this morning to
see if he could join the call.)
V. TALK ABOUT REGIONS
1. Buffalo/Erie, Western:
July 10 is their meeting: perhaps on the way back from Indy? (To do
some planning for the rest of the summer. Now is a crucial time if
we want to publicise what we will be doing, and get attendees and
volunteers in all areas of the state.) There are a lot of people in
Buffalo (328K, as a matter of fact). We have John Wadsworth who is
doing a great job of organizing out there. He needs support. We did
all agree (on the phone conference) that us keeping track of county
committee members would help us help them stay active.
2. QUEENS? How to get them more visible on the political horizon
there. Need names of people we can work with, who are responsive
via email and not burnt out. Need petition coordination out of their
July meeting--John will bring it up.
3. Southern Tier: What's up? We need names, emails. I tried to call
Scott Hurst yesterday in Binghamton, but the number national had for
him is disconnected, no new number given. Can we go through ReconsiDer
and find someone in the area to work with? We've had good luck with
that group lately.
FWIW:
* Buffalo - 328K
* Rochester - 231K
* Syracuse - 163K
* Albany - 101K
* NYC - 9 million
* Yonkers - 188K
I think NYC and Monroe are in good hands: the state committee doesn't
need to worry as much, and we can count on them to ask for what they
need. I think Yonkers should be ruled out as a focus of our support,
but Mid and Upper Westchester should have a Jeffreys fundraiser. (I
will investigate.)
That leaves Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany as reasonable targets for
the State Commitee to concentrate effort on, to try to make a difference
from now until November 5. Binghamton isn't huge (53K), but the greater
Binghamton/Elmira/Endicott/Johnson/Vestal area does have a lot of people,
so I would include it as well. Albany also has many related outlying
areas, so the numbers are larger than what I gave if we focus on these
as population centers, and hubs for organizing volunteers. It's all
about getting a snowball started. We have to start somehow with these
areas, and renew our effort when we need to. This is campaign season,
and if we want to raise volunteers, now is the time to get them involved.
Ads in the paper in those areas, making phone calls. Making trips out
there: as the State Committee, I do think our responsibility is to make
sure we travel a bit around the state, to encourage active chapters and
to help look for and coordinate volunteers and candidates in unrepresented
areas until they have the strength to start their own chapter.