The Libertarian National Committee has voted to remove Robert Kraus, 2019 Meeting Planner of the Year of the Association of Meetings Professionals, from the LNC’s Convention Oversight Committee. The Committee is in charge of running the Libertarian Party 2024 National Convention. No debate was permitted on the motion.
And now our meeting livestream;
The meeting is coming to order. Computer reboot. I am running a bit behind. Attendance is called. No public comment form the public.
Malagon: California convention forthcoming February 23-25. RFK Jr will be there. Michael Rectenwald. Mr. Ter Maat. Others List of guests given.
McArdle: February 17. Antiwar rally in DC.
Arizona convention is the coming Saturday. On Youtube starting at 1:30 Mountain standard time.
Convention Oversight Committee: (Malagon). There will be committee appointment changes later today. Revenue to date $115,000 or so; $100,000 by the end of December. We have met 30% of our room block numbers as of December 31. That does not include staff and speaker rooms. Top floor rooms and breakout rooms are still available. Volunteers are still needed. Different sorts of rooms are available and two suites. Chair says there will be a marketing plan but will not say what publicly. Much emphasis that work is being done. Malagon: LNC members are welcome to COC meetings subject to Malagon’s discretion.
15 minutes discussion of financial data. December revenue was $98K in nonconvention revenue and $40K in convention revenue. New objective: $125K/month in non-convention revenue by the beginning of March. Chair believes we are doing really good financially. Malagon has a draft revised budget for the Convention Oversight Committee.
Tuniewicz: Will we see how much will be different sorts of income, e.g. major donor? Chair said he wants to discuss with staff.
Treasurer: Budget calls for $125K/month or so. Chair notes she sees every electronic transaction. Treasurer gets data every other day.
Ballot Access Committee (Nanna) : North Dakota-believes to be done by end of month. Ohio drive going faster than expected. We are slightly above 3000 signatures. New Mexico:Locals are somewhat inexperienced. Issues with the petition sheet. New Mexico will require paid petitioners but not yet. Kentucky: State Party has not yet committed financially. Nanna: we need some contribution from the state party. Any sort of good faith effort would be better than nothing. Maine: Registration drive may be complete by now. Ford: Answer not yet official. Redpath: With respect to North Dakota: We need 7000 signatures, so 8000 should be adequate. Redpath is offering a masterclass on petitioning.
There was a motion by National Chair McArdle to remove Robert Kraus from the Convention Oversight Committee. There was a motion to call the question, which passed. On the motion to remove Kraus, the vote was 8-2-3 to remove him from the committee. The motion was not debated. The Chair was not asked for her vote.
The meeting adjourned.
Comment from Mr. Kraus on convention rooms:
If the LNC ballot access committee is looking at petitioning in New Mexico are they also considering doing so in Massachusetts? They have the same problem in both in that there is a Libertarian Party recognized by the state but not the LNC.
I’m not worried. I’m sure they will only hire the best people to replace him.
The Mises PAC attempting to torpedo the national convention is kind of a dog bites man story at this point.
“Malagon: LNC members are welcome to COC meetings subject to Malagon’s discretion.”
It is odd for a committee not to be either open to the public or closed only to members, but some third thing where the Chair of the committee arbitrarily decides who is allowed to attend.
We shall see if this unconventional approach to committee governance bears fruit.
He’s openly hostile to certain members of the LNC. So much for decorum. So he restricts who can attend I guess based on a) if they’re members of the “correct” caucus & if they are have they backed unquestionably every decision he’s made & voted with him n those decisions.