Our discussion last time did not reach a central question? Why are membership and donations falling?
On one hand, from the perspective of many members, the Libertarian party has dropped out of sight. LP News is no longer published. News emails are uncommon. For some time, the LNC’s public email list disappeared. We have not done a complete survey, but we believe that a respectable number of state parties have also sunk into desuetude.
On the other hand, the conduct of the LNC as viewed by many members has been extremely disturbing. The LNC sued one state affiliate. State conventions were visited by one or another LNC Officer to monitor or intervene in their proceedings. LNC funds were apparently diverted over multiple months to the benefit of persons in the immediate vicinity of the National Chair. The National Chair encouraged party members to support a duopoly candidate for President, and the remainder of the LNC did not promptly suspend her from office and expel her from the party. The National Headquarters was abandoned. It was not maintained at the level immediately understandable to any home owner. The LPNH web pages produced vast amounts of hatemongering, some of which was apparently redistributed by @LPNational on X.com, without LNC response.
Why would a sensible person continue to support this organization? “Hope” is always an adequate explanation, but it is hardly surprising that many former members chose to spend their money elsewhere.
Let us consider the next piece of the report:
Organizations thrive when they have all three elements of leadership implemented effectively. Those three organizational leadership elements are:
VISION ALIGNMENT EXECUTION
- Vision
Best practices dictate that vision is established by the board as a collective body. In contrast, the LNC has allowed this responsibility to rest solely with the chair. The absence of a shared vision has led to reactive governance, diminished stakeholder confidence, and inconsistency in strategic advancement for the organization. When properly developed, from that collective visioning process, the organization’s strategic plan for the next several years is developed.
The strategic plan is the road map to reach the stated vision. If the vision is not created through a collective process, endorsed and supported by all, the organization will continue to experience disruptive trends and behaviors. Over time those trends become predictable behaviors. This is now the case for the LNC as shown in its downward spiral membership and fundraising support.
On one hand, the LNC has had a strategic plan for a quarter of a century, though it appears to have forgotten it. Evidence that the recent chair had a strategic plan worthy of note was not always strong.
On the other hand, the suggestion that the LNC’s problems arise because it has a chair that is providing leadership is more than a bit strange. The suggestion that libertarians will have visions ‘endorsed and supported by all’ does not match the way Libertarians think. The notion that the strategic plan has to be adopted in a particular way, rather than being the right plan while having broad support, is in this Editor’s opinion a mistake.
