Three cheers for Paul Darr for livestreaming the second day of the meeting, even though he only had his computer mike to pick up sound.
LNC Votes on a Strategic Plan. So far as I could tell goals were
1) Recruit 500 candidates over three years.
2) Increase our annual budget to two million in three years and 1.5 million in two years. Discussion: The Chair observed that we are at $800,000 for this year (presumably not counting the convention or Kennedy income).
There was a discussion of reaching $1.2 million this year. If we want 2 million in two years, we need to reach 1 million for this year. We currently aren’t doing it. If Zoho gives us 25% a year increase we reach $2 million in three years.
3) Increase party membership to 17,500 members in three years. Discussion: We were there not very long ago. We are currently at 12,000.
4) Adopt ‘Project Decentralized Revolution’ as a strategy, without abandoning our Presidential candidates. There was a debate about building the party from the bottom up or from the Presidential race down.
[Editorial remark: It appears that the LNC has about $100,000 in Kennedy Joint Fundraiser money incoming. Kennedy has de facto dropped from the race. He endorsed one of his opponents. It is likely that his fundraising will more-or-less promptly croak, and Kennedy money will largely come to a stop.]
Angela should resign if she does or does not get a Libertarian in Trumps Cabinet. She was there as a puppet meant to neutralize the LP. I would historically refer you to what happened to the Georgists recruited by the Wilson administration. Being one bottle(with the cap kept on) of cleaning fluid in a sewer will not advance the cause of liberty or sanity.
Note the weasel words used in these goals. Achieving a 2 million “budget” is simple. The LNC simply votes to increase their budget to whatever they want! Committing to raising 2 million in revenue is a very different goal indeed.
The candidates number is outrageously low. How about 500 candidates per year to start?
I have a 2024 budget of $750M, but of course it requires winning the lottery.
Now, if I just had put money in the budget for lottery tickets…
The top=down versus bottom-up strategy debate has been going on since the party has been founded. On the one hand, advocates of one or the other say we cannot afford both. Yet, if one or the other strategy is pursued, support is less than optimal because those supportive of the contrary policy don’t care as much.
IMO, the debate will never be resolved, unless the party splits over strategy. The best middle policy is to fight for easy ballot status across the board to minimize ballot costs, and thereby leave more assets to run as many candidates as possible, from the top to the bottom of the ticket.
500 candidates over 3 years? I hope that is supposed to mean 500 above the recent average. The LP averages more than 700 in even numbered years, and in some recent midterm years has had more than 800.
Jim’s correct the LP has ran over hundreds of candidates in a given campaign season sometimes in excess of 1k. These are very sad “goals” indeed. Sort of like a year ago when they adjusted their revenue “goal” to only $100k when recently they were doing $180-200k a month – then they couldn’t even make that!
Goals often are set at a stretch – but they’re built on objectives & actual plans with achievable targets. You then review about every 3 months & adjust your plans as needed.
The LNC had gone thru this process once with Geoff Neale years ago over a one day seminar that went into the LNC Budget Meeting & actually did attempt to revisit during the term.
Most LNC’s set goals without ever building up from objectives & hardly ever re-visit. So total fail. It is like they learned NOTHING from the “board training” they wasted money on with the proof being no actionable plan & then the Committee to Fire CAH.
Angela should resign, reimburse the LP for the cost of the so called board training which was 100% her idea – if not then no one ever should give a dime to this defunct organization again.
Angela should resign if she fails to get a Libertarian in Trump’s cabinet, which seems to have been the goal of her chairmanship.
Your party has already split.
Money has already left the libertarian party. Membership is down. Many activists have already left. Some, like myself, left four years ago when the writing was starting to appear on the wall. I wasn’t there for the takeover. When you see the comet growing larger and larger in the sky, you don’t need to wait for it to hit to know that the world is over.
Your party is dead.