The vote was

For
Michael Jingozian
Bob Sullentrup
Aaron Starr
Michael Colley
Alicia Mattson
Mark Hinkle
Rebecca Sink-Burris
Stewart Flood
Dan Karlan

Against
Pat Dixon
Lee Wrights
Mary Ruwart
Tony Ryan
James Lark
Jake Porter
Rachel Hawkridge

Abstain — Bill Redpath

If you want a functional National Party, start with those 9 for votes, and use the National Convention, etc. to give them a chance to work for liberty not near our national committee.

I am on record on the petition that Lee Wrights should not have been removed for the LNC due to accidentally missing his dues renewal by a few days (especially when he was not notified by email or phone), having someone else pay it for him, etc. Regardless of technicalities, it seemed to me that the will of the convention delegates should not have been overruled without following the process for removal for cause.

At the same time, I have to agree with Mr. Starr that a plain common sense reading of “last twelve months” means the last 365 days unless it was a leap year. Sorry if that somehow retroactively hurts the way the Wrights removal attempt will be reargued for the future, but I gotta call ‘em as I see ‘em.

Technicalities and language can always be gamed, but in the end, we all have better things to do and I believe the right thing is to avoid the gaming and the abuse of technicalities on all sides, and to move forward and try to work together productively and try to make a difference on many issues where we do agree.

If one side wants to play games and get wrapped around procedural axes, it only validates and encourages the so called other side to do more of the same. Someone needs to say enough is enough. I will do my best to refrain from followup comments on this.

Aaron could we not ask the membership to write for the news letter and save a bunch of those dollars? Again I’ll go back to suggest that we use an open source system to do the work. We need a big notice in the paper asking for copy.

Secondly I edit the state news letter and we send two copies to national every other month when we publish. If there is something in our news letter that the office can use then please do so. We try to have at least one and sometimes two articles on issues in each issue so go for it and use our stuff as well.

MW

Okay, just to continue with your thought process here. Replace the words “prior twelve months” with “prior year.”

Article 5.3 would then read: “Sustaining member” is any Party member who has given at least $25 to the Party in the prior year, or who is a life member.

Under that scenario, if someone first joins on January 1, 2009, would he would be a sustaining member from that date through December 31, 2010, a period spanning two years?

You write:

“You’re saying …”

No, I’m not. The bylaws are.

I’m looking at roughly $2,000 for the printing, $2,000 for the writing of stories (contracted out) and I believe some layout is included with that figure, and roughly $4,000 for the postage and mailhouse charges.

If there is a way to save money, I’m interested.

Would you give Robert Kraus a call at LPHQ and go over your figures with him and confirm mine. I have a much easier time seeing the accounting entries from the west coast than the actual bills.

Thanks.

Semantic Man where are you when we need you??!!

Okay, just so I’m clear on your thought process here.

Article 5.3 reads: “Sustaining member” is any Party member who has given at least $25 to the Party in the prior twelve months, or who is a life member.

You’re saying that if someone first joins on January 1, 2009, he would be a sustaining member from that date through January 31, 2010, a period spanning thirteen months.

Is that correct?

My printer said: “a monthly tabloid with up to four pages of process color, 15,000 copies. We would provide graphic design services. Our price for that job would be $1,795.30. That figure includes an estimate of $720 for graphics work but I doubt it would take an hour per page which is what I have in that figure.”

By the way, that was for a 12-page tabloid.

While it’s true the incremental cost of sending out one more copy of LP News is reasonably low, the real cost is in the setup of each issue. The total cost for each issue is around $8,000, which does not include the cost of having staff put it together….

I had the print shop that does our Virginia Liberty tabloid give me an estimate for doing LPNews a couple of years ago, because an LP staffer said they were having trouble getting it done reasonably.

My printer said: “a monthly tabloid with up to four pages of process color, 15,000 copies. We would provide graphic design services. Our price for that job would be $1,795.30. That figure includes an estimate of $720 for graphics work but I doubt it would take an hour per page which is what I have in that figure.”

In other words, the LP would supply the text and photos and the printer would get it all in printshape.

The postage, assuming each paper would be mailed for about 25 cents postage (should be quite a bit less), would be $3,750 at 15,000. So about $5500.

What are the current layout/printing and postage costs?

We are experiencing the typical drop in revenues that takes place after every Presidential election, combined with our being in the worse economy since the Great Depression.

A modest drop in fundraising is to be expected after a presidential year; however, the chronic declines in fundraising (among many other metrics) that the LP has experienced over the last decade have little to do with the post-P doldrums. They have much more to do with the fact that fundraising talent has been summarily shooed away from the LP and proven good marketing tactics have been discarded.

Hopefully, when finances turn around we can add additional issues.

I would think that with Wes Benedict in the house, raising money will finally get priority again. I have high hopes that he can migrate what he did in TX to DC, but we’ll see.

You write:

“If someone signs the certification and first donates $25 on 1/1/2009 when do they first become recognized as a Sustaining Member?”

As soon as LPHQ notices that they’ve signed the certification and made the payment. And they’ll remain a sustaining member until such time as they’ve not donated $25 in, i.e. during one of, the twelve months prior.

If the delegates had intended to say “sustaining membership shall expire one year from the day the pledge certification and dues payment are received,” that’s exactly what they would have said.

It’s not a basic member. It’s a basic level of association. Think of it as a contribution level. It applies whether someone is a “Member” or not.

“Member” is defined by the bylaws as someone who has signed the certification.

“Sustaining Member” is defined by the bylaws as a “Member” who has donated at least $25 during the prior twelve months (or who is a Life Member).

No one is infallible, not the Supreme Court and not even the JC.

Logically, if in order to be a sustaining member, you must have donated $25 during the last twelve calendar months, if you first gave on January 1, 2009 how can you be a member on January 15, 2009?

By the way, I didn’t bring up this subject.

As for #46, well, that kinda got decided by the JudComm in the Wrights ruling, didn’t it? Still beating that dead horse isn’t gonna bring it back to life. If they donate and sign on 1/1/09 or on 1/31/09 they are sustaining members as of 1/09 per the Bylaws, period.