LPNOVA Board Meeting 5 Feb 2010 Approved Minutes

LPNOVA BOARD MEETING 5 FEB 2011 MINUTES:

PRESENT: Kristin Pavelski, Matt Helm, Matt Cholko, John Fast, Chuck Moulton

12:15 - Call to Order, agenda approved without objection

12:30 - Minutes of previous meeting amended and approved without objection.

BOARD MEMBER REPORTS:

Chairman (Matt Cholko) – Sent out email about request for ideas. Did not send out email about candidates because wanted to coordinate with LPVA; will send in next 7 to 14 days (Feb 12 to 19) unless it conflicts with LPVA. Attended “Get Stuff Done” meeting.

Vice Chair (Kristin Pavelski) – Attended the “Get Stuff Done” meeting, and she will provide details of the meeting in a separate post.

Treasurer (Rod Severson) - Absent

Secretary (John Fast) – Attended Leadership Institute events, will report on them via blog. Found out how to “un-adopt” a highway: we must contact Cynthia Mercer, cm.mercer@vdot.virginia.gov, (703) 383-2335 and tell her the location of the segment, and also give her our “certificate number” if possible.

At Large(Matt Helm) – Nothing to report.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

SOCIAL MEDIA: Chuck Moulton is appointed to committee; Kristin will contact Laura Delhomme to ask her to be chair; committee will create treatment for new website

EVENTS: Recommends LP officially attend Herndonfest and sponsor “Making of America” event organized by Tea Party which is webbed at NCCS.net/seminars; these recommendations are accepted without objection. Also there will be an economics lecture (sponsored by the GMU Economics Society) at GMU this Monday (7 Feb). Also we should do a Tax Day rally, working with the NoVA Tea Party.

CAMPUS ORGANIZING: We will get Matt Fernandez’ contact information from Kristin and contact GMU Students for Liberty and GMU Econ Society and either start working with them or set up a separate GMU College Libertarians group.

OLD BUSINESS:

Meetup Group – We voted (without formal objection) to approve LPNOVA officially announcing (online) and attending non-libertarian meetings such as Tea Party rallies, as long as the events are compatible with libertarianism. However, all such announcements will have a disclaimer. Kristin will contact Martha to set up events.

Candidate Recruiting – We haven’t heard from Mike Kane. We will call a convention to nominate Matt Helm for whatever office he decides to run for. Matt Cholko will designate someone to put together a plan for a “Campaigning 101” training event for candidates.

Website – Matt Helm will tell our webmaster to take down old list of elected officials; Laura Delhomme was proposed to be our new webmaster, and that decision was tabled and sent to the Social Media Committee.

NEW BUSINESS – Kristin Pavelski suggested that LPNOVA join Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce for $625/year. This was deferred to the budget discussion. We also discussed salvaging Bill Redpath’s emailing list, and found out this was not necessary.

RECESS

NEW BUSINESS (continued) – Budget for 2011 adopted. (See attached page)

TABLED: Goals for 2011; fundraising plan; P.O. Box; new webmistress

SUMMARY OF BUSINESS LEFT OVER FROM JANUARY MEETING:

Laura Delhomme will create treatment for new website

Matt C will send out email asking for candidates and will ask Mike Kane to call after that

Matt C ask state LP to pass resolution of thanks; send out a request for ideas to the board plus Laura, Matt Fernandez, Chuck Moulton, and the Moseleys .

Matt Helm to have webmaster remove inaccurate info (such as lists of officials) from our website

Matt Helm will investigate LPSTUFF.com per Treasurer's request.

Kristin to do press release

Kristin will be asked to do press release on marijuana decriminalization bill.

John Fast will find out how to get the other sign removed.

LPNOVA BUDGET FOR 2011

PROPOSED EVENTS:

6/2 to 6/5 Herndonfest $550

6/10 to 6/12 Celebrate Fairfax $125 + $120

7/9 to 7/10 Reston $500

8/10 to 8/14 Arlington $550

9/18 to 9/19 Wine event $550

October Brewfest $450

10/9 Clifton ???

11/3 to 11/6 Alexandria ???

10/7 to 10/9 Octoberfest Reston $1000

ADOPTED BUDGET:

Events $2300

Swag $600

Website $200

P.O. Box $72

Leadership Institute training (Campaign Manager School and/or Future Candidate School) $500

Fundraising $450

TOTAL $4122

Notes: Need list of which events were approved. Leadership Institute training is sponsored by pledge from donor who will pay 50% of the amount, and expects the candidate to raise the rest of the funds themselves, or to do fundraising.

Atlas Shrugged Movie Trailer

The long awaited film for freedom lovers and Rand-o-files is finally debuting this April 15th, 2011 on the apropos Tax Day. Atlas Shrugged fans, like myself, here at LPNOVA have been following it closely with gleeful anticipation! At CPAC 2011, they released the trailer to a crowded, standing-room-only banquet room.



Here is the trailer to the Part 1 of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy!
We are so excited and we are pushing for a screening in the Northern Virginia area, specifically, The Arlington Cinema and Draft House. Please join me in voting for Atlas Shrugged to come to YOUR area or help us by putting in Arlington's Zip Code, 22204 at the Get Involved link HERE. We are planning to make seeing the film an LPNOVA event, so help us get support for bringing the film to the area. Every click counts!

If you are interested in more news for the Atlas Shrugged Movie Part 1, please visit the Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Web Site!

LPNOVA Board Meeting 5 Dec 2010 Approved Minutes

GETTING CANDIDATES (Matt C): There are at least 50 seats available in LPNOVA territory, so as always if anyone knows anyone who might be willing to run, we should ask them. We want to find new candidates; at least one person (Mike Kane) has expressed interest. He is going to contact Kerry Bolognese who had a relatively successful campaign for delegate, and plans going door to door to everyone in the district, if possible. Matt Cholko will definitely not run, but recommends people run for Soil & Water Conservation Board. Mike Kane declares his candidacy for whatever seat Matt Cholko will not run for.

Discussion about the benefits of running for an obscure office.
Matt Helm points out we don't have the resources to adequately finance a run for major office.
Matt C. points out that chair of FCBS is a huge race, bigger than US House.
David Dotson says that if he runs again it will be for Congress. This means starting now.
Matt C. suggests Kristin's husband as a candidate.
There is some concern that sending out a mass email asking people to run might attract cranks.
Rod suggests that we have a Meetup all about how to be a candidate, fundraising, etc., in two or three months. Matt calls this "Candidate Training 101."
There is no point circulating petitions before districts are set.

No decision was made and no action will occur.

WEBSITE: Matt Helm says we're going to get a blog up on the front page of the website, using Blogspot. We have to generate traffic by making the website interesting, probably through the blog. Laura Delhomme suggests an RSS feed for candidates, Matt Cholko suggests that the blog include bills that we're following. Laura suggests using GovTrack.us and Matt Helm will look into this.

Matt Cholko will inquire with Mark Montoni and says we need a point person to supervise things. Matt Helm is concerned about the amount of work involved. Matt Cholko says that we have no presence at any of our local government meetings but many other LP groups do have such a presence. Chuck Moulton says that if someone shows up at every local government meeting for 6 months in a row the local government will generally ask if you want to serve in an appointed capacity. Rod Severson said that he had experience attending local government meetings and it gives you contacts with local politicians who will pay attention to what you say, and with volunteers (not necessarily Libertarian), and also can get one invited to non-public meetings such as budget meetings. He says it's not about publicity or influence but rather contacts, which get turned into volunteers, which get turned into votes. Chuck Moulton suggests that winning a race requires starting 6 years ahead of time, and that there are different ways of attending local meetings: be quiet, be loud, or be constructive. Matt Cholko asks what can be done to encourage local Libertarians to attend local government meetings.

BLOG AND WEBSITE: Matt Helm reminds us to focus on the website. The webmaster is Bob Stephenson. John Fast suggests Bruce Majors posting on the blog. Kristin suggests that each board member write the blog for one week. Chuck says that Cato has each "expert" write one day a week. Matt Cholko says that he wants to get non-board members to be more involved, including with the blog. Samantha volunteers to write for the blog. Chuck suggests that we make a list of people who volunteer to write for the blog, and Kristin agrees to keep the list. Kristin suggests there be a committee to oversee the blog such as acting as gatekeeper. Chuck suggests a single person.

Matt Helm appoints Kristin, Samantha, Laura, and Matt Helm to be the "Social Networking Committee."
They will discuss the blog via email and come back with a recommendation for the next board meeting.
They will also handle "social networking" i.e. the facebook page.

VICE CHAIR'S REPORT AND LOUDOUN COUNTY UPDATE: Kristin has no report or update but Matt Fernandez met someone from Loudoun County who is libertarian-leaning.

10-minute recess

Motion to approve the minutes, without objection.
Matt C. will send me invitation to post on the blog.

MEETUP: Kristin suggests having at least one event per month *not* at Brion's Grill, such as meetings with speakers, such as the TEA Party does: a place, some food, and a cool speaker. Brookover was the point person on this. Kristin will be the point person on the chair of the Events Organizing Committe, with Kristin, Samantha, Matt Fernandez, and John Fast. Dave Dotson suggests also doing something active such as protests, and Kristin agrees. The Events Committee will meet and report at the next meeting. Cholko says that snailmail is very helpful and suggests that Kristin, who does the Meetup group, will talk with Mark Montoni who is the Secretary of the LP of Virginia and has offered to help and can very helpful. Rod explains that Mark Montoni represents a particular faction of the LP who are very strict about the pledge; Helm confirms that Mark Montoni is great to work with. Cholko says we have to get the people in Arlington and Alexandria involved. Kristin asks for a good location for Meetups in Alexandria and takes down several suggestions.

Helm strongly recommends we contact the GMU Econ Society and Students for Liberty. Chuck says the Econ Society wants to be nonpartisan, but we can form an LP group on campus. Cholko sets up a Campus Organizing Committee: Matt Fernandez, Chuck Molton, John Fast. Matt Fernandez will chair.

NEW BUSINESS!

Dotson campaign: Reports on what happened in previous campaign, and asks for help with a campaign manager and/or a fundraiser. Kristin suggests TEA Party meetings, John Fast suggests the Leadership Institute.

MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION:
Matt Fernandez makes a presentation about this and the SSDP (Students for a Sensible Drug Policy) and has a sheet of information for the board meeting and says this is something that could be great for the LP, because the LP can get publicity and popularity with the public, and also that members of the SSDP are likely to volunteer to help LP candidates.

Rod makes a motion to formally invite members of the SSDP to an event (and Kirstin agrees) and to become LP candidates and also we should ask to speak at their meetings.

1. Invite SSDP to speak here about how we can work together
2. Ask to speak at their meetings
3. Invite them to an event
4. Ask them to support (or be) LP candidates

National SSDP meeting at U of MD March 17-19, 2011 and Matt Fernandez suggests we attend.

Kristin will post on the blog about marijuana decriminalization.

There was further discussion of whether there is anything else we can do.
The board will review the law and vote on whether to endorse it.

DISCUSSION OF EVENTS:
PAST EVENTS: We did Celebrate Fairfax, had several meetings at Brion's, and a fundraising picnic. We had more money for events and nobody to make them happen.
UPCOMING EVENTS: Kristin asks for suggestions. Matt Cholko says we should go to events in districts where we have candidates. Matt Cholko also says he thinks Celebrate Fairfax is good to attend. Matt Helm suggests we do the July 4 fundraiser as well. Kristin will come up with a list of 10 events.

BUDGET WILL BE DISCUSSED AT THE NEXT MEETING WHICH WILL START AT NOON INSTEAD.

PUBLIC TELEVISION SHOW: Channel 10 in Fairfax has public access. Kristin has set things up to have a regular show called Liberty News which will be broadcast on cable and YouTube. She is working on her first show and wants to do at least one event per month.

COMMITTEES: Matt Cholko says that committees can be very helpful, and notes that Kristin is on every committee (except Campus Organizing). Motion to send out a survey via email to all members asking for people to volunteer. Passes 3-1.

GOALS FOR 2011: TABLED UNTIL NEXT MEETING but Rod is optimistic based on numbers and enthusiasm here.


SUMMARY:

1. We will have a "Candidate Training 101" Meetup in two or three months.
2. Committees were appointed and will take actions (see below) and report at the next meeting
3. Matt Fernandez will contact SSDP. (See resolution above.)

LIST OF COMMITTEES:
SOCIAL NETWORKING (website, blog, public access TV): Kristin (chair), Laura, Matt Helm
EVENTS (including Meetups): Kristin (chair), Matt Fernandez, John Fast
CAMPUS ORGANIZING: Matt Fernandez (chair), Chuck Moulton, John Fast

ASSIGNMENTS:
SOCIAL NETWORKING: Get people to write for blog
EVENTS: Set up at least one meetup, plus ideas for at least 10 more
CAMPUS ORGANIZING: Contact GMU Economics Society and Students for Liberty, and start up separate campus LP group if necessary.

We want to hear from You!

Greetings Liberty Lovers,

With 2011 right around the corner, your newly elected Board of Directors wants you to get involved! We have established new committees and are working on our agenda for the coming year. If you are interested in helping us form our meet-up events, agenda and direction this coming year, please fill out our survey. We want your input on what kind of events you are interested in attending and/or organizing and what types of things you would like to be involved in.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY ----> https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHp2OE1oUndUNkkzTGRlNzFNS0Ywb2c6MQ

In the coming months, LPNOVA will be establishing additional committees to tackle other important business. If you have specific areas that interest you, or would like to be considered for committee assignments in general, please let us know.

And if you have not met your New Board...

Chairman - Matt Cholko
Vice Chair - Kristin Pavelski
Secretary - John Fast
Treasurer - Rodney Severson
At-Large - Matt Helm

Thank you so much! We all look forward to a great and active New Year!

Sincerely,

Kristin Pavelski

LP's Monday Message

Dear Friend of Liberty,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Even with the elections recently over, we've had a busy couple of weeks.

Our Libertarian National Committee had a productive meeting in New Orleans on November 20-21. It was a shock to us to learn shortly after the meeting that Libertarian Party co-founder David Nolan had passed away that weekend.

Lots of people have expressed condolences, and many news outlets wrote respectful pieces about his work creating and leading the party. Some of those articles are here.

I don't have a lot more detail to provide you about specific funeral arrangements, but we have posted a statement from our Chair, Mark Hinkle.

In the meantime, we will continue fighting for the cause of Liberty, as we expect David Nolan would want us to.

Many organizations including the Libertarian Party have come out strongly against the TSA and their "strip or grope" policy for airline passengers. Here's a press release we sent. Some of the biggest newsmakers on this issue are current or former Libertarian Party members. Here's one example.

You may have seen news about the recent releases from WikiLeaks. Whether or not you approve of their methods, I think you might agree with me that much of the information they are releasing is not surprising. Libertarians have a long history of distrusting the motives and public statements of politicians and government officials with their hidden agendas. Nevertheless, I won't be surprised if the federal government uses these leaks as an excuse to seek more power to shut down websites.

As we've said for years, and hopefully won't have to keep saying for many more years, it's time to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy.

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee

Get Ready For a New LPNOVA in 2011

Libertarians,

As you may be aware, the Libertarian Party of Northern Virginia held its annual convention last Saturday. Attendance was pretty good, and the convention was productive. We made some minor changes to the bylaws, and elected new party officers. After the business session ended, we held a short, informal board meeting to discuss a few things that we need to work on going forward (a discussion we'll continue at our December board meeting). This was followed by a few hours of eating, drinking, and just hanging out with fellow libertarians. A special thank you goes out to Chris Brookover, for hosting this year's convention.

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the new LPNOVA governing board. I'm Matt Cholko, and you're all probably pretty well aware of who I am. I am now the Chairman. Kristin Pavelski is the new Vice-Chairman. Kristin served as Campaign Manager for Bill Redpath's 2010 Congressional campaign, and is involved with a several other organizations that promote smaller government, such as the Northern Virginia Tea Party, and Campaign For Liberty. Long-time libertarian activist Rodney Severson was re-elected, and will serve his third term as LPNOVA Treasurer. Another long-time activist, John Fast, is now our Secretary. John is a recent transplant from Florida, where he was active with the LP. He's attending graduate school at George Mason University. Former Chairman Matt Helm remains on the board, but this time in the At-Large position. Matt has been on the LPNOVA board in 3 different positions now, and we're glad he's still here.

I'd like to encourage you to come out and meet all of us, and get involved in our discussions about LPNOVA's 2011 plans. Our next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, December 4th at 2:00pm at the Kings Park Library in Burke. Here are a few tentative agenda items:


Discuss Meetup/Event Organizing and ideas on how to increase turnout
Discuss generating more website content
Identify possible candidates for elected offices in 2011
Discuss management principles/effective use of volunteers
Consider ways to better serve all LPNOVA territory
Discuss fundraising ideas for the next year
Communicating with the membership more consistently
Hear reports from each board member

Whether or not you've attended an LPNOVA board meeting before, this would be a good time to come out. We need to hear your thoughts on what we should be doing going forward. If you've seen some problems with things we've done in the past, or know of things that we've done particularly well, please come out and let us know. We're trying to strengthen our party, and we need your help to identify areas in need of improvement. We'll also be looking for volunteers for many things over the next few months, so please let us know if you're interested in helping out in general, or have some specific skills that you think may be helpful to our cause.

Also, since we'll be discussing it at the board meeting, I'd like to encourage anyone who thinks they may be interested in running for office next year to come out to the meeting and/or send me an e-mail at Chairman@lpnova.org and let me know. There are many seats up next year, and we need to give our neighbors a Libertarian choice for as many of those seats as possible. As a former cnadidate, I can assure you that the experience is a rewarding one.

As always, I thank you for your support of the Libertarian Party. I hope that you will join us as work work to build a stronger, more effective organization in 2011 and beyond.

Sincerely,

Matt Cholko
Chairman, LPNOVA

LPNOVA on social networks

LPNOVA members,

At our December meeting, we had a very spirited and substantive discussion regarding the formation of committees that would be the "action arm" of LPNOVA. We all had some great ideas but did not reach conclusion on exactly how we should organize themselves. Nobody said this was going to be easy, but hey, I'm just crazy enough to enjoy the challenge. At any rate, until we actually do form these committees, I think there are some things we can be doing right now. The underlying issue that I took from our discussions is that no matter our direction, WE NEED MORE MEMBERS. That being said, I would like to solicit volunteers from our humble ranks to create and maintain an LPNOVA site on the most popular networking sites: MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo! Groups, and LinkedIn. In addition, some of you may already be a member on Bureaucrash, a very popular "small L" libertarian networking site based in DC.
Let us know your thoughts: if you are interested in creating and maintaining a social page on one of these websites as a platform for recruiting new members, please send an email to me at chris.brookover@gmail.com or reply to this post. We are looking for people who are creative, handy with these types of websites, and dedicated to maintain our page on a regular basis. If you need ideas, you can go to LP.org and follow the links to the LP's social networking sites. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your ideas!

LPNOVA Committees

Hey everyone, I wanted to reach out to you and get your thoughts on LPNOVA committees. I would like to know what types of committees you would be interested in. Website? Local outreach? Fundraising and promotion? Let us know how you can best contribute your time and talents for LPNOVA.

In Liberty,
Chris

LPNOVA in '09 - What do you want to see?

At the December 15th Meetup we will discuss 2009 plans for LPNOVA. We want everyone to come to the meetup and give their input as to what they think we should do, but it would also be great to get a head start on this VERY IMPORTANT discussion. So, please use this post as a place to leave your thoughts and comments. The more ideas that better, so give us everything you have. Let's get a discussion going!

Moving in the Right Direction

When I first looked at Tuesday's poll results I wasn't very happy with what I saw. Nationally, Bob Barr didn't do nearly as well as anticipated. In Virginia, he did even worse. In Fairfax County, Barr's vote total and percentage were both much lower than the LP ticket from 2004. Barr received 1,253 votes, which is only .28% of all votes cast in the county this year. In 2004, Badnarik received 1,743 votes, which is .37% of votes cast that year. Any way you look at them, these are pretty lousy results.

So, if I had just stopped there, I would have nothing to feel good about. Fortunately, I dug much deeper, and here is what I found:

Bob Barr received about 30% fewer votes than Badnarik in Fairfax County. However, in the precincts that we targeted with canvassing efforts, yard signs, and sample ballots, the results were much better. In the Lake Braddock precinct the LP presidential ticket received 113% more votes than in 2004. In the Signal Hill precinct, the ticket received 38% more votes than in 2004. These increases are great, and seem even better when you consider that the county as a whole cast far fewer votes for the LP ticket.

As for Bill Redpath, he received 2,454 votes in Fairfax County - about twice as many votes as Barr. He also received substantially more votes in our two target precincts than he did in other similar precincts. Unfortunately, we don't have any previous results to measure against, but it looks as though our efforts paid off for the Redpath campaign too.

Now, I know that this is not a scientific comparison. There are many factors that could have caused the increase in LP votes in these two precincts. However, it seems likely that our money and hard work may have paid off. At least, that's what I'm going with.