Meeting of 9 July, 2011

Minutes of the LPSF Meeting of July 9, 2011

 

Members Present:  Marcy Berry (Chair), Michael Edelstein, Aubrey Freedman, Jawj  Greenwald (Secretary), Tim Kuklinsky, Les Magnus (Treasurer), Ryan McLoughlin, Starchild.

 

Guests:  Sam Lewis

 

Officers’ Reports:

 

Chair:  No report

Vice Chair: No report

Treasurer: Les Magnus reported that the LPSF has $4903.45 in its coffers.

Secretary: Minutes of the June meeting were posted online.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Internet Communications/Social Networking: Michael Edelstein reported that Marc Joffe has indicated a willingness to assist with the LPSF website, since Rob Power, webmaster, is currently in New York City.

 

Initiatives/Ballot Measures:  In Ron Getty’s absence, we deferred to the August meeting any discussion of ballot measures and which ones we should submit written arguments for or against, except as discussed below.

 

Membership: Marcy Berry said we needed to work on this.

Outreach: No report.

Political Candidates’/Activism Reports: This month’s political activism focused on the booth at Pride Weekend.  Aubrey Freedman and Marcy Berry were there the whole day on both Saturday and Sunday, while Les Mangus and Jawj Greenwald were there Saturday afternoon.  Michael Edelstein engaged in various activities in support of the Ron Paul campaign.

Announcements:

 

The Campaign for Liberty (promoting Ron Paul for President) meets the 3^rd Monday of every month.  The next meeting is July 18 at 7 p.m. at 405 Sansome Street in a chiropractic office labelled the Moksha Center.

 

Mises University will offer its annual studies in Austrian economics on July 25-30^th in Auburn, Alabama.

 

Starchild announced that he is launching a new monthly gathering to hear libertarian speakers on the 3^rd Thursday of the month at the Social House and 50 Mason (at Market).  The first meeting will be July 21st from 7 to 9 p.m. See below for the discussion topic.  He invited suggestions for future speakers and topics.

 

Old Business:

 

Literature for Distribution at Outreach Events. Marcy Berry has ample stocks of the three pieces of literature used at the Pride Booth and other outreach events, which work well.  The challenge is to find more tabling opportunities to distribute them.

 

Pride Festival Report.  Marcy Berry reported that the Pride Booth was its usual success. At times people were queueing up to take the World’s Smallest Political Quiz.  As a result of people requesting further information, Marcy sent out 25 information packets, 17 by mail and the rest by email.

 

The major problem was that she and Aubrey Freedman had to be there all of both days, and were all alone on Sunday.  At least four people are needed Sunday afternoon, and enough helpers to allow shifts of only 3-4 hours.  Logistically, putting up the tent was a struggle.  Two were broken in the effort, so a new one will need to be bought before next year.  A second laminated grid for people to place stickers locating their quiz results is needed, as well as new stickers that are easier to remove.  Marcy was authorized to acquire removable stickers.

 

Pension Reform Ballot Argument. Marcy Berry submitted a compendium of the work done so far on the Adachi pension reform ballot argument, with comments and draft language by Mike Denny, Ron Getty, Ann Grogan and Marcy herself.  Further comments are solicited by the August meeting, when our arguments can be considered in the light of the final versions of all ballot measures and our formal recommendations.

 

 

New Business:

Handling Paypal Donations Made through Our Website. Someone recently donated $1000 to the LPSF by clicking on the paypal button on our website.  There is a problem accessing the funds because we have no organizational tax ID number, so the Webmaster at the time the Paypal account was established, Bryce Bigwood, used his personal social security number to set it up.  Bryce hasn’t been heard from for a few years, and we need to enlist his help to retrieve these funds.  Jawj Greenwald agreed to phone him, and Aubrey Freedman to visit his home if that doesn’t work.  Longer term solutions also need to be developed, whether we re-visit the reason not to have an organizational tax-ID, or develop a process for having a current officer substitute his social security number for that of a retiring officer.

 

Candidate and Ballot Measure Support. We reviewed the offices and likely ballot measures for the November election.  The offices are Mayor, Sheriff, and District Attorney.  The measures listed so far include: school bonds and school assignment procedures, park and recreation bonds, banning male circumcision of minors, a rent control initiative limiting landlords’ right to demolish rental property, a homelessness tweak to the Care not Cash program to disqualify shelter beds as housing for Care not Cash purposes, and two competing pension reform initiatives.  We felt that we did not know enough about most of these measures to decide our position and assign people to write ballot arguments, so deferred action to the August meeting.

 

To qualify for the lottery for a free official argument, arguments must be submitted by August 18, i.e. very soon after our next meeting.  However, there is nothing to prevent anyone from submitting an argument in his own name.  And, realistically, the pension reform measures and certain other arguments are unlikely to have a lottery because a supervisor will avail himself of the right to draft an official argument or to designate the party to write it.  The deadline for submitting paid arguments is August 22.

 

It was agreed that we should accept Starchild’s offer to make his first July 21^st speaker forum an evening to meet candidates for the November elections and proponents and opponents of ballot measures, rather than arrange a restaurant night as we have in the past.  Aubrey Freedman volunteered to help contact the various candidates and interested parties for each ballot measure, using a Department of Elections list supplied by Marcy.  All are urged to attend to help us formulate strong positions of our own.