Meeting of 14 July, 2012

Minutes written by Aubrey Freedman

Libertarian Party of San Francisco

Minutes for Monthly Meeting at San Francisco Public Library on Saturday, July 14, 2012

 

Attendees:  Marcy Berry (Vice Chair), Charles Cagnon (guest), Michael Edelstein (Timekeeper), Aubrey Freedman (Chair), Jawj Greenwald, Les Mangus (Treasurer), Joe Polyak (guest), & Charles Steiner (guest).

Activist Reports:  Marcy worked at the Pride Booth both days and passed out leaflets in support of RCV (Board of Supervisors was considering repeal it).  Charles Steiner worked on a letter opposing Plan Bay Area (Agenda 21) and sent copies to all of the supervisors and also radio station KSFO.   Joe Polyak had discussions with people about liberty issues and tried to win them over to the freedom-leaning side.  Les continued to write letters to the editor every week but hasn’t had any luck lately at getting any of them published.  Aubrey worked at the Pride Booth and attended a Plan Bay Area public meeting where he spoke against one-size-fits-all high density housing and in support of choice for transportation.

Announcements:

• Tuesday, July 17-6:30 PM-Agenda 21 Presentation by Mimi Steel at Round Table Pizza-1304 W. Hillsdale, San Mateo, CA 94403
• Saturday, August 4-7:00 PM-Beer Bust at Jim Elwood’s in Park Merced

 

Treasurer’s Report:  Les reported that 2 new memberships increased the current balance in our coffers to $4,360.52.

 

Pride Booth Report:  Aubrey reported that it was a successful outreach event this year.  The only mishap was one brief moment when the front of the canopy went airborne from a sudden gust of wind.  Marcy (not easy to please) was satisfied with our display of literature and trinkets.  We had unexpected helpers on Sunday.  Scores stopped at our booth to take the Nolan Quiz, and we received 13 “leads” (8 from within the Bay Area, 4 from beyond the Bay Area, and 1 email address only) as compared to 17 last year.  Aubrey will follow up on them.  We also received $7.00 in donations.

 

Meeting Format (again):  Since we compressed the business part of last month’s meeting due to a speaker, Michael Edelstein requested input on the effect of shortening the business portion.  Aubrey felt that having a shortened business meeting worked out OK last month, but this might not work out as well each month; for example, the August meeting will be all about the November ballot measures, and we will likely spend all 2 hours just on them alone, without even tackling any other business.  Michael asked the three guests for their input on today’s meeting; one guest felt that he was being pressured to join the LPSF, another said he felt like an outsider at the meeting, and the third guest said he had only come to the meeting out of curiosity and didn’t feel that we needed to make our meeting more appealing just to please a casual visitor.  Aubrey said he will give the meeting format more thought.

 

Adding Calendar to Website:  Michael Edelstein offered to contact Marc Joffe to help Marcy add a calendar of upcoming Libertarian-leaning events to our website.  (Marcy also requested Marc’s help to do a proper back-up of our website.)  Marcy mentioned a problem from the past that (when there was a calendar) sometimes inappropriate events were posted to the calendar, and right now not many people actually have posting rights.  Michael suggested that we leave it rather open to post most any liberty-leaning event, and if folks object, then we can remove it.  No firm decisions were made; since Marcy has basically run the website since Rob moved away, most likely those who find a noteworthy event will ask Marcy to post it on the calendar, and she indicated her willingness to post it for them.

 

Agenda 21:  Both Charles guests have been working against Plan Bay Area and shared their thoughts with us.  They talked about “visioning sessions,” the Delphi technique, and how regional government is “scoring” each neighborhood for “social justice.”  One interesting point that Charles C. made was that, if this is all about saving the environment and the planet, then why is “social justice” a part of the plan?

 

Ballot Measures for the November Election:  Aubrey quickly went over the 4 local measures:  a parcel tax of $79 per parcel annually for 8 years for CCSF, which needs a 2/3 vote to pass; a real estate transfer tax increase (drops the limit from $5M to $2.5M); another real estate transfer increase (this one increases the tax rates at various tiers); and an Agenda 21 proposal to study the feasibility of restoring Hetch Hetchy by destroying the dam there.  Marcy and Les both offered to write arguments against the parcel tax, and Jawj offered to write an argument against one of the real estate transfer tax increase measures.