Meeting of 11 October, 2014

 

Libertarian Party of San Francisco

 

Minutes for Monthly Meeting at the San Francisco Public Library on Saturday, October 11, 2014

 

 

 

Attendees: Dan Bablinsky (guest), Phil Berg, Marcy Berry (Vice Chair), Aubrey Freedman (Chair), Jawj Greenwald, Les Mangus (Treasurer), and Starchild.

 

 

Activist Reports: Marcy presented the Libertarian arguments against Props B (transportation funding), C (Children’s Fund), and G (real estate additional tax) at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, which will be televised.  Les continued to write letters to the editor, and he did get called back on one letter he wrote, but none got published.  Jawj wrote a letter to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors regarding a problem she had with an animal control officer who way overstepped her legal authority and requested that the animal control department come under the control of the SF Police Department so that actions by the animal control officers could be subject to oversight and accountability by a civilian complaint board.  Starchild participated in the Urban Shield protest in Oakland against the show for militarized police and helped to draft the letter to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Mayor Quan announced that the Marriott will not be sponsoring the event next year).  He also spoke at the Junior League forum presenting the Libertarian arguments against Props J (minimum wage) and K (affordable housing) and attended our first Bay Area Liberty Summit, a good beginning for local LP chapters to start collaborating.  Aubrey attended the African American Democratic Club endorsement meeting with Marcy and he presented the Libertarian arguments against Props J and K and for Prop L (restore transportation balance), and Marcy presented against Props C, E (sugary beverage tax), and G.  

 

 

Announcements:

 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014-7:00 PM-“Unfair:  Exposing the IRS”-documentary at Century Cinema in Daly City.

 

Monday, October 20, 2014-7:00-9:00 PM-Golden Gate Liberty Revolution-Monthly Meeting-Moksha Life Center-405 Sansome Street.

 

Thursday, October 23, 2014-6:30-9:30 PM-Candidate Meet & Greet sponsored by the League of Women Voters-1395 Van Ness.

 

Thursday, October 30, 2014-noon-“To Tax or Not to Tax”-panel discussion on Prop E (soda tax)-Commonwealth Club-595 Market Street.

 

Saturday, November 1, 2014-7:00-11:00 PM-Free Exchange-Jim Elwood’s in Parkmerced.

 

Starchild mentioned “Free Talk Live” from New Hampshire as a good source of information (213-493-0309).

 

 

Phil brought up the issue of civil liberties and the Ebola health crisis and suggested the LPSF contact the Board of Supervisors to ensure that martial law is not declared here in SF like in Connecticut.  He noted there is a danger that those who might be infected would be driven into hiding if too heavy a hand of government comes down in hysteria.

 

 

 

Gun Show Tabling Report:  Aubrey reported a reasonably successful coalition tabling with the GGLR and the John Birch Society at the Cow Palace in mid-September.  $13 in donations was collected and 3 liberty-leaning folks left their contact information.

 

 

 

Dennis Kucinich Speaking Event:  The LPSF is part of a coalition sponsoring Kucinich’s visit to drum up support for “an urgent meeting of peace-makers.”  The event is primarily the work of WALL (War and Law League) and will be held on Sunday, October 19 at 3:00 PM at the Women’s Building at 3543 18th Street.  Aubrey requested extra help to set up the chairs before the event.

 

 

 

Membership Report:  Aubrey reported no change in membership.  The current figures are 17 regular + 22 life members for a total of 39.  He reported dismal results from his last membership drive and he might resort to knocking on registered Libertarians’ doors to obtain new paid memberships.

 

 

Website Report:  Marcy has set up a Facebook ad that will run from October 15 until November 4 based on the number of clicks to our website so folks can read our recommendations for the upcoming election.  She also wrote a new article regarding the explosion of non-teaching staff in government schools and how that relates to Prop C (Children’s Fund).

 

 

Treasurer’s & Campaign Committee Reports: The amounts in the coffers were not available, so Les provided approximate estimates of $3,000 for the regular checking account and $150 for the Campaign Committee checking account.  Since donations for the upcoming election were very low this time around, as Marcy had suggested earlier, Aubrey requested that we close the campaign committee at this point in time to eliminate the monthly bank charges and the need for filing periodic reports with the government, as well as the annual filing fee.  There was no disagreement, so Les will close the campaign committee account and file a final closing report.  Whatever is left in the campaign account can be used by Marcy to purchase additional clicks for the Facebook ad for this election. 

 

 

November Election Campaign: Aubrey reported the LPSF has been invited to 5 different forums to present our side on the various ballot measures, and LPSF members spoke at each one:  League of Women Voters—Marcy spoke on Props B, C, and G; Log Cabin Republicans—Marcy spoke on G and Starchild on C and J; Junior League—Francoise was supposed to speak on E, but due to miscommunication, the speaker against E ended up being from another group, while Starchild spoke on J and K; and African American Democratic Club—Marcy spoke on C, E, and G and Aubrey spoke on J, K, and L.  Commonwealth Club—Starchild to present against E.  As mentioned above, Marcy ran a Facebook ad directing inquiries to our website regarding the election.  Aubrey did a postcard mailing with our ballot measure recommendations.  He switched to a black and white printing this time to mail out more postcards with the smaller budget.  The postcard didn’t look too bad, but it came back smudged and smeared, so some people recommended using the non-glossy print next time.  Aubrey worked the listing from the Department of Elections to come up with a list of high propensity Libertarian voters for the postcard mailing; he noted that only 20% of registered Libertarians voted in the June primary, and if you go back to previous elections looking for consistent voters, the percentage of Libertarians that voted gets even lower.

 

 

Closing Topic: Starchild brought up his idea of having a satiric “dedication ceremony of Lake Nuru” at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro to make fun of the Department of Public Works that has created a mosquito pond during the current improvement project.  There wasn’t much interest in taking this idea any further.