Meeting of 9 October, 2010

Minutes of the LPSF Meeting of October 9, 2010

Members Present: Marcy Berry (Chair) , Phil Berg, Francoise Fielding, Michael Edelstein, Jawj  Greenwald (Secretary), Tim Kuklinsky, Leslie Mangus (Treasurer), Rob Power, Starchild, Richard Winger.

Guests: Aubrey Freedman, Matt Drake.

Officers’ Reports:

Chair: Marcy Berry reported on her continued work in writing and attending public meetings in support of the Police Special Patrol.  She has written an article for our website about the Board of Supervisors’ meeting to consider abolishing the Patrols.

Vice Chair: No report

Treasurer: The LPSF has $5745.50 in its coffers.

Secretary: No report. Minutes of the meeting of September 11 are being posted online for review.

Committee Reports:

Internet Communication/Social Networking: Rob Power reported that he sent out 195 postcards giving our ballot recommendations.

Membership: Marcy Berry reported that no new members joined this month.

Political Candidates’ Reports:  Phil Berg reported that his campaign against Nancy Pelosi was progressing well.  Richard Winger reported that Christina Tobin (running for Secretary of State) held a press conference in Sacramento with other third parties that attracted a lot of media coverage.  She has been moderating candidate debates all over the country.

Activism Reports:  We went around the table reporting on what, if anything, we had done to strike a blow for freedom this month.

Announcements:

Richard Winger reported that a motion for a preliminary injunction against implementation of “Top Two” elections had been denied in SF Superior Court. The motion raised two issues which will now be appealed -- failure to count write-ins despite providing a space for them, and restricting the ability to show party affiliation on the ballot to members of qualified parties.  Ironically, the other side had since changed their position on one of these issues.

Michael Edelstein and Starchild defended the non-aggression principle at a recent vegetarian dinner club.

There was a report on a conference at the Unitarian Church on the topic “Anti-War Perspectives from the Left and Right”.  Daniel Ellsberg and John Dennis both spoke.

Various meetings in early November were announced:  At Berkeley, Walter Block is speaking to a student group on November 5 and Patrick Friedman on November 6.  At Palo Alto, there is a Stanford Humanists’ group meeting on November 7.  Libertopia, the libertarian conference that was moved from San Francisco, is taking place in Los Angeles.

New Business:

Meet the candidate:  Matt Drake, candidate for Supervisor from District 6, introduced himself and spent 45 minutes being grilled.  He is a Democrat and a lawyer for a tech start-up.  He described himself as the most pro-business of the candidates and someone concerned with promoting efficiency in local government.

Meeting location:  It was unanimously agreed that we should continue meeting at the Civic Center Main Library.   Marcy Berry will renew our reservation for the next three months.

Cooperation with other groups:  There was a general discussion exploring ways to work with outside groups.

Electoral Reform Contribution:  We voted (6-1) to pay the $25 annual dues required to be a member of Californians for Electoral Reform.

Door-to-door canvassing:  Richard Winger supplied some generic Libertarian campaign door knob hangers for us to consider distributing before Election Day.  It was unanimously agreed that we would buy 1000 more of these, and hang them on door knobs in areas of the city where we’d be most likely to find libertarian-leaning voters.  They contain the world’s smallest political quiz, and room for attaching a sticker with the local party contact information.  Tentative plans were made to go out in pairs next Saturday afternoon distributing them in Miraloma Park and the Sunset.  Marcy Berry will coordinate the effort.