Meeting of 9 April, 2011

Minutes of the LPSF Meeting of April 9, 2011

 

Members Present: Phil Berg, Marcy Berry (Chair), Michael Edelstein, Aubrey Freedman, Ron Getty (Vice Chair), Jawj  Greenwald (Secretary),  Rob Power.

 

Officers’ Reports:

 

Chair:  No report.

Vice Chair: No report

Treasurer: Marcy Berry reported for the Treasurer that the LPSF has $5079.20.

Secretary: Minutes of the March meeting were just posted to the online “activists’ list” for review.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Internet Communications/Social Networking: Rob Power suggested that Sander Lewis, who lives in Contra Costa County and is the new webmaster for Outright Libertarians, could do double duty and be our webmaster too, once Rob leaves this summer.  It was unanimously agreed that we would prefer Rob to remain webmaster, serving from New York from July on, as long as he is willing to do so.  If and when Sander Lewis gets more involved with the LPSF, which may happen through our joint participation in Pride weekend, we will consider inviting him to become our webmaster.

 

Initiatives/Ballot Measures:  Aubrey Freedman reported that there will not be a June ballot.  However, since it was a possibility until the last minute, he, Starchild, and Marcy prepared and submitted a timely ballot argument against raising school board members’ pay (probably as a first step towards making them full-time).   It was a good practice run, preparing us for the November ballot which will have lots of measures for us to comment on.  Ron Getty reported that there will likely be multiple propositions on public pensions, and a remote possibility of a petition-measure banning circumcision.

 

Membership: There were no new or renewed memberships this month.  In fact, the total lack of recent mail (even junk) makes Marcy wonder if our mail is getting through.

Outreach: No report.

Political Candidates’/Activism Reports: Several of us were busy, busy, busy this month.  Marcy, Aubrey and Starchild filed to a tight deadline the ballot argument mentioned above, and it will be viewable on google docs.  Michael Edelstein recruited a patient who is now asking for Libertarian reading suggestions.   Rob burned the CD for teachers discussed below.

 

Announcements:

Starchild will speak at an April 13th animal rights debate sponsored by ”Students for Liberty” on the Berkeley campus at 7:30 pm in Room 209 Dwinell Hall.

 

The Police Commission will meet on April 13^th at 5:30 p.m. on the 4^th floor of City Hall to consider a highly critical report of the Special Police that they commissioned.  Ann Grogan will be there to defend the program, and urges us to come support it.

 

There will be screenings of a new version of Atlas Shrugged in Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo on April 15^th.

 

There will be a Ron Paul “meet-up” on April 19^th at 7 p.m. at MOKSHA (Sacramento and Sansome Streets).

 

Old Business:

Participation in April 15 Tax Day Event. Aubrey and Jawj will attend the Justin Hermann Plaza tax day protests on April 15^th from 4-7 p.m. organized by Sally Zelokovsky (see her website BayAreaPatriots.com for further details).  They will distribute literature at a table if permitted, otherwise just go and make their presence felt.

They also plan to eat and attend Atlas Shrugged afterwards, in case anyone can join them.

 

 

Distribution of Literature to Local High Schools Update. Rob showed the contents of the CD of libertarian-leaning materials he has prepared for distribution to local high school civics teachers to use in their classes.  It is designed to be fairly nonpartisan, although it will be distributed on a business-card size CD attached to an LPSF business card.  There is space left if anyone has suggestions for additional content. He has also prepared a cover letter for Marcy’s review and signature.  Once the cover letter is ready, he will “burn” and send out 50 CDs.  Jawj Greenwald volunteered to be a speakers’ bureau contact in case schools want a Libertarian speaker.

 

Voter Registration Efforts. Aubrey reported on a day he and Starchild spent in a voter registration drive at SF State.  There were few students, since the day they picked was during spring break, so they folded their table and were very productive putting up posters all over campus.  It was agreed that Marcy would contact the Washington State LP to get permission to adapt to SF use the format of a flyer they prepared using an ISIL text, and also let Jim Elwood know we were using his ISIL text for a recruitment flyer.  Assuming the Washington State LP (now rather inactive) can be reached and agrees, Rob will produce a version with LPSF contact information.  More volunteers are needed for future such events.

 

New Business:

Meeting Protocol. It was agreed we should raise our hands to speak.

 

 

Future Meeting Locations. Because the Main Library discourages the regular use of their meeting rooms, and only allows bookings to be made three months at a time, our future meetings have been scheduled as follows:

May 14^th Main Library, 4th floor

June 11^th Glen Park Library, 2825 Diamond St at Bosworth (near Glen Park BART)

July 9^th Main Library, 4th floor

August 13^th Main Library, 4th floor

 

Pride Festival Booth Literature and Decoration. The literature and appearance of the Pride booth was discussed.  Rob will give Marcy Outright Libertarian brochures.  She will use the balance of our budget to order whatever literature, balloons, buttons, stickers she sees fit.