Minutes September 10, 2011

Written by Aubrey Freedman (for Jawj Greenwald)

 

 

Minutes of the LPSF Meeting of September 10, 2011

 

Members Present:  Phil Berg, Marcy Berry (Chair), Aubrey Freedman, Les Mangus (Treasurer), and Starchild.

 

Guests:  Bryan Adams, Tony Adams, and Jim Korn

 

Officers Reports

 

Chair:  Marcy Berry reported that she (along with her daughter and also Aubrey) went to a Jeff Adachi fundraiser for Mayor as a show of support for Jeff Adachi, the proponent of Proposition D, the pension reform measure.

 

Treasurer:  Les Mangus reported that the LPSF has $4,588.56 in its coffers.  The amount has gone down in the last month due to a major expenditure of $1,244.00 for ballot arguments for the November election (offset by donations of $154.00) and the annual payments of the voice mail, domain name, and web hosting ($345.70).

 

Secretary:  Minutes of the August meeting were posted online.  Jawj is in England at this time.

 

Committee Reports

 

Internet/Social Networking:  Ron is working today, though he and Marcy continue to post on Facebook with Libertarian messages.  Marcy said she would post a message in her Facebook inviting Libertarian high school teachers to visit our website and download the educational material that Rob put in there (see below).

 

Initiatives/Ballot Measures:  See below.

 

Membership:  No report.

 

Outreach:  No report.

 

Political Candidates/Activists’ Report: Marcy reported that the mailing of the CD’s that Rob Power prepared for local high school civics teachers was completed.  82 packages were mailed at a cost of $52.48 (envelopes donated by Marcy).  She reported that she was first told the packages would cost 64 cents each to mail, but when she went to the Post Office, the clerk told her it was $1.75 each.  So she left and returned at a later time, and it was back to 64 cents each.

 

 

Announcements

 

The next two meetings of the LPSF will be back at the Main Library on the fourth floor.

 

Starchild’s SF Liberty Coalition most likely will not meet next Thursday, September 15 due to the venue at 50 Mason Social House being booked for another event that day.

 

Old Business

 

Report on Ballot Argument Filings:  Aubrey reported that the LPSF will have three arguments in the November 2011 voter pamphlet—Proposition A (argument selected in the lottery against school bonds), Proposition D (argument for Jeff Adachi’s pension reform measure paid by the LPSF), and Proposition G (argument against sales tax increase paid by the LPSF and partly offset by donations).

 

Applying for IRS ID for LPSF Bank Account:  Marcy filled out Form SS-4 and is ready to send it off to the IRS.  She proposed that social security numbers on LPSF’s bank account be replaced by LPSF’s own ID number for banking purposes only.  There was some discussion about whether the LPSF would continue to enjoy not being charged a monthly service fee.   Starchild suggested that we make a big fuss if they do start charging, as it would be poor PR by the bank if they did so.  Marcy’s proposal was approved, and she will send off the Application for Employer ID # to the IRS.

 

LPSF PayPal Account Update:  Marcy reported that we received all the monies from Bryce when PayPal was tied to his social security number and she is applying to the IRS for the LPSF’s own ID number (see above).

 

New Business

 

LPSF Voice Mail, Domain Name, Web Hosting, & Mail Box:  Marcy reported that the annual bills for voice mail, domain name, and web hosting have just been paid, but what should we do about our mail box — stay with a private box (around $240) or change to an USPS box (around $98)?  Starchild and Phil each expressed an interest in checking out different private boxes that might be cheaper than $240.  Marcy stressed that the current box rental expires on October 15, so if nobody comes up with a better idea, we will renew the current arrangement.

 

Mailing of LPSF Postcards:  Aubrey reported that he has started work on combining names from the local and national membership lists to come up with a good mailing list for the postcards featuring the LPSF’s recommendations for the November election.  There was some discussion about whether sending the postcards is a good investment of time and funds, especially since so many always come back returned by the Post Office.  The general consensus was that it is worthwhile, and perhaps we can use the returned postcards in a tabling event or something like that where they wouldn’t be wasted.  $150 was authorized for this project, and Aubrey promised that he would not mail any postcards to any addresses that look iffy.  The goal is to have the postcards mailed out around the time that the voter pamphlets are mailed out in early October.  Starchild noted that they should be mailed before absentee voters can start mailing in their ballots, so Aubrey said he would call the Department of Elections to get the date when absentee voting begins.

 

Guidelines for LPSF Candidate & Ballot Argument Contributions/Expenses:  Les brought up the problem of the LPSF paying more than $1,000 to the Department of Elections for Propositions D & G.  He feels this may trigger the LPSF having to start filing a special form with the government—a long, complicated 8-page report to fill out.  There was some discussion about what if part of the funds came from the LPSF and part came from private individuals—would that still trigger the necessity of filing this report?  In the end, no one knew for absolute certainty, so the proposal was made to always keep it under $1,000 per election from now on, just to be on the safe side.

 

In-Meeting Activism—LPSF Participation in the November 8, 2011 Election:  Starchild presented a synopsis of the candidates running for office that the LPSF might consider supporting.  He is highly favorable with Jeff Adachi for Mayor (but feels Terri Baum as an outsider might be a good choice too), Ross Mirkarimi for Sheriff (for the converse reason that might make him a poor choice for Mayor, his left leanings might make him a reasonable choice for Sheriff), and Trinh Vu for District Attorney (presented some interesting ideas at the SF Liberty Coalition event in July).  There was some discussion that for this election the LPSF might want to post its recommendations for office on the postcards.  We decided that we would have an online discussion about the mayoral candidates and try to come up with some kind of consensus for recommendations to be added to the postcards mailed in early October.  The Executive Committee members will vote on the matter.

 

SF Liberty Coalition:  Starchild brought up some ideas that he may feature in future events.  One is Chinese power politics in the Chinese community in San Francisco, and another is neighborhood opposition to RV camping on Ocean Beach.