Meeting of 10 March, 2018

Minutes for March 10, 2018 Meeting of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco taken by Aubrey Freedman.

Attendees:  Nick Smith (Chair), Rebecca Lau (Vice Chair), Jawj Greenwald (Treasurer), Aubrey Freedman (Secretary), Phil Berg, Matthew Davis, Alexander Mills, and Starchild.

Chair’s Report:  Nick organized the Zoltan Istvan event at Stock in Trade tomorrow afternoon and early evening.  He just called up Zoltan and he was quite agreeable to be the speaker, and he has a big following of his own from his work in the transhumanist movement.  He only registered as a Libertarian in 2017 and ran for President in 2016 for the Transhumanist Party.  His main issues are ending the drug war (he was convicted for selling $80 of marijuana), lowering taxes, and selling off federal land to reduce the national debt or pay a guaranteed basic income.  He aligns with Gary Johnson and was one of the candidates that Johnson interviewed for his running mate.  Nick is working on trying to set up monthly socials at a bar to attract younger members to the party.  He scheduled the April meeting for the library 4th floor room because the last meeting was too crowded at Phil’s. 

Vice Chair’s Report:  Rebecca has been very busy personally inviting people to the Zoltan event tomorrow, which hasn’t been an easy job.  She has also been updating the LPSF Facebook page and schedules posts one week out and every day at 9 AM.  She reported that Zoltan was upset over 9 folks posting comments on the LPSF page that they were supporting Nickolas Wildstar for Governor and not him.  She reported that Zoltan requested help getting the 65 signatures needed to get on the ballot and so did Robert Griffis, also a candidate for Governor.  Rebecca also finished designing new business cards, and she needs new graphics for our Facebook page.

Treasurer’s Report:  Jawj reported continued good reserves in our coffers:  $6,017.35 in our credit union account and $1,178.51 in our PayPal account.  No checks were written in the last month and none needed at the moment.  Aubrey reported that the credit union has once again charged us for depositing checks, and he has already called the credit union to get the charge reversed (small amount but it’s a matter of principle).  The folks at the credit union as usual have not returned the call, but he will get the charge reversed regardless.  Jawj inquired about getting the Treasury archives from Les, and Aubrey said that he lives close to Les and will pick them up one day soon and bring them to a meeting for Jawj.  He will assist Jawj prepare the next Form 460 for our FPPC filing, which is due July 31, 2018.

Secretary’s Report:  Aubrey reported that membership is unchanged from last month with 21 lifetime members and 26 regular, currently paid-up members, for a total of 47.  He noted that the party is offering two-year memberships now, which more members are choosing which makes membership easier to manage.  He’s going to take out a two-year membership himself next time. 

Newsletter Report:  Aubrey reported that the February newsletter finally went out last month to 350 recipients with two bounces.  Starchild already wrote a new article for the website, so that will be one of the 3 articles in the March newsletter, so Aubrey only has two to write this month.  He and Nick will test the new method of sending the newsletter out directly from the website in one email blast, rather than the old way of emailing it out in batches of 20.

Outreach Report:  Starchild attended Tibetan Uprising Day at Union Square and was going to be a speaker there, but the event was disorganized and he didn’t get to speak.  He has also been trying to connect with the Falun Gong folks who are running the Shen Yun shows and also the New Tang Dynasty Television people but has not been too successful so far.  He was at City Hall recently commenting at the Ballot Simplification Committee meeting on the taser, parcel tax, free legal representation on evictions, and universal childcare tax ballot measures.  He made the rounds at all 11 Supervisors’ offices and requested meetings with each of them, and also Mayor Farrell, and also the Editorial Board at the San Francisco Examiner.  So far no success.  Starchild is on the advisory board for the “Let’s Get Real” campaign that got the referendum on the flavored cigarettes ban on the June ballot, and he is working with them to ensure that the correct message gets out (anti-prohibition).  He reported that the merchant associations have been very supportive of the referendum, and Miriam in particular has been very vocal with her opposition to the Supervisors’ ban.  Starchild also went to the San Mateo LP monthly meeting to help connect with other local chapters.  He also attended the Berkeley debate on free speech, heard Dave Rubin speak there, and reported that surprisingly there were no protests or disruptions like last year.  A quiet month for Starchild!

Tax Day Panel Discussion:  Aubrey reported that he easily found a panelist for the liberty side for our panel discussion on school choice by sending one email to Vicki Alger from the Independent Institute who often writes on school choice.  She responded immediately that she would love to be a panelist and even offered to speak to the other panelist on the anti-school choice side if it would help get the other panelist to participate.  It turned out that Vicki lives in Arizona, and Aubrey said he probably wouldn’t have asked her to participate if he had known she lives out of area, but she said she would be happy to fly over just for the panel discussion.  Getting someone from the anti-school side has been predictably harder.  Aubrey sent emails to:  Hydra Mendoza-McDonnell, Stevon Cook, and Matt Haney (all from the San Francisco Board of Education), and none responded; Kari Gray from the 2nd District PTA (email bounced back due to mail box full); the California Teachers Association; Annie Chow, Secretary of San Francisco PTA; Laura Waxmann, education journalist at the Examiner; Jerry Adam Smith from the San Francisco Public Press; Parents for Public Schools; and Elizabeth Weise, an education blogger who writes some interesting essays on education.  So far he hadn’t heard back from any of them, but many had just been sent in the preceding week, so he was hopeful that someone would agree to participate or knew someone who would.  Other suggestions from the group included trying Delaine Eastin, a politician in Sacramento, United Educators in San Francisco, and Michelle Parker, who is running for school board and might agree to participate to gain extra public exposure.

Pride 2018:  Aubrey reported that there is an ongoing issue with Outright Libertarians remaining conspicuously quiet in the face of government agencies coming down hard on voluntary businesses that choose not serve clients wanting gay wedding cakes, flowers, etc., so he has pressed the point with Mike Shipley, current Chair of Outright, regarding making a public statement on the issue.  He wrote Mike that several of the core activists were disturbed about Outright’s silence and will not support our participation in Pride this year under Outright’s banner due to Outright’s silence.  Aubrey had not heard back from Mike yet as of the meeting date, and the email had been written several days earlier.  He had not had time to register for Pride yet, so perhaps it was time to rethink not having a booth at Pride this year, which would be the first time in almost 15 years that we wouldn’t be at Pride.  Rob had told him that they have a new batch of “youngsters” in Outright, and some of them are calling themselves “Libertarian Socialists.”  Aubrey had just written to his contact at Pride that morning to inquire what the cost of the booth would be if we went under our own name rather than Outright’s, expecting the cost to be a lot higher since we are not a non-profit like Outright.  The feedback from those at the meeting was that we shouldn’t automatically rule out Pride this year because it’s too early to assume that everyone in Outright feels the same way about the issue (OK with government interference in a voluntary transaction), and it might be short-sided to rule out the best outreach opportunity of the year when the public at large wouldn’t notice or care about our disagreement with Outright.  Aubrey noted that he was glad the LPSF still wants to be at Pride this year, even with our disagreement with Outright, because it’s his last year there and he wanted to do it one more year for sentimental reasons but did not want to foist his opinion on the LPSF.  He will report back what the cost will be if we have the booth under our own banner.

Ballot Arguments:  We didn’t go over all 10 local ballot measures, but rather we concentrated on figuring out which ballot measures we would be submitting for the “free” arguments due this coming Thursday March 15 and who would be writing the arguments.   For RM3 ($3 increase for bridge tolls), Aubrey had mentioned in the last meeting that he would do the opposition argument for this one, but he forgot to bring it in.  He liked the argument against RM3 that one of the lawyers for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association wrote for the coalition of groups fighting RM3, so he’s just going to rework it a bit and post it on the Activist List in a day or two.  He’s been in contact with the Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods and also Zelda Bronstein, and both may sign on to our argument.  Its emphasis is on the equity issue of the less affluent working folks who can’t afford to live in The City who will be paying the lion’s share of the increases, much of which will go for public transportation.  The referendum on the ban of flavored tobacco products is being covered by the “Let’s Get Real” folks, funded mainly by RJ Reynolds.  Starchild has been working with these folks and may sign on to their argument for the LPSF opposing the ban.  Jawj volunteered to write the argument against the parcel tax for the San Francisco Unified School District.  There are two competing ballot measures to increase the taxes on commercial rents—one to fund housing and homelessness and the other to fund child care.  Jawj volunteered to take the one for housing and homelessness and Aubrey volunteered for the child care one.  Both opposing, of course.  Starchild volunteered to write the argument against the police use of tasers and also the ballot measure for the taxpayers to fund legal representation for residential tenants in eviction lawsuits.  He noted it would be important for the government to supply legal counsel in criminal matters but totally inappropriate in civil matters.  Aubrey volunteered to write an argument against giving the SFPUC the authority to issue revenue bonds for power facilities.  There was some mention of sending out a postcard of the LPSF’s recommendations for the ballot measures, but we’ll get to that at the next meeting.

Activist Reports:  Phil continues to try and push folks in a liberty-leaning direction when he takes Lyft.  Alex has been posting on Facebook.  Starchild gave public comment at the Land Use Commission, and one issue was historical landmark declaration, which makes it hard for folks to tear down or renovate their own homes.  He also attended a Planning Commission meeting regarding a wall in Diamond Heights that the neighbors wanted to “save.”  He has also been helping Nicholas Wildstar on his campaign for Governor.  He went to a YIMBY gathering to help pick candidates the YIMBY’s should support and mentioned it might be a nice gesture for the LPSF to give a donation to the YIMBY group for office furniture for their new office space (the suggestion was not well received by two core members).  Starchild also attended a Pride meeting and suggested that folks go to SFPride.org to help pick a Grand Marshall for this year’s Pride; he voted for the less leftist “Dykes on Bikes..”  Lastly Starchild continues to leave liberty-oriented flyers in those Clear Channel news racks that are mostly empty and nailed shut these days because whoever uses the racks has to pay The City a fee to use the racks.  Aubrey finally got a newsletter out last month.  Nick went to a Republican Women Federated meeting and organized the Zoltan event for tomorrow.  He also helped get signatures for Zoltan and Robert Griffis at UC Berkeley for them to be on the ballot for Governor.
Announcements:

March 11 (Sunday) – Campaign Event with Zoltan Istvan for California Governor
Hosted by the LPSF
4:00 PM – 6:30 PM  –  Stock in Trade on Lombard Street in San Francisco
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zoltan-istvan-for-ca-governor-tickets-43795397212

March 14 (Wednesday) Liberty, Race & Opportunity:  The Legacy of Frederick Douglass
Hosted by America’s Future Foundation
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM - 590 Sutter Street in San Francisco
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberty-race-opportunity-legacy-of-frederick-douglass-tickets-43325555904

March 19 (Monday) Our Primate Brain:  Enlightening Hidden Motives & Social Agenda
Hosted by Foresight Institute
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM – The Laundry at 3359 26th Street in San Francisco
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/robin-hanson-our-primate-brain-tickets-43146770151

April 27-29 (Friday – Sunday) Libertarian Party of California Annual Convention
Long Beach Marriott
https://ca.lp.org/convention/

April 28 (Saturday) JSA Norcal Spring State Convention – Jawj volunteered for this event – still need other helpers because it’s the same week-end as the annual state convention – new location for this semi-annual event due to the Marriott in Santa Clara raising their rates
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport – 1333 Bayshore Highway in Burlingame
http://jsa.org/conventions/spring-state/

July 11-14 (Wednesday – Saturday) FreedomFest 2018
Las Vegas, Nevada
https://www.freedomfest.com/