Morey Straus and I went to the Marin LP meeting tonight. We arrived somewhat late, but what we saw of the meeting was promising. Five people besides us were in attendance: Matt Turley (chair), Dan Goltz, Marty Brenner, Paul Kelly, and Richard Friesen. Some highlights, in no particular order:
-Matt Turley ran an efficient meeting, and provided copies of a nicely formatted agenda including minutes of the past two meetings
-With Paul Kelly accepting the nomination for Secretary they now have a full slate of local officers
-Richard Friesen, candidate for the 6th Congressional District (Lynn Woolsey=incumbent), reported getting major help gathering signatures from Richard Olmstead, who contributed about 70, for a total of 95 or so; Richard Friesen is currently looking for a campaign treasurer
-The Marin LP had been meeting quarterly, then moved to meeting every other month, and are now (partly at my prompting) going to meet monthly. The next meeting will be on March 28 (7-930pm)
-Location of the next meeting is TBD; a couple possibilities mentioned were a pizza place, a restaurant, and LP candidate for lieutenant governor Lynnette Shaw's building (perhaps currently under construction); the current room at the Tamalpais Bank is regarded as too small for long-term use (won't comfortably accommodate more than 10 or so)
-I gave chair Matt Turley a couple lists, one of criteria for choosing a meeting location, and one of possible things to include in a letter to registered Libertarians
-Fred Mangels of Humboldt County is currently running a basic website for the Marin LP; Dan Goltz has been in touch with him giving him website updates; they hope to find a local webmaster able to do more
-There are currently around 830 registered Libertarians in Marin County as of the last election; Dan Goltz asked for help drafting a letter to the reg-Libs, and suggested that each activist personally mail a copy to five people each week, and follow up the next week with phone calls to those individuals
-It was decided that a focus of the letter would be announcing some kind of event, possibly related to Richard's congressional campaign (it was noted that the suggested mailing method might not work well for announcing an event)
-Morey and I let people know the LPSF's meeting schedule; several members are going to try to attend the next LPSF meeting on March 11
-Marty Brenner will investigate which area fairs might be suitable for doing World's Smallest Political Quiz outreach
-We discussed a possible mission statement for the Marin LP, and Matt Turley took a draft I wrote for revision to present at the next meeting
-They are in the process of trying to be recognized by the LPC Executive Committee as an active county; one of the criteria, according to a list someone had, is raising at least $50 a month in contributions (at least $55 was raised on the spot for this purpose, including contributions from Morey and myself)
-I gave them a copy of the LPSF's membership form, and copies of the LPSF newsletter, and some people took various other libertarian literature and materials I brought
-The Marin group is currently small, but seems upbeat and committed, and I would say they are on the path to bigger and better things!
Yours in liberty,
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