Hi All. Here are the minutes from the last meeting finally. Please review them for accuracy, and if you could post them on the website, Marcy, within a few days, that would be great.
Minutes written by Aubrey FreedmanLibertarian Party of San FranciscoMinutesfor Monthly Meeting at the San Francisco Public Library on Saturday, June 13,2015 Attendees: Marcy Berry (Vice Chair),Richard Fast (guest), Francoise Fielding, Aubrey Freedman (Chair), JawjGreenwald, Les Mangus (Treasurer), and Starchild.Activist Reports: Marcy attended a presentation by Charles Murray at theCommonwealth Club on May 18 and did a write-up on the event for ourwebsite. She also attended a coalitionmeeting of anti-regional government groups with Aubrey, and she watched all 9hours of the Board of Supervisors meeting regarding the Moratorium in TheMission and did a write-up on that record-setting Board meeting for thewebsite. Richard is on summer break fromschool in Louisiana (where he studies under renown Walter Block) and has beenworking with the East Bay Libertarian activists attending city council meetingsin support of entrepreneurs having problems with local governments; he alsocontributed to the fund to pay for the Top Two legal fight expenses. Jawj returned to the Bar to act as pro bonolegal counsel for an eviction trial, and during the trial the judge gavejudicial notice of the US Constitution. Starchildhas been busy circulating various statewide ballot measure initiatives(government agencies can’t overpay for drugs, a sunshine measure about publicmeetings, and another height limit measure) and donated a T-shirt for our Pridebooth. He also attended a presentationabout the free cities in Honduras. Hewill be attending the lawsuit hearing by the Erotic Services Union on August 7in Oakland trying to decriminalize prostitution in California, and he will alsobe interviewed by Reason magazine on Monday, June 16 regarding thelawsuit. Aubrey will work at the gunshowtomorrow (Sunday, June 14) with GGLR and attend the SF Young Democrats housingforum on Tuesday, June 17 with Marcy in support of Sonja Trauss’ efforts; hehas also been working on the preparations for Pride at the end of the month. Announcements:
- Sunday, June 14-9:00AM-4:00 PM-GGLR tabling at the Gun Show at the Cow Palace in Daly City.
- Monday, June 15-7:00-9:00PM-Golden Gate Liberty Revolution-Monthly Meeting-Moksha Life Center-405Sansome Street.
- Tuesday, June 16-6:30 PM-SF Young Democrats-Housing Forum-Infusion Lounge-124 Ellis Street.
- Top Two Expenses-Elizabeth Brierly and Sandra Kallander fund raising to help pay LPCA’s share of the legal battle costs.
Membership/NewsletterReport: Aubrey reported membership is up slightly by2 to 41 (22 lifetime members and 19 current paid up annual members). He thinks the monthly newsletter is slowly helpingto increase awareness of the LPSF’s efforts. He reported sending the newsletter to 219 people last month with 1“Unsubscribe” request and 11 bounces. Hedug deeper into the Department of Elections listing this time, which accountedfor more bounces than usual.Website Report: Marcy reported that thenumber of visitors is down over the same time last year. However, our Facebook Group page is gettingmore posts these days, so she thinks folks are moving to Facebook from ourwebsite. Current Facebook membershipstands at 182. Richard recommended that wehave less text in our website because it looks too overwhelming for afirst-time visitor. Marcy said she wouldincrease the fonts and use “Read More” to make our homepage more visuallyappealing with several articles on the front page. There was also an inquiry about where our oldMarket Street video disappeared to since it is no longer on our website. Marcy said it vanished during a websitemishap and she hasn’t been able to get it back but will try to retrieve it,since it was quite popular.Treasurer’s Report: Les reported that the beginning balance was $3,816.23 at05/31/15. During the month he cut acheck to Marcy for $32.00 for Tax Day expenses, and the PayPal addition to theaccount for monthly recurring donations was $57.00, bringing the ending balanceto $3,841.23. He noted that Prideexpenses of $350.00 are not paid yet. State Convention Report: Starchild reported that new state officers were elected: Ted Brown for Chair, Brian Thiemer forNorthern Vice Chair, Jonathan Jaech for Southern Vice Chair, Emily Tilford forTreasurer, and Keven Duewel for Secretary. There was some controversy over holding the convention in Las Vegas,rather than in California. Theconvention was a one-day event, for a change, and there was still a $50.00floor fee. There was also somecontroversy over the by-laws report, and it was reported that it was submittedlate (it was submitted by March 22), so there was no by-laws report to theconvention floor. The convention endedearly this year around 5:00 PM. Pride 2015: Aubrey reported that morehelp is needed at our booth this year; otherwise everything is all set. A new banner for Outright Libertarians wasordered, and the cost was much less than expected (only $45.00, and Aubreyindicated that he will pay for the expedited cost of $13.45 because he was latein ordering it). There was somediscussion if the Pink Pistols or SFBARF would march in the parade thisyear. Aubrey proposed that we authorize$50.00 for a Facebook ad to advertise our presence at Pride. The reasons given were that it would letfolks know that we’re out there doing something, it would be good advertisementfor our Facebook page, and this is a minor expenditure for our largest outreachevent of the year. After discussion, wevoted 5-1 for authorizing the $50.00 for the ad, with Starchild as thedissenting vote. Resolution on Moratorium in Mission: Aubrey drafted aresolution for the LPSF to oppose David Campos’ proposed moratorium of allhousing development in The Mission that is not 100% subsidized. There was no question about the LPSF opposingthe moratorium, but Starchild felt that we should not be encouraging discussionabout a bad measure, which might inadvertently aid it, so he felt we shouldwait and see if it qualifies for the ballot first before opposing itofficially. Marcy countered that weshould oppose it now so it doesn’t qualify for the November ballot. There was also mention that the presentationof the “Whereas” and “Therefore Be It Resolved That” was unusual. In the end, we voted 5-0 (with 1 abstention)to publicly post our opposition to the moratorium by the end of the month. Aubrey will post the draft to the ActivistList, request review and comments, and send it out as a press release. Ballot Measures – November Election: Aubrey reported that thereare 6 measures listed on the Department of Elections website as potentialinitiatives for the November ballot at this time: Wholesale Flower Market (height limit),Mission Rock (development on the waterfront), Moratorium in the Mission, ShortTerm Rentals (Airbnb), Renewable Energy Truth in Advertising, and PublicMeetings. The Mission Moratorium andShort Term Rentals measures look the most interesting for the LPSF at thispoint to oppose. We had a short discussionon the Public Meetings initiative during the meeting since Starchild wascirculating a petition for signatures; pros and cons were noted on this one, sofurther discussion will be needed to determine our position.
Thanks!Aubrey