Here’s a brief summary of the reports and actions taken at the May 6,
2006 Executive Committee meeting in San Jose. The detailed minutes of
the meeting will be posted on the LPC website as soon as they are
completed and approved.
Kate O’Brien has been working part-time at the LPC office to relieve
the administrative burden on Executive Director David Ruprecht, so
that he can concentrate on Operation Breakthrough and fundraising.
Adrian Moore, the Vice President of Research at the Reason Foundation
as well as the keynote speaker at the 2006 LPC state convention, has
been appointed chair pro-tem for Kern County.
The LPC has assets on hand of $89 thousand dollars, although much of
that is scheduled to be spent for election-year activities. County LP
organizations will immediately be sent the dues money which has been
received from the national party as part of the Unified Membership
Plan phase-out. LPC Treasurer Willard Michlin has purchased a mail
house business, and he has offered to donate the stuffing, stamping,
sealing, and mailing activities (but not printing or postage or other
out-of-pocket expenses) for Operation Breakthrough and the newsletter.
Willard Michlin also donated the cost of a management consultant who
prepared a plan for all of the organizational functions necessary to
run the LPC. The Executive Committee approved the formation of
twenty one working committees to implement that plan, although in many
instances there will be groups of committees which are chaired by the
same person.
Following an extensive discussion of goals and priorities, the
Executive Committee voted to establish five goals for 2006: (1) Elect
local Libertarian officials through Operation Breakthrough, (2)
Follow-up with elected Libertarian officials, (3) Voter registration,
(4) Student recruitment and organizing, and (5) Fundraising.
A convention committee will be appointed to consider bids for the 2007
state convention, with a final report to be presented to the Executive
Committee by June 10th. So far two bids have been received for
conventions on cruise ships to either Ensenada or Vancouver, and a
third bid is in the works for a convention in either Marshall or
Pacific Grove or Oakland or Berkeley or San Francisco.
Kevin Takenaga demonstrated the new LPC membership database, which is
still a work in progress but is already being heavily utilized by the
LPC office staff. County membership dumps will be emailed to county
chairs on a monthly basis until the database is ready for direct
on-line access by the counties.
The Libertarian Party of California has taken a position in opposition
to Proposition 81, the library bond measure on the June ballot. The
LPC state convention had previously passed a resolution expressing
opposition to Proposition 82, the “Pre-school for All” initiative.
Bruce Cohen will continue handling the production/editing of the
California Freedom newsletter. Laura Brown will be assisting.
As per the recent changes in the Bylaws, the Executive Committee
appointed a five-member Program Committee consisting of Bruce Dovner
as Chair, Dan Fernandes, Curt Cornell, Brian Holtz, and Marty Swinney.
Operation Breakthrough has twenty five pledgers already. A
fundraising letter with telephone follow-up is in process; it will
request pledges only, which will be contingent on election victories.
Ted Brown reported that we have sixty five partisan candidates on the
ballot, with the possibility of adding several more through write-ins.
Due to some missed information and a change in election laws, all but
one of our statewide candidates failed to purchase Ballot Pamphlet
statements for the June primary. However, we will make sure to have
statements in the November Ballot Pamphlets.