*tl;dr: the mailer is on schedule and I'm very optimistic about it. I'll
follow up with specific requests for help.*
Here is an overly detailed update on the mailer we are planning for the
November election. I spoke to Robert Imhoff in Santa Clara last week and
he had some good information to share. They are in the process of
mailing to 5,700 Libertarians in Santa Clara County. The brightest point
that I took away from this is that I don't think we have to pay the $255
annual fee to mail, which will bring out costs down to just around $0.35
/ piece, all included.
* All supplies are either on hand or will be delivered by 9/25.
* #10 envelopes x 3,000 (I already have many of these on hand)
* #9 envelopes x 2,500 (return envelopes)
* 12 reams of high quality paper (6,000 sheets)
* Address stamp for return envelopes (cheap + easier than printing)
* I designed a new membership form to simplify as much as possible (see
attachment)
* Compare to the state party form[1] for mail-in registrations
* Let me know if you have suggestions, but know that there's not
really room to *add *anything much.
* This will be packaged with a return envelope, so redundant
information is removed.
* Postage
* I need to visit the USPS BMEU soon to get our commercial mail
permit (no cost)
* I'll also pick up 3,000 precanceled stamps from the post office
which we'll apply to each envelope. We can hang on to whatever we
don't use for future mailings.
* I will send out the letter I have prepared based on Francoise's
draft for feedback tomorrow.
* We still need to summarize our ballot positions so that this can also
be included.
* Everything needs to be condensed to fit on a single page.
* I could use help with this
* I need to decide on the exact address list we will be mailing to
based on the voter file.
* Putting it all together! There are a few manual jobs we'll need to
knock out.
* Stamping our address onto return envelopes. (can be done in
advance)
* Applying postage stamps to envelopes (can be done in advance)
* Folding paper + stuffing envelopes.
I was thinking the weekend of September 30-31 should be the target date
for stuffing envelopes. That way, we can have everything mailed out on
Oct 1. I've got most of this locked down, but I could definitely use
help with improving and finishing the letter and writing up summaries of
our ballot positions.
Thanks and I hope it's not information overload!
Nick
Hi Nick. Thanks for spearheading this project. You can count on me to
provide the local ballot measures since I already did a write-up on them
for the last newsletter. I just need to edit them down to something
shorter for the mailer. If you can give me an idea of roughly the
approximate number of words allowed for each ballot measure, I'll have a
better idea of how many words I can work with, and I can start my word
chopping.
On the state measures, I'd still like to put something about them in the
mailer too, but that's a bigger challenge due to the time restraint, the
number of obligations coming up between now and the end of the month, and
there are 11 state propositions rather than just 5 local. But it's still
doable. If I come up with something for the state propositions, would we
be including another piece of paper, which could add to the mailing cost,
or print the recommendations on the flip side of the local measures paper?
As I recall, you can include up to four 8-1/2 by 11 sheets of paper in an
envelope without incurring extra postage, but after that, it would be more
expensive for postage. I still have to do props 11 and 12 and send to the
Activist List, as we did not decide our stances on those two in the last
meeting, but I did reread 12 thoroughly and am going to recommend a
definite NO on that one, yet the state party came up with NO RECOMMENDATION
on that one, so there will be some discussion on that one. On 11, I still
have to go back through that one again.
I'm leaving for a week's vacation starting September 29, so that week-end
is out for envelope stuffing for me, but I can help with the other manual
jobs that can be done beforehand, and I'll get that stuff from you this
coming week-end.
For the recommendations, I would say just keep it to fit on one page. If
we need to use the reverse side for State measures, that's fine. I would
keep our explanations very brief where possible. We can direct them to
our website for your more detailed write-ups if needed.
Nick
Hi Nick. Thanks for spearheading this project. You can count on me
to provide the local ballot measures since I already did a write-up on
them for the last newsletter. I just need to edit them down to
something shorter for the mailer. If you can give me an idea of
roughly the approximate number of words allowed for each ballot
measure, I'll have a better idea of how many words I can work with,
and I can start my word chopping.>
On the state measures, I'd still like to put something about them in
the mailer too, but that's a bigger challenge due to the time
restraint, the number of obligations coming up between now and the end
of the month, and there are 11 state propositions rather than just 5
local. But it's still doable. If I come up with something for the
state propositions, would we be including another piece of paper,
which could add to the mailing cost, or print the recommendations on
the flip side of the local measures paper? As I recall, you can
include up to four 8-1/2 by 11 sheets of paper in an envelope without
incurring extra postage, but after that, it would be more expensive
for postage. I still have to do props 11 and 12 and send to the
Activist List, as we did not decide our stances on those two in the
last meeting, but I did reread 12 thoroughly and am going to recommend
a definite NO on that one, yet the state party came up with NO
RECOMMENDATION on that one, so there will be some discussion on that
one. On 11, I still have to go back through that one again.>
I'm leaving for a week's vacation starting September 29, so that week-
end is out for envelope stuffing for me, but I can help with the other
manual jobs that can be done beforehand, and I'll get that stuff from
you this coming week-end.>
Thanks!
Aubrey
On Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 7:26 AM Nick Smith nicks@fastmail.fm [lpsf-
activists] <lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com> wrote:>> __
*[Attachment(s) from Nick Smith included below]*
__
Oops, the membership form had a formatting glitch. Here's a nicer
looking version.>>
Hi all,
*tl;dr: the mailer is on schedule and I'm very optimistic about it.
I'll follow up with specific requests for help.*>>>
Here is an overly detailed update on the mailer we are planning for
the November election. I spoke to Robert Imhoff in Santa Clara last
week and he had some good information to share. They are in the
process of mailing to 5,700 Libertarians in Santa Clara County. The
brightest point that I took away from this is that I don't think we
have to pay the $255 annual fee to mail, which will bring out costs
down to just around $0.35 / piece, all included.>>>
* All supplies are either on hand or will be delivered by 9/25.
* #10 envelopes x 3,000 (I already have many of these on hand)
* #9 envelopes x 2,500 (return envelopes)
* 12 reams of high quality paper (6,000 sheets)
* Address stamp for return envelopes (cheap + easier than
printing)
* I designed a new membership form to simplify as much as possible
(see attachment)
* Compare to the state party form[1] for mail-in registrations
* Let me know if you have suggestions, but know that there's not
really room to *add *anything much.
* This will be packaged with a return envelope, so redundant
information is removed.
* Postage
* I need to visit the USPS BMEU soon to get our commercial mail
permit (no cost)
* I'll also pick up 3,000 precanceled stamps from the post office
which we'll apply to each envelope. We can hang on to whatever
we don't use for future mailings.
* I will send out the letter I have prepared based on Francoise's
draft for feedback tomorrow.
* We still need to summarize our ballot positions so that this can
also be included.
* Everything needs to be condensed to fit on a single page.
* I could use help with this
* I need to decide on the exact address list we will be mailing to
based on the voter file.
* Putting it all together! There are a few manual jobs we'll need
to knock out..
* Stamping our address onto return envelopes. (can be done in
advance)
* Applying postage stamps to envelopes (can be done in advance)
* Folding paper + stuffing envelopes.>>>
I was thinking the weekend of September 30-31 should be the target
date for stuffing envelopes. That way, we can have everything mailed
out on Oct 1. I've got most of this locked down, but I could
definitely use help with improving and finishing the letter and
writing up summaries of our ballot positions.>>>
Thanks and I hope it's not information overload!
Nick
PS: In case you're *really* curious, I'm tracking the status of
everything here (but you can ignore this):>>> https://docs…google.com/presentation/d/1jaMFD8jaWCoMzYSQsVXReK9fBRPF_cgMMSYjzGwC6-c/edit?usp=sharing[2]>>> Email had 1 attachment:
Hi Aubrey,
For the ballot recommendations, is it coming from you personally or from the party?
If it's going out in the mailer I think all party members need to vote on the position first.
In the state party the secretary puts out an e-mail ballot to the executive committee which I think would be appropriate in this case since you didn't get a chance to discuss at the last meeting. So I think we should do an email ballot on props 11 and 12.
Sincerely, Rebecca
Hi Rebecca. While my analysis will be from me personally, when we've done
this sort of thing before on the Activist List, I post what I think, and my
reasoning, and leave the discussion open for a few days for folks to
comment or disagree. Generally the LPSF has agreed with my
recommendations, so my recommendations did become our official stances. In
this case, however, since my stances will probably be different from the
state's positions, I was going to include the Discuss List too once I went
through the 2 measures again since additional thoughts would be welcomed.
An email vote on 11 and 12 is just fine with me.
