Minutes of the Meeting of the Libertarian National Committee 1 September 1991 Chicago, Illinois Members Present: Chair Mary T. Gingell Vice-Chair Steve Dasbach Secretary Joseph W. Dehn III At Large Don Ernsberger Steven I. Givot Geoffrey J. Neale Ken Prazak Region 1 Dave Schumacher Region 2 Steven J. Alexander Thea McLean Region 3 William W. Hall Region 4 Ron Crickenberger Region 5 Dan Karlan Region 6 Clay S. Conrad Region 7 Maggie Kohls Region 8 Gary E. Johnson Absent: Treasurer William Redpath At Large Tamara Clark Alternates Present and Participating: Region 2 George L. O'Brien Region 6 Vicki Kirkland Also present: Director Nick Dunbar 1. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Libertarian National Committee was called to order by Chair Mary Gingell at 3:28pm on Sunday, 1 September at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. 2. CREDENTIALS: The Secretary called the roll and passed around a sheet for members to note their addresses. Those present introduced themselves. 3. SETTING OF THE AGENDA: Gingell proposed the following items for discussion: telephone tree, invitation to hold a meeting in Michigan, report from the Marrou campaign, Chair's report, questions about the headquarters, Program Committee, Media Relations, and setting the dates and locations of future meetings. Hall proposed including a discussion of the NOTA votes for Judicial Committee, and Karlan proposed discussing a resolution about the Soviet Union; there was no objection. 4. TELEPHONE TREE: Toni Black explained the goals of the LP Telephone Tree System -- to get important news to all national personnel and all affiliate parties within 48 hours. She said she was working on improving the structure so that most people would not have to make more than three calls, and to provide more backup. 5. MICHIGAN INVITATION: Jim Hudler invited the LNC to meet in Ann Arbor 10-12 April 1992, which is the weekend of their state convention. 6. MARROU CAMPAIGN: Michael Emerling thanked LEI and the LNC for their handling of the convention and nominating process, and reported on plans for the campaign. He said there will be a unified presidential/vice-presidential campaign, with one office and a percentage of the budget allocated to the vice-presidential candidate. He said the campaign wants to work together with the officers, LNC, and national office. He reiterated that the campaign's books are open for our inspection at any time, and that all new names obtained during the campaign would be considerd co-property of the LP and would be turned over to both the national and state parties. In reply to a question from Gingell, he said that the next time they would need to mail to the LP mailing list would be for a letter about plans for the New Hampshire primary, and that he would coordinate the timing of mailings with the National Director. 7. CHAIR'S REPORT: Gingell announced the establishment of transition teams to consider planning and reorganization of the activities of the Party, divided into three areas as outlined in her campaign letter. She said she was asking each of the other officers to head up one team -- Dasbach for "organization", Redpath for "development", and Dehn for "education" -- and that they were to report their recommendations at the next meeting. She asked for volunteers to staff the teams; the following persons present volunteered: for "development", Prazak, McLean, Kohls, and Karlan; for "education", Givot, Johnson, and Prazak; for "organizing", Hall, Vicki Kirkland, Crickenberger, and Clark. Gingell said that all committee chairs would automatically be part of the team that will be examining their area. Gingell said that she herself would be concentrating on ongoing operations, fundraising, headquarters operations, and overall co-ordination of the transition process. She said that she believes in continuity and stability and that all committee appointments would remain in place until December except where someone did not want to continue. Specifically she said that O'Brien would remain as chair of Internal Education, that Karlan would serve as interim chair of Outreach, that David Bergland would continue as chair of Legal Action for now but that Hall might assume that role, that Johnson would remain as chair of Media Relations, that Karen Allard would serve as interim chair of Finance, and that McLean would serve as interim chair of Membership. She proposed that the LNC appoint Redpath to continue as chair of BAC, and Dasbach as chair of APC; there were no objections. She reported that Neale had appointed Ruth Bennett as the third member of the Convention Oversight Committee, and suggested discussing deferring appointements to the APRC and the Management Committee to later in the meeting. Gingell said she would be preparing a fundraising mailing to go out at the end of the week. She reported that Nick Dunbar had submitted his resignation as National Director, and proposed that he be reappointed; there was no objection. She also reported that she had discussed with Dunbar various problems relating to the office, and that she would be visiting the office in October. 8. HEADQUARTERS REPORT: Dunbar reported that there had been 6651 calls to the 800 number as of midnight, and that the office had prepared 3000 packets. In reply to a question from Gingell, Dunbar said that the interns were leaving within a week and that he had no plan to hire any for the fall. 9. MEDIA RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT: Johnson reported that MKR Associates, which have been doing much of the media work, had given 30 days notice of cancellation of their contract; Dasbach noted that the APC had received a similar notice. Gingell said that she had discussed with Dunbar moving some of the work to the headquarters. Johnson reported that Tonie Nathan had inquired whether our rules require us to have a full-time media coordinator. 10. PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORT: Givot said that the Program wasn't really done yet, likening it to "a baby ready to be born". He reviewed the survey by Life magazine that was reported on in his report to the last meeting, and suggested that we should consider a Program of five or so planks based on issues that the public really cares about. He asked for reaction to the idea that the Program Committee should rework the program along these lines; there was no objection. Givot asked that the Program Committee be expanded, noting that it is the LNC that has the final decision on approving planks anyway. He suggested that the following people be appointed, in addition to himself, Dasbach, and Tonie Nathan who have been serving as the Program Committee: Prazak, Karlan, Joe Lusardi, Bruce Baechler, O'Brien, Neale, Kohls, Andre Marrou, Nancy Lord, Jim Lewis, Michael Emerling, and Ed Clark. In reply to a comment by O'Brien that the Secretary should be an ex officio member, Dehn said he would just volunteer to be appointed as well. All were appointed without objection. 11. COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS: Gingell announced that Ernsberger had volunteered to serve as chair of the Management and Audit Committee, and had proposed that the other members be Givot, O'Brien, John Famularo serving as computer auditor, and Dave Walter serving as auditor. Givot suggested that the LNC should have the flexibility of appointing someone other than the chair of the Management and Audit Committee to be the fifth member of the Executive Committee, citing the desirability of having someone with business experience on that committee. He moved to amend LNCPM VII.2.A to say that the fifth person shall be "a member of the Management Committee selected by the National Committee". Dasbach moved to amend Givot's proposal to say "selected by the National Chair"; after brief discussion the motion failed on a voice vote. Dehn moved to amend the proposal to say "Management and Audit Committee", explaining that is the actual name of the committee in question; there was no objection. After further discussion of Givot's motion, with those arguing in favor saying that it would give the LNC additional flexibility to independently choose the best person for chair of the MAC and for representative on the EC, and those arguing against saying that there is already enough flexibility since the LNC decides which member of the MAC is to be its chair, the motion passed, 7 in favor, 6 against. Gingell stated that the proposal under consideration was the appointment of the following to make up the MAC: Ernsberger, Givot, O'Brien, Famularo as computer auditor, and Walter as auditor; the motion passed on a voice vote. O'Brien moved that Ernsberger be appointed chair of the MAC; there was no objection. Johnson moved that Ernsberger be appointed as the fifth member of the Executive Committee; there was no objection. Dehn moved that Gingell be appointed chair of the Executive Committee; there was no objection. Gingell announced that Ted Brown and Bill Evers wanted to continue as members of the APRC, but that it was not known if Dean Ahmad was willing to continue. O'Brien moved to appoint Brown, Evers, and Ahmad on the assumption that he agrees; there was no objection. 12. JUDICIAL COMMITTEE: Dehn reported that there had been confusion during the convention about how votes for NOTA should be treated in the election of the Judicial Committee, that the convention chair had ruled that votes for NOTA should not be counted in that election because the rules did not provide for it, and that his decision had not been overturned by the delegates. Hall said that there should be some way to express the NOTA option in Judicial Committee elections, and pointed out an alternative interpretation of the rules. Gingell said that since the convention had not overturned the chair's ruling, the issue had been decided for this instance. Givot moved to refer the matter to the next Bylaws and Rules Committee, asking that they address the various questions that had come up. O'Brien objected that since we did not have jurisdiction over the matter, we could not "refer" it, and moved to substitute that we "inform" the next Bylaws and Rules Committee that the Bylaws and Convention Rules may need clarification in this area; there was no objection. The motion to "inform" passed on a voice vote. 13. RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE SOVIET UNION: Karlan moved: The Libertarian Party National Committee urges the LP Chair, upon assumption of the office on September 1, 1991, to send letters to the families of the three Soviet men who died in the recent outbreak of violence during the Soviet struggle for freedom. The letters should, along with any other sentiments of the Chair's discretion, convey "Our heartfelt condolences for their loss, our profound respect for their sacrifices, and our fondest wishes that the future will accord them the ultimate tribute: that their deaths will be remembered for being the LAST in the long struggle of the people of the Soviet Union for freedom." Prazak suggested that this issue not be used for fundraising given problems we have had in the past. Johnson suggested that future resolutions of this type should be accompanied by an actual letter, so that the Chair does not have to do the work. The resolution passed on a voice vote. 14. FUTURE MEETINGS: Ernsberger proposed that the next meeting be held in Washington, DC on 14-15 December, which is the weekend of the Bill of Rights ceremony. O'Brien reported that the Los Angeles group has proposed that we meet there the weekend of 7-8 December, also in conjunction with a existing event. Dasbach reported that there was an invitation from Ohio but that it was not for one of the months in which we would normally meet; Gingell reported another invitation from California with the same problem. There was a general discussion of selection of sites, points including: we should pick places that are not hard to get to, people inviting us should understand that we will not be able to attend most of their events, we don't need to decide at this meeting anything other than the December meeting, that it might be valuable to have a meeting at the site of our next convention. Neale moved to hold the next meeting 14-15 December in Washington, DC; the motion passed on a voice vote. Johnson moved to hold the following meeting 11-12 April 1992 in Ann Arbor, MI; the motion passed on a voice vote. Givot moved that the Convention Oversight Committee contact Bob Waldrop to arrange for a meeting in Salt Lake City next summer. Various members suggested that it be before Labor Day and that it not conflict with the ISIL conference. The motion passed on a voice vote. Neale suggested that we may want to hold one of the later meetings in one of the cities being proposed for the 1996 convention. There was a discussion of the date of the 1996 convention. Givot reported that no real progress had been made yet toward getting ballot access laws changed. He moved that we postpone until our December 1992 meeting our review of the date and selection of the site, arguing that we would have a better idea of the ballot access situation by then. Others pointed out that this would also allow us to better judge the size of facility needed, since the number of delegates will depend on the 1992 vote and membership growth, and that this would allow us to visit the site before deciding. Neale reported that we already have two letters of intent from prospective convention organizers. In response to a question from Karlan, Givot said that his motion would not prevent us from considering site selection earlier if we wanted to. Givot's motion passed on a voice vote. 15. COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS, part 2: Karlan reported that he had spoken with Dean Ahmad, and that Ahmad said he did not want to serve on any committee but would be willing to continue until a replacement was named. Dehn volunteered to serve on the APRC, and was appointed without objection. 16. CONCLUDING BUSINESS: The meeting was adjourned at 6:02pm. Respectfully submitted, Joseph W. Dehn III Secretary [no attachments]