Flames Of Freedom

Encouraging, facilitating, tracking, and rewarding efforts by California Libertarians to promote libertarian ideas to non-libertarians

$1000 / year in cash prizes

How do you compete? Easy! When you engage in any of the qualifying kinds of outreach (e.g. letters to the editor, or to your elected representatives -- see full list below), just drop a note to -- or cc: if possible -- FlamesOfFreedom@yahoogroups.com. And when you send an alert about an outreach opportunity, just cc: SparksOfFreedom@yahoogroups.com. We'll track and score your efforts, and let you know when you've won some cash. Joine these two forums to monitor outreach efforts of, and opportunities for, California Libertarians.

Who's winning? See the leader board. You might already have points. If you performed some eligible outreach that we missed, feel free to add a record to the outreach tracking table.

How do you win? Outreach to non-libertarians has its own rewards, but here's how we're sweetening the pot. Each calendar quarter, we will add up the points scored that quarter and award

$100 to 1st place
$50 to 2nd place
$50 to each of two others chosen by random chance weighted by their score that quarter

What's the catch? There are several.

You have to be a dues-paid member of the California Libertarian Party.
This project is about inspiring our foot soldiers, not our leaders. LPCA employees, LPCA Executive Committee members, elected Libertarians, FoF judges, and their families will be scored and ranked but are ineligible for prizes.
Outreach efforts that are official activities of the LP at any level may be tracked but do not count toward prizes. However, alerts about official LP activities do count.
To encourage broader activism, you can't win prizes in consecutive quarters.
Rules and their application are subject to the discretion and modification of the judges, and while they will disallow apparent efforts to game the rules, they have an incentive not to be arbitrary or play favorites.

Who are the judges? The judges are the Libertarians who finance the prizes. So far, that's Brian Holtz and Melisse Lusin. Let them know if you would like to contribute.

Sparks and Flames? The names are inspired by the Lights Of Liberty awards, with a twist to emphasize our desire for viral outreach. The two forums will be strictly moderated, so that subscribers will see only activism alerts and actual outreach efforts, rather than more of the libertarian internal discussion that is already so available elsewhere. If you want to discuss this program or the content it distributes, please do so on a general-purpose California Libertarian forum.

Outreach Type	Description	Points
Pro Media
MediaSpotted	First submission of each unique story in the non-libertarian media with California distribution that mentions "libertarian" or the LP [post link to FoF; +10 if includes libertarian link/citation]	10
MediaSubmitted	Each unique liberty-oriented LTE / press release.submitted to non-libertarian media with California distribution [copy/fwd to FoF; +10 if mentions libertarian/LP; +10 if includes libertarian link/citation]	10
MediaMention	Each liberty-oriented LTE or mention in non-libertarian media with California distribution [post link to FoF; +10 if mentions libertarian/LP; +50 if prints libertarian link/citation]	50
Peer Media
BumperSticker	First photo submitted of any car with CA plates with bumper sticker(s) mentioning "libertarian" or LP [photo uploaded to FoF gallery; we will obscure plate number if you don't/can't]	100 / car
ForumPost	Libertarian link/citation in a comment/trackback on an eligible non-libertarian forum [post permalink to FoF]	20 / forum / month
BookReview	Thoughtful book review comment posted at Amazon.com or equivalent [mentions "libertarian", post link to FoF]	20 / book
WikiUpdate	Make any non-trivial improvement to LPedia, LibertarianWiki, or to a Wikipedia article on politics/policy	50 / article / month
AdoptPolitician	Describe some part of a California politician's campaign finances or voting record in a WikiUpdate or PressPrinted outreach	100 / politician / month
Civic/Political
AlertInreach	Alert about liberty-oriented non-LP meeting, speech, forum, etc. [cc to SparksOfFreedom]	5
AlertOutreach	Alert about outreach opportunities, e.g. ballot argument deadlines, candidate deadlines, public hearings, politician town hall meetings, rallies, upcoming legislative votes [cc to SparksOfFreedom]	10
ContactRep	Each message (composed by you) to one of your elected government representatives [copy/fwd to FoF; +50 if includes libertarian link/citation]	50 / rep / month
PoliticalAttend	Attend non-libertarian political meeting e.g. D/R/Green/NAACP/ACLU [brief report or photo to FoF]	50 / group / month
CivicAttend	Attend public government meeting, politician town hall meeting, etc. [brief report or photo to FoF]	50 / forum / month
CivicLobby	Outreach to non-libertarians at a civic commons or gathering [brief report or photo to FoF]	200 / forum / month
CivicSpeak	Speak up at a public government meeting, elected representative's town hall meeting, in front of a student group, etc. [brief report or photo to FoF]	250 / forum / month