Meeting Location: Beth Richardson’s house, 500 Carolina Back Rd., Charlestown, RI
Brian Stack (BS) began the meeting by telling how Chris Chirino, former LPRI Chair, has been networking in Providence, trying to develop a LPRI affiliate there.
Server Space: Deb Schusterman (DS) will look into a better way to store LPRI info in the cloud. Tony Jones (TJ) reported that he has upgraded the LPRI.us website through his Weebly account. The previous LPRI website, LPRI.org, now is dead, i.e., nothing shows up at that link. BS will contact Mike Rollins to see if the LPRI.org website could be linked to the current LPRI.us website.
It was the consensus of the ExCom that storing data in the cloud would be an optimal way of storing data, easily accessed by everyone and transferable to subsequent ExCom’s. Sensitive data, such as financial account data could be password-protected.
Treasurer’s Report: TJ reported that, including the $100. donation which he received at the Convention, there is $240. in the LPRI account. He recommends that we should be holding fundraising events. TJ will be filing a yearly report with the RI Secretary of State’s office, a requirement for non-profits in RI.
LPRI Membership: BS stated that he feels we should send a hard copy mailing to previous members (approximately 1000 people) to see if we could get some of them to re-join LPRI.
A unanimous vote of the ExCom set the annual LPRI dues at $15./year. This is in addition to the National LP membership fee.
DS suggested that it would be good to have LPRI membership cards for members. DS will check into bulk mailing costs. She suggested that a quarterly newsletter would be a good way to get LPRI members involved and kept up to date. College student activity and involvement is something we should encourage.
TJ suggested that LPRI might want to duplicate LPMA’s format for explaining how state and national party membership works and related costs for each.
National LP: BS has to report LPRI data to the National LP party and he is working on a way to do this.
LPRI Party Goals: The ExCom discussed what could be done to further ballot access, candidate assistance and libertarian legislation in RI. BS mentioned that in some states it is illegal to pay people to collect signatures for a political party; not so in RI. The upcoming September to November time frame would be a good time to collect signatures for ballot access as there is no competing electoral event happening which would require signatures.
Gary Whitney (GW) stated that a person running for office can put any party name he or she wants on his or her ticket, and that such a person needs 50 to possibly 500 valid signatures to run for office, depending upon the office. GW suggested that the ExCom should be setting goals for candidate assistance.
There was general agreement among the ExCom that LPRI needs more visability. DS suggested LPRI tee shirts; GW suggested LPRI buttons. Having LPRI represented in local parades would provide visibility for the party.
DS stated that there are federal grants for political parties to get started and she will look into this for LPRI.
TJ suggested that BS should put out a press release congratulating NY state for passing their marriage equality bill and stating where LPRI stands on this issue.
Next ExCom Meeting: BS asked each member of the ExCom to write a job description for the position that member holds on the ExCom, and bring it to the next meeting. Beth Richardson (BR) will try to set up a meeting at a more centrally located public place so we can encourage more people to attend ExCom meetings TJ reported that, including the $100. donation which he received at the Convention, there is $240. in the LPRI account. He recommends that we should be holding fundraising events. TJ will be filing a yearly report with the RI Secretary of State’s office, a requirement for non-profits in RI.