Meeting Location: Beth Richardson’s house, 500 Carolina Back Rd., Charlestown, RI
Brian Stack (BS) began the meeting by telling how he put the application for joining LP as a RI member only on the LPRI website. There are two ways to pay the $15. fee for joining: either make a $15. donation online or print the application and send in a check. There was a discussion of how we must clarify to potential and present members of LPRI that there are two ways to join LP:
1. One can pay the yearly $25. dues to National LP and become a member of the national party as well as a member of LPRI.
2. Alternatively, one can pay the yearly dues of $15. to LPRI and become a member of LPRI only (not a member of National LP).
Server Space: Deb Schusterman (DS) was not able to be present, but she had told BS that she would email info she found out about server space for storing LPRI documents online, in the cloud.
Treasurer’s Report: Tony Jones (TJ) was not present so there was no Treasurer’s report.
LPRI Membership: BS stated that LPRI will not collect dues for National LP as the IRS laws regarding these transfers are too difficult to make it worthwhile. However, we will need to have a system to keep track of members who are LPRI members only. (National LP sends a data dump to the state affiliates listing who is on the National LP in a given state.) BS suggested an Excel spreadsheet layout for this and he showed an example of what this would look like. The Secretary would be responsible for keeping this data up to date.
BS urged the ExCom to approve the mailing of a hard copy of an LPRI newsletter, though this expenditure should be discussed with the full ExCom present and a formal vote should be taken to spend that money if the ExCom feels this is a worthy use of funds.
Gary Whitney (GW) stated that this idea of having two levels of membership is something that we are trying and if it seems too cumbersome, or there is not much interest in it, we can drop the LPRI-only membership.
BS showed two sample letters which he had written and he asked for ExCom comments and suggestions to improve them. The first letter was meant to be sent out to interested people, urging them to join LPRI. The second letter was meant to be sent to present LPRI members explaining how the state affiliate is up and running again and asking them to get involved and donate. BS will incorporate the suggested improvements to the letters and send the new versions via email to ExCom members for further comment.
New Business: Bill Redpath from National LP called BS and said that each state party affiliate is responsible for getting the National LP presidential candidate on that state’s ballot. It was not clear whether this indicated that National LP would provide funding for this, or any expertise and manpower whatsoever. The main expense in such an endeavor is paying petitioners to collect signatures. National LP will nominate a presidential candidate in May of 2012 and the state affiliates must collect sufficient signatures to meet the ballot access laws of the state by the end of summer 2012. BS will ask TJ to advertise on Facebook for an LPRI Presidential Election Coordinator.
BS raised the question of how can LPRI hook up with special interest groups (e.g. college students, the gay community) and join forces politically.
BS recommended that LPRI have buttons, bumperstickers, T-shirts, etc. made with the LPRI logo on them. ExCom should be looking out for a good company to do this.
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.
Next meeting will be on August 22 at 7:00 p.m. at the Warwick Public Library.