 |
Santa Clara Libertarian |
| Volume 28, Issue 3 | |
| August 2000 | |
| For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness |
|
Santa Clara Libertarian |
| Volume 28, Issue 3 | |
| August 2000 | |
| For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness |
Inside This Issue
Exciting July Party Meeting!
by Frank Groffie
Fundraising Chair
Our last LPSCC quarterly business meeting was held July 13, 2000, at the Roosevelt Redwood room at the Campbell Community Center. This was a first time in a new location. Treasurer Jon Hugdahl selected the site, which was big, compared to our previous meeting room at Coco's restaurant, because we wanted to be able to handle up to a 10% quorum of 60 or more. We counted at least 31 Central Committee members, constituting a quorum, and with members' friends and visitors attending the count was just under 40. The room cost $75 all but $5 of which was covered by donations of attendees.
Diverse Group Of Newcomers
Chairman Marv Rudin started off the meeting with his usual practice of welcoming newcomers. Newcomer James Pace introduced himself. The newcomers grew bolder as each raised their hands. Colin Caret introduced himself as a De Anza student. Herb Hart said he was inspired to attend the meeting after he "got fired-up listening to Harry Brown on the radio today." James Jones let us know he is ex-Navy, voted for Goldwater in '64, and read the Federalist Papers. Travis Jones came to libertarianism through a friend who listens to Neil Boortz and after researching the election. Jessica read Ayn Rand in high school. Bill Chew, with cowboy hat and roller skates, ran for mayor or district council of San Jose in the last five elections, garnering 6,000 votes the last time. He recently joined the LP, the first time he has ever joined a political party (see this issue's story "Errant Query Gone Right").
Famous S.J. activist Bill Chew joins LP and LPSCC Excom!
Rudin then led the next segment of the meeting by discussing the mid-year state of our local party versus plan.
Chair Summarizes Mid-Year Progress And Future Plans
Rudin recited salient items in the progress summary given by his column in the last newsletter. About the paramount issue of party growth, he said "We're at about +5%, just half the growth rate targeted by our plan. At this rate it would take over 30 years to reach a plurality, and over 40 years to reach a majority!." He then went on to explain that we now have cost and time effective ways for members to do their part in gaining LP name recognition and attracting new Libertarians and growing our LP registrations, if only our members would use them. He cited as a first priority, wearing car signs on bumpers or windows because it costs so little time or money, is seen by many, and is totally effortless once installed. And he said he has a sure way to remove any bumper sticker residue. As the second priority means of member outreach he cited OE cards (see this issue's article "Tools To Help You Help Us Grow The Party") because passing them takes practically no time, they cost little, and they contain enough information to persuade a voter to register LP with little or no conversation needed. Third he cited cards for the drivers window of cars. Finally he mentioned occasionally spending a few hours manning our portable posters table and passing out cards and/or free T-shirts to registrants at public places like DMVs, market malls, and colleges. In closing he drew applause when describing his practice of putting at least 3 car or OE cards out every day while jogging, saying, "By the end of the year I'll have reached a thousand people with our message." This drew applause, to which he responded, "Thanks but I'm only one. Imagine if all our 600+ members did the same -- 600,000 LP sales messages out to the public!"
Vice Chair Runs Meeting Adroitly
Vice Chair Bill Carr then took over his duty of chairing the meetings as planned when the current slate of officers ran for office in January. He expertly kept the meeting moving on the scheduled agenda of officer reports, followed by endorsement of candidates, speech by Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate, Gail Lightfoot, August picnic announcement, FACTS endorsement, Speakers Bureau program announcement, reports on National LP convention and Operation Breakthrough, and managed to squeeze in an unplanned Excom meeting needed to elect new officers for unfilled vacancies in the LPC Rep and Publicity Chair offices.
Endorsement Of Candidates
Campaigns Chair Ray Strong had our local candidates in this November's election line up and ask for our votes. We voted (a largely symbolic vote) to give our endorsement to this slate of local libertarians for state and national office. Strong also warned us about what may be the most pernicious statewide initiative on the November ballot: a reduction of the 2/3 vote requirement down to 55% to pass special taxes. It hasn't been assigned a ballot proposition number yet; Vice Chair Bill Carr speculated it might get designated the number 666. National LP western region Rep. Joe Dehn then summarized events at the national LP convention.
Campaigns Chair Ray Strong (left) presents local Libertarian candidates for CA and U.S. offices
Gail Lightfoot Speaks
Invited speaker Gail Lightfoot, a luminary in the California LP, traveled from Pismo Beach to update us on her campaign for Diane Feinstein's seat in the U.S. senate. She emphasized the opportunity to publicize the Libertarian Party by using her campaign signs and car decals, in view of the difficulty of getting media coverage and the high cost of media advertising. She showed her signs and said she plans to raise money to send free car decals to all Libertarians statewide.
Gail Lightfoot (left) presents news about her run for U.S. Senate seat for California
She gave her address to send donations as:
Gail Lightfoot for U.S. Senate 2000
P.O. Box 598, Pismo Beach, CA 93448
Katherine Albrecht (right), expecting to bear a new little libertarian soon, talks about her activities in politics
Member Katherine Albrecht said her decision to become more active in libertarian politics was related to one of Lightfoot's opponents. Her decision turned on a recent conversation she had with Tom Campbell, Republican candidate for U.S.senator from California. She offered a donation to his campaign, but he refused it because it was in the form of cash. Not only could cash give him trouble with the campaign finance laws, but he seems to be turned off by cash on a visceral level. He supports a national sales tax to replace the income tax. Yet Campbell admits a sales tax would require monitoring of every monetary transaction that transpires across the country. Albrecht was spooked; wouldn't you be?
August 20 Picnic Announced
Katherine Albrecht announced there will be an LPSCC picnic August 20. She said the party will provide the eats -- hamburgers and hot dogs, and it should be a festive occasion and a chance for Libertarians to socialize and bring their friends to learn about Libertarianism first hand. It will be at Sanborn Park in Saratoga (see the announcement "Libertarian Picnic Sunday" in this issue).
Katherine Albrecht (right), expecting to bear a new little libertarian soon, talks about her activities in politics
FACTS Endorsed
We formally voted to support the group FACTS (Families Against California Three Strikes) in the fight against the three-strikes law in California. Chair Marv Rudin described the positive response he received at a FACTS meeting this year, and noted that he could find no official Libertarian position on the Three Strikes law, but that it often causes unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment" to those convicted of crimes, especially victimless crimes.
Meeting-Within-A-Meeting; Three New Officers Elected By Excom
The problem of replacing Tom Spielbauer who had recently resigned as LPC Rep was raised, and a novel solution ensued in which Jascha Lee was appointed (appointment by the Excom and affirmation by the full Central Committee is the method specified by our bylaws) LPC Rep by an Excom meeting called within the CC meeting (by temporarily suspending the latter). This was made possible because a quorum of Excom members was present. The same process was used to appoint Allen Rice as alternate LPC Rep. Then the Ecom meeting was adjourned, the CC meeting resumed, and the two appointees were affirmed by a vote of the Central Committee. Later, the Chair moved to convene a similar Excom meeting to elect new Libertarian politico Bill Chew, who had expressed an interest, to fill the Publicity Chair left vacant when Graham Thorsen moved to Oregon. Chew was elected unanimously (see this issue's story "Errant Query Gone Right").
16th Congressional District Candidate Dennis Umphress (right) addresses members at the quarterly meeting held July 13 in large 100-seat room at Campbell Community Center
Author's Comment
The meeting differed in tone from some past meetings. It seemed more calm and business-like, I think simply due to the increased room to breathe and stretch out. The food was simple but filling: a variety of plentiful hot pizza brought in and sold at a buck a slice by Jascha Lee. In some respects the July meeting was experimental but showed again that the LPSCC can turn out a large number of dedicated, adaptable members who can get a lot accomplished.
Chair's Column -- Let's Get Growing
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
Summary Of Party Business
1. Administrative & Financial
Need to: (a) Find source (probably foreign) of very inexpensive logoed T-shirts for gift-to-register tests on campus and eleswhere; (b) Inventory outreach literature; (c) Put office furniture up for sale; (d) Procure another DMV Table (if 1st begins to get more use); (e) Make more tiled test posters; (f) Buy car signs to give members.
2. Growth Rate
Registrations crossed above 5,600 for first time; but growth rate was less in July than June.
3. Growth Project Tests
Accomplished: Sadly, no activity in last month (Summer was expected to be a prime period for outdoor tabling/boothing). Member who did successful DMV tests in '99 couldn't find time to do a comparison evaluation in July as hoped; Planned: (a) Distribute new OE cards to members and poll for percentage passed and percentage web hits (b) organize an LP Growth Programs group and eboard to discuss and organize DMV/market-mall tabling and other specific outreach and publicity programs. Interested? Please contact me to join in.
4. Publicity
(a) Big step forward -- political activist Bill Chew was elected chair. He will work to get us on cable and also regular Web audio and video coverage of our meetings and candidate and Speaker Bureau speeches; (b) My KSJS Libertarian Night on Naked Radio in July ended in Arquimedes Garcia inexplicably overreacting and angrily ejecting my guest, Bill Chew, causing me to consider dropping further participation in the show; (c) Harry Browne made a fund raising visit which was covered by the SJ Mercury News with a mainly derogatory but headlined article; it was also covered by Worth Magazine. Ron Berti Got a good protest letter published about the coverage.
5. Schools & Colleges
I met De Anza student Colin Caret at the July 13th meeting, and asked him about starting up a club there, which he is now looking into and I'm giving him possible libertarian student contact information.
6. Speakers Bureau
Rose Wiegley, has formulated a speaker training and development plan and sent it to a number of members who expressed an interest in joining her bureau. She also will be soliciting speaking engagements for Bill Carr, Ron Berti, herself, me, our candidates, and any other members who are interested and qualified. If you are interested, please let her know.
7. Outreach To Lp Supported-Issues Organizations
FACTS has a big meeting coming up in Sept, and the NRA meets the last Thursday of each month. If you are willing to attend these or other local orgabizations and attempt to influence them to go LP please let me know.
8. Net Outreach
Are you willing to help develop an LPSCC program to outreach to the e-boards and Web sites of Silicon Valley organizations? If so please contact me. Your responsibility would be to get personal experience and to find and encourage other members to emulate you in joining local organizations with e-boards and adding post-signature LP lines on messages, that will persuade people to visit our sales site at http://www.lpty.org. Also you would look into trading banners with Web sites of local political-issue organizations whose cause we support, such as gun rights, drug legalization, and right to home school.
9. Market Research
More LP public familiarity polling and polling of why people have joined the LP or as dues paying members is needed to find out what is working (and what is not). This is easy to do from your home -- please contact me if willing to help.
10. Local City Politics
Bill Chew has many issues he has been working on in San Jose, notably public access to information and broadcast of meetings. He plans to run for mayor again and no doubt wants help in developing these issues in public a forum. Please let me know if you would be interested.
Errant Query Gone Right -- Local Activist Bill Chew Comes Aboard As Communications Officer
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
What started out as a mistake, first sent me on a futile wild goose chase, but in the end attracted Bill Chew, one of Silicon Valley's most active and well known political figures to our party.
Famous S.J. activist Bill Chew joins LPSCC Excom
April 15th I received a call from Larry Gerston, political analyst for KNTV looking for a "Bill Chew's" phone number, saying he called our line because he believed Bill to be a Libertarian since he was on the Free & Clear radio show of LPer Don Cormier some 5 years earlier. I said I'd try to find his number for Larry and get back to him. Assuming the last name was "Chu" or "Chiu", (never thought of "Chew"!) I wasted a lot of time searching through our LPSCC lists and archives, and even Pac Bell phone books. I then asked Don Cormier, who said he couldn't find Chew's phone number, but gave me a number of a friend of Chew's, and gave me the correct spelling. But I couldn't reach the friend, and so gave up.
In May, Don Cormier called me with Chew's number after he'd appeared on Don's show that week. I immediately called to ask Chew if it was OK to give his number to Gerston, and we had such a friendly interchange that we decided to meet for lunch. That led to Bill asking me to appear on his weekly Community show on SJ ATT Cable TV, "Neighbornet," and shortly after he called saying he'd like to join the LP. Shortly afterward he skated (!) to my home, and signed up.
As we got acquainted I had learned that Bill has been a repeated candidate for office -- 3 times mayor, twice council member -- in San Jose, and is well know to people in the county's biggest city. Having learned Bill's propensity to get publicity, and that our Publicity Chair positon was open since Graham Thorsen left for Oregon, I asked if he'd be interested, and he said "Very much!". Fortunately the July party meeting-in-a-meeting provided the opportunity, and he's now our Publicity Chair. The saga of Bill Chew, "LPSCC Communications Director," the more respectable sounding title he'll be giving out to the media, now begins. Bill says he intends to develop "a cable show and an internet radio and video broadcast capability" for us, as well as the traditional posting of Libertarian news and announcements to all of the local newspapers and electronic media.
Rose Wiegley To Energize Speakers Bureau
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
Rose Wiegley, newly arrived Libertarian and Toastmaster member from Idaho, has been appointed to relieve Ron Berti as Speakers Bureau Manager. Ron will continue to give speeches for the party when called upon. Rose is determined to develop a very active and competent Libertarian speaker community outreach program. In a memo to candidates and several volunteers she wrote:
To give all of you an idea of what I'm aiming at with the bureau here is a short description of my goals and plans. Please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions to rwiegley@yahoo.com.
Three-month starter goals:
- Have at least 3 speakers, each with a well prepared speech on a different subject.
- Give 6 speeches in the next 3 months (1 in Aug, 2 in Sept, 3 in Aug)
- Use the feedback and questions from giving the speeches to improve their impact and quality.
- Create research files on 3 hot issues (Social Security, Gun Control, Drugs, or ?)
- Create a database of organizations to contact for speeches. (Contact info, what issues are important to them, how did they react to previous speeches, etc)
- Create a Web page for publicity and accessing our research files, organization database, etc.
- At the end of October evaluate the current setup and set new goals.
Which of the following activities are you interested in helping with:
- Giving speeches
- Speech helper (Go to the speech to record, hand out material, provide moral support, etc)
- Speech Evaluator (Listen to and give feedback on speeches before they are given)
- Research (Creating topic specific files on topics to help speakers build speeches and answer questions.)
- Publicity (Gathering information on local organizations, scheduling speakers)
- Web Site (Creating a public web site for advertising, creating a private web site for communication)"
New leader Rose Wiegley
Rose held her first Speakers Bureau Meeting at Cocos on Aug. 13 and demonstrated her leadership and speaking skill with a very creative speech designed to appeal to Episcopalians. And she's lost no time to use it. She's already asked for a chance to give it at a Mountain View Church!
Tools To Help You Help Us Grow The Party
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
We Desperately Need To Grow The Party Faster!
LPSCC registrations are at record high levels, but are still far far below where they must be to engender viable Libertarian candidates or affect Republocrat races enough to get real media coverage and public attention. To get to that point we must grow from 0.76% of the electorate to at least ten times that. Fortunately our registrations have been growing rather than shrinking, but if we continue to grow at the rate we've been growing -- about 5% to 10% per year -- it will take another 24 to 47 years (see chart below) to get that needed 10X growth! As the chart shows, we must grow 20% or more annually if we are to achieve 10X in 6 to 12 years.
%/yr growth: 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20% 22% 24% 26% 28% 30% 32% 34% 36% 38% 40% approx yrs: 47 39 34 30 27 24 20 18 16 14 12.75 11.75 10.75 10 9.25 8.75 8.25 7.75 7.45 7.15 6.85
We Need Your Help To Do It!
I don't see how that can happen without you and the other readers of this newsletter doing your share to spread our highly appealing Libertarian message using time-saving inexpensive tools and methods now available or in development and test. We Libertarians are presently too few to put up the advertising money that might do it without any outreach or contact with prospects by us. And many prospects need to see flesh and blood Libertarians or require personal contact and handy forms to motivate them to sign up.
So will you please do your share of outreach to grow the party using your choice of one of our time-efficient methods?
The Many Ways And Tools You Have To Choose From
At your request, the following free tools and supplies and methods of outreach with written instructions or personal training, as applicable, are presently, or in the near future will be made available to you for advertising, polling, informing, and recruiting the public:
Easiest, Cheapest, And Therefore Highest Priority Ad Method Is Car Signs
Car signs provide free party advertising whenever you're out in traffic. They come in several forms:
Possible window sign design based on bumper sticker from national LP
OE Cards Give You The Most Bang For Your Time And Your Party's Money
Second priority is Operation Everyone (OE) cards because passing them takes nearly no time, is pleasant -- even enjoyable, you can do it if you choose any day of the year, and they are inexpensive and are compact and easy for recipients to put in purse or pocket for later reading. They are designed with just the essential soundbite level of information needed to inform people who already lean Libertarian that there is a party that has their views, and to give them the contact information visit our Web site to confirm it and to register and/or join the LP. They also will cause others to become curious, and start the journey toward Libertarianism. They are also useful for leaving on cars, but their primary purpose is to enable all Libertarians -- thus the Everyone in OE -- to be what I call "Micromissionaries" by passing cards to friendlies they meet in their normal daily activities, ideally without having to say more than nothing at all or something like "Hello, here's something you may find interesting." The fact that the OE method doesn't require members to take time away from their normal daily life to go to a booth, table, or other site at some specified day or time, but can be done any day, any time, is why it can be so appealing to our busiest members. The author averages 3 OE or car cards (see later description) per day. That's over 1000 per year. They cost between 2 and 2.5 cent each, depending on quantity. Imagine if every one of our 600+ members did the same we'd have 600,000 cards out to the public at a cost of $12,000, which isn't far above our present budget. And at 1% of recipients registering Libertarian, we'd double our numbers annually and be a force that couldn't be ignored in 4 to 5 years!
The latest design of the OE card, which is about to be tested is available. It has 3 elements:
New Operation Everyone card front
New Operation Everyone card back
We plan to put 4 of these cards into the next paper version of our newsletter, due out in October. Will you pass yours out and let us kow you did, so we can assess the hit rate the new card engenders?
Wear Garment Signs When You'll Be Seen By Many
Garment signs are an easy inexpensive way to advertise when shopping or walking in any busy traffic place where one is seen a lot. They take no time away from your normal pursuits and are reusable, so average cost per use is low. The most common garment signs are on T shirts and sweat shirts -- with sign on front, back or both, and on caps -- baseball and golf styles. Our Membership Chair, Roger Ver, demonstrated last year that college students were attracted to register at high rates by the offer of free T-shirts with a Libertarian message. He got 50 registrations in just 5 hours by this method. At the low quantity price he obtained, $4, and considering the advertising benefit of students wearing these walking ads around campus, this looks like a very attractive way to add new Libertarians who will be voting LP for many years to come.
To capitalize on this method LPSCC members are needed to go to campuses during the day when colleges are in session and recruit students until some Libertarian students are found who will do the job. Also we need to log the names of T-shirt recruits, and compare them with names of registered Libertarians a year or two later to see if they're still there or if it was the lure of freebies and not the LP philosophy that prompted their joining. We may want to ask for a small donation like $1 to help weed out the uncommitted if a high percentage of dropouts occur.
Caps cost almost the same as T-shirts, and have far less area for a message. But some members won't wear T-shirts, and will wear hats. What's your preference?
Sweat shirts cost considerably more than T-shirts, but are good for winter wear, and probably more members would wear them. Would you?
Public OE Card Handout Is Simple, Easy, And Effective
OE cards were designed for daily personal outreach to friends or friendly strangers without the need to take time away from normal pursuits. But when you have the time, by going to high traffic areas like shopping malls, college campuses, and DMV offices, you can use the OE cards to reach out to 100 strangers per hour! For some such venues, the party will need to provide you with a permit. But in a test at a market mall Longs Drugstore, there was no security guard, and no permit was requested although our full poster-table was setup next to Longs' door. To put shoppers in a receptive mood, you just say "How're you doing today?" or "How are you?" in an upbeat voice, and then hand them a card. In the test, Dan Weisberg, with no prior experience, but using this technique found that at least 60% accepted the card. It's unlikely a brochure would get so many takers. A card is easy to stow in a pocket or purse.
Poster-Table With Card Handout And Registration Forms
Setting up portable table with posters and handing out cards designed for that purpose has two advantages over just card OE card handout. The 3 posters advertise our messages to all passers by, whether card takers or not, and those persuaded can be registered on the spot. However it is more trouble unless you have your own poster table setup. Cost is about $30 - $50 for a camper or card table, and $10 to $200 for posters, depending on whether they are hand made by tiling or professionally printed. For anyone willing to use one frequently, the cost of a personal poster-table would be money well spent. One day last year at the Santa Clara DMV, Roger Ver registered 13 and handed out 600 cards in just 9 hours! Poster tables can be a serious growth mechanism, and a rewarding experience for you when you sign up new people. If interested, let us know.
Same Plus Political Homeless Opinion Survey And Chart
By adding the "Political Homeless" Opinion Survey (commonly called "the quiz") and putting up an easily visible Nolan Chart with color dots showing where quiz takers have scored, members of the public are attracted by the activity and chart dot patterns showing relative political views in the Liberal, Libertarian, Conservative, nad Authoritarian quadrants. And those willing to take the quiz can be more strongly influenced, causing a small but significant percentage to register LP. This requires substantially more effort by Libertarian volunteer reps -- typically at least two are needed at one time. And experience has shown that only at fairs and festivals, when people are in a leisure mood, will significant numbers take the time to do the quiz. In initial tests at the Santa Clara DMV, we had a chart up on an easel, but people were apparently in a hurry, and quiz takers were. So we dropped its use on future tests.
Party Recognition Polling Is Easiest To Do But Requires Interpretation Of Answers
This kind of polling requires only your residential phone book covering a part of our county. An Excel table will be made available to you for asking questions and entering pollees reached and their answers in a consistent format. This will enable statistical analysis and comparison of results between different pollers, and most importantly, to see if there is measurable improvement in future years. Two basic parameters are measured: (1) LP name knowledge sufficient to know the LP exists without prompting; (2) Unprompted knowledge of what the LP stands for -- small government, low taxes, and high social AND economic freedom for individuals and, by extensions, organizations. Any comments that approximate these principles are accepted as a positive for (2). If we don't see significant annual improvement in the percentage scoring positive on (1) and (2), we will know that we need to find ways to improve our methods of outreach.
Polling New Libertarians
Amazingly, I've not seen or heard of anyone in the LP polling new Libertarians to find out what they did right to get them to go LP. This is like being a marketing company without market research. It's like flying blind or driving with a dirty windshield. How do you know which kinds of outreach to continue to pursue, or what to try to improve, if you don't know how well what you have been doing is working? New Libertarian polling is pretty easy. I supply you an Excel spread sheet with names and phone numbers of new paid members, a box with dialog to use, and multiple choice answer category cells to check depending on what your told (May require interpretation. Can be done from home phone. It's fun to talk to newcomers!
Will you do it?
Letter Of Resignation From Lpc Representative Tom Spielbauer
by Thomas Spielbauer
former State ExCom Representative
I recently resigned as Region 43 representative to the LPC Executive Committee. The reasons that I have resigned are several. The reason which is at the core of my decision to leave the Excom is that I no longer feel that I can make a difference to the Party at this time, at least in the capacity of a state or local officer.
When I first ran for Excom in 1998, I pledged to make every meeting. I kept that pledge. However, after re-election in January, I missed two meetings in a row. That caused me to reflect, even though I had valid reasons for not having attended.
I stood for the Libertarian Party when I ran for judge this past March. My candidacy helped the Party as I stood for Libertarian principles in a non-partisan race. The media could not summarily dismiss the Libertarian philosophy as it is so wont to do in partisan races. It had to look at Libertarianism, although it concluded in my race that Libertarians do not make good judges.
My campaign in the 2000 primaries took more out of me than I had initially thought. However, it also made me realize how little a number of Libertarians appreciate the individuals who contribute to the party and who truly attempt to make a difference. When Allen Rice wrote his e-mail many months ago and described us as squabbling middle-aged men, he struck a chord. He was right.
During the time I have been with Region 43, I have seen genius and commitment, unlike I have seen in other organizations. I have also seen petty squabbling and petty personal animosities continuously interfere and impede the greater goals which we have declared ourselves as striving to accomplish.
A person who readily comes to mind is our current Chair, Marv Rudin. His commitment, determination to accomplish results, and his intelligence, is phenomenal. Yet, rarely is he recognized for it.
I have a two year old daughter who more and more is wanting daddy to be around. I found myself balancing the time spent away from my daughter and the good that my time and energy rendered to the party, and society as a whole. I felt little was accomplished by the time, energy and talent which I contributed, although I am deeply grateful for those who supported me.
Opportunities for Libertarian greatness abound. All that is needed is for the leadership of our party to be open to it, knowing that the opportunity may not come in the form that they would like it to.
One such opportunity, both to make a bold stand for our principles as well as to stand for one of our very own candidates came in the form of Steve and Michelle Kubby in 1998. I was vocal in saying that we needed to vigorously go to Steve Kubby's defense. The most effective way of accomplishing this, and putting the Libertarian Party on the political map, was to initiate a recall against the District Attorney of Placer County. I was willing to be a co-leader in that effort, and Marv Rudin was willing to seek out potential funding sources. Instead, rather than permitting a preliminary exploration to examine viability, fear and complacency struck, and the LPC created a blue ribbon committee whose function was to put the idea to sleep. I know. I was elected to the blue ribbon committee during its waning days.
Now, almost two years later, we have lost Peter McWilliams. Steve and Michelle Kubby are still facing prosecution. Nothing else has changed. Our inaction, and the justifications for it, certainly has not gained us any kind of political respect.
I mention opportunity in order to exhort future leaders to be open to the future possibilities which will lead to Libertarian growth, and which will surely come. These opportunities generally are disguised by the circumstances in which they come. It takes courage and creativity to face these situations. However, the good news is that we have within our party the talent and genius necessary to effectively utilize these opportunities. We only need to give those with vision the opportunity to lead, and encourage vision within those who currently lead.
I thank you for having given me your trust and confidence in permitting me to serve as your Region 43 representative to the LPC. Jascha Lee will take over the duties of Region 43 representative. He brings a high level of commitment, wisdom and experience to this office.
Editor's Note
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
By mutual agreement between Chair and Newsletter Chair, the Chair will edit electonic editions in August, September, November, December, and Newsletter Chair will edit paper editions in October and January.
So send articles to one of us or the other depending on the edition you are targeting. Priority on articles is on local party or political happenings, not Libertarian philosophy.
Free Food!
Libertarian Picnic Sunday, August 20, noon to 3:00 PM. Mark your calendar!
Join us for a Sunday picnic in the park. On August 20th the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County will host a picnic at Sanborn Park in the foothills above Saratoga. We'll be grilling burgers and hot dogs and serving beer and wine. Come meet your local candidates and fellow libertarians and win liberty-related prizes in our raffle!
Spouses, family, kids, and non-Libertarians are all welcome. This will be a great chance to introduce your friends to the Libertarian party and to discuss issues among friends.
DIRECTIONS: From Saratoga, proceed 2 miles west on Highway 9 to Sanborn Road. Turn left onto Sanborn Road, traveling 1 mile to the park entrance.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP to our website at http://lpty.org/picnic or, if you don't have web access, call the Albrechts at (408) 292-4880. Directions with a map to Sanborn park are available on the website or via phone. We hope to see you there!
Spread The Word
by Marv Rudin
LPSCC Chair
Please spread the word there's a party offering to slash taxes and restore freedom. It's easy and fun with new free tools! (see this issue's article "Tools To Help You Help Us Grow The Party") And you can sleep better knowing you're doing your part to get the faster growth your party so urgently needs.
Officers
| Chairman | Marv Rudin | (408) 736-5626 | rudin@lpty.org |
| Vice Chairman | Bill Carr | (408) 507-2300 | william_r_carr@yahoo.com |
| Secretary | James Aven | (408) 436-7992 | james@AvenEstate.com |
| Treasurer | Jon Hugdahl | (650) 965-3744 | jon@NoMoreTax.com |
| Membership | Roger Ver | (408) 313-1853 | roger_ver@hotmail.com |
| Campaign | Ray Strong | (408) 268-8466 | hrstrong@hotmail.com |
| Publicity | Bill Chew | (408) 999-0725 | |
| Fundraising | Frank Groffie | (408) 935-9652 | fgroffie@aol.com |
| Activities | Dana Albrecht | (408) 292-4880 | orfeo@morality.virtue.org |
| Newsletter | Jascha Lee | (831) 471-2551 | jascha@sebastian.com |
| State ExCom Rep | Jascha Lee | (831) 471-2551 | jascha@sebastian.com |
| Judicial Committee | Paul Rako | paul@rako.com | |
| Richard Relph | richard@netgate.net | ||
| Allen Rice | puffed3@aol.com |
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651 Princeton Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
For further information, call (408) 736-5626 or see our Web page at http://www.sc.ca.lp.org or http://www.lpty.org. This is the publication of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County, a non-profit political organization.
The Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County Membership Application
Please print out and mail with payment to:
Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County
663 South Bernardo Avenue
PMB 107
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Please Print
| Name: | ______________________________________________________ |
| Address: | ______________________________________________________ |
| City/State/Zip: | ______________________________________________________ |
| Phone: | ______________________________________________________ |
| E-mail: | ______________________________________________________ |
| I choose to set my dues at: | ||
| $25 | Basic | ________________ |
| $100 | Sustaining | ________________ |
| $250 | Sponsor | ________________ |
| $500 | Patron | ________________ |
| $1000 | Life | ________________ |
| Plus an additional contribution to the LPSCC: | ||
| $___________ | Monthly pledge | ________________ |
| $___________ | One-time donation | ________________ |
| Total: | ________________ | |
| Payment Method | |
| ___________ | Check payable to "Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County" |
| ___________ | VISA |
| ___________ | MasterCard |
| Credit Card #: | ____________________________________ |
| Expiration Date: | ____________________________________ |
| Cardholder Name: | ____________________________________ |
| Signature: | ____________________________________ |
The Libertarian Party is the party of principle. To assure and affirm that our party never strays from its principles, we request our members to sign the pledge below. (Non-signers cannot vote on party business).
I hereby certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.
Signature: ______________________________________________