Meeting of 11 June, 2016 | Libertarian Party of San Francisco

Meeting of 11 June, 2016

1. Welcome – Introductions 3:05-3:10

2. Activist Reports – Past & Future 3:11-3:30

3. Announcements 3:31-3:50

4. Membership/Newsletter Report 3:51-3:55

5. Treasurer’s Report (Bank & PayPal) 3:56-4:00

6. LP National Convention Report 4:01-4:15

7. June Primary Election Wrap-up 4:16-4:30

8. Pride (June 25-26) 4:31-4:50

9. November Election Ballot Measures Preview 4:51-5:00

Libertarian Party of San Francisco Minutes of Meeting Saturday, June 11, 2016

Members present: Aubrey Freedman (Chair), Leslie Mangus (Treasurer), Francoise Fielding (recording), Starchild (arrived 3:50 pm) and Phil Berg (arrived 4:10 pm)

1. Welcome – Introductions

We skipped this because there were no guests.

2. Activist Reports – Past & Future

Leslie reported that he voted Libertarian. Aubrey reported that he sent out the newsletter, was a delegate to the Libertarian National Convention and did an interview with KTSF (Channel 26) a few weeks ago explaining the Libertarian position against Props A, C and AA.

3. Announcements

Plan Bay Area 2040 is back again. Proponents are doing a hearing/open house this Tuesday June 14th from 6:30- 8:30 pm at the Hotel Whitcomb, 1231 Market St. Aubrey is going and bringing flyers to pass out.

Golden Gate Liberty Revolution is having its monthly meeting on Monday June 20th from 7-9 pm at the Moshka Life Center, 405 Sansome St

This year the State party will have a booth at the CA State Fair from July 8-24 in Sacramento. They are looking for volunteers.

Randall O’Toole, one of the speakers last year at our annual tax event, is going to be in SF next month for a day and a half (July 12-13) at an event called Free Market Road (sponsored by an Austrian group). Aubrey thought we could go out for dinner with him while he is here. Randall is very interested in free market housing and he is trying to get a Fair Housing lawsuit started against government restrictions on housing (which hurts minorities). So far he has not been able to get any groups interested in it. He will also be working on that while he is here. Aubrey will post details of his visit on the lpsf-activists list. There will be no Free Exchange in July but on October 1st, Walter Block, the noted economist, will be the speaker.

 4. Membership/Newsletter Report

As of this month we have 20 lifetime and 20 regular members. We are down 1 from last month. Aubrey sent out 245 newsletters. He got 2 coments, no      new subscribers and 2 unsubscribe requests. Aubrey said that when he gets new email addresses from guests who attend our meetings he adds them to the list.

5. Treasurer’s Report (Bank & PayPal)

As of June 10th, we had $5,659.11 in our bank and Paypal   accounts. Today Leslie wrote a check to Aubrey for the post card mailing and an ad in the Golden Gate Xpress in the amount of $696, and to Marcy for Facebook LPSF Panel Discussion and June Elections ads in the amount of  $177.  That takes us down to $4,786.11.  Pride is in in 2 weeks. Aubrey will submit his expenses immediately afterwards and asked Leslie to write the check and transfer the money from our Paypal account by June 30th so there is one less political schedule to file.

6. LP National Convention Report

Aubrey reported that the convention was very contentious. Gary Johnson wanted Weld to be his VP. It took two rounds for Johnson to get to 50%. Things were even more divisive with respect to the vice-presidential election. One of the candidates for Chair of the Party took all his clothes except his underpants off when he gave his speech. We got good media attention so a number of people were upset that this had happened and that it would get reported. Our position on the death penalty (we oppose the administration of the death penalty by the State) was added to the Platform without a rationale. Our platform used to include our principle, the rationale and the incremental steps we recommended. For the first time you didn’t have to pay for the main events if you were a delegate. Starchild reported that he did 10 interviews. The after-parties were not as abundant as in previous years.  Starchild played Cards against Humanity for the first time. (Apparently someone has done a libertarian expansion set although that was not played at this event).  Starchild also reported that he was elected to the LNC. His main issues are more transparency and accountability.  Starchild got a scholarship to YIMNBY (Yes in My Neighborhood) so he is going to Boulder this weekend.

7. June Primary Election Wrap-up

All the propositions on the ballot in San Francisco passed. So did the State proposition. The registration for the election was low (about 468,000). Voter turnout in San Francisco was 48%. The Libertarian turnout was 27%. Democrats turned out well: 56%. The Greens were at 35% and the Republicans at 43%. Of the people who voted libertarian, 725 registered Libertarians voted. There were also 405 voters who voted Libertarian from Decline to State. Clinton received 55% of the vote in San Francisco and  Sanders 44% . Statewide the ratio was 55% to 43%. Sanders got the extreme Northern part of the State (from Santa Rosa on up) and as well as the coastal San Luis Obispo area and then the extreme Eastern part of the State. Gary Johnson got 51-52% of the Libertarian vote even though the convention had already taken place and he was already the Libertarian nominee.  Kamala Harris got 70% of the vote in SF for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat with Loretta Sanchez in 2nd place.  Richard Winger says this might help in the “top 2” fight.  Gail Lightfoot got 2%. The race between Jane Kim and Scott Weiner  was close but  Weiner emerged the winner.  Four counties in the Bay Area did not vote for proposition AA in the numbers required but it will still be binding on them.

 8. Pride (June 25-26)  Pride is coming up in 2 weeks. Aubrey ordered the wheel. We discussed possible prizes. They include buttons (if this option is chosen, Starchild has offered to host a button-making session at his house- date  undetermined- and Françoise has offered to pick up the  button making machine from Marcy if she decides not to  attend). Another option suggested by Starchild is fortune cookies with freedom–related messages inside. Starchild has a list of messages we can use. He will find out if this can be done in time for Pride.

Aubrey suggested we also need something to help people identify our booth from far away. Several ideas for banners were suggested including a “tranny” Statue of Liberty with a large Adam’s apple, an image of a road with a gate and tracks around the gate to show how people get around government, and a picture of road-kill in the middle of the road with a yellow stripe over it to show the shoddiness of government work. Aubrey is reluctant to have a banner with an image on it because of his experience with the Bradley/Chelsea Manning banner. Also suggested was a banner with “Stonewall: Freedom for All”. There was some disagreement about whether this would be a clear message for various reasons. Phil said he would ask his best friend’s daughter if she can design the above-mentioned Statue of Liberty and will write a pamphlet about why Stonewall was a great Liberty movement. Starchild also suggested we have a video running. We would need to buy or rent a generator for this. Starchild says buying one is relatively cheap (about $300). We also discussed the use of an over the door shoe organizer with clear panels to display pamphlets at the booth since the tables will be overloaded. Francoise will research this and send the links to Aubrey. We need volunteers for the booth.

9. November Election Ballot Measures Preview

We didn’t get to this because when the meeting ended it was already 5:15 pm. Aubrey mentioned there will be a lot of propositions on the ballot including a sugar sweetened beverage tax, affordable housing measures, a measure extending the CCSF parcel tax and a proposition allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in municipal elections.