[LPL Board of Directors] Moving Forward and Putting Our House in Order

[Howard Kearney]

We bank at Chase bank.

-----Original Message-----
From: scc-bounces at lplouisiana.org [mailto:scc-bounces at lplouisiana.org] On
Behalf Of Daniel Hayes
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 11:16 AM
To: Mailing list for LPL State Central Committee
Subject: [LPL Board of Directors] Moving Forward and Putting Our House in
Order

Things have been very silent here for a while. Inactivity creates
complacency. Lack of communication creates inactivity. Inactivity leads to
atrophy. One thing I realized is that many people are just assuming that
since things are quiet that all is well.  Everyone assumes that "Someone"
must be taking care of things. Usually, that someone is our currently
contractless and unpaid Executive Director, even though most of what needs
taking care of does not fall into the realm of her duties.
  In the meantime..we still do not have our bank accounts transferred. 
Mr Trotter informed me that he thinks it will be completed soon, however, he
is at the mercy of other parties. Where do we even bank? I think that should
be something every member of the SCC should know.  I expect our current
Treasurer will get a grip on this eventually.  I am certainly sympathetic to
Mr Trotter's situation having been handed an abject mess, an "electronic
shoebox" of notices and links, in no certain cronological or categorical
order.  All this dropped in his lap during the lead up to his law school
finals which end Monday, May 6th, as I believe.  I have full confidence that
once he is able to direct his attentions to the matter he can get it sorted
out.  That said, its a shame things were left in that state.  We need to
insure it never happens like that again. I am sure Mr. Trotter will set the
bar and the example of how these records should be kept going forward for
his future successors.

There are still numerous references to the former leadership all over the
websites and elsewhere. Mr. Thompson has removed the ones I have noticed as
I have pointed them out, but it would be nice if we could get all our eyes
on the matter to get it straight. While it may seem trivial and I agree in
most cases it is..there are those ones such as this that I came across just
last night.

"If you would prefer to mail in your payment, please send it to:
ATTN: LPL Treasurer
9340 Davidson road
Shreveport, La. 71129"

http://www.lplouisiana.org/contribute/donation.php

Our money is still being directed to the former Treasurer. THAT is highly
disturbing.  Larger donations would likely come in check form. 
And while I expect those funds would be turned over eventually,I concern
over when. When there is this much of a lag in the transfer on the bank
accounts, and that former acting treasurer was so busy that they had to
resign the day before our SCC meeting, even though doing so potentially left
us unable to have a quorum and conduct business.

Another thing of concern is relative to the filings of our PECs with the
Secretary of State. Who is doing that? How is that being done?  I am
thinking of speaking with my PEC about contracting Mr. Richard Brown to
handle the matter for us.  Richard was the professional parlimentarian that
attended the SCC Quarterly meeting with me.  It struck me the other day that
he would be the ideal person to undertake the task. Any problems arising
from the formatting of the Minutes or By Laws or other matters would be
things he could address on the spot or come back with a plan of action for
us laid out. The only downside is, he is a professional and would have to be
paid.  I know for my PEC, that isn't a problem as they have full confidence
in him. He helped us correct and revise our by laws and guided us through
their adoption.  Our members have found his experience worth every penny.
In my life, I have found it very costly in the long wrong, to attempt to
handle matters requiring professional attention.  I suspect that if multiple
PECs did it together, it would result in some shared costs for the
research,etc.  I suspect I already know that nobody else really knows how we
are supposed to be doing this because the former Chairman seemed to be not
so forthcoming with others on how and why things are being done.  I could be
wrong as much of that was before my time. If someone DOES have a good grasp
on the process..please forward it to me as at the least it will save on some
research costs. All that said, if Mr Brown is willing to undertake this task
for my parish, at the very least I intend to contract him to make sure it
was done properly. I will be contacting the other parishes to see if they
want his assistance as well.

On another matter, I think that the calling things what they are has been
settled and we are going back to calling things what they are.  I suggest
everyone amend their own personal address book here to reflect the mailing
list for the State Central Committee and/or Mr. Thompson take care of that
here for us.
Here is another two that reflect the improper naming of our SCC. Funny, I
thought it was supposed to be for internal purposes only..yet this is a
public website..and I saw the SCC referred to in the recent LNP newspaper as
the Board.

http://www.lplouisiana.org/events/calendar/calendar.php
http://www.lplouisiana.org/events/calendar/sccCalendar.php


Also, our organization needs money with which to grow. I know many of you
already have, but I encourage every member of the SCC to become a recurring
monthly donor. It gives us fairly predictable cash flow going forward and
will allow us to budget for expenses such as a suitable contract pay for our
Executive Director.  It doesn't need to be such generous amounts as some of
our members have put forward. It needs to be an amount that you can safely
fit in your budget each month and not feel a noticeable strain. While I
certainly would like more, I think the 1776 Club is a great level for
donation. It sets you up to pay $17.76/month to the LPL. I am trying to
encourage every PEC member to do this.. 
Assuming an average of 10 members per PEC..thats 640 members once the state
is completed.  That would put us at over $11,000/month for our cash flow.
That's starting to get in a realm where we can ACTUALLY do something,
especially if we are frugal with it and don't act like politicians and spend
it before we get it. I understand that some people are students and some
people may be unemployed or underemployed, but everyone needs to decide how
important this is to them and check their budget. I have the link below for
your cut and paste convenience. Thanks to everyone that already has gotten
on the donation wagon. Its hard to expect the PECs to do it if the SCC
doesnt set the example.

"Elections are coming, the politicians are getting fat.
Won't you please put $17.76/month in the Libertarian hat.
If you don't have $17.76/month , Ten Dollars will do.
If you don't have Ten Dollars, then may God bless you."

https://secure.piryx.com/donate/3rejnkrb/Libertarian-Party-of-Louisiana/Mont
hlyPledge

This brings up, who is in charge of the Piryx account? Has it been switched?
It still shows the Former Chair and Acting Treasurer as being the contact
people for it. I am pretty sure this is one Mr. Thompson can't address.
Hopefully, Mr Trotter can get it covered next week.

I will end this here, I don't want it to turn into a 13 page memo on why I
don't like Jelly with my peanut butter on my sandwiches.  I just want to
bring to everyone's attention that things are not where they need to be.
Having spoken to more than a few people, I have learned that everyone thinks
everything is fine but are not aware of what needs to be done much less who
would be handling the matter.  This email is not intended to just be a big
gripe.  This is a call to action.  We have matters to address and its up to
us to address it.  Even if it's "not your job"..go out of your way to look
for things that need to be put in order such as the unchanged donation
address and bring it to the proper person's attention.
Before we can make an impact on this state, we must put our on house in
order and not assume someone else is doing it. We need to take "Personal
Responsibility".


Daniel Hayes
Jefferson Parish Representative to the LSCC Membership Officer for the
Jefferson Parish LPEC LPL Finance Committee Member Unoffical Rabble Rouser
and Cage Rattler

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