Liberty for Massachusetts
State Organizing Committee
Minutes of August 20, 2005
Present were McMahon, Phillies, Power, and See; Lombardi was present for most of
the meeting.
Phillies reported that Drobnis and Roscoe had already indicated they were
unable to attend, but that a quorum (1/3) of the committee was present.
Per Bylaws, Phillies acted as chair and interim secretary.
Power presented the Treasurer's report. Counting recent deposits, we have
$295.71 cash on hand. This agrees to the penny with the bank statement. Income
in April, May, June, and July was $379, $156, $449, and $135. We now have 19
members, counting SOC members who now need to pay dues. Five members receive
paper issues of the newsletter.
The SOC was sent a significant question. What would be our response if someone
were to file for partisan office and list 'Liberty for Massachusetts' as the
ballot line? Is there an interest in protecting our name? We could do some of
this by incorporating, but the reporting requirements following incorporation
are unfortunate. We could register our Logo the name superposed on the sunrise.
That only protects the logo. A trademark is also not effective.
It was recalled that if LfM were a major party or party designation, which we
are not, then only registered voters enrolled as Liberty for Massachusetts
voters would be allowed to run as 'Liberty for Massachusetts, and for them it
would be mandatory. However, at the present time, a person who was registered as
an Unenrolled voter would be entitled to put any three words they wished (with
minor restrictions) down as their ballot line, and 'Liberty for Massachusetts'
is three words.
It was proposed that our objective is to fix the State Libertarian Party. Where
will we be in five years? Will this matter? The Libertarian Party has name
recognition that we do not. On the other hand, there are assertions that weak
candidates have made 'Libertarian' a ballot line drag. Discussion suggested that
if someone did this there could be possible annoying consequences. For example,
if they ran for statewide office and got 3% of the vote, we would instantly
become the Commonwealth's third major party.
Anyone registered as "Libertarian" must run as "Libertarian". However, many
dues-paying members of the National Party are registered as Democrats, Greens,
Republicans, or Unenrolled. An Unenrolled voter could run as "Liberty for
Massachusetts". Indeed, in the same district we could have two candidates, say
running as left libertarian and right libertarian in policies, which should
create some press attention. Running candidates is indeed one way to advertise
our existence. After considerable discussion, it was unclear if it would be good
or bad. It was not clear that it would do any good. Our conclusion was 'we can't
stop you, but we don't yet see the point.'
Phillies noted that there is a re-legalization rally on the Boston Common on
September 17, and we are sponsoring an antiwar rally on September 25 on the
Amherst Common. The PVLA tent will appear at each one. LfM will share the PVLA
tent. Outright Libertarians was invited to join us if they didn’t want to set up
their own tent. The Free State Project is also welcome to share, though they may
instead have their own tent. The LPMA has historically had a booth at the Boston
Freedom Rally, but not at the Extravaganja (Amherst, spring) or other similar
events.
We need a banner for LfM. There was artistic design discussion. The banner will
be white vinyl, 1'x10' with metal grommets. Liberty for Massachusetts will be in
blue, covering much of the width of the banner, with a red stripe 1" or so tall
above and below it. The dot in the "i" will also be red. We will try to use the
LfM rising sun logo as the corner piece, and will try to include email addresses
in small type below the name. Phillies will send Power a copy of the rising sun.
The cost with grommets is $88.93, and this amount was appropriated. Discussion
included an alternative: blue field with white letters. However, manufacture is
by inkjet printer, and a ¼" edge will be white.
We also need handouts for the two events, one on re-legalization and one on
anti-intervention. The format of the GLBTPL flier will be followed, with the
Outreach Committee circulating new text to the Organizing Committee. Noting the
rate at which we distributed fliers at the Pride rally, 500 of each of two
fliers appeared to be a good choice.
Rob Power indicated that he will launch a new Cambridge liberty group, "Drinking
Freely", to meet monthly in a local Cambridge bar. The objective is to have a
group so large it cannot meet in his apartment, which seats 20 and stands twice
that number. Meeting substantially ended as guests arrived for the social.
Supplemental: The web site has had 130 unique visits in August, so far.
Excluding state conventions, monthly income of LfM and affiliates is now
appreciably larger than income of the LP State committee.