FSP Ops Report - 7/3/05

FSP Operations Report – 7/03/05

President
- Resumed Ops meetings, first meeting went great, scheduled for 2nd Tuesday of each month before Board meets on 3rd Sunday
- Clarified FSP mission with Ops Team
- Solicited feedback from Ops Team about Volunteer Coordinator - Dan McGuire and Tim Baumann suggested - will talk with each at PorcFest and find out who will best fill the role
- Solicited job description updates and staff directory info from Ops Team
- Planning for outreach at upcoming Freedom Summit & Rand Camp
- Asked Ops Team to look at strategic goals on the website & think about how their dept contributes to the strategic goals. Think about goals for depts.
Participant Services (Brian S)
- Continue discussions with Jean, Neil and Varrin about the evolving role of the FSP News and the Quill
- FSP News will be consistently released every month on 15th
- Develop the FSP News within its simple email format
- Revise the Participant Services page(s) on the website to provide more depth of information, options and links to relevant areas
- Raise the level of Participant awareness, participation and retention
Advertising (Bob H)
- Radio: Free Talk Live
- Libertarian Party Newsletters (print): CA CO MD NJ VA
- Web:
  - Google Ad Words "Freedom"
  - This is True(mailing list)
  - Podcast Alley
- College classifieds
  - Boston University MA
  - Northeastern University MA
  - University of Mass. MA
  - Columbia University NY
  - SUNY - Buffalo NY
  - SUNY - Albany NY
  - Syracuse University NY
  - University of Delaware DE
  - University of Maryland MD
  - Rutgers University NJ
  - Penn State University PA
  - Temple University PA
  - University of Pittsburgh PA
  - George Mason University VA
  - University of Virginia VA
  - Virginia Commonwealth University VA
  - Virginia Tech VA
  - West Virginia University WV
Speakers Bureau (Phil D)
- Tried to cover as many of the LP conventions as possible.
- Had a number of speaking engagements.
- WV LP Convention needs someone (maybe me).
- Trevor Snyder to Revoluticon in Oct.
Events (Sandy P)
- Went through list of outstanding LP conventions in 2005; sent emails to assorted LP officers
- Tried unsuccessfully to get a volunteer to the Alabama LP convention
- Tried unsuccessfully to get a volunteer to a weeklong event at the Independent Institute in NorCal
- Tried repeatedly to find out if we should have a vendor table at Freedom Summit; have scrapped that
- Met lots of Porcs in person in NH; more events coming
- observed NH Free's civil disobedience at Manchester Airport; they are making every effort not to use the FSP name, even on their discussion forum
- Amanda Phillips at Freedom Summit in a week
- NorCal group will participate, unofficially, in San Francisco Gay Pride Parade in a week
- At present I have no access to membership database
- Will call Seth Cohn to discuss design of Events database
- Will look into OPH, write boilerplate to send to FSP volunteers prior to events
- Will start compiling list of past events (haven't been tracking this so far, except for LP conventions)
- Will join PorcFest list and see if I can provide assistance to Varrin re: publicizing PorcFest
PorcFest (Varrin S)
1. Details of Laser Tag have been firmed up and appear on the schedule
2. 2A activites have now been fairly clearly described to me. Mon-Thurs there will be various activities at the sand pit organized by Bill Walker and assisted by various helpers he has recruited. That needs to be added into the schedule. Friday, Tony Lekas is teaching intro to shooting for beginners which has already been added to the schedule.
3. Details of Michael Badnarik's constitution classes have been mostly firmed up. One will be held Saturday, the 23rd in Concord (probably at the State House). The other wil be held at Roger's Campground in the hall on Wednesday. Both of those need to be updated on the schedule page and announced.
4. Edwina has lined up tour guides for most of the NH towns that people have indicated an interest in. The 'organized' tours will be mostly on Thursday the 28th. Details for each tour will be provided upon checkin at the welcome tent.
5. The RLC contingent for the Parties promoting freedom session has been determined. Phil Blumel (alternate Board Member) and Bill Westmiller (National Chair) will be presenting. Bill need's to be announced and both need to be added to the schedule.
6. The oft discussed polyamory social has been added to the schedule. The seekers gathering has been eliminated from the schedule. That leaves just three of our community groups offering organized meetings at this time: Polyamory (Fri eve), Atheists (Sun morn), and Christians (Sun morn).
7. The Saturday speaker lineup is done (whew!).
8. LP news upgraded our June spot to full color (thank you LP!). Our advertising for this year's fest consisted of 3x LP News ads, 1x Reason Magazine, and 1x NHToDo. Thanks again to Mike Puschaver for producing the ads!
9. I've reconfirmed that Ken Colby is providing the sound system for the hall. Bob Hull will have his portable sound system available. Poker Face will have their sound system set up for Friday night at the Pavillion. We would like to figure out a way to broad cast the audio from the hall to the Pavillion on Saturday (~100 yards?). Anyone with a reliable cost effective solution, please contact me.
10. Publicity is ramping up finally. Morey Straus and Seth Cohn have agreed to help out, and Steve Cobb has pitched in his proofreading talents. They may need assistance with distribution.
11. There will be a 8.5" x 5.5" full color program given to each attendee upon checkin. I have solicited advertising to pay for the printing. I believe we're close to having the whole cost of it covered. Any additional advertising leads are appreciated. Prices range from $30 (banner) to $150 (half page - 4"x5"). The deadline for payment and art submission is June 30th. Contact me for details.
12. Though I have yet to commit to any kind of involvement in Porc Fest '06, I'd like to make sure that the '06 team is in the best possible position to have a great festival. In order to do that, we should begin discussing dates for 2006 right now so that we can make reservations early and get the cabins and hall for all the right dates. (Yes, I'm starting '06 planning and '05 hasn't even happened yet ;)
13. During the festival, we'll need helpers for various tasks like staffing the welcome tent, the FSP merchandise table, hall set-up (at least twice). Anyone who wants to help, please *do*! :)
14. As of today, the We'll Be There list is at 281, a 58% increase from last year's festival. We're not sure yet but this may well wind up being the best attended libertarian event in 2005... ;)
Community Liaisons (Chris H)
- We presently have 20 LLs with many categories open for additional LLs. Of the 20 presently filled categories, 12 have websites. Some of the LLs are quite active with back and fourth communication on the websites.
- I definitey need to be more proactive in recruiting LLs to fill the vacancies. My plan is to advertise on our site for members to get involved. You might remember that I had planned to have a LIAISON CORNERS on the FSP site. Well, that is coming to fruition and I want to have advertisements in other areas on the FSP as well. Will talk with Tom Parker when he gets back from vacation and get this handled.
- In general, I am not pleased with liaison activity and will work towards more activity in the coming months.
NH Info (Seth C)
- Spun off Welcome Wagon to Margot with mixed resistance from some existing WW members. (was on my Jan-March goal list for NH Info)
- Contacted Bill Dampier prior to his article about the FSP and ensured that he didn't repeat incorrect myth-understandings and that he explain the FSP relationship to those doing activism, etc.
- Sending out Newsletter on monthly basis. Now in Brian's hands, but still technically involved. Activist Army - preparing and sending out AA assignments thru April 19th. Done.
- In the middle of changing NH Info webpage from single long page to a group of pages. New focus is 5 parts: 1) Why NH for the FSP? 2) Why NH for you? 3) How to visit NH? 4) How to find a job/apartment/etc to be able to move? 5) Ok, I'm here, now what? (How to get connected)
- Publicity for PorcFest
- Arranging Michael Badnarik classes before/during PorcFest time
- Continued delayed goal: Begin regular 'newsfeed' of NH related Activity to allow people to know what is happening. Revamping the website to allow this should happen first for best results.
- Delayed goal: Prepare business focused 'Why NH?' document to hand out. Needs volunteer.
Golden Porcupine (Phil D)
- 4 people qualified for the GP.
- Verifications done by Kat Dillon.
- Certificates mailed out by Joel.
- Joel Rauch turned over GP program to Phil Denisch.
- Purchased 30 GP pins (no cost to FSP), sent to 4 current qualifiers.
- Received blank certificates from Joel.
- Kate Rick to perform verifications (my assumption - have not contacted her directly, yet).
- Pondered ways to promote the program.
- Need some sort of advertising to participants.
- Is it too late to get special recognition for them at the PorcFest?
Development (Varrin S)
1. Donations logged for May were $6857.41. That included an estimated value of $3,000.00 for two months of radio advertising on http://todayshottestmusic.com. It is likely that we would not have spent that money out of our budget without that donation and its true value (in terms of sign-ups) remains unknown. Without that contribution, receipts were $3857.41 in cash and in-kind contributions (items that would have been reimbursed from FSP funds). That represents a steady decrease from the previous two months.
2. The total receipts from the fundraising letter to FSP participants and the two outreach mailings (MA Libertarians and Badnarik supporters) exceeded $20,000 and the drive was 'officially' ended.
3. Brian Sullivan assisted this month in several ways including continuing to email thank-yous to paypal donors and writing the website thank you page for the fundraising period. Many thanks for his help.
4. The donor thank-you and recognition program continues to produce good results. We have had many repeat donors and many donors step up their levels of donation. We now have 16 large ($500+) donors who have been invited to the Leadership Luncheon at Porc Fest. It appears all of the FSP leadership except for one of the department heads will be present.
5. Chris Lawless continued to work on affiliate programs, though no new programs were initiated. Thanks to Chris for his work.
6. No substantially new activity is planned (or has been accomplished so far) for June. Receipts appear to be significantly down.
7. There will be fundraising activity at Porc Fest. Items for the raffle and/or silent auction have already been offered and I will be soliciting more over the coming weeks (leads appreciated). Ideally, the net proceeds from Porc Fest fundraising will be earmarked for Porc Fest '06.
8. Further fund raising efforts will be evaluated after Porc Fest.
9. Sometime soon, we need to produce a higher quality sales piece for use in direct mail appeals (both for new participants and new donors). It appears unlikely that I'll have substantial time to work on that project until October. I could, however, oversee and/or participate in a less pivotal role in the production of such a piece between now and then. Barring one or more experienced and motivated volunteers, I would recommend hiring a professional designer / advertising person to produce the piece (with our help). Once we have a suitable piece designed, we should do another mailing to one of several targeted lists which we can obtain.
Merchandise (Phil D)
- Heather Talley doing shipping (She was a little bit behind - personal and medical issues)
- Have not received Heather's report from last month on sales. (Will get it in a few days)
- May Approx: 11 sales, avg sale $20, total gross $330
- Added documents (FSP Tri-folds) package to store page.
- Added Netflix affiliation to store page (Steve's idea) (We could use a person to coordinate all the affiliation programs (iGive, Netflix, LFB, Amazon, etc.) Where we are:
- Heather is back up to speed on shipping.
- We did sell one Porcupine Xing sign this month!
- Providing monthly donation details from PayPal account to Fundraising dept. (ongoing, since Mar.)
- June current: 8 sales, avg sale $15, total gross $120
- Pocket Constitutions and Puzzle Key chains (top sellers)
- Tee Shirts and Bumper Stickers (close second)
- Hemp Blend golf shirts to be added shortly (Heather is getting photos for us)
- Spazzy Porc Bumpers stickers to be added shortly
- Possible new item suggestions:
  - Hats
  - Wooden nickels
  - Rubber/silicone bracelets
  - Mountain View Bumper Sticker
  - Car emblems
  - Buttons (I could get a machine and make them as needed - might be a good way to try new designs)
  - Blankets stadium style acrylic (rather expensive-minimum order 300 @ ~$20 each - but fitting solution for those who complain about the cold :)
  - Buck knives (Evan Nappen has details)
- PorcFest merchandise all taken care of (except raffle tickets, working on them), most of the items are at Varrin's for transport to PorcFest (Posters, Shirts, Tote bags).
- Regular FSP merchandise will be transported to the PorcFest by Heather. We need to provide people to do the sales - she will be busy selling Bureaucrash items. (I'll do it if I have to, but I'd rather hear the speakers on Saturday, if I can - Working with Varrin to find volunteers).