News Archives – 2001

(NOTE: Some of these older links might not work)

(NOTE: Links with ??? are not functional.)

August 4th, 2001

Website launched today! Much thanks to Larry Myers for working on the cheap and revealing all the shortcuts. We will be adding a poll function tomorrow.

August 8th, 2001

Founder Jason has written a follow up article to his original announcement. It can be found here:
FSP Update
I'm currently accepting suggestions for an official FSP motto. I'm thinking of something like "Freedom in our lifetime". If I get a number of good submissions I'll put it to a poll.

The State Data page has been updated with another column of numbers
I added a 'How to help' page to hopefully accelerate our membership. Please start spreading the word and email me your strategies!

August 10th, 2001

IMPORTANT: This site will soon be switching to www.freestateproject.com. I will announce when the moving day arrives. In any case the cjb.net page will remain active with a link to the new domain name.

Good to see lots of activity in the club. I added a guestbook and a form to email the page link around. Feel free to make use of either.
I added more info to the State Data page and separated it into two charts of General and Economic data.

The first poll has concluded, here are the final results from 8-01 to 8-09:

If you had to move tomorrow which state would you prefer? Wyoming 9 (13%), Vermont 2 (3%), Alaska 10 (15%), New Hampshire 8 (12%), Delaware 6 (9%), Rhode Island 0 (0%), Maine 2 (3%), New Mexico 10 (15%), Nevada 11 (16%), Other 8 (12%), 66 Total votes

We are in the process of fine tuning the statement of intent and participation guidelines. Please take the time to voice your opinions by completing Jason's polls on this page, or email him your specific comments.

The first draft of the Manifesto has been written. Since I have never written a manifesto before, any feedback would be much appreciated.

I have decided on the motto "Liberty in our Lifetime" as the subheading for all things FSP. Its short and alliterates nicely and highlights the difference between us and the traditional LP strategy, i.e. we're avoiding the indefinitely long timeframe. However its not set in stone and other ideas are welcome.

August 18th, 2001

I have returned from Los Angeles and can now re-immerse myself in the FSP. As you undoubtedly noticed upon loading up the old cjb.net page, you were redirected to this, our new official domain: www.freestateproject.com. No more tripod pop-ups, hooray.
Note: it has come to my attention that if you use Internet Explorer and follow the link from the original page the address line in your browser will still say .cjb.net, even though you are actually at the .com site.

Please update your links and begin advertising this site in force, I remember telling a few of you to wait for the transition before doing so. This will be the permanent page for the foreseeable future. Much thanks to Robert Mayer and his accomplices for providing the free hosting!

Our membership is now 270, good, good, keep at it. Jason is encouraging everyone to vote in the polls. Think about it, when else are you going to have the opportunity to influence the direction of a grand social movement? Let us know what you think! The polls will only be open a few more days.

I have enjoyed reading all the strategy proposals on the club, its good to see decisive action being taken.

A few miscellaneous updates throughout, lots of links added to state data page, please send me any important ones I missed.
I'll try to update again this weekend, after I've recovered from trade show aftershock.

August 21th, 2001

The outline of the full manifesto has been posted. We envision this as being the definitive document of our cause and thus it should be nice and thorough. Please go read it and write an addition.
Our second round of polls is now over and here are the results:
Poll Results

Please take the time to answer our two new polls.

We've added an Archive page so that the main page won't be cluttered with old updates, but the information will still be available to newcomers

If you are an FSP member and have a personal homepage, please link to us, and we'll return the favor. Thanks.

August 24th, 2001

Short update today. The Yahoo club now has 100 members, a landmark of sorts. The participation guidelines and statement of intent pages have been revised on account of the previous poll results. If you missed Jason's group email, read them and see if you agree with the wording.
A FSP member reports that the FSP concept was recently mentioned positively on the radio in California, an unexpected PR bonus.

August 27th, 2001

Please submit any and all logo proposals either to Robert Vroman (click here) or post them in the photo section of the Yahoo club, by September 1. He will then post them all in a gallery on the webpage and we will decide on an official FSP logo by 9/8. Please come up with something and submit it so we can make an informed and expedient decision for our logo. As soon as we get our logo, the world wide advertising blitz will commence, or something like that, and we will be looking for volunteers to form a PR committee. Let us know after the 8th if you're interested.

Also the links have been reorganized and a few have been added. Added a lot of stuff to the State Data page, please read Robert's short individual state reports and send comments, or write something for the ones he left blank.

August 28th, 2001

Jason was interviewed by radio talk show host Brian Wilson, who has himself joined the Free State Project. Welcome aboard, Brian!

August 29th, 2001

The website is undergoing the beginning of a series of cosmetic enhancements. In addition, the last round of polls on the Participation Guidelines have completed. A vast majority of voters endorsed the Cumulative Count mechanism, and an absolute majority, 51%, voted that we decide which state to move to at 5,000 signers or before. It remains the case that the coordinated move by FSP participants will take place only after we have reached 20,000 signers. Based on these poll results, final versions of the Statement of Intent and Participation Guidelines are being drawn up and prepared for printing out and signature. Watch this space.

September 1st, 2001

Final versions of the Statement of Intent and Participation Guidelines are available! Click on "Join the FSP" to see the documents and to print and sign the Statement of Intent. We may be adding an automatic form submission soon.

September 3rd, 2001

We have added a poll for a new FSP logo. (Scroll down and look on the left.) Several FSP members have contributed their artistic skills to create the various designs. You can view the designs by ??? clicking here.

September 6th, 2001

The top three vote-getters in the FSP logo poll are now going head-to-head to produce a final winner. You can find the new poll by scrolling down and looking on the left. We have also added a new automatic form for those of you who wish to sign up for the FSP automatically. Look in the Join the FSP! section. Finally, we have added a section with answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the FSP.

September 8th, 2001

The automatic form for the Statement of Intent has been updated and improved. See the "Join the FSP!" section.

September 9th, 2001

We have a new logo for the Free State Project! It has taken its place in the upper left hand corner of this webpage. It will undergo slight alterations and improvements in the days to come. All 3 logos that made it to the runoff round will receive "semi-official" status as far as future use on t-shirts, flags, and so on. The next step is naming our new porcupine mascot! :-) Stop by the FSP forum to make your suggestions.

September 13th, 2001

We here at the Free State Project express our shock over the attack on Tuesday, and our sympathy for the victims and survivors. Please do whatever possible to alleviate their suffering. However, we fear this tragedy may be twisted to the political agenda of those in favor of greater government centralization. The FSP will always be dedicated to the opposite result.

September 27th, 2001

Our server was hit by a virus, resulting in the site being down for most of last week. We are now on a temporary Tripod server (hence the pop-up) until new arrangements can be made. Jason is looking into that right now. We apologize for any inconvenience.

October 12th, 2001

The freestateproject.com website is back on a dedicated server. We apologize for any inconvenience resulting from the switchover. If there are any remaining broken links or functionalities please let us know.

October 24th, 2001

The Frequently Asked Questions section has undergone a major update.

October 21st, 2001
Regular visitors will note that we've worked on improving the "mission statement" found at the top of this page. We think the new statement is a more informative and more attractive summation of the central goals of the Free State Project.

October 26th, 2001

We've created a flyer that you can pass out at events to let people know about the FSP and our website. Click here for a PDF version.

November 5th, 2001

Jason's interview with Brian Wilson on San Francisco radio is now available for download in the articles section.

November 23rd, 2001

The Free State Project is looking for someone to fill the office of treasurer. The duties of the treasurer will be to maintain a bank account for the Free State Project and to maintain and furnish on request detailed records of contributions and expenditures. The position will be unpaid at present and will require at most five hours of work per week; however, there is the possibility of a small stipend at a later date. If you are interested in helping out the Free State Project by serving in this capacity, please send your résumé to:

Free State Project 385 Canner St., No. 2 New Haven, CT 06511 USA

December 8th, 2001

There have been quite a few questions about what exactly 20,000 activists could accomplish in a single state. How could they win statewide elections? Jason Sorens has written an essay addressing this topic, as well as laying out possible strategies for the Free State Project once we reach our destination. Click here to read the essay: What Can 20,000 Liberty Activists Accomplish?

December 11th, 2001

There is a new poll on whether the FSP should consider overseas commonwealths like the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa as potential targets. If the "Yes" option were to win, it would be understood that everyone who has signed up so far would not be obligated to move to one of these areas should one of these areas win the eventual membership vote on all the states. You can find the poll below on the left. Please vote only if you are or plan to be a participant in the Project.

December 19th, 2001

The poll has run for a full week, showing most of the FSP participants having voted, but unlike most of the previous polls, no consensus has emerged. The "No" side wins by one vote, 51% to 49%. At this point, this is obviously not a mandate for changing the Participation Guidelines. However, given the closeness of the vote, this issue could be revisited at a later time. When the State Research Committee forms, it will investigate the commonwealths. If low-population states appear to be superior, then the issue becomes moot and overseas commonwealths will not be considered.