President's Corner

September 4, 2006

Message from the President

Volunteer overload

 

I owe all of you an apology. My goal, though not a hard and fast 'rule', was to get the President's Corner published roughly weekly. It has now been well over a month since the last Corner.

So what happened? Quite frankly, I've been extremely busy. There has been a lot going on with the FSP, and I haven't been completely not working. For those of you who are volunteers in the organization, you've seen some of what I've been working on. However the rest of you are somewhat in the dark.

The fact of the matter is, we're all volunteers here in the FSP Organization. The fact that we're an all volunteer organization actually got a positive mention in Liberty Magazine recently. Though I, too, view it as a positive thing, there are downsides to being all volunteer, including having a volunteer President. In my case, I have a full time paying job and a business which takes more than part time. That, plus family, plus other things I enjoy doing winds up limiting the amount of time that I can devote to the FSP. Even so, I do have a considerable amount of time available and do my best to spend it wisely.

And I believe I'm not unusual. We're all busy. That's how life works. Defending liberty can be a high priority, but I'd never advocate putting it ahead of taking care of your family. Being responsible (usually including maintaining the job that supports you and your family) is an essential component to freedom. So while I ask people to volunteer, and appreciate the substantial volunteer efforts of dozens of people in the FSP Organization, I recognize that we're all busy.

What can help tremendously is having more people volunteer even a little bit of their time to help the FSP achieve its goal of 20,000 pro-freedom activists working together in New Hampshire. We need volunteers, and, especially, volunteer leaders. If you'd like to help, please contact Nik at volunteer@freestateproject.org. He'll point you in the right direction. And I thank you in advance for whatever you might be interested in doing to help the FSP.

Without further ado, on to the news!

V-

If you have any suggestions or ideas for this feature, please feel free to send them my way.   Email me at president@freestateproject.org for the best quality response.

 

Recent FSP Activity

1. New Hampshire Liberty Forum – John Stossel has been booked as the keynote speaker for the FSP's 2007 New Hampshire Liberty Forum! This will be the event of the winter for freedom lovers. In addition to Stossel, the NHLF will feature Sharon Harris of the Advocates for Self-Government and many other speakers and forums to be announced.  For more information, please see the NHLF webpage here.
2. First 1000 Press Releases – If you're a First 1000 signer, we want you! The FSP would like to seek media coverage of your impending move to New Hampshire. Already moved? No problem, we can use your help, too! If you're interested in being featured in media articles in your current and/or former hometown(s), please email Brian Gottstein at Gottstein@createpositiveimpact.com and he'll let you know what he needs from you to proceed.
3. First 1000 Promotion – The FSP recently sent out emails to ~5,000 FSP Participants encouraging them to sign up for the First 1000 pledge. I'm pleased to report that we just had our best week of new First 1000 signups since the first week of the pledge! Thank you Sandy, Chris, and others who worked on that project. We're also planning phone calls to FSP Participants, additional emails to FSP Participants, and direct mail promotion to both FSP Participants and new prospects to move us closer to our 1000-signer goal by the end of the year. There is also an ad running on Reason's website as well as elsewhere around the internet.
4. Media Coverage – the FSP and some of its participants have recevied lots of media attention since the last Corner update. Individual participants have been featured in articles in New Hampshire for various things including running for office, participating in civil disobedience, and attending a Live Free or Die rally. An article on legislative victories has been published here. The FSP's presence at the LP National Convention also received quite favorable coverage in Liberty Magazine this month, available online and in print.
5. Presidential (and other) Candidates – At least two FSP Participants are already vying for the LP's 2008 Presidential nomination. Long time LP activist George Phillies has announced his candidacy and comedian Doug Stanhope recently joined the fray as well. In addition, several other FSP participants are running for office, including some in New Hampshire who have already moved to the Free State.
6. Free State Activism DVD – a DVD has been produced which contains footage of some pro-freedom activism in the Free State, some of which involves FSP Participants. Additionally, there is footage from Porc Fest '05 and '06. The DVD is now offered for sale on the FSP website here.
7. Pledge Bank Donation Pledge – 53 people pledged to donate $50 per month to the FSP from July through December of 2006. Those donations would total $2650 per month for a total of $15,900 if everyone honored their commitments. In July we verified that we received donations from 23 of those people for a total of $3800, almost 50% more than expected! It's entirely likely that we have missed some as there are some people on the pledge whose names we do not know and some money received from unknown sources. An email is going out to all the Pledge Bank Donors to try to obtain better quality information about how successful the results are from this pledge.  If you donated, please let us know with a quick email to Varrin at president@freestateproject.org.
   
8. FSP Announcement – A birdie tells me the FSP is going to make a very important announcement on September 19th. It will be unveiled on the FSP website. Please mark your calendars and check back on the 19th to see what's a brewin!
9. Mail box – Fumble! I'd like to personally apologize for any inconvenienced caused by the inadvertent closure of the FSP's mail box last week. A miscommunication resulted in the bill not being paid. The problem has been resolved and the box is open again at the same address. If you received mail returned to you indicating “box closed”, please send it again to our address: Free State Project, P.O.Box 1684, Keene, NH 03431. Thank you, and I apologize again for any inconvenience this caused.
10. New Movers – Given the length of time since my last update, it should be no surprise that LOTS of people have moved to New Hampshire since then. I have credible information indicating 8 people have already moved. A 9th was scheduled to arrive a few days ago and I'm aware of at least four more within the next month. Here's the recap: one from TX to Keene, one from PA to the Manchester area, two to the seacoast, two to Campton, one from VT to Keene, one from TX to the Concord area, and one was scheduled to arrive from CA to Manchester this past week. Three are anticipated to move from FL to Keene sometime in September, and one is expected from CA shortly. There may be more that I don't know about, but if that doesn't get your blood pumping, nothing will!