The minutes of the September meeting were approved. It was decided that in the future minutes will contain only specific types of information, such as attendance, the wording of motions, and votes, and will not include an account of the debate.
The Treasurer reported on the financial situation and improvements in accounting practices, topics including: a move toward "contemporaneous accounting" of various assets and liabilities, a correction in the value used for UMP liabilities, the large drop in fund balance around the time of the convention, the need for a controller, cuts in expenses, and the difficulty in meeting our UMP obligations. He provided a comparison of the view of our financial situation during 2002 based on previous and updated practices and said that the new approaches would provide the LNC with better information going forward. He said that the measures taken so far could bring us into balance in the long term but that does not solve the short term problem.
The Chair/Director reported on the national office situation, topics including: staff reductions, computer system problems including aging equipment and defective file backups, the delay in producing financial reports, and the implementation of a new accounting system and payroll schedule.
There was discussion of office location alternatives, topics including: the significance of savings that might be realized, financial and other costs of moving, obligations under the current lease and the prospects of being able to get somone else to take over all or part of it, the availability of space of various types in the general area, and the possibility of purchasing vs. leasing new space. The Chair was authorized to seek alternative tenants for the current space.
The LNC went into executive session to discuss legal matters.
There was extensive discussion of the budget for 2003. In addition to the time spent during the formal meeting, there was an informal discussion period on Saturday evening during which the main topics were the budget and the current financial situation.
Major concepts involved in the discussion included: "core" activities to be supported by "core" revenues including dues, "special projects" to be implemented only to the extent that dedicated revenue can be raised beyond core sources, accounting for staff costs of special projects, allocation of common costs, basing estimates on historical per-member costs and revenues without assuming membership growth, avoiding "blue sky" estimates.
Issues raised as possibly relevant to balancing the budget included: staff cuts, dues level, shifting activities from "core" to "special projects", hiring a new Executive Director either earlier or later, LP News publication frequency, Liberty Pledge publication frequency, 50-state ballot status, outreach tabloid pricing, maintaining commitment to the strategic plan, increased use of volunteers.
The LNC went into executive session to discuss staffing.
The LNC adopted a budget with total core revenue and expense of approximately $1.4 million. This includes a staffing level significantly reduced in comparison both with previous years and with the initial proposal from the Executive Committee. Major items treated as "special projects" are: ballot access, branding, campaign training and support, campus support, the drug war strategy, the new database system (Raiser's Edge), and other computer system improvements.
There was discussion of issues relating to senior management, including the search for a new Executive Director, coming up with incentive plans, and the question of whether the Chair/Director should have the ability to hire or fire without approval from the Executive Committee.
A policy was adopted allowing for use of promissory notes in managing overdue accounts payable during a "state of financial exigency". A state of financial exigency was declared to exist.
The Chair and Treasurer were authorized to negotiate with willing state affiliates voluntary deferral of UMP payments.
The Political Steering Committee established in September (but to which no appointments had yet been made) was abolished.
New policies were adopted relating to procedures for writing off uncollectable receivables, capitalization of small purchases, LNC approval of changes to employment policies, and a schedule for resolving questions about convention delegate allocations. Authority for approving certain membership policies was moved from the Executive Committee to the full LNC. Several other changes were made to the Policy Manual to modify language that was considered unclear, obsolete, or redundant.
The LNC was given a presentation of a racing sponsorship concept.
Other items briefly discussed included: status of the search for a new LP News editor, contacts between potential presidential candidates and LNC/staff, loans from the Chair to the accounting consultant, the Free State Project, the Gene Cisewski matter, a policy for open and confidential records, the "welcome wagon" letter being sent to new members by Mary Ruwart, additional work to be done on the Policy Manual, whether to do further work on the Policy Governance approach, and the upcoming strategic plan review / state chairs meetings.
Future meetings were scheduled for: 22-23 March 2003 in Atlanta, 28-29 June 2003 in Seattle, and 13-14 September in Denver.
Note: This is only a summary of the meeting and is not intended to be relied upon as a complete record of business.