The 2020 LPD Annual State Convention Minutes

Below you will find the minutes for last year's annual state convention. This will also be posted on the LPD Facebook page and on the LPD Discord server in state-board.

Libertarian Party of Delaware State Convention 2020

Minutes

1. Call to Order: 13:00 EDT

2. Approval of Agenda:

    a. Will McVay 1st, Dayl Thomas 2nd. Passed 11-1-0-2 (11 ayes, 1 nay, zero abstentions, 2 absent; state chair is not able to vote unless it is a tie).

    b. 15 registered Libertarians and 1 Democrat at today's convention.

3. Introduction of Officers and Distinguished Guests:
    a. LNC Secretary Caryn Ann Harlos
    b. LPD Chair Sean Goward, LPD Vice-Chair Brad Thomas, LPD Secretary Dayl Thomas, LPD Treasurer Mary Pat McVay, NCCLP Chair Nadine Frost, KCLP Chair Will McVay, SCLP Chair Jimmy Brittingham.

4. Keynote:

    a. LNC Secretary, Caryn Ann Harlos, spoke on the LP Statement of Principles and it's history. She started with her experience and credentials, what she has done with and for the LP, got ballot selfies legalized (this is important because if we give the state an inch, they will take a mile. The small stuff counts!), talked about her husband's work in the LP, how she came to the LP and how it relates to her faith as a Christian. This lead into her talking about the LP Statement of Principles and how important they are. She shared the words of LP founder David Nolan, then read the LP Statement of Principles out loud, due to the power of the spoken word. This lead into her work into the LP's history because she wanted to find where the LP Statement of Principles originally came from.

5. Treasurer’s Report:

    a. Bank: $2413.74 in 2020 vs. $2,166.18 in 2019; PayPal: $2541.97 in 2020 vs. $1,484.77 in 2019; Total: $4955.71 in 2020 vs. $3650.95 in 2019. All amounts for 2020 are current as of March 2nd, 2020. County funds are as follow: SCLP has $1,108.00, KCLP has $2,023.38, and NCCLP $421.23. All of the funds from the county parties and the state combined comes to $8,508.26, which is most likely the most we have ever had at one time.

6. Introduction of National/LNC Candidates
    a. Chair Sean Goward called a 20 minute recess at 14:22 EDT. Videos of presidential candidates, vice-presidential candidates, and LNC candidates played during the recess. Convention reconvened at 14:42 EDT. We finished going through the presidential, vice-presidential, and LNC candidates.

7. 2019 Year in Review:
    a. Looking Back: 1) Improving social media and presence/marketing, 2) Improved candidate support, 3) Improving state board/executive continuity, processes and transparency.
b. Looking Ahead: 1) Fundraising, that includes the LP Delaware Online Store, 2) Continued improvement in candidate support, 3) Candidate recruitment/Focus on municipal elections (RD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 15, 17, 18, 23, 27, 35, 37, 39, 40; SD 9, 12, 13, 15, 19), 4) Protecting voter data, 5) Positive growth (cold calling, social outreach, community service, etc.).

8. LPD App, KCLP Chair Will McVay:

    a. Will talked about and shared his work and how it will help us follow current legislation, voter data for outreach, etc. Would like to do campaign finance transparency for all candidates, regardless of party. Will gave various demonstrations on how the LPD App works. The domain name (app.lpdelaware.org) cost $12/year due to being registered with Google Domains. There is no additional cost for the app domain. The LPD website is hosted for free on Blogger. The app is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. It is currently using a free trial credit under Will's Google account and will soon transition to a new free trial credit under the LP Delaware Google account. The credit covers $300. The credit is being utilized at a rate of about $1.14/day under current loads. Will personally committed to keeping the application running for the foreseeable future, but the LPD State Board has authorized a dedicated fundraising program to defray Will's expenses. Funds raised under this program will be used exclusively to cover application hosting expenses. Will is going to maintain the LPD App no mater what, but would be more motivated to keep working on it if people help fund it. Will would love feedback.

9. Resolution on HB 135/136:

    a. This is a resolution to help stop "Midnight Madness", the practice by the Delaware General Assembly to rush through legislation on the last day of session, which forgoes due diligence by suspending the rules of the General Assembly. Will McVay drafted a resolution, which has been voted on and accepted in all three LP county affiliates.

    b. Bill 1st, Vern 2nd to waive the reading of the resolution. Passed 14-0-0 (unanimously).

    c. Will 1st, Mary Pat 2nd to accept the resolution. Passed 14-0-0 (unanimously). Chair asked for a recess

10. Nomination of Candidates:

    a. Will 1st, Dayl 2nd to nominate Nadine Frost for U.S. Senate. Will then moved to close nominations, followed by Mary Pat's 2nd. Passed 13-0-1. The motion for accepting Nadine Frost as the LPD candidate for U.S. Senate. Passed 13-0-1.
    b. Will 1st, Bill 2nd to authorize NCCLP to nominate Bryan Rash for RD 25. Passed 13-1-0.
    c. Nadine 1st, John M. 2nd to nominate Bill Hinds for RD 27. Mary Pat 1st, Bob 2nd to close nominations. Passed 14-0-0. Motion to nominate Bill hinds passed 13-0-1.
    d. John M. 1st, Nadine 2nd to nominate Will McVay for RD 34. Vern moved to close nominations, 2nd by Mary Pat. Passed 14-0-0. Will shared that he will party hop, for full disclosure, but come back to the LPD. The reason for this is so that Will can run in both the Democrat and Republican primaries. The motion to nominate Will McVay passed 14-0-0.
    e. On Scott Gesty’s behalf, LPD Chair Sean Goward shared that Mr. Gesty would like to run for RD 7, but is willing to run for any office.

    i. Will 1st, John M. 2nd that Scott Gesty can have his way with our ballot any way he wants. Discussion had on this, making clear that Scott can run for any office he likes and the LPD will support him. Passed 13-0-1.
    f. David Rogers expressed interest in being the LPD U.S. Rep. candidate. Dayl shared that Cody McNutt was also interested, but is currently working in Arizona.

        i. Will 1st, John M. 2nd to nominate David Rogers for U.S. House of Representatives. Will 1st, Mary Pat 2nd to amend the motion to allow Scott to have his way with our (ballot/office) leavings. Passed 11-1-2. Motion to leave things to NCCLP concerning Scott made by Vern, 2nd by John M. Passed 14-0-0.

        ii. Dayl made a nomination for Cody McNutt, Wayne 2nd.

        iii. Nadine 1st, Will 2nd to close nominations, passed 14-0-0. David Rogers gave his reasons on why he would be a good candidate. Dayl then spoke on Cody’s behalf in his absence, given that Dayl made the motion to nominate Cody McNutt at his request. Questions asked of David Rogers and Cody McNutt’s representative, Dayl Thomas. The vote was then held and David Rogers won with 9 votes out of 15. Cody received 6 votes and NOTA received no votes.

    g. Will 1st, John M. 2nd to delegate to NCCLP the power to let Cody pick another race. Passed 14-0-0. Will then asked Dayl to reach out to Cody about what he would possibly like to run for.

    h. Dayl 1st, Will 2nd to nominate John M. for governor. Mary Pat 1st, Bill H. 2nd to close nominations. Passed 13-0-1. The motion to nominate John M. for governor passed 11-2-1.
    i. Bob Wilson expressed interest in running as a paper candidate for his senate district in Kent County. Discussion had on if Bob could run for his senate district since he had only recently moved to Kent County from New Castle County. Will McVay pointed out that one needs to live in a senate district for at least a year before one can run for that office. Will then brought up that Bob may be able to run for a county office instead.

        i. Will 1st, Dayl 2nd to delegate to the Kent County LP to find out what Bob Wilson can legally run for and nominate him to one of those offices. Passed 13-0-1.

11. Delegate/Alternate selection for the LP National Convention:

    a. There were four volunteers interested in being delegates. Mary Pat made a motion to accept the first four people interested in being a delegate to the LP National Convention to the four delegate spots. Will made a point of order because he had to check what the LPD bylaws said concerning selecting delegates to the national convention. It was discovered that we don’t have to use a secret ballot since the race is not contested (four seats for four delegate volunteers), but we do have to hold each race separately to give LPD members a chance to vote NOTA against any or all people running for a delegation spot. Mary Pat’s motion struck down as out of order. LPD Secretary Dayl Thomas then shared that the four volunteers interested in becoming delegates to the LP National Convention were Sean Goward, Nadine Frost, Will McVay, and himself, Dayl Thomas.

    b. Mary Pat 1st, John M. 2nd to nominate Dayl. Passed 13-0-1.

    c. Mary Pat 1st, John M. 2nd to nominate Will. Passed 13-0-1,

    d. Mary Pat 1st, Bill H. 2nd to nominate Nadine. Passed 11-2-1.

    e. Mary Pat 1st, John M. 2nd to nominate Sean. Sean handed the LPD Chair’s gavel to LPD Vice-Chair Brad Thomas in order to conduct the vote. The motion passed 13-0-1.

    f. Will 1st, Mary Pat 2nd to make Sean delegate chair. Passed 14-0-0.

    g. Sean asked if there were any other motions that anyone would like to make concerning him while Brad had the gavel in his stead. Will then made a motion on Sean being pretty today, which was seconded by Dayl. The motion passed 6-5-3. A good laugh was had by all.

    h. Sean addressed the confusion on how many alternate delegates Delaware could have to the LP National Convention. Sean asked LNC Secretary Caryn Ann Harols if the national LP’s policy on alternates was to be the same as the number of delegates. Caryn Ann explained that this was not the case and that Delaware could have up to 50 alternates because we had less than 50 delegates. Caryn Ann asked what the LPD’s bylaws stated about allowing non-Delaware residents to fill in empty seats. It was shared that if there were any empty seats for the Delaware delegation that they could be filled by other LP members from other states, but we have always had so few delegation spots that it has never been an issue.

    i. Will then moved that if any LPD member shows up in Austin, they would automatically be an alternate for the Delaware delegation. It was then expressed by Caryn Ann that alternates should be listed beforehand and changes can be made up until the first credentialing meeting. Will withdrew his motion.

    j. Wayne, Vern, Jimmy, and Mary Pat expressed interest in being alternates. Will 1st, Mary Pat 2nd to have those interested in being an alternate contact Sean Goward two weeks before the convention passed 13-0-1.

12. Award Presentation:

    a. The William Morris Liberty award was awarded to Ms. Nadine Frost for here very diligent outreach work on behalf of the LPD and NCCLP.

13. Motion to recess until state filing deadline:

    a. Will 1st, Nadine 2nd to recess to allow state board and county affiliates to make further nominations at their discretion. Passed 13-1-0. Recessed at 16:53 EDT.