LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF PINELLAS COUNTY

June 20th 2019 Meeting Minutes

Written by secretary on Jun 21, 2019

1. 7:00pm – Call to Order – Mark Rodriguez call to order (7:01pm) – Sebastian Blumberg seconded
   1. Minutes – May
      1. Motion to change minutes – may for Marcia Powell, seconded by Jeff Macolino
         1. Successfully edited as amended – Motion by Jeff, seconded by Matthew Skopek.
         2. Marcia Powell should add each meeting going forward.
   2. Introductions
      1. Dennis Hill, general contracting company. Health food nut, gun nut, car nut, Constitution nut!
      2. Sue Hart – Artist, tutor, member and changed party affiliation to Libertarian for voting.
      3. Jeff Macolino – Immediate past chair, born in St. Petersburg. Insurance claims manager in Tampa.
      4. Matthew Skopek – Vice chair of the group. Been here for two years. Originally from Chicago, accountant.
      5. Samantha Hart – Been Libertarian for 10 years. Went to USF, Active in young American for Liberty. Officially became registered as a Libertarian last month. Work as an analyst. Work with special needs children.
      6. Lee McOnagy – Retired air-freight. Was state treasurer and state chair in Wisconsin in the 80’s. Involved in Florida since 2011. Been on and off since ’86.
      7. Marcia Powell – Moved in 2016. Teaching piano as a rent gig. Interestedin Libertarian movement.
      8. Celicia Slafter – Professionally play music. Interested in Libertarian Party in the Florida Keys, hung out with Libertarians, convinced to be on the platform committee.
      9. Colin Mobley – Been in Pinellas for almost 2 years, originally from the Keys. Bellman from Clearwater Beach.
   3. Announcements
      1. No announcements
2. 7:10pm – Officer Reports
   1. Chairman – Pride parade.
   2. Secretary – Close to getting website live. Need to talk about it during adjournment.
   3. Treasurer - $1499.41, another $250 going to be transferred in from PayPal. If we can chip in $5, we can go a little further in.
   4. Marcia donating $5.00 on 6/20/2019.
3. 7:25pm – New Business
   1. Oldsmar Street Fair – Preparations and Requirements
      1. Marcia: “What I did, first time we talked about it being on Saturday the 20th of July. Now I am thinking on Saturday the 27th of July. I only had time to do a bullet point, this would become a whole program. The program could be for Oldsmar, state fair. This would be sort of a template. Someone needs to be in charge to run the program. We start doing this, and the Oldsmar one will be a pilot project where we do better and better. Then lets say how many of you had it on Saturday on the 27th.  Can we break down earlier? Matt, it starts 9 or 10. We don’t know exactly when it starts.
         
         Maybes on who is coming to the street fair. Maybes, yesses, and nos. So, given that it’s not going to be a 20 hour thing, 4 hours instead. 2 people can manage a booth. We could do it, at this point it will be tentatively for July 27th. I will come up with a contact day and paying $25. Mark and Scott will manage that. The things we need for the booth, a table. It doesn’t have to be a big long one. Jeff Macolino may have one in his trunk. We want to purchase a fold-up table. We want the details after we adjourn.  The laminated quiz, we need to order.
         
         The laminated quiz, we need to get that, and the thing to set it on, an easel. We should also buy our own clipboards. That would be great. Then we need to check with Scott, is he willing to keep our stuff in his garage? Is he okay with that? He is in Palm Harbor, he should be a part of the setup. I will work on the schedule. Those are the main things.
   2. St. Pete Pride Parade – Preparations
      1. Several met to plan where we are going, what we are going to do. It is sold out before we had a chance to book a space. That being said, last year we didn’t get much of a return to have a booth. We are going out, introduce ourselves, be friendly, invite them. We’re supporting their freedoms. Especially with the website it will be great to have eyes in our direction. We will be meeting Sunday, 10am at Thirsty First 119 1st Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. It is a long walk from Thirsty First to the Parade, roughly 1.5 miles.
4. 7:40pm – Member comments and questions
   1. Sue Hart – Marcia, Venice and I, saw Charlie Kirk last week. Charlie Kirk started a group called Turning Point. Turning Point goes to colleges, speaks to people, starts chapters in college. Says that America is the greatest country on earth, and that free trade is wonderful. He promotes that, he is very charismatic, people who connect with it. Switch Modern Liberal views and he’s 25 years old. He started when he was 18 years old. He didn’t go to college. He’s been doing it for 7 years now. He has a podcast.
      
      You can find him on Youtube. He’s all over Twitter, Facebook. Very dynamic. He did want us to subscribe to his podcast.  I found out about him from Marcia. Word of mouth. It was just for a closed group of people. He is moving to Sarasota. Moving to Illinois. He donated to a lot of Libertarian candidates. Said he would not run for office. More influence in that. Trying to get young people to move towards Conservative/Libertarian views. Picked up his brochures in a Libertarian Convention.
      
      Adam Kokesh was running for Libertarian on Fox Business.
      
      On the back of Reason magazine, the Institute for Justice, a national law firm for liberty. They go out and assist people who are in trouble with the government. Argued with the supreme court successfully. They brought cases before the Supreme Court. Also have a case in Florida, and in our County Pinellas. Dunedin, a gentleman failed to mow his lawn who is in the process of taking his house.
   2. Marcia Powell: What I have done last meeting is to know representatives. I wanted to contact Senator Ed Hooper. He and the state representatives who bring up the Libertarian thing. Wanted to know that we are trying to bring sanity to government. Hopefully he will remember Marcia Powell to follow up on anything. A few days ago, showing up at an appointment to an appointment with a man who is Brendan Birk, father is Ken Birk. Enjoyed talking with him, establishing a line of communication with these people who can then be followed up. People who are open primaries or top two in Florida.
      
      Because he is one of the most knowledgeable Libertarians in Florida, he was thumbs down on two of the candidates.
5. 7:50pm – Open Forum
   1. Samantha looked into meetup.com. It is free to be an organizer up to a certain number of members, 50-100, if it exceeds that number it is $90 an annual fee.  Just from anectdotal evidence. It is $90 a year and it’s 200 members. There are several groups affiliated with Liberty, not LPF. Many many members. Can go to those meetings and recruit those people. If you are interested, not going to cost money, start a meetup page.
   2. Sebastian had registered 3 people to register Libertarian.
   3. Marcia got one registered Libertarian.
6. 8:00pm – Adjournment
   1. Motion to adjourn by Jeff Macolino, Seconded by Matthew Skopek.