March 2021 Business Meeting Minutes – Approved
- Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Libertarian Party of Brevard County, Fl. was called to order at
6:11 PM on March 17th, 2021 at Carrabba’s Italian Grill by Chair – Brian Fleming - Present:
Executive Committee: Brian Fleming –Chair, Mari Peele -Vice-Chair, Greg Peele –
Treasurer, Rick Heffelfinger –Secretary, Nathan Slusher -Director-At-Large
Voting Members: Hannah Tomboulides
Visitor: Kevin Ratzel - Determination of Quorum (75% of Executive Committee or 25% of all voting members)
Quorum was met - Approval and Adoption of Agenda
A motion to adopt the agenda was made. The motion was seconded and passed
unanimously. - Guest Speaker
None - Approval of the Minutes
A motion to approve the minutes from the February 17, 2021 business meetings was made.
The motion was seconded and passed without objection. - Officer Reports
Chair:
o There will be a Region 9 meeting in Orlando on April 16th The Chair and Vice
chair from each county (Orange, Brevard, Osceola, and Seminole) are being asked
to attend. The objective of the meeting is to facilitate the sharing of information
among the county affiliates. Of particular interest to Brevard county is information
and insight sharing and promoting the election of Libertarian candidates in county
and city governments and best/most effective ways of reaching LP voters.
The Florida Convention will be held 11-13 June. Carpooling is an option. The
Chair will be spending the night there prior to the start. The Chair is on the
convention committee and is working with the committee to get the specifics
worked out.
o The Chair welcomed fellow Libertarian Kevin Ratzel to his first meeting with us.
Kevin is also very interested in working to get Libertarians elected to positions in
local government.
Vice Chair:
o Web site admin info was scrubbed to remove access from legacy users.
o The old subscribe list containing emails was captured and saved. Valid emails
captured from the old subscribe list will be passed on to the Secretary to be added
to Mailchimp.
Treasurer:
o Since we now have access to all accounts, the treasurer provided his first official
treasury report. Since the beginning of the calendar year we have received $215 in
donations
▪ $125 through PalPal via two recurring donors. Greg put out a big thanks to
George Lebowitz as a long term donor.
▪ $40 cash from last meeting
▪ $50 check
o Expenses
▪ $20.15 banking/credit card fees
o Total assets
▪ $1401.71
▪ $429.35 at PNC
▪ $972. Paypal. $500 was moved to PNC to prevent low balance charges for
dropping below the $500 minimum.
Liabilities
▪ $72 to Secretary for annual PO Box rental
o Reports due end of the month
▪ 2020 annual audit due March 31st to SOE and State party. SOE has
requested hand delivery to Viera.
▪ 2121 1st quarter campaign report due April 10th electronically
▪ The reports can have errors but must never be late or risk a penalty.
o Other
▪ Worked with previous chair John Olivadoti and the Chair and Treasurer are
signatories on the PNC account.
▪ Mailing address has been updated to PO Box.
▪ Checks were ordered and should arrive by the end of the month.
▪ After the debit card is obtained (tomorrow), on-line banking can be
established.
▪ Bank statements will always be available in hard copy for inspection at the
monthly meeting.
▪ Documentation will need to be submitted to put name on Paypal.
▪ All activity is being managed using an open source ledger software.
o Decision was made at the meeting to keep some money ($100 to $200) in Paypal in
the event a need or desire to pay from there occurs.
o Goals for next month
▪ Finish PNC setup and get checks
▪ Setup on-line banking
▪ Finish validating transactions
▪ Submit all necessary reports
▪ New action to setup Stripe and test with Chair and Vice Chair
▪ Create receipts with branding to bring to future meetings
Start pricing out web hosting solutions to be ready to switch from the LPF
provider if the need arises. A task was created for this activity. The
Treasurer and the Vice Chair will work on it together.
▪ Old checks will be blacklisted after on-line access is achieved.
o Sample audit provided and passed around for inspection
Secretary:
o Secured a PO box
o Keys are held by the Secretary and Treasurer
o PO box provided to SOE but the SOE webpage has not yet been updated to reflect
it.
o Attendance spreadsheet provided this meeting and future meetings to track voting
eligibility.
o Attendance spreadsheet and Mailchimp exports will be placed on the Gdrive as
necessary and provided in hardcopy to all members of the EC at the monthly
meetings
Director-At-Large:
o Visited 6 companies to quote/discuss branding items. Prices are high – I.E. $190
for a flag. Several have decent prices but must do bulk orders.
o There will be a Titusville city council meeting on April 19th. The Director at large
and Chair will be attending. The Director at large voiced a desire to get more
people to act as backups to attend meetings. Titusville is closed to non-residents.
They required address and sign in. Kevin Ratzel stated that the Melbourne meeting
is open to all and they livestream and provide on-line copies
o The Chair stated that in the future we desire to do more activism such as attending
meetings and using those meetings to engage with others and spread the
Libertarian word.
Director at large recommended we go to a BCC meeting as a party and school
board as well but do it in a coordinated and planned way.
▪ Secretary took action to look for the BCC schedule. Director at large will
work Titusville and Kevin Ratzel will work Melbourne. Secretary took an
action to place these dates up on our web page calendar
8. Unfinished Business:
o Treasurer did an analysis of our amended constitution and Bylaws against LPF and
Florida law to make sure we are compliant. We have some issues but none that
prevent this revision. Three sections not covered primarily deal with candidates.
Additions/corrections will be made in the coming months to fill in the holes.
o Motion to approve revised Bylaws and Constitution was passed.
9. New Business:
o Motion to increase venue cap
● Motion was passed
o Fund raising for shirts
▪ Conversation turned into a general discussion of what we are fundraising
for. Shirts was an attempt to offer branding recognition for attending public
events.
▪ Vice Chair suggested we pick three things (IE shirts, web hosting,
outreach, etc) and then pick a target goal (amount)
▪ Chair identified bulk ordering for shirts would require fundraising and we
could get quotes to establish the $ goal to cover it.
▪ Vice Chair indicated that fundraising events would be status on the webpage
(thermometer concept).
▪ It was agreed upon that a fundraiser should wait for stripe setup and have a
specific beginning and end.
Kevin Ratzel advocated for fundraising for items/expenses that target
outreach capability (banners, tent, sponsorship, and attending events (funds
to buy a booth).
▪ Director at large thinks we are struggling because we have no
marketing/branding
▪ Chair suggested we get some shirts and wear them. Someone needs to do the
research for just getting EC shirts.
▪ Secretary took an action item to get the old town Cocoa embroidery place
going with the design and get a shirt embroidered as a prototype. Based on
this we may turn it into a service that members are charged.
▪ Tentatively set a target date for April to have something tangible to put out a
fundraising event.
o Review and sign affiliate document
▪ Document was circulated and all signatures obtained
o Floor motions
▪ Director at large proposed a motion to remove article 4 section 4 from our
Constitution that requires 2 motion hearings. Director at large will draft a
motion to be placed on the agenda for the April meeting.
10. Notice & Announcement
o Next Mtg Date: April 21, 2021
o Next Mtg Location: Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Merritt Island, FL.
▪ If within the two week notice period an alternate location is obtained we can
do that. Director at large would take action to make reservations with
Carrabba’s
o Next Social Date: TBD
o Next Social Location: TBD
▪ Director at large recommended a IRL thing instead of a beach cleanup
because the river is one of our priorities.
Chair directed Director at large to coordinate the next social and provide
Secretary the details for advertising the event.
- Action items
o Director at large will compose a motion to amend the Constitution and coordinate
an IRL social.
o Treasurer and Vice Chair will work Stripe/Stripe testing and website hosting
research/ options
o Chair will do email list cleanup
o By May meeting we will have 3 letters decided (Fundraising , Thank you, and
Welcome)
- Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned at 7:15 PM by Chair – Brian Fleming.
Minutes submitted by: Rick Heffelfinger
These minutes were approved by the LPBC Executive Committee during the Business Meeting
held on 4/21/2021.