For the past couple of months, I have been working on putting LPNY guides together into an activist handbook. While the guide will be updated every once in a while going forward, this version is in a good state to be used for volunteer training. This all began back in 2015 when I was first involved in the Libertarian Party of New York. Myself, Ed Garrett, and Kim Ruff were all working toward organizing affiliates in western New York. I worked on Chautauqua County, Ed worked on Erie County, and Kim worked on Niagara County. Kim began work on a guide that Ed and I contributed to, focused on giving potential new county affiliates (then called chapters) an idea of how to build their local affiliate and keep it going. I tweaked the guide over the next couple of years, having a version in 2016 and 2017.
In 2021, when the Local Affiliate Development Committee worked on helping to form new County Affiliates, we worked on putting together several guides on different subjects, in which the work was primarily done by myself and Paul Sechrist, in addition to input from others. We had several guides and planned on making several more. I had already written previous material and intended to build those additional guides.
In 2022, I decided it would be easier to create one major guide, separated by parts and chapters, so any Libertarian activist in the state can go directly to the relevant section for which they are seeking help. The result is the LPNY Activist Handbook, which will be available to Libertarian Party activists.
The next step is that I plan to hold monthly activist meetings, where County Affiliate leaders can give a report on the activities of their county, County Contacts can give a report on their county’s organizing efforts, and we can provide news and updates directly to any new volunteer that joins us and wants to get involved.
The first such meeting will take place likely in May, after the Field Development Division develops an agenda and plan for these orientations.