State leadership

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May 25, 2013, 10:57:27 pm

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Who will provide the leadership once every one moves to the chosen state?

I would expect that the FSP membership will discover various points of contention that may make getting the job done very difficult:

- maybe some will fight over who gets to lead
- others will debate the finer points of Roberts' Rules of Order, or other such procedural nonesense
- some will have a broader agenda than just limited government - e.g., a view on abortion.

It will be critical for the membership to bury the hatchet so that they can get the work done. This requires a leader - who will it be?

nlmdep,
For your first or maybe second post
you just asked the most important question beyond choosing which state.
I too am most concerned with how this question is answered because the answers will indicate a lot about how pragmatic the members and leaders in this Free State will be and thus how successful the FSP will be. What concerns me for the FSP is that I don't have even a few percent of the solutions for making the FSP a success -- and neither does anyone here. None of them have tried even a "Free Town" yet. Maybe the leaders will just sprout from the barren rock. Maybe they will have to be planted and nurtured (and no, I don't want to be one - I'll have had enough in several years here).

Meanwhile, as we are waiting...
Check out these threads
How to get there from here. Lessons from city council.
http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=20;action=display;threadid=373
Step by step plan to gain office and make changes
http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=20;action=display;threadid=400

ditto to both Solitar and Mouseborg.This is very crucial and quite honestly something we need to start giving thought to NOW. I'm not saying 'select a leader' now, only that each of us need to start doing a personal inventory of what we might be able to offer the group in the political and organizational areas. ... and start preparing ourselves for that. Certainly Mouseborg is absolutely correct (hello Mouseborg - you mentally exhausted me over in our Iraq discussion Wink

, I'll get back to that a little later), we have to be very aware of our motives. We can not do these things because we want a "power trip".
I for my part will become more involved in politics here where I am, perhaps supporting a local candidate I believe in, or running for dog catcher or some such thing, just to get a feel for how leadership works on a local level and thus be able to better support those who choose to lead us in the Free State. I believe I have a very valuable resource in that I work for newspaper and I believe the editor would be MORE than happy to inform me of all the ins and outs he's observed over the years.

Solitar, you had an excellent set of 4 or 5 things we can do now to prepare ourselves and lacking the time before I head to work this morning, am not able to locate which thread it's in... where are they?

Percy,
Congrats on having the ability to learn the politics from the journalist side because reporters, if they do their job well, do know the frustrating process that legislative leaders go through -- from first citizen or council or staff concerns through wrangling over budgets, wording, and motions to finally getting something passed, changed or repealed.
There is a huge difference in what is learned and experience gained and skills developed between
* being a political activist working on campaigns or demonstrating on single issues
and
** dealing for real with a wide variety of major and minor issues with votes that affect people, laws, budgets and taxes.
Going to 4 out of 5 meetings of particular boards is the best way to learn the above without actually having to sit in the hot seat of "leadership". That's what the best reporters do -- they pick a "beat" of particular boards and then stay with those boards and those members to really know the personalities, agendas (hidden and otherwise), concerns, and all the related issues. They don't have to learn about fire dept. staffing and budgets every time a fire question comes up because they've already been there and learned most of that. They have the background to understand and, more importantly, the background to help their readers and the citizenry understand. The latter role is where FSP "activists" can help the most -- even if they don't actually gain office. Education and Knowledge are the most powerful tools we have and FSP'ers can use. That is why we have the BOR and the Freedom of Assembly, Speech, and Press.

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