FSP Participants, Friends, libertarians, lend me your eyeballs, and let us discuss what is to be done with our beloved FSP.
As has been discussed at great length on this forum and elsewhere, the FSP has “issuesâ€.
The current configuration of the Board of Directors is self-appointed and meets in secret. The minutes of its meetings are a joke, IMHO. Some Directors and department heads go MIA for months at a time, yet retain access to internal leadership discussion lists, while other very active members are refused admittance. There hasn’t been a board election since the summer of 2004. The winner of that election became so disgruntled, for reasons that were never publicly spelled out, that she not only quit the Board, she quit this forum. Several other Boardmembers and officers have disappeared over the years. Even public DISCUSSION of BoD elections has been relocated to the Participants Only section, preventing prospective members from being fully informed about the history of an organization that, let’s face it, asks for a rather large dose of personal sacrifice. Calls for even token electoral representation on the Board by members have been denied. It appears to have analysis paralysis; it has been sitting on over $30,000 in organizational funds for months now, unable to decide whether to spend it on a marketing campaign or a paid employee (resulting in the money being spent on neither). If I were prone to paranoia, I’d find some of this deeply disturbing. Oh wait… I AM prone to paranoia.
Exciting and inspiring things are being done by early movers and friends of our cause in New Hampshire. This is the proof that our concept is feasible, and must be shared with the rest of the world. However, in a vain attempt to comply with IRS registration standards and to adhere to a concept that the FSP is “merely a busâ€, and takes absolutely no positions on anything at all, discussion of such things is verboten here. Several times when an FSP participant has gained media exposure, they have been ignored or publicly disavowed by the organization. I don’t know about you, but all of this seems extremely counterproductive to me. What we need is publicity; why do we run away every time we get some? I’m referring to the Free Town imbroglio, the Outlaw Manicurist, the Unidentified Flying Objector, and now Lauren Canario. Our spokesperson recently indicated to a newspaper reporter that the FSP has no position on eminent domain. What?!?!? If we can’t even admit that we do have a position on eminent domain (we’re AGAINST it!!!), what the hell do we stand for? What’s the point of joining this organization?
With all due respect to the members of the Board and some members of the Organizers, who have contributed huge amounts of time, energy and money to bringing this outrageous concept into reality, and some of whom have already made the move, they alone do not comprise the FSP. *I* am the FSP. WE are the FSP.
There’s a growing schism between those who, officially, hold the reins of power over FSP policy, publicity and funds, and those of us who have actually put our lives where our mouths are by moving to New Hampshire and becoming political activists, in some cases at enormous personal cost. The denizens of the FSP forum, and those of the NH Underground forum, each pretend that the other doesn’t exist (except for a few gadflies
). The FSP leadership seems repulsed or frightened by the radicalism expressed on the Underground; yet, as far as I can see, the majority of regular posters there are bonafide FSP early movers, or NH natives friendly to our cause, or FSP participants who seem serious about relocating within the next few years. The official forum, meanwhile, is dominated by nonmembers engaged in endless discussion that has nothing to do with the FSP. The early movers who are running for political office (or have already won) post in neither place, and we therefore lose the ability to point to their successes (or noble defeats) as a recruitment tool.
With the recent BoD decision to remove the officially “unofficial†2006 deadline, while retaining the now utterly arbitrary goal of 20,000 signups, and a new emphasis on encouraging people to move as soon as possible, we must address certain unpleasant realities. Our Director, President and Media Representative, Amanda Phillips, has recently enrolled in Harvard Law School. It appears very doubtful that she will relocate before finishing her program. And when she does, she will presumably have a mountain of school debt and will need to find as high-paying a job as possible to work on paying it off. Do you think she’ll be taking her first post-law school job in New Hampshire… or staying where she is in greater Boston?
Our Chairman of the Board and founder, Jason Sorens, meanwhile, has recently relocated farther away from NH than he was already living. He has purchased a house and obtained a tenure-track teaching job… at a public university.
I’m not trying to slam Amanda and Jason too much; they have both been extremely dedicated to the FSP concept for years, and have dedicated countless hours of their lives in promoting it. Amanda is well-spoken and charismatic and makes a great spokesperson. The FSP is Jason’s baby. But I think those of us who comprise the FSP need to ask ourselves: with our recruitment numbers remaining in the toilet for over a year now, and the new direction of the organization, will it help or hurt our chances of success having Amanda and Jason at the helm? At a bare minimum, I think it is fair to ask for a firm statement of intent to move by such-and-such a date by anyone holding a leadership position.
What is to be done? I don’t know. But I do know that the current system is increasingly not just ineffectual, but idiotic. And I have far too much invested in the FSP to just walk away now. I know some of you others have as well, or plan on doing so in the near future. It's time to try something new, preferably with the sanction of the leadership, but without it if need be.
The concept of the FSP will succeed or fail by our actions. Let’s discuss this, and take action. I welcome all ideas. Please post them here, IM me, email me, or call me (I’m in the Porcupine directory). If you’re *really* paranoid, I’ll even meet you in a crowded pub and remove all my bugged fillings first.
(This message will also be posted on the Underground forum, for the benefit of those early movers who have become so frustrated with the FSP leadership that they won't even look at this forum anymore.)
