Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Emperor Has No Phone - LPCA Inside Baseball



















The Emperor Has No Phone
"...before anything else, the LPCA is a customer service organization."

As the Libertarian Party of California (LPCA) breaks for lunch
before their annual elections, I'd like to point out a few things
about the organization.

These things have been painfully obvious to me for quite a
long time. Others are now catching on to.

Yes, the LPCA is a Political Organization, certainly.
And, yes, it's a 'charitable' one as well.

To understand the hows and whys of successfully
'operating' such a venture, we have to peel back the
layers of the onion even further.

The LPCA is a Membership, and a Subscription
organization before it's any of the above.

Just like a Kiwanis club or other voluntary Membership
and Donor based organization, the LPCA must learn
and understand how these types of organizations
work and operate.

Just 'wanting' something doesn't work.
Just having the 'best idea' or mousetrap, in and of itself
is meaningless and wont' lead to success.

Peeling the onion back one further layer, we see
that before anything else, the LPCA is a customer
service organization.

And that, my friends is where the LPCA has fallen
down so terribly over the last three years.

[An apology here to Beau Cain, a largely unsung hero
who has worked his buns off cleaning up other people's
messes with very little appreciaton.]

The LPCA is H Oh Double R i BB L E - horrible at
customer service.

We hear multiple stories from multiple sources, and I
suppose they all could be lying.

On the other hand, they are all first hand, and from
folks who have no axe to grind.

We hear of the current Chair angrily verbally abusing
volunteers at events for petty or nonexistent reasons.

We hear of the Southern Vice Chair having tirades
at people for asking about the LPCA website and
it's lack of fresh content or anything...

But worst of all is a horrible and strange cancer
of apathy towards Members.

And that's where I get the title of this little story,
'the Emperor has no Phone'.

You see, these people are somehow allergic to
the phone, and rarely, if ever return phone calls.

Now I'm not personally surprised, as King Naga,
our current LPCA Chair did that to me and several
other people about 3.5 years ago, preceeding the
Convention where he ran for election.

But dues paying Members, Donors and Volunteers
speak of this as though the cancer has metastasized.

Yes, I have spoken to numerous sources, and
maybe they are all lying to me, but many of them
state our Chair has never returned one of their
phone calls. Not one.

When the current scandal started way back last year in
September or maybe even before that, Board Members
from another State even emailed our Chair, and were
not given the courtesy of a reply.

Nevada ExCom, yeah, our neigbor and sister state.

When the current Chair came into 'power' three years
ago, the webmaster was someone I had recruited.

He continued on to help Naga, and I encouraged him
to help us all look good on the website.

A few months later, the Webmaster called me and
said he was going to resign. Why? Because no
one returned his phone calls or email.

Yeah, a volunteer webmaster ready to do whatever
you want and need, someone really good, too and
you can't return his calls?

I thought for sure Kev would give the guy a call
after he resigned, but nooooo...

The same thing happened to me recently.

One would think the Chair of this body would respect
its processes, especially something as serious as
the suspension and expulsion of members.

Well, he couldn't be bothered responding to requests
from the LPCA Judicial Committee (JC), nor could
the prosecutor in the case.

A lot of people spent real time helping and advising
me on how to handle the situation. I personally
gave up some really nice opportunities to be available
and prepare for my 'trial'.

Of course, the morning of the trial, everyone involved
recived a surly and derogatory sounding note stating
no-one from the Chair's Prosecution would show up.

"The Emperor not only has no phone, but has no manners or courtesy."

Folks, this is a CUSTOMER SERVICE organization.
We need folks that can show up on time and return
their messages promptly.

We need people that can be nice to all comers,
even those who they might disagree with.

It's a symptom of how this cancer has metastasized
when someone intent on Volunteering to help gets
'yelled at' by an LPCA Officer.

I have two completely different sources who told
me virtually the same story in the last few months,
how they contacted one of our alleged customer
service experts, asking about the website (see
a pattern?) and why it wasn't being maintained...

Both people intended to volunteer, having experience
and being Members.

Instead of being treated nicely and answering
the questions in a straighforward manner and
finding out the whole story, tirade from the
Officer, right on cute.

Guess what?
These people didn't Volunteer, or ever call back.

The Emperor not only has no phone, but has no
manners or courtesy.

The Libertarian Party of California Deserves better.


Copyright February 2010 Bruce Cohen
No part may be reproduced in whole or in part by
any means, including electronic, without the express
written permission of the author.

Monday, February 1, 2010

The Libertarian Trial of the Decade!



Yes, it's far more interesting and complicated than that, but I'm accussed of puffery and egaggeration far too much as it is.

I haven't been blogging for a long time, work, heath, travel, the sun was in my eyes, the other kids don't like me, I have 1000 excuses.

But there is just too much 'inside baseball' not to cover within the Libertarian Party of California that's not really being discussed elsewhere.

So, for the very few people who are interested in filling in the blanks about the ever deepening scandal and problem, this is one more place to go.

If you hate train wrecks, please look the other way.

About my upcoming trial:

First of all, allow me to have some fun.


This is the Defense's Theme song:






The Defense dedicates this to the Prosecution and their leader,

King Naga and his Knights of the Wobbly Table


Heads Will Roll

by the

Yeah Yeah Yeahs



Off with your head

Dance 'til you're dead

Heads will roll

Heads will roll

Heads will roll

Heads will roll





On the Floor




You can last

Take the past

Shut your eyes

Realize





Off with your head

Dance 'til you're dead