Full Slate Money Bomb

Executive Sponsor / Single Point of Contact

• Jean Serge Brisson

Supporting Executive Volunteers

• GJ
• Jeff
• Adam

Supporting External Volunteers

Rob Brooks

Initial Proposal

1. Full Slate Money Bomb By Rob Brooks

Phase 1 Plan

The Party plans to run a full slate in the next general election. A full slate will require the identification of and the gaining of a commitment from 107 (as of this date, could go up to 122, but the difference is not really significant based on the approach to be taken) willing individuals and an estimated $10,000 for expenses. $10,000 is to be used to cover the cost to have signatures collected by someone other than the candidate – to send a willing person, like a student or other person with time, up in their car or by public transit, cover their expense, food, and perhaps a stipend if needed, with any remainder from the $10,000 re-profiled to advertising after the candidate registration period ends in the writ period. In addition, the support infrastructure to provide a shared official agent, and a shared auditor, assembling completed nomination kits, and the sending of complete nomination packages by courier from Toronto to individual returning officer is needed. The idea is to make it so easy to be a candidate that all that is needed is for a member to sign a form and sign the audit. Two signatures is not much to ask, and you might even be in Vegas during the election and get elected. Anything is possible once your name is on the ballot!

This plan is Phase 1 of actions to progress toward that goal. The purpose of Phase 1 is to get the ball rolling. The second phase should be a trial run to test out the procedure to complete the registration for one candidate that is only able to sign the nomination form. The second phase should be repeated if needed to get the bugs out. Then the resources needed to run a third phase, being the full slate in a writ period, should be obtained and made ready.

Outcomes:

• Inform our membership about the plan and the expectations surrounding it.
• Establish complete and accurate contact information for all members and supporters.
• Establish an inventory of people indicating interest in being a candidate and/or doing other tasks in support of the Full Slate such as collecting signatures, planting signs and donating money.
• Raise some funds to cover the administrative costs of doing this set of tasks.

Schedule Outline

Date	Action	Description
July 20, 2012	Exec/PM	Approve Plan / Assign Responsibility to Execution
July 27, 2012	Website	Tweak Website to Support Money Bomb -Full Slate (see draft 2)
July 27, 2012	Email	Money Bomb - Full Slate ( see draft 1)
August 2, 2012	Email	Wrap up Money Bomb-Full Slate (see draft 3)
August 4, 2012	Website	Setup a page with detailed information on the Full Slate Plan for reference to in future communications. (see draft 4)
August 9, 2012	Email	Inform Membership of Full Slate Objective, tell them letter is coming (see draft 5)
August 16, 2012	Letter	Ask for Full Slate Pledges, confirm contact coordinates, include stamped return envelope (see draft 6)
August 18-31, 2012		Receive Letters / Record Information
August 27, 2012	Email	Follow-up / Reminder to reply to letter (see draft 7)
August 31, 2012	PM	Review Progress against Plan, revise plan if needed
September 1-15, 2012	Telephone Calls	Follow-up on non-responses
September 30, 2012	PM	Review Status against outcomes, close project or revise plan as needed
October 15, 2012	EMAIL / letter if no email	Comm check – send an email or letter to every member and verify that they received it. This should always be done once or twice a year as an ongoing part of the annual plan of the party (see draft 8)``

Content Drafts

The following are draft content for the various communications needed. Of course a different person with a different writing style will use different words, and if changes are desired, that is fine. The important thing is that the message is coherent, consistent and integrated for the desired outcomes.

Email Content – Full Slate Money Bomb (1)

Ontario Libertarians!

We have an opportunity to make a significant impact in the next provincial election as we gather more and more candidates to our cause.

To reach our goal we need funds. And so the Ontario Libertarian Party is doing its first ever Money Bomb, a fundraising technique used by Ron Paul and others, in support of our Full Slate Campaign.

We plan to run a full slate of candidates in the next general election and we need to raise $10,000 between now and then for associated expenses.

For this Money Bomb, we will be aiming for $1,000 between now and August 4.

If you can give $25 to help your party, now is the time to do so. Just hop on the website at www.ontariolibertarian.ca and click on the “Money Bomb Donate Now” button. If you cannot give at this time, no problem. If you can, please give $25 (or more or less if you like). Remember you get a hefty refundable tax credit for your contribution to our party, so it actually costs you much less.

Please give! Money Bomb!

The Campaign Team

Website Tweaks (2)

On Home Page, change div class="announcement"> (use whatever graphic you like, link the image to donate page) (eg. http://www.goinggalt.ca/olp/index.htm)

On donate page: right under the H1 in the content-header div (eg: http://www.goinggalt.ca/olp/donate.htm) - again, the actual images etc. can be whatever seems suitable, this is just shown to illustrate the idea.

Email – Wrap Up Money Bomb (3)

Members, thank you for your collective contribution to our efforts in support of our Full Slate Project. We ran a money bomb that ended August 4, 2012. I am pleased to report to you that we raised $XXX. This goes a long way toward achieving our goals. We aren’t there yet, but we are getting there.

If you didn't get a chance to participate in our money bomb, I encourage you to make a donation today. You can do it online here (http://www.ontariolibertarian.ca/content/donate-party) or call me at one of the numbers below with your VISA or MasterCard.

We will do another fundraiser before the end of year, so you can top up your donations just in time to qualify for your tax credits. Also, monthly donations make it easier for your to manage your budget and are really helpful to the party to cover the day to day expenses (telephone, mail, bank charges, etc.)

Jim McIntosh, Treasurer, Ontario Libertarian Party www.ontariolibertarian.ca 416-283-7589 or 1-855-ONT-LIBErty (668-5423)

Website Content – Full Slate Page (4)

http://www.ontariolibertarian.ca/fullslate

Put this or similar content in a standard template page. (eg. http://www.goinggalt.ca/olp/fullslate.htm)

Libertarians – we are planning to run a full slate of candidates in the next general election. Our Party has never done this before. We think this is the most important step for us in order to raise our profile among Ontario voters. Once we run a full slate, we will then be in a position to make serious requests for fair coverage by the media, and also to request a place in the televised Leader’s Debates.

It is generally accepted that for a party to be seen as credible, it must have a candidate in every riding. The difficulty is that being a full time active candidate is a barrier for many people, both in our Party and in other parties much larger and more organized. We have seen how the other parties do this. We even saw in the last Federal election how an assistant bar manager from Ottawa was put on the ballot in a riding near Montreal, and she even won the election – while she was on holiday in Las Vegas.

The minimum needed from a person willing to have their name appear on the ballot is their signature on a few forms which the Party will provide. The party can actually do all the rest, including the collection of signatures, finding an official agent and auditor, preparing all the paper work, interacting with Elections Ontario, and even putting up signs in the riding. All we really need is 107 members willing to have their name appear on the ballot along with the word "Libertarian."

Of course we hope to have as many candidates as possible run in the riding where they live, and we hope that as many of them as possible can take media calls, or participate in all candidate meetings. Of note, candidates from the bigger parties are now routinely refusing to participate in all candidate meetings – even though their party wants to govern the province.

So, over the next few months, we will be taking the steps necessary to get all the pieces together to run our very first full slate of candidates. We hope you will want to help, if not as a candidate, then in some other volunteer capacity. We look forward to this very historic achievement for our Party.

If you have any questions, contact our Campaign Director – Jeff McLarty, and he will answer any questions you might have.

Email to Members Informing Them of Our Objective (5)

Libertarians, your Executive has decided that running a full slate in the next election is very important. A number of steps will be undertaken in the next couple of months to find out where we stand, and how each of us is willing to help. We will send you a letter in the next couple of days, asking for your pledge to help. We aren’t asking anyone to do more than they are willing to do.

More information about this is available on our website at: www.ontariolibertarian.ca/fullslate. When you receive our letter, please give it some thought. We are planning to make it very easy to become a candidate, in a way that shouldn’t be a barrier to busy members. This is really important and if we all do a little, it will add up to a lot for our Party and for the libertarian ideas need to be spread to a wider audience.

Thanks, Allen Small, Leader
Ontario Libertarian Party

Letter to Members: (6)

This letter will be individually addressed to each (every?) person who has indicated an interest in being a candidate. If the letter itself is individually addressed, we should insert the person's name at strategic locations. We will include a stamped return envelope. It should be set up to go in a window envelope, maybe a separate return form. We could also include a membership application for potential candidates who have not yet joined the Party. (Conditional text in the letter could advise them that they must become members first.)

Dear <<FirstName>>;

What a fantastic time to be a Libertarian! We have an outstanding Leader in Allen Small and an Executive that is motivated and hungry for a chance to spread our message in an election campaign. The excitement in the US for the Ron Paul candidacy for President, and now Gary Johnson, has made people more and more aware of our ideas.

For the first time the Ontario Libertarian Party, your Party, The Party of Choice, is planning to run a full slate of 107 candidates in the next Ontario general election. This will be an historic achievement and will gain us the attention that we have never received before. We have developed a way for any member that wants to be a candidate to do so with a very minimal commitment, just sign a few forms. Of course you can and are welcome to do more – but nobody will push you or expect more from you than for you to put your good name on the ballot alongside the Libertarian Party name so that all voters in Ontario will have the choice to vote Libertarian. We will take care of everything else, even getting the nomination signatures if need be, and dealing with the Elections Ontario paper work. But even with all we can do, we cannot do it without you. We are asking you to put your name forward. <<FirstName>>, we really need your help!

At present, we have enough members to get this done if most us are willing to help. We do need 107 candidates – so this means we need 107 people to say “Yes!”. We estimate we will need about $10,000 to cover the cost of collecting signatures for those who are not able or prepared to do this themselves (it’s ok – we understand – not everybody is cut out to do this).

Our first task is to find out who is willing to help and in what way. This is NOT a final commitment since the election hasn't been called yet, it is just a way for us to know who to call first when the time comes. Please fill out the enclosed pledge form and return it to us in the envelope provided. If you want more information about our plan, have a look on our website at www.ontariolibertarian.ca/fullslate. If you are willing to do more, have a look at http://www.ontariolibertarian.ca/content/be-candidate.

<<FirstName>>, we really appreciate the time you take to think about this and tell us what you are willing and able to do. We would like to pick up the phone and call every single member, but as volunteers ourselves, we just don’t have the time, so this is the best way we could figure to get the job done.

We would appreciate receiving your reply by August 28. Thank you for being a Libertarian.

Jeffrey McLarty, Campaign Director,
Ontario Libertarian Party

Candidate Pledge Form

This is a separate page with the potential candidate's name and contact information, to be returned.

(Logo and Party address, etc. at top of page)

Please make corrections if any of the information below is incorrect.

<<FirstName>> <<LastName>>                          Status <<Status>> Expiry Date: <<ExpiryDate>>
<<Address>>                                         Home <<HomePhone>>  Work <<WorkPhone>>   Cell <<Cell>> 
<<City>>, ON, <<PCode>>                             Email ID: <<email>> 

Please check one or both of the following, if you are willing and able, to indicate that you pledge to help. These two items are THE most important to us, so please take a little time to think about it, we really really need you to help if you can, with these two items. The following will be formatted with check boxes instead of bullets.

• I will allow my name to stand as a candidate for the party if needed. I understand that all I have to do is sign two forms prior to the election and one form after the election. No pressure will be placed on me to do anything else. What the heck, it’s the least I can do to help. Of course if somebody else wants to do it and is willing to do more, that is just fine, but if you need me to do it, so we give everyone the opportunity to vote for us, I can do that and I will.
• I will help up by making a donation to the party in the amount of $_____ between now and the start of the election. I know the party needs to raise $10,000 total for this and I am willing to help since I have some money that I can spare. The tax credits really help as well!

Please also consider checking one or more of the following if you are willing and able to help in any of these other ways. Although these aren’t as crucial as the first two, they are also really important, and if you are willing to help in any of these ways, it will make us better.

• I am willing to collect signatures for myself if I am a candidate.
• I am willing to collect signatures for someone else, in my community if needed.
• I am willing to collect signatures in another riding, where I know I might have to take my car or a bus to get there and if the Party can cover my expenses, and maybe even give me a little something for my time, well, I am willing to do it.
• I am willing to put up a few small signs (10 or so) in my community, which will be delivered to me.
• As a candidate, I am willing to attend all candidate meetings, as my schedule permits.
• As a candidate, I am willing to answer media calls / interviews. I will appreciate any help you can provide by giving me the background on our platform and positions. I am a member, but I don’t know everything. If you can tell me how to handle a question where I don’t know the answer that would really help and make me more willing and confident.

In the space below (or feel free to add an extra sheet or two if needed), please give us any feedback or suggestions or comments, or really anything that is on your mind about our Party or even anything else. We will read everything we get back and it will help us to do better as we go forward. Also, and this is VERY important, please check the information at the top of the letter, your address, telephone number and email address and make sure it is correct. If not, also use the space below to tell us what it should be – or send an email to Jim McIntosh at cfo@ontariolibertarian.ca.

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Follow-up Email to Members (7)

Hi. About 2 weeks ago, we sent you a letter asking you to “pledge” to help the party in any way you are willing, to run our historic first full slate in the next general election. We haven’t heard back from you and hope you can send us back your reply soon. Thanks.

Jeffrey McLarty, Campaign Director,
Ontario Libertarian Party

Follow-up Phone Call

Darren Roskam has volunteered to make telephone calls for $10/hr. Depending on the number of calls, we may want more than one person making calls

We need to agree on a script (Darren can draft) and a mechanism for tracking results. Possible outcomes:

• Member agrees to make a donation online or provides a VISA card number;
• Member does not agree to make a donation at this time;
• Member asks to be removed from our list; or
• Phone number no longer in service.

Comm Check (8)

Hi. Every once in a while we touch base with all our members and other contacts to make sure our contact information is up to date. So if you don’t mind, please verify the following, and if there are any corrections needed, please let us know by replying.

Thanks

Jim McIntosh, Treasurer,
Ontario Libertarian Party

Name: XXX
Address: XXX
Telephone: XXX
Email: XXX

Progress Reports 2012 Campaign

July 27

Emails were sent to 344 names on the Bravenet Email Announcements list and another 178 names from our mailing list that are not on the Bravenet list.
Note: There are another 142 names on the Party's mailing list without email IDs. Most of them may not be aware of our campaign. We could include a letter with the Fall Bulletin or make it a front page article.

July 30

Donations have been received (and transferred to our bank account) from 17 people totaling $969.44. Two were from people not on our mailing list.

August 3

Additional donations transferred from PayPal. Total to date = $1,819.44.