April 26 2015 Strategy Meeting Minutes

On Cue Billiards, 349 Jane Street, Toronto, Ontario

Attending	-	Absent
Igor Bily, Member-at-Large Jim McIntosh, Treasurer Phillip Richard, Chairman Allen Small, Party Leader	Peter Sodhi, Secretary Ron White, Member-at-Large Mark Wrzesniewski ("Wojo"), Vice-Chairman	John White, Recording Secretary (Absent with notice)

Notes:

• Mark Burnison has resigned as Deputy Leader
• Scott Marshall has resigned as Campaign Director

Proposed Agenda

1. Goals
2. Benefit Statement
3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
4. Lunch
5. Execution by Stream - the 90 day plan
6. Governance (Analysis, Design/Build, Test, Execute, Review)

Prior to the meeting Peter had distributed an updated and annotated version of the PowerPoint Presentation to the attendees, to be used as an agenda.

Allen advised that he had arranged a conference call with Tim Moen, Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, at 2:00 PM to discuss how we could help the federal party with the fall election and realize progress towards our goals.

The proposed agenda was accepted by the attendees

Goals

The following goals agreed to at the previous meeting were reviewed and confirmed by the group.

1. Take 4th place in the 2018 General Election (i.e. beat the Green Party)
2. Obtain 250,000 votes (likely required to achieve 4th place)
3. Run a full slate of candidates (121 after redistribution)
4. Have 360 active volunteers (to support our 121 candidates)
5. Have 3,600 members (to ensure 260 active volunteers)
6. Accumulate a war chest of $250,000

Benefit Statement

We need to give voters a reason to vote for us. They need to see an immediate benefit. That benefit will depend on their interests. For example, we identified two "target groups" who we believe will see a benefit to voting for us.

1. Small and medium businesses (SMBs). There are about 390,000 SMBs in Ontario. We could target them with speakers at their events. There are lists of BIAs (Business Improvement Areas) consisting of SMBs.
2. Unhappy Conservatives. Many are not happy with the what the federal PCs are doing under Harper. Similarly in Ontario, Tim Hudac lost the 2014 election for the PCs. If Christine Elliott wins the leadership, many will expect more of the same strategies and will see us a reasonable alternative. If Patrick Brown wins, it may give hope to some disillusioned PC supporters.

The group was split into two teams of 3 people to brainstorm possible Benefit Statements.

Group 1 focused on statements they think would appeal to SMBs;

• You are most qualified to run your life
• You deserve to create your own success and prosperity
• Reap the rewards / Reap your rewards
• We believe in your journey and we want to stay out of the way
• We trust you

Group 2 came up with the following possible Benefit Statements

• The US Constitution should be a good source of ideas (like "government of the people, by the people, for the people") but there is a degree of dislike for American ideas among voters
• Increase choice by decreasing government
• It's time to control your own government; it's yours
• Take control of your life from government
• Reset the system; break the wall
• From central government to self-government
• Reduce the power of government
• We're here to unrig the system
• We're for sound money/economic policy (something the metals industry would support)
• From central planning to individual plans

It was agreed that Allen, as Leader, should be responsible for developing the message.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Finances

In the 2014 General Election the Green Party spent $1.34 per vote realized. We spent $14,115 for 37,691 votes, or $0.375/vote. If we assume we will need to spend at least $1.00 per vote, we will need a budget of $250,000 to realize our goal of 250,000 votes. Jim pointed out that volunteers, not money was the limiting factor in 2014. There is no point in printing more pamphlets than our volunteers are able distribute, or more signs than they are able to put up. How many evenings and weekends are our volunteers prepared to spend on their local (or a remote) campaign?

Jim has already prepared a financial plan (in the Strategic plan for 2014-2018) which generates a Campaign Fund of about $90,000 assuming a modest increase of annual donations (to $20,000 in 2018) and limited increase in operational expenses.

• Action Item: Jim agreed to revise the Financial Plan to show what it will take to achieve a Campaign Fund of $250,000.

• We will need to develop fundraising plans; events, merchandise sales, social media, letters (to members and target audiences) telephoning, advertising.
• Use social media to get members and volunteers, and to spread the word.
• We need to offer something (a benefit of some sort) on social media in return for a 'Like.'
• Should we send Bulletin to every MPP? With citizen feedback?
• Should we solicit coupons from businesses as benefits/rewards?
• Need to make our web site mobile device friendly (Drupal provides such facilities)
• We should offer speakers to organizations already putting on events.

3,600 Members

Phillip has implemented MailChimp to send out emails to lapsed members. 8 new members in the last month. Probably more than 8 members expired. We have about 240 members currently. We need about 100 new members per month to achieve our goal.

• Focus on finances for next 90 days,
• Also need to focus on memberships - more members means more money and volunteers.

Action Item: ?? Phillip to track New Members, Renewed members, Lapsed members, and Total Current Members on a monthly basis.

Lunch

Took a break about 12:15 PM.

The caterer for On Cue Billiards provided breaded veal, pierogies, and borscht.

Reconvened about 1:30 PM.

Execution by Stream

The 90 day plan

• Alex Dvornyak is available to work on improvements to the web site (more time available now than in May).
  • Action Item: Jim, Allen to ensure Alex gets Admin authority on Drupal.
  • Need to define whay renovations we want, what message.
• Events
  • Summer BBQ - a long-time Party tradition. Up until last year it was held in early May at one of our members homes in Caledon Hills. Last year Paolo Fabrizio organized it at Dr. McLeans Park in Vaughan.
    • Action Item: Allen to ask Paolo if he will organize the BBQ again this summer.
  • Charter a boat
  • Yuk Yuks - They will sell us a quantity of tickets which we can re-sell at a profit. (Social Event and fundraiser)
  • Booth at Rib Fest events
• Action Item: Wojo to draft a "Welcome" letter for new members, advising them of volunteer opportunities and to contact him if they wish to volunteer for specific activities. Identify what 'volunteer data' we should keep on CRM.
• Action Item: Igor to develop plans for merchandise; identify services that will take care of production, sales and fulfillment, giving the Party a percentage of sales.
• Action Item: Ron to complete his phone calls and the lapsed members provided to Wojo. Ron to provide member updates and comment on most common reasons for not renewing. (Wojo to send his list to Ron.)
• Action Item: Phillip to email lapsed members to ask why they have not renewed.
• Action Item: Within 90 days we should have a list of Social Media and associations we should target.
• Action Item: Peter to investigate possible marketing opportunities regarding the Pan-Am Games.

Tim Moen Phone Call

• Tim advised he is quitting his job to work full-time as Party Leader.
• The federal Party plans to set up headquarters in Calgary.
• Tim is planning a Canada-wide Leader's Tour before the election and would appreciate any help we could provide in Ontario. He expects the Ontario leg to take a couple of weeks.
• They also plan to do candidate training coincident with the Leader Tour.
• Jean-Paul Heap(?), Campaign Director, was included in the call. His primary concern was getting the list of registered voters for each riding. We advised him that such lists were readily available from Elections Ontario, and probably from Elections Canada as well. We also advised that we didn't consider the required paperwork (re: ensuring lists were returned or destroyed and that everyone had to agree that the lists would only be used for election purposes) justified the limited use we might make of Voters Lists.

After the call we agreed it would be good if Tim could attend the Party BBQ. Pub Nights (Libertarian, Mises and others) could also be good venues for Tim to meet Libertarians. Might need to reschedule some Pub Nights to fit a two week schedule.

Governance

Peter recommended that each 90-day project should be divided into the following phases: (Peter or someone please update suggested time frames and descriptions)

• Analysis, 2 weeks - Research the subject, identify and analyse the target audience, and decide how we should proceed to make progress on our goals. The end result should be a documented plan of action, including KPIs to measure how successful the project was.
• Design/Build, 2 weeks - Refine the message, create the procedures for execution and measuring the results.
• Test, 1 week - Try it out on a subset of the target audience and refine as required.
• Execute, 7 weeks
• Review, 1 week - Did it go as planned? Did we meet our objectives, KPIs? Should we do more? Do we need to change the process?

We agreed to have weekly Status Meetings to review progress on each item, Monday evenings at 7:00 PM

• First meeting to be May 4 (take the first 15 minutes of Monthly Executive Meeting).
• Team members are encouraged to document their progress online to avoid verbal reports and simplify the Recording Director's job.
• Action Item: Jim to set up Wiki page for progress reports.