County Affiliate Support Coordinator – Debbie Standiford - 501-837-0781
Current County Affiliates:
Craighead County
Crittenden County
Pulaski County
10 STEPS TO SETTING UP A COUNTY AFFILIATE
1. If you are not already a member, you can join the the LPAR by clicking the “Join” tab at LPAR.org
2. Visit LPAR.org and click “contact us” to see if there is already a Committee in your county. You can also contact the State Chair at chair@lpar.org to make sure that an affiliate does not already exist in your county. Also, if you have any questions at all of what to do or how to get started that are not covered in this list, contact the County Affiliate Support Coordinator, Debbie Standiford, at pulaskicounty@lpar.org or at 501-837-0781.
3. Declare your intentions to create a County Affiliate to the State Chair (chair@lpar.org) so that the State Chair can appoint you as Temporary Chair of your County Affiliate. In your email, remember to request a list of members in your county from our National and State LP lists to help get your County Affiliate going.
4. Set a time, location and agenda for your first meeting. (Many places like restaurants and libraries have public meeting rooms that can be utilized for free – be sure to confirm your location for the date and time of your meeting)
5. Begin recruiting interested people to your meeting. Talk to family, coworkers, set up an event on Meetup, utilize Facebook and any other method you can think of to inform people about your event. Try putting an ad in your local paper, since some event listings are free of charge. Call the current and lapsed members from your county from the National and State membership list.
6. During your first meeting, give an overview of the Libertarian Party including principles and goals. Explain that the mission of a County Affiliate is to promote the Libertarian Party and LP Candidates in your county. Let attendees know that if they would like to hold an office in this County Affiliate, they MUST be members of the LPAR, and tell them how to become members. Discuss the need to create a set of County Bylaws in order to be recognized as the Official County Affiliate. You may want to present some other county bylaws as an example of the types of offices that will need to be filled and as a general idea of the bylaws that you will begin working and voting on at your next meeting. (For an example of the Pulaski County bylaws, email pulaskicounty@lpar.org) Set the location, date and time of your next meeting before you adjourn.
7. You will need to create a preliminary layout for bylaws. Feel free to contact members of the State Executive Committee for help on this step if needed. We have other successful County Affiliates who have bylaws that you can use to change and adopt as your own.
Keep the following State Bylaws in mind when laying out your County Affiliate Bylaws:
A) A Member of the Party shall be deemed a Member of the County Committee of the county of his or her residence
B) Each County Committee shall have, at the very least, a Chair, selected by the Members of the County Committee, who shall act in accordance with all applicable laws
C) No member of the State Executive Committee may serve simultaneously as the Chair of any County Executive Committee.
D) Only Members of the Party shall be a member or officer of any County Executive Committee.
E) County Executive Committees shall meet no less than one (1) time per quarter to conduct such business as may be required.
F) All official business of a County Executive Committee shall be conducted in open meetings and upon the majority vote of those present and voting.
G) No business shall be conducted by a County Executive Committee unless a quorum of the total membership of the County Executive Committee shall be present.
8. During your second meeting, present your preliminary layout of County Bylaws. You should have a number of people who are members of the LPAR and are therefore eligible to suggest changes and to vote on the approval of the bylaws. Encourage these members to offer suggestions, additions or changes to your preliminary layout. Be patient with this process, and be sure to allow everyone to offer opinions – even non-members. Although non-members are not allowed to vote on changes, their input in this process should be welcomed as a way of encouraging more involvement. Getting a final set of bylaws approved by your members may be accomplished in one meeting or it may take several meetings.
9. Submit your finalized bylaws to the State Executive Committee for approval. You can do this by emailing a copy of your bylaws to chair@lpar.org. Once your bylaws are approved by the State Executive Committee, you are officially a County Affiliate!
10. At your next meeting following approval by the Executive Committee, you will need to use the process laid out in your bylaws to appoint or vote on the County Executive Committee. This committee includes all the official offices as laid out in your bylaws. Remember, a permanent Chair must be chosen at well. Only members of the LPAR may hold office.