Vermont Libertarian Party Convention 2014 Summary
On Saturday, April 26th, 2014, the Vermont Libertarian Party held its 2014 convention at Zachary’s Pizza in South Burlington where Vermont Libertarians joined to discuss the party platform and nominate delegates to the Libertarian national convention. Attendees had a chance to discuss various issues facing Vermont with 6 different speakers.
2014 Platform Discussion and Adoption
The platform remains unchanged. View the 2014 Platform here:
https://vtliberty.org/organization/platform/
Delegates to the National LP Convention
We nominated 3 delegates to the national Libertarian Party Convention. They are:
- Bonnie Scott of Grand Isle
- John Cisar of Essex
- Bob Bindert of Fairfield
Convention Speakers
We then had 6 speakers including:
- Leroy Turner – spoke about Citizens for Property Rights and how they intend to focus efforts this year on act 60/68 which they believe is one of the greatest threats to property rights in the state of Vermont.
- Bonnie Scott – spoke about activism in Vermont and the various ways Libertarians can be active in causes and liberty-minded groups that we can work with. Bonnie also spoke on using technology to give us an edge politically. Bonnie serves as a Vermont delegate to the national Libertarian convention and also hosts The Woodchuck Report.
- Shayne Spence – spoke about liberty issues for youth and how to reach out to them. Shayne works with the Ethan Allen Institute.
- Wendy Wilton – spoke about threats to healthcare freedom in Vermont. Wendy represented Vermonter’s for Health Care Freedom
- Edward Garcia – spoke about current threats to gun rights in Vermont. Edward represents the Vermont Citizens Defense League.
- Rich Tomasso – provided an update regarding national LP business and provided advice on how we can grow the party as well as how to run a campaign for political office. Rich Tomasso is chair of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party and serves as our LNC representative to the National Libertarian Party.
The convention was well attended and we had a good level of interaction between the speakers and attendees.
We will post videos of individual speakers in separate posts shortly. Stay tuned!
Candidates
Below are comments made by Jeremy Ryan, Chair of the VTLP on Candidates:
We are actively looking for candidates. It’s quite easy for Libertarians to get on the ballot. We’re an officially recognized minor party which means you do not need to get signatures. If you want to run as a Libertarian for State House for example in an already organized town, you simply need to meet with two other members and nominate yourself and file a form. If your town isn’t organized yet, then you would need to set a date and put up some 3 notices and an ad, meet on that date, organize by filing out a form and then nominate yourself as a candidate. It’s quite easy and if interested I can help out. So, if you have any interest just let me know.
Gary Johnson for President
Below are comments made by Jeremy Ryan on Gary Johnson for President:
You may have heard that Gary Johnson stated this week that he would like to seek run for president in 2016 as Libertarian. Last time was quite good for us and another run could help even more. Running this year could help build your support for another run in 2016 and then if Johnson does run you could get those voters as well as I think a quality candidate like Johnson brings new voters to the table that would otherwise not vote.
Tabling Opportunities
Below are comments made by Jeremy Ryan on tabling opportunities:
Also, if anyone is interested in tabling at events, we have tables and materials, just let me know you’re interested and where/what you would like to do and I’ll get you what you need and put the word out to other members. We should be scheduling some outdoor opportunities soon now that the weather is starting to get better. Most of you are either on our mailing list or social media, so we’ll keep you posted there. Stay tuned!
Thank you!
A big thank you to all the above speakers, the Vermont Libertarian members that helped run the event including Dan Feliciano, John Cisar, Carl Ellis, Heavenly Ryan and Bonnie Scott. Thank you to the John Moore and the staff at Zachary’s Pizza for hosting the event and putting out all the pizza! Also, thank you to Ben Lawrence of VTAudioVisual.com for providing us equipment on such short notice.
Share Your Thoughts!
What did you like, what did you like, what you suggest for future conventions? Please share your thoughts on the convention in the comments section below:
