- THE UBERTARIAN PARTY'S SUCCESS '99
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 * Washington DC 20037 * (202)
How to be a more effective state or local Chair
The job of Chair in the LP is very tough.
The Chair needs organizational and
administrative skills, diplomacy, sales ability,
people skills - while understanding what
Libertarianism is all about. The Chair needs
patience, self control, and an ego capable of
dealinq with criticism and abuse without
resentment.
Beyond this, the Chair needs to have good
judgment and be an effective listener. It takes
creativity to deal with grossly inadequate
finances and far too few effective volunteers.
The Chair should get as much help as possible.
This combination of traits is rare.
It is easy to get frustrated. Inevitably, the
Chair discovers the job has far more
responsibility than authority. The Chair's real
"power" comes from the personal respect he/she
receives from the members and the Board or
Committee. This respect must be earned.
gI!~ keyrole of the Chair is,toresolve
conflict and find ways to get people to work
together effectively. In many cases, this means
mediating disputes. In other cases, it means
finding ways to work with the Chair's critics to
find reasonable solutions. In all cases, it means
staying calm and making sure people focus on
the issues and not on personality clashes.
The Chair has the responsibility to make the
first move when a problem comes up, and be
willing to admit he/she may be wrong.
The Chair must be thoughtful and avoid
acting rashly.
333-0008 * www.LP.org
Proposals should be well thought out prior
to presentation and implementation. This mean
talking ideas over with as many people as
possible and listening to what they have to say.
It means being flexible enough to change the
plan when good suggestions are made.
"l'heChairshould encourage participation
and seek the input of others before decisions
are made. People work harder for proposals they
helped to develop.
The Chair needs to understand the
"business" of running the organization. This
includes fund-raising, budgets and finance,
database management, inquiry processing,
newsletter publishing, etc. These "details" can
destroy the organization if they are not handled
correctly. And beyond all of this, the Chair must
understand libertarians.
TIPS ON BEING A BETTER
STATE/LOCAL CHAIR
>- Like most people, Libertarians want courtesy
and respect.
» Libertarians want to know "why" something
has to be done.
» Libertarians resist "taking orders" and always
respond better to being asked to do
something than being ordered to do
something.
» Libertarians are very independent and may
require being "sold" on the worth of the
activity.
>- Libertarians need to feel that their efforts are
appreciated and their ideas valued.
>- Libertarians respond better to encouragement
and recognition than to criticism and "guilt
trips."
>- Since there is no patronage and little money,
success will come only from the energy and
creativity of the volunteers. The Chair's role
is to find ways to make it easier for people to
be more effective. This means finding ways to
make activism fun and rewarding.
»- The job of Chair is not suited to "prima
donnas." The effective Chair does not seek
recognition, but instead seeks to recognize
the accomplishments of others. The Chair will
accept the blame for failures, even those of
others. Loyalty starts from the top.
>- No one is perfect, so it makes sense to make
effective use of many different kinds of
people. The Chair needs to know his/her
strengths and weaknesses, and recruit people
with complementary skills.
>- Finally, the Chair needs a sense of humor.
Without it, the job will drive him/her crazy.
Few people are ideally suited to being Chair,
but most people can be effective if they
understand what needs to be done and what
being Chair means.

[By George O'Brien]