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Election Year Calendar Proposed for NW Michigan Libertarians

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The Northwest Michigan Libertarians will discuss and approve their 2020 calendar at their November 20th meeting, to be held at Kristen Kuhn’s home at 5452 Heritage Way in Traverse City.

Since 2020 is an election year, the year’s activities will be focused on nominating and assisting local candidates. We will keep our business meetings and other activities to a minimum, to allow members to attend the conventions and work on the election.

 

Highlights of the proposed calendar include: 

  1. Election Day! We hope to have several local candidates and we hope all of our members will help out when they can at various polling places.
  2. Five conventions: Related to the election, there is a national convention in June and two state conventions, to be held in March and July. We will have two local conventions, in February and June.
  3. Annual meet and greet/barbecue in September.
  4. Four Zoom meetings in January, April, August, and October.


All who are interested in liberty are welcome to any of our meetings and events. You can join our affiliate if you live in Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or surrounding counties. 

Here is the proporsed 2020 calendar:

November 20th Wednesday: 6:30 business meeting to approve 2020 goals and calendar. 5452 Heritage Way, Traverse City.

January 15 Wednesday: 6:30 Zoom online business meeting. Anyone can join!

February 19th Wednesday: NW Michigan Libertarian Convention 6:30 at Incredible Mo’s. 1355 Silver Lake Crossings Blvd in Grawn. We will elect officers, revise bylaws, and select voting delegates to send to the state convention.

March 14th Saturday: State of Michigan Libertarian Party Convention at Eberhard Center at Grand Valley State University, 301 Fulton St W Grand Rapids. We will select voting delegates to send to the national convention, and expect several presidential candidates to be in attendance.

April 15th Wednesday::6:30 Zoom online business meeting. Anyone can join!

May 21 – 25th National Libertarian Party Convention to select the Libertarian presidential candidate. Location: Austin, Texas.  We will select local candidate to be on the ballot for the 2020 election.

June 17th Wednesday: NW Michigan Libertarian Convention 6:30 at Incredible Mo’s. 1355 Silver Lake Crossings Blvd in Grawn. We will select candidates to run as Libertarians in our local convention, and we will select voting delegates to send to the state convention.

July: State of Michigan Libertarian Party Convention. Place and date to be determined. We will select statewide candidates for the 2020 election.

August 19th Wednesday: 6:30 Zoom online business meeting. Anyone can join!

September 13th Sunday: Annual Meet and Greet Barbecue for candidates and members. 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Location to be determined.

October 21st Wednesday: 6:30 Zoom online business meeting. Anyone can join!

November 3rd: ELECTION DAY! We hope that all our members will assist various local Libertarian candidates. See you at the polls!

For questions or more information, please contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

 

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Will Hold Business Meeting on November 20th

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Northwest Michigan Libertarians (NWMLP) will hold their next meeting Wednesday, November 20th at 6:30 at the house of member Kristen Kuhn at 5452 Heritage Way, Traverse City, MI. Simple food will be provided.

This is our last monthly business meeting of 2019.  All local Libertarians are welcome!

We will discuss the 2020 calendar, which includes selecting candidates for the November election. In 2020, we will also have 5 conventions: 2 local, 2 state, and 2 national conventions to select candidates, officers and delegates.

We would also like to continue to grow our local party and welcome new members! To be a member of the NWMLP, you need to reside in the Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or adjacent counties. Members simply must affirm the statement: “I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”

For more information, contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

NW Michigan Libertarian BBQ A Big Success

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Liberty lovers across Michigan enjoyed a successful end of summer barbecue and Meet and Greet on September 8th at noon at Kenwood Heritage Park in Cadillac. The barbecue was hosted by the newly affiliated LIbertarian Party of Northwest Michigan (NWMLP).

Libertarian Presidential candidate Kim Ruff spoke at the event and motivated the crowd with her “Reignite Liberty” Campaign.

Libertarian Party of Michigan Political Vice Chairman Jamie Lewis also talked to the attendees about running for office, and discussed upcoming conventions and the need for delegates to represent Northwest Michigan.

“The event was a big success, mainly because we are thrlled to ahve gained several new members,” stated Donna Gundle-Krieg, Chair of the LIbertarian Party of Northwest Michigan (NWMLP),

The newly affiliated group has the primary purpose of supporting local Libertarian candidates and promoting issues related to liberty. The group welcomes residents of Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee  and adjacent counties.

For questions, email nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.  

 

 

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Will Hold Business Meeting on October 16th

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Northwest Michigan Libertarians (NWMLP) will hold their next meeting Wednesday, October 16th at 6:30 at the house of member Philip Lindsay at
7905 Hilleys Rd SW; South Boardman, MI 49680..Take 131 to Supply Road, turn west. on Supply. Turn left on Miller and left on 7905 Hilleys Rd SW; South Boardman, MI 49680, USA

We will discuss the success of the summer barbecue as well as our future calendar including business meetings, conventions, candidate sessions, and more. 

Simple food will be provided and we ask for voluntary donations to help build our affiliate’s funds for future outreach.

We would also like to continue to grow our local party and welcome new members! To be a member of the NWMLP, you need to reside in the Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or adjacent counties. Members simply must affirm the statement: “I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”

For more information, contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Will Hold Business Meeting on August 13th

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Northwest Michigan Libertarians (NWMLP) will hold their next meeting Tuesday, August 13th\ at the house off Outreach Director Ben Schulz, 120 E Wexford Avenue in Buckley, Michigan.  

We will continue to discuss summer outreach plans including a family picnic the weekend after Labor Day. We hope to have the Libertarian party state leadership at this picnic, and also hope to meet some of our 2020 candidates

Any member who wants a shirt should bring a lite grey shirt to the next meeting along with $20 for the artist to imprint the logo.

Ben will cook dinner and asks for voluntary donations to help build our affiliate’s funds for future outreach.

We would also like to continue to grow our local party and welcome new members! To be a member of the NWMLP, you need to reside in the Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or adjacent counties. Members simply must affirm the statement: “I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”

For more information, contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Will Hold Business Meeting on July 9th

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Posted on by

Northwest Michigan Libertarians (NWMLP) will hold their next meeting Tuesday, July 9th at the house off Outreach Director Ben Schulz, 120 E Wexford Avenue in Buckley, Michigan.  

We will continue to discuss summer outreach plans including a family picnic the weekend after Labor Day. We hope to have the Libertarian party state leadership at this picnic, and also hope to meet some of our 2020 candidates

Any member who wants a shirt should bring a lite grey shirt to the next meeting along with $20 for the artist to imprint the logo.

Ben will cook wings for dinner and asks for voluntary donations to help build our affiliate’s funds for future outreach.

We would also like to continue to grow our local party and welcome new members! To be a member of the NWMLP, you need to reside in the Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or adjacent counties. Members simply must affirm the statement: “I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”

For more information, contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Will Meet on June 11 to Discuss Summer Outreach

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Northwest Michigan Libertarians (NWMLP) will hold their next meeting Tuesday, June 11th at the house off Outreach Director Ben Schulz, 120 E Wexford Avenue in Buckley, Michigan.  

We will discuss summer outreach plans including a family picnic to meet some of our candidates. We will also discuss a t-shirt design for outreach.  Last but not least, we will discuss fundraising plans and ideas.

We would also like to continue to grow our local party and welcome new members! To be a member of the NWMLP, you need to reside in the Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee or adjacent counties. Members simply must affirm the statement: “I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.”

For more information, contact nwmichiganlibertarians@gmail.com.

April 2019 Minutes NWMLP

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Minutes of the Northwest Michigan Libertarian Party (NWMLP) Business Meeting

Tuesday, April 9, 2098 @ 6:30PM

Online meeting via Zoom

  1. Call Meeting to Order- Chairperson Gundle-Krieg called the meeting to order at 6:43PM. Zoom technology was an issue at this meeting due to recent changes.  Until next winter, we will attempt to have in-person meetings.
  2. Roll Call-

Present- Chairperson: Donna Gundle-Krieg Officers: Ben Schultz, Kristen Olsen, David Holmer.

Absent: Peter Bisrupski, Ben Boren

Others: Robert Clark

  1. Announcements- None.
  2. Approval of Minutes-Donna made a motion to correct the March meetings as Jim Krantz was not a delegate. David moved to accept the corrected minutes. Kristen seconded. Motion passed 4-0. 
  3. Reports
    1. Chair
      1. Convention this weekend in Bay City. Northern Michigan delegates will sit together. There are many important bylaw changes being proposed, and new state leadership will be elected. Northern Michigan is sending a record 13 delegates, including 7 from our group.
    2. Vice Chair absent
    3. Political Director
  1. David will work with Donna to contact all the candidates we currently have running for election, and we will schedule our next meeting to meet these candidates and discuss their needs.
  1. Outreach and Membership Director
      1. The presentation David and Ben Schulz did at the Tea Party was a success.
      2. Future outreach suggestion was on Ben’s front lawn in center of Buckley where Memorial Parade goes by. We will discuss details at the next meeting.
      3. We would like to get t-shirts to wear as a group to our outreach programs. Ben Schulz with work on a design, colors, an inexpensive vendor etc. Hopefully we can order t-shirts, jackets etc.
    2. Secretary Absent
    3. Treasurer- None.
  1. Our next meeting is Tuesday May 14th at 6:30 at the West End Tavern 2719 S West Bay Shore Dr, Traverse City Donna will be absent. Ben Boren will run the meeting in her place. Ben Schulz moved that he act as chair if Ben Boren is unavailable. David seconded the motion. Passed 4-0.

 

  1. Adjournment- Chairperson Gundle-Krieg adjourned the meeting at 7:20PM

March 2019 Minutes NWMLP

Northwest Michigan Libertarians Posted on by

Minutes of the

Northwest Michigan Libertarian Party (NWMLP) Business Meeting

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

West End Tavern, Traverse City

  1. Call Meeting to Order- Chairperson Gundle-Krieg called the meeting to order at 6:35PM

New membership forms were passed out and collected, to ensure that everyone had the ability to vote.

  1. Roll Call- Present- Chairperson: Donna Gundle-Krieg, Vice-Chair: Ben Boren, Officers: Ben Schultz, David Holmer Members Jim Krantz, Kristen Olson, John Boonstra, Robert Clark. Absent: Secretary Peter Biskupski
  2. Approval of Minutes- David Holmer moved to approve the January minutes, Ben Schultz seconded. Motion passed 8-0.
  3. Reports
    Chair:Two bylaw changes were proposed. Ben Schultz moved to approve the bylaw changes, Ben Boren seconded the motion. Motion passed 8-0. Modified bylaws are below and on the website.A delegate list was proposed for the upcoming state convention, and the following delegates were named: Donna Gundle-Krieg, Ben Boren, David Holmer, Kristen Olson, John Boonstra, Robert Clark and Destiny Twitchell. Ben Schultz and Peter Biskupski were named as alternates. David Holmer moved to approve the delegate list. Ben Schulz seconded. Motion carried 8-0.The chair’s first column was published this week in the Northern Express. It will allow us to present our Libertarian view every few weeks

    Vice Chair Ben Boren discussed how happy he was to see new members and delegates, and the importance of the upcoming convention. Northern Michigan will have more representation than ever, and Ben is running for Vice-Chair of the state party which will give us even more say.

    Political Director David Holmer announced that he has 10 candidates running in 2020. He discussed the need to decide whether we will approve our candidates by convention or caucus. Ben Schulz made a motion that we approve candidates via caucus, which gives us more flexibility. Ben Boren seconded the motion. Motion carried 8-0.

    Outreach and Membership Director Ben Schulz combined his report with David’s since the two of them are speaking to the Manistee Tea Party Thursday March 21st at the Bungalow Inn. An informal discussion about their speeches will follow the business meeting.

4. Old Business- Since Joseph Hartman moved, we have had an opening for a Treasurer. Even though we currently do not have dues, we hope to develop funds in the future and we need another member of the Executive Committee. Kristen Olson volunteered to take over the position. Ben Schultz moved to approve Kristen Olson as Treasurer, and Jim Krantz seconded the motion. Motion carried 8-0. Welcome Kristen!!

5. New Business Ben Boren moved to put the minutes on our website. David Holmer seconded the motion. Motion carried, 8-0. The next meeting will be online and will focus on the upcoming convention as well as a discussion of a long-term meeting plan. The meeting will be Tuesday, April 9 at 6:30. As always, the link will be published online and on the Facebook page.

6. Adjournment- Chairperson Gundle-Krieg adjourned the meeting at 7:27 PM

APPENDIX

Bylaw Revisions

  1. Membership A. Anyone residing in the service area, or in any adjacent county shall be eligible for NWMLP membership. The service area encompasses Charlevoix, Antrim, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, and Missaukee Counties.
  • Executive Committee A quorum of the Executive Committee shall consist of 60% of its members. A majority of those members present shall rule, except as otherwise provided in these Bylaws.

 

Libertarian Northern Michigan: A Primer

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This article was written by the Northwest Michigan Chairperson Donna Gundle-Krieg, and originally published in the Guest Opinion Column in the Northern Express.  Libertarian Party of Michigan

Libertarian Northern Michigan: A Primer
Many people in this country are fed up with the two-party system, and the division and problems that this system has created. Nothing ever seems to change.

Recently, two separate groups of people in northern Michigan decided to do something about this. Simultaneously, these two groups decided to form official affiliates for the Libertarian Party of Michigan. Bylaws were drawn up, officers were elected, and a few candidates ran in local elections with very good results.

The energy has been contagious. With all of the interest we’ve found up here, I guarantee that you’ll be hearing a lot more from the libertarian Party — the third largest party since the 1980’s, and one that held primary party status at the last election.

Libertarian party principles revolve around freedom and limited government, both in terms of government power and government spending. Basically, this means that a Libertarian is someone who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

The first new northern Michigan Libertarian group to form is called the Straits Area Libertarian Party(SALP)and covers Cheboygan, Emmet, Otsego, and Presque Isle counties.

The second group, the Northwest Michigan Libertarian Party(NWMLP), covers Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Antrim, Charlevoix, Wexford, Manistee, and Missaukee counties.
Both affiliates have the purpose of nominating and campaigning for candidates for political office, initiating and/or supporting ballot proposals, lobbying elected officials, and engaging in educational and other informational activities.

The Libertarian party is growing quickly because young people and many others do not like what they see in the other two parties. Right now, our national debt is over $22 trillion, or $67,000 per person, according to the United States Treasury. Republicans, who used to boast about being financially conservative, are running up the debt more quickly than the Democrats.

Veterans also make up a large part of our membership. They have seen and experienced firsthand the destruction caused by our country’s foreign policies of interfering in other countries’ affairs and conflicts.

Libertarians sign an oath to the “Non-Aggression Principle.” Simply put, most people live their lives and follow the non-aggression principle in their interactions. Libertarians take this further, and apply this principle to group actions, including government and military actions.
We are conservative fiscally, but liberal on most social issues. For example, our party’s platform states that “sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration, or military service laws.”

Local issues are very important to Libertarians, as citizens can often have more impact on local issues than they can on national issues. As a real estate broker in Mancelona, I run across many issues in northern Michigan involving property rights. I plan to expand on these issues in future columns.

For example, Libertarians believe that the ever-increasing number of zoning regulations are slowly eroding our freedoms. These restraints on land use stem from well-intentioned efforts to promote public safety, environmental objectives, and aesthetic goals for development. However, according to a study by the Cato Institute, in addition to taking away our liberties, “a major side effect of this growing volume of zoning rules has been to deter construction and reduce the supply of housing, including multifamily and low-income housing.”

Other local Libertarian issues involving property rights include vacation property rules, eminent domain, and the government benefitting from property tax foreclosures. Eminent domain in particular is currently being debated across the country, as Trump’s declaration of a so-called national emergency enables the government to take private property for the building of a wall.

In addition to real estate issues, Libertarians will also be watching other local issues, such as the proposed new Antrim County jail and similar expensive government projects. We will be watching how the state and local governments implement the new recreational marijuana law. We have already impacted changes in civil forfeiture, as it is wrong for the state to seize personal property before a person has been found guilty.

In addition to affecting local policy, our new groups’ purposes involve running as many local candidates as possible in the upcoming elections. In the last election, local Libertarian candidates did very well. Robert Clark, who ran for Arcadia Township Supervisor, earned 47.2 percent of the vote, which is the highest ever for a Libertarian candidate in Michigan.

David Holmer of Manistee and Dana Carver of Onaway also received respectable percentages as candidates in County Commissioner races. Holmer is the NWMLP’s new political director and is currently seeking Libertarians who want to help us run a full slate of local candidates in the 2020 election.

Donna Gundle-Krieg, owner and broker of DEK Realty, is the District 1 representative for the Libertarian Party for Michigan, and chairperson of the newly formed Northwest Michigan Libertarian Party (NWMLP). She writes from Mancelona. dokrieg@gmail.com