50th Birthday Party
The LP Historical Preservation Committee encouraged Libertarians nationwide to join in a 50th Birthday Party for the LP on 11 December 2021.
The LP is generally considered to have been "born" on 11 December 1971, when the group who had been calling themselves the "Committee to Organize a Libertarian Party" decided to actually do it!
General Plan
Goals
- Increase awareness of the LP's history.
- Promote collection of material/recollections.
- Encourage formation of state/local history committees/projects.
- Encourage participation in LPedia.
- Bring activists together for fun/celebration/camaraderie.
Location/Format
The concept was to hold celebrations all across the country, with local activists making whatever arrangements made sense to them. The HPC set up a Zoom meeting to link all the local events together so that people in the various physical locations could share what they were doing.
Each local group was responsible for picking a venue, inviting potential attendees, and providing whatever food or other materials might be involved.
Examples of possible formats:
- informal party at someone's home
- presentation by a speaker or panel
- gathering in some public place
- luncheon at a restaurant
- special session during some other event
- wherever it is - sharing a birthday cake!
Date/Time
Date: Saturday 11 December 2021
Time: all day, across multiple time zones
Suggested Activities
Each local event could include some combination of activities like:
- eating birthday cake!
- listening to and documenting stories from long-time members
- creating a timeline of local LP activities
- gathering historical material (party records, photos, newsletters, campaign materials)
- displaying/scanning/identifying/annotating old photos
- speaker/panel on a historical subject
- making "why I am a Libertarian" posters
- games (e.g., LP Trivia, "pin the torch on the statue")
- honoring past activists (including party officers, candidates)
For an example of some of these kinds of activities done in earlier years see the photos taken at the LP of El Paso County, Colorado's 42nd Birthday event.
Participating Locations
If you held an event not listed here, please list your location, contact info, and links to reports/photos below.
- Alaska - Fairbanks
- Alaska - Ketchikan / Paul Robbins (radmaticlibertarian@gmail.com)
- Alaska - Wasilla
- California - Santa Clara County / Joe Dehn (jwd3@dehnbase.org, 408-774-1570)
- California - Fresno / Mimi Robson (chair@ca.lp.org)
- Colorado - Denver / Jacob Luria at 720-550-1048
- Colorado - El Paso County / Judy Darcy (outreach@lpepc.org)
- Indiana - Porter County / Mike Telesky at (libertarianpartyportercounty@gmail.com)
- Missouri - St. Louis / LaDonna Higgens (ladonna.higgins@lpmo.org)
- Montana - Gallatin county / Marty Albini (marty.albini@mtlp.org)
- Ohio - Lorain County / Jim Barbour (james.barbour@lpo.org)
- South Carolina - Greenville / Steve Dasbach (stephendasbach@gmail.com)
- Texas - Travis County / Ted Brown (tedbrown1776@hotmail.com)
Related Events
Other 50th-Year Activities
- 50th Anniversary Golden Gala (Denver, CO / 27-28 August)
- Utah LP 50th Anniversary Celebration (Murray, UT / 4 December)
- LP of Los Angeles Holiday Party and Anniversary Party (Arcadia, CA / 8 December)
