Libertarian Party of California Historical Preservation Committee

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The Libertarian Party of California Historical Preservation Committee (LPC HPC) was formed to oversee the preservation and publication of historical materials relating to the LPC. It serves a role similar to that of the national HPC, but with a focus on California.

Members

The current members of the LPC HPC are:

History

The LPC HPC was formed by action of the LPC Executive Committee in September 2018. Kenneth Brent Olsen was appointed Interim Chair, and additional members were then recruited. The new committee held its organizational meeting in January 2019.

Prior to 2022, the members were appointed by the LPC Chair. At its meeting of 19 March 2022, the LPC Executive Committee adopted changes to the definitions of this and several other committees, and for this committee specified that members would be elected by the EC.

Meetings

  • 12 January 2019
  • 23 February 2019
  • 23 March 2019

Next Scheduled Meeting

  • 16 July 2023

Reports

Past Members


Exhibits

2019 LPC HPC display

The LPC HPC had an exhibit table at the 2019 Convention in Concord. On the table was a display board which included lists of convention, state chairs, candidates for governor and US Senate, graphs of registered Libertarians and central committee members, a list of past state newsletters along with how many issues are online so far, and the "first two years" article from 1974. Also on the table were a notebook containing outreach material, some historical buttons and bumper stickers, and extra copies of The Libertarian Alternative. The backdrop consisted of two LPC banners used at past events. Also posted on the wall was an outreach poster produced by the LPSF.

2020 LPC HPC display

The display at the 2020 Convention included the same display board (with updated graphs) along with a new one featuring the registration sheets from the LPC's first convention (1973), the schedule for the 1974 convention, and the 1974 LPC Platform.

2021 LPC HPC display

The display at the 2021 convention was very similar, again with updated graphs.

2022 LPC HPC display

The display at the 2022 convention featured a new panel showing the original state newsletter along with a timeline based on early newsletters, plus a binder containing the 51-page year-by-year Santa Clara County timeline.

2023 LPC HPC display

The display at the 2023 convention was similar to the one in 2022, with some additional campaign signs.


Work Plan

The following charts outline the work being planned by the LPC HPC along with some notes about its status.

Tasks/Projects

Activities that the LPC HPC will undertake or recruit others to undertake.

locating/inventorying material
where is it? what is it? 		Need to reach out to people who may have material, make arrangements to look at it and make notes.
rescuing/moving things
e.g., when in danger of being thrown out 		Need to keep in touch with people who have things so we have warning of when they might be at risk.
scanning / digitizing material
into formats that can archived/posted 		Some of this might be done where the material already is, some would be better done by moving the material, and some might be better outsourced to a commercial service.
uploading material to LPedia
text articles, PDFs, photos, audio/video files 		Some people are already doing this. There are already structural pages for many of the subjects of interest to us.
interviewing long-time activists
(or encouraging them to write articles) 		Need to come up with a list of activists to contact. Then arrange a way to hear from them (e.g., one-on-one interview, presentation at a convention, telephone conference call).
writing/editing articles Information from all the sources above needs to be organized and presented in the form of articles. Updates to existing articles need to be made as new sources are found, and also to reflect current events (e.g., elections, actions by conventions).

Subjects of Interest

Subjects about which the LPC HPC will be seeking materials and information to be preserved/published.

activists (names, positions, other biographical information)
Executive Committee members/terms there are separate pages for all recent terms, some older ones
meetings/minutes list of known meetings
other state-level committees
counties/regions/affiliates Lpedia already has pages for all county-level groups
but content for many is sparse/minimal
membership stats dues-paying/CC extremely spotty records for many periods
registration statewide counts essentially done
campaigns federal/state
local non-partisan
election results federal/state most of these results already in LPedia
local/non-partisan these will require much work to track down
Libertarians in public office
conventions there is a page for every convention, some with lots of info, some with almost nothing
bylaws and rules recent ones uploaded, need older ones
platforms many already uploaded
programs
newsletters state scanning/uploading in progress, see chart below
local we have very few of these
high priority to track them down!
outreach materials press releases
flyers/brochures
buttons/signs

Types of Materials Relevant to Meetings

Things that could potentially exist for any convention or other type of meeting.

formal minutes
recordings (audio or video)
transcriptions
personal notes of participants
reports (e.g., back to regions, in newsletters)

Information Sources

Where historical material and information might be found.

Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Daniel Wiener with material from his attic
official LP records (in custody of current "office" / officers) current officers might have some things
Brent's home was "official storage"
box of documents from Sacramento office transferred from Imhoffs' garage to Joe Dehn
could be something in Monrovia
material in possession of national HPC (in Colorado storage room) records moved from national office
material sent by California activists
personal collections of physical material (papers, photos, recordings) known to have significant collections:
Mimi Robson (stuff given to her by Ted Brown)
Joe Dehn (Santa Clara, misc.)
Gail Lightfoot (LA, R67, central coast, photos used in newsletters)
Dave Schrader (LA area)
Jeff Smith (newsletters, campaign and convention files) (Joe now has these)
Daniel Wiener (convention and campaign files, minutes, newsletters) (Joe now has most of these)
institutional collections (e.g., at universities) Hoover Institution
government records Secretary of State: registration data, federal/state election results
county registrars/clerks: registration data, local election results
some counties might have info about elected central committee members or officers
traditional news media (e.g., newspaper archives) major media with statewide coverage
local/regional media
social media Facebook, Twitter, etc.
e-mail discussion lists, Yahoo groups, etc.
non-LP online archives Wayback Machine, Wikipedia
early activists (writings, recollections)

Note: There may be some things we can start doing now to make it easier to find current material when it turns into "history", e.g. current online equivalents of what used to be known as "clipping services", archiving content of Facebook groups.

Newsletters as an Information Source

Information we might be able to gather by reading through newsletters:

  • method can be applied to local newsletters, state newsletters, and California topics in national newsletters
  • for each, note essential facts and where found, enough to go back and find it again
  • for some information, changes might be implied - e.g., from a directory listing
  • also note if there is an associated photo
  • Libertarians who ran for public office
    • announcements that they are running
    • articles about their campaigns
    • election results
  • Libertarians serving in public office
    • news about them being elected, sworn in
    • articles about what they did in office
  • county officers / executive committee
    • news of them being elected or taking over
    • news of resignations or other removals
    • formation/appointment of other committees
  • meetings
    • county annual meetings, central committee meetings, etc.
    • social events, supper clubs, book clubs, etc.
  • infrastructure
    • hiring/contracting any kind of paid staff
    • opening or closing a physical office
    • existence of a web site, e-mail list, social media account
  • changes to bylaws or organizational structure
  • membership statistics/policies
  • outreach activities
    • booths, parades, protests
  • public statements on issues
    • resolutions
    • press releases
    • letters to the editor (by a party spokesperson)
  • things about newsletter itself
    • has editor changed?
    • by-lined articles

Interviews

Other Resources

Things that might help the LPC HPC do its work.

scanning / digitization equipment Mimi has: VHS, Betamax, 8mm and 16mm film
Joe has: VHS, SuperVHS, various digital video
Jon knows somebody in related industry
storage space
funds

Status of Projects

Charts to track the progress of current projects.

State Newsletters

Publication # issues
published 		# we have
in any form 		# uploaded notes
LiberTale (1972) 2 2 2
The Libertarian (1972) 2 or 3 2 2
CaLiber (1973-1983) 70-80 (est.) 2
California Activist (1979-1984) 32 (est.) 22 19 no info on 1979-1981 issues
California Libertarian News (1985-1992) 87-89 (est.) 86 86
Liberty Bell (1993-1994) 10 9 9
Libertarian Party of California News (1994-1996) 29 27 10 some scanned but not yet uploaded
California Liberty (1994-1996) 18 16 0 some scanned but not yet uploaded
LPC Monthly (1997-2003) 70-72 (est.) 70 70
California Freedom (2003-2009) 68 67 66
The Beacon (1999-present) 15 15 0

Local Newsletters

Note: Counties are used to identify a geographic area for many of the newsletters in this table, but this does not necessarily mean that the newsletter was published by an organization established for exactly that county.


Geographic Area Title Year Range # issues
published 		# we have
in any form 		# uploaded notes
Alameda County, then East Bay Libertarian Lifeline ?-1983-1990s? some already uploaded
Contra Costa County Contra Costa Libertarian ?-1983-?
Contra Costa County The Abolitionist ?-1987-?
Fresno County Time for Liberty ?-1983-?
Kern County Advance to Liberty ?-1983-?
Lake County Clearlake Libertarian ?-1983-?
Los Angeles County Libercal ?-1983-?
Los Angeles - Region 62 West Los Angeles Libertarian ?-1983-?
Los Angeles - Region 62 Westside Libertarian ?-1987-?
Marin County Free Market Marin ?-1983-?
Marin County Free Marin ?-1987-1990s?
Sacramento County Capital Liberty ?-1983-?
San Diego County San Diego Libertarian ?-1983-1987-?
San Francisco San Francisco LP News ?-1983-?
San Francisco Golden Gate Libertarian ?-1987-1990s?
San Joaquin County Voice of Liberty ?-1983-?
San Mateo County Peninsula Libertarian ?-1983-?
San Mateo County San Mateo Libertarian 1991-2006, 2012-2013 uploaded Dec 1995 onward
Santa Clara County Santa Clara Libertarian 197x?-200x? many already uploaded
Santa Clara County Santa Clara Libertarian Update 2014-2018 e-mail newsletter
Santa Clara County The Liberty Quill 2018-present e-mail newsletter
Santa Cruz County Santa Cruz Libertarian ?-1983-?
Sonoma County Sonoma Libertarian ?-1987-?
Ventura County, et.al. Channel Counties Libertarian ?-1983-?

County / Region Organizations

In the following tables, "volunteer" means a person actively trying to gather/organize/post information about the area in question, while "sources" means people who may have material or personal knowledge relating to the history of the area but are not necessarily interested in doing work on HPC projects at this time.

Counties (current organizational struture)

# County Volunteer Sources Notes
1 Alameda Terry Floyd see also East Bay
2 Alpine see also El Dorado/Alpine
3 Amador see also Gold Country
4 Butte
5 Calaveras see also Gold Country
6 Colusa
7 Contra Costa Terry Floyd see also East Bay
8 Del Norte
9 El Dorado see also Ed Dorado / Alpine
10 Fresno Devin Harris see also Valley Libertarians
11 Glenn
12 Humboldt
13 Imperial
14 Inyo see also Mono / Inyo
15 Kern Kenneth Brent Olsen
16 Kings Kalish Morrow see also Valley Libertarians
17 Lake
18 Lassen
19 Los Angeles see also sub-county regions
20 Madera see also Madero / Mariposa, Valley Libertarians
21 Marin
22 Mariposa see also Madera / Mariposa, Valley Libertarians
23 Mendocino
24 Merced
25 Modoc
26 Mono see also Mono / Inyo
27 Monterey
28 Napa
29 Nevada
30 Orange
31 Placer
32 Plumas
33 Riverside
34 Sacramento
35 San Benito
36 San Bernardino
37 San Diego
38 San Francisco
39 San Joaquin
40 San Luis Obispo Gail Lightfoot Gail Lightfoot
41 San Mateo
42 Santa Barbara Gail Lightfoot
43 Santa Clara Joe Dehn
44 Santa Cruz
45 Shasta
46 Sierra
47 Siskiyou
48 Solano
49 Sonoma
50 Stanislaus
51 Sutter see also Sutter / Yuba
52 Tehama
53 Trinity
54 Tulare Jon Prosser see also Valley Libertarians
55 Tuolumne see also Gold Country
56 Ventura
57 Yolo
58 Yuba see also Sutter / Yuba

Former Multi-County Regions

# Name Volunteer Sources Notes
1 East Bay Terry Floyd Alameda, Contra Costa
3 Gold Country Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne
20 Madera / Mariposa Madera, Mariposa
Mono / Inyo Inyo, Mono
North Coast Lake, Mendocino
Sutter / Yuba Sutter, Yuba
10 Valley Libertarians Jon Prosser at various times Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tulare

Sub-Divisions of Los Angeles County

# Area Volunteer Sources Notes
61 LA - San Fernando Valley
62 LA - West
63 LA - Foothills / Glendale / Pasadena
64 LA - Central
65 LA - Southeast
66 LA - Long Beach / South Bay
67 LA - East San Gabriel Gail Lightfoot
68 LA - Antelope Valley

Outside California History Commentary

Caryn Ann Harlos started a series on the history of the California Party.

  1. ↑ Lightfoot was a member in the early years of this committee, prior to being becoming a member again in 2023 under the new election procedure.
  2. ↑ Parks was among the five members elected at the LPC EC meeting of 19 March 2022, at which the method the committee was selected was also changed. He later indicated that he was not interested in serving, and on 13 April made a request specifically to be removed from the committee. Since ordinarily a person has to consent in order to be elected to a position, and since he made clear his intent not to serve before the new group held its organizational meeting, an alternative interpretation is that he was never actually serving as a committee member.
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