The Emperor Has No Phone "...before anything else, the LPCA is a customer service organization." As the Libertarian Party of California (LPCA) breaks for lunch before their annual elections, I'd like to point out a few things about the organization. These things have been painfully obvious to me for quite a long time. Others are now catching on to. Yes, the LPCA is a Political Organization, certainly. And, yes, it's a 'charitable' one as well. To understand the hows and whys of successfully 'operating' such a venture, we have to peel back the layers of the onion even further. The LPCA is a Membership, and a Subscription organization before it's any of the above. Just like a Kiwanis club or other voluntary Membership and Donor based organization, the LPCA must learn and understand how these types of organizations work and operate. Just 'wanting' something doesn't work. Just having the 'best idea' or mousetrap, in and of itself is meaningless and wont' lead to success. Peeling the onion back one further layer, we see that before anything else, the LPCA is a customer service organization. And that, my friends is where the LPCA has fallen down so terribly over the last three years. [An apology here to Beau Cain, a largely unsung hero who has worked his buns off cleaning up other people's messes with very little appreciaton.] The LPCA is H Oh Double R i BB L E horrible at customer service. We hear multiple stories from multiple sources, and I suppose they all could be lying. On the other hand, they are all first hand, and from folks who have no axe to grind. We hear of the current Chair angrily verbally abusing volunteers at events for petty or nonexistent reasons. We hear of the Southern Vice Chair having tirades at people for asking about the LPCA website and it's lack of fresh content or anything... But worst of all is a horrible and strange cancer of apathy towards Members. And that's where I get the title of this little story, 'the Emperor has no Phone'. You see, these people are somehow allergic to the phone, and rarely, if ever return phone calls. Now I'm not personally surprised, as King Naga, our current LPCA Chair did that to me and several other people about 3.5 years ago, preceeding the Convention where he ran for election. But dues paying Members, Donors and Volunteers speak of this as though the cancer has metastasized. Yes, I have spoken to numerous sources, and maybe they are all lying to me, but many of them state our Chair has never returned one of their phone calls. Not one. When the current scandal started way back last year in September or maybe even before that, Board Members from another State even emailed our Chair, and were not given the courtesy of a reply. Nevada ExCom, yeah, our neigbor and sister state. When the current Chair came into 'power' three years ago, the webmaster was someone I had recruited. He continued on to help Naga, and I encouraged him to help us all look good on the website. A few months later, the Webmaster called me and said he was going to resign. Why? Because no one returned his phone calls or email. Yeah, a volunteer webmaster ready to do whatever you want and need, someone really good, too and you can't return his calls? I thought for sure Kev would give the guy a call after he resigned, but nooooo... The same thing happened to me recently. One would think the Chair of this body would respect its processes, especially something as serious as the suspension and expulsion of members. Well, he couldn't be bothered responding to requests from the LPCA Judicial Committee (JC), nor could the prosecutor in the case. A lot of people spent real time helping and advising me on how to handle the situation. I personally gave up some really nice opportunities to be available and prepare for my 'trial'. Of course, the morning of the trial, everyone involved recived a surly and derogatory sounding note stating no-one from the Chair's Prosecution would show up.
"The Emperor not only has no phone, but has no manners or courtesy." Folks, this is a CUSTOMER SERVICE organization. We need folks that can show up on time and return their messages promptly. We need people that can be nice to all comers, even those who they might disagree with. It's a symptom of how this cancer has metastasized when someone intent on Volunteering to help gets 'yelled at' by an LPCA Officer. I have two completely different sources who told me virtually the same story in the last few months, how they contacted one of our alleged customer service experts, asking about the website (see a pattern?) and why it wasn't being maintained... Both people intended to volunteer, having experience and being Members. Instead of being treated nicely and answering the questions in a straighforward manner and finding out the whole story, tirade from the Officer, right on cute. Guess what? These people didn't Volunteer, or ever call back. The Emperor not only has no phone, but has no manners or courtesy. The Libertarian Party of California Deserves better. Copyright February 2010 Bruce Cohen No part may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic, without the express written permission of the author. Also published at http://www.GetBruce.BlogSpot.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
