Liberty Forum Keynote Speaker

[Kat Kanning]

I find it appauling that with all the useful things the FSP could do with people's donations, they're blowing $10,000 on an hour's entertainment. 

[JonM]

It is hoped that the cost of Stossel's fee will be covered by ticket sales to said keynote speech.  The FSP needed to front the money to get the contract, and if all goes well, the FSP will get that money back.

[Lloyd Danforth]

It is an understandable risk.  The FSP's job is to get people to move to NH.  Having a recognizable speaker like Stossel, might, bring bring us some attention.  If he did a show or, segment about the FSP, it could turn out to be the best money spent yet towards recruitment.
On the other hand, when I announced to my PBS/NPR sister that Stossel would be a speaker at an FSP event, she said: "who's John Stossel?"

[Russell Kanning]

It does seem like a shame to spend a bunch and then hope to get it back ..... and then end up at square one. I guess you FSP leadership guys look at things differently than I do.
I like John Stossel, but I can't picture paying money to listen to him. I can see him on tv.

[JonM]

Well the best case scenario is a profit on the experience, but the FSP doesn't aim for profit (being a non-profit).  Stossel has agreed to do some promotional material that the FSP will be allowed to distribute.  People unhappy about the $10k price will surely be disturbed that this is only the down payment.  The NH Liberty Forum is determined to cover their own costs, but asked for this to be part of the budget because they needed money up front.

If you do not see a potential benefit in having John Stossel on video that we are allowed to distribute speaking about the FSP, then you don't.  I did, and so did the rest of the FSP Board, and more importantly the people actually planning the NH Liberty Forum.

[Kat Kanning]

People unhappy about the $10k price will surely be disturbed that this is only the down payment. 

You'd surely be right about that.     I'm glad it's not my money.  I sure won't be giving money to the FSP anymore.

[d_goddard]

Fundamentally, I view the FSP as an advertising agency.

The target market: people who love freedom
The product: New Hampshire

Advertising is always a gamble; organizations spend millions of dollars on a 30 second ad during the superbowl, to make sure the people they are trying to reach see their message.

It is obvious to you and I that we WILL be more free, as a result of all our efforts in New Hampshire.
But to the many tens of thousands of people who are not FSP members, moving to NH is "a nice idea, but maybe a little crazy". To those many many thousands who want freedom, but don't understand the importance of concentrating efforts in one area, they need the notion to be "blessed" by a trusted voice -- to be somehow made "rational and normal", not crazy.

The fact that Stossel is willing to be videotaped and used in FSP promotional materials all over the web is hugely valuable.
Imagine a video of Jason talking with Stossel about New Hampshire. Imagine that video being downloaded a hundred thousand times. Imagine people who never yet heard of the FSP realizing that their only shot at freedom is to get to NH ASAP.
Imagine an NHFree.com link right next to that video

[Money Dollars]

Imagine ...
Imagine ...
Imagine ...
Imagine ...

You are like the John Lennon of NHfree!

Imagine if John Stossel was a true liberty lover who would just show up and talk without taking all the money....

John Stossell is a butt weasel.

[d_goddard]

You are like the John Lennon of NHfree!

That's OK, as long as some crazy-ass sniper isn't obsessively reading Catcher in the Rye and listening to Beatles music. That would suck.

[KBCraig]

Whatever amount gets spent on Stossell, will be more effective than the same amount of money spent on flyers, mailings, and targeted ads.

[d_goddard]

Whatever amount gets spent on Stossell, will be more effective than the same amount of money spent on flyers, mailings, and targeted ads.

Bingo!
Do the math: FSP spent way more than $10,000 in each of the past 2 years. How many new signers did we get? About 1,000/yr. That's a hell of a lot of money for every signer, when you compare with standard advertising payoff rates.

Part of the FSP's philosophy is, "if a strategy is not working, try something else" -- like, stop trying to get more than 5% of the LP votes in any state, and try to get more like 50%+ in one state. Similarly, a different strategy for getting 20K (or even 1K) makes sense at this time, given the poor performance of the last 2 years.

[Money Dollars]

Part of the FSP's philosophy is, "if a strategy is not working, try something else"

haha....

http://freestateproject.org/about/bod_minutes/082006.htm

Summary of discussion is "In a nutshell, we are still looking at the exact same strategies that we formed several years ago, but now we are a bit better informed about our customer market, so we can proceed with greater confidence."

Now you just need to convince the FSP BOD that the current strategies aren't working.......

[Braddogg]

I agree, Denis and Jon, this is advertising money well-spent.  Most of the FSP's target audience -- liberty lovers who want liberty bad enough to move across the country for it -- know John Stosell, and having his support on video will make that audience take a second look at the FSP.

While John Stossell charging anything for this appearance, beyond expenses, speaks ill of him, it does not make the decision to pay him any less sound.

[Pat K]

I also think this is money well spent. As far as Stosell charging for his time he is not a member of the FSP. TANSTAAFL.

[Braddogg]

TANSTAAFL.

TANSTAFFL (There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch) is one of the most misused phrases around.  It originally meant that even if I go to a place offering a free lunch, it wasn't free for the person who put it on.  For example, I go to the MVP meeting and they serve me free food.  However, the MVP PAID for that food, so it was not really free in the larger sense of it.

You used it to imply that to get something you must necessarily give something, which isn't true.  In the above example, I didn't have to do or give anything to the MVP except show up and eat their food.  Stossell COULD have done this for free.