Allen Hacker Blog: The Belligerent Claimant in Person!

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I Have A Plan

Doug Kenline mentions that I am the only blogger [he knows of] who has presented a business plan [that will create income for people of our stripe]. But he doesn't like its product or structure; it's MLM. In truth it has three products, and you can choose from among them if you don't like any one or two of them. There's a food supplement, a medical benefit plan for the un- or under-insured, and a life effectiveness training activity. Oh, and a leads service for marketing the entire deal.

(Heh... It just occurred to me that I can do a shameless promotion like that on my own blog and nobody can rightfully deluge me with email bombs bitching about it. Hmmm....)

Anyway, I can understand Doug's aversions.

Besides, I do have an alternative. So here and now, let me make it clear that I am the first blogger Doug knows who has put forth TWO business plans. At least two, depending on how you look at it.

My alternative is also an alternative to the usual go-broke-and-go-away-griping mode of doing the patriot thing. I proposed it to WTP HQ, but they let personal issues and fears from the past get in the way.

No biggie. That is, after all, the way of the world as we know it.

Besides, as a result I formed Citizens for Lawful Government, aka LawfulGov.org. Bring forth success from failure. Spurred on by a certain bitter taste, I made lemonade.

Note that LawfulGov.org was and is not intended to be a replacement for WTP. More like a parallel thing to pick up the slack of all those political things that WTP won't be doing. And even, also, to assist WTP in what it IS doing.

How is LawfulGov.org a plan?

LawfulGov.org is designed to compensate its facilitators. Where before, you joined a group on a volunteer basis and gradually got consumed for all you had to give, LawfulGov.org is designed to cover your operating expenses and more, all the way to the point that if you work at it and live in an average town, you will earn a full-time living and be able to evangelize freedom full time.

I know, some so-called dedicated hardcore ptriots will accuse you of being a "patriot for profit" if you get paid to do this stuff, but the simple response is to ask them, "So, when did your approach restore the Republic, and why don't I see the evidence of your achievement?" You could ask them that. Or, if you're not a libertarian (we don't initiate force) you could bend them over your knee and paddle them for getting in the way. Or wash their mouths out with soap.

Back to the point: a business plan.

I actually liked that Doug referred to such as a business plan. Because it's more than a way to get paid and so remaining able to do what must be done... even beyond being a way to get paid directly for doing what must be done... it really is an actual business plan for accomplishing what must be done. That's something we've never had before: a business plan for the business of restoring the Republic.

Thanks Doug, for the idea!

What is the plan? Well, it starts out a lot like Bob's idea for WTP. An office in every county, state, (and municipality, eventually), and in Wash. D.C., from which vantage point The People keep a vigilant eye on the government.

The first big difference, however, is in the scope of what LawfulGov.org will do. WTP is "not political". Even though WTP Congress IS incorporated as a political organization, Bob has stressed that WTP is not political. LawfulGov.org is brashly political.

Next, WTP is incorporated. It is IRC 501(c) (3) and (4) priviledged. LawfulGov.org is not incorporated, and is "grandfathered" under IRC 508. This means that under the 501 yoke, the IRS can tell WTP what it can and can't do, and how it must keep and explain its financials. And that under 508, the IRS can't even talk to LawfulGov.org with any expectation of an answer.

Finally, and of utmost importance at the semantic level, LawfulGov.org is run by an accomplished business-world manager, where WTP is run by an MPA. MPA? Master's degree in Public Administration. That's a degree given to people who master how to run the government. Operate bureaucracy. Render and obtain compliance. An MPA is not an MBA. Business Administration versus Public Administration. Two entirely different objectives. The one (MBA) focuses on delivering a product at a profit while the other (MPA) focuses on making people do things regardless of cost.

True, the MPA among us can argue that he's just trying to make the government comply with the law. I'd agree, and I supported him all the way to bankruptcy in that ideal. But along the way I analyzed, as a good business consultant should do, what the hell was going on that this group flashed and began to burn, and pulses up and then shrinks regularly, but does not truly grow and accomplish its goals.

Yes, its fits and starts have clambored along to the point that it now has an HQ in Virginia, and an anticipated lawsuit on the right to petition.

But then again, it has four petitions into the government of which only one is being prosecuted while two of the other three are where the public's hearts and recruitability are, the lawsuit is stalled because WTP doesn't effectively raise money, and across the past year since the Freedom Drive maybe 400 coordinators have evaporated, some replaced, some not.

Money. It's the mother's milk of politics.

Oh, that's right. WTP is not political. I keep forgetting. I keep failing to "get it" that WTP is about making the government comply with the law, but somehow not doing that by employing politics. Why then, that explains it. Exempt from politics in a political arena, might as well claim exemption form the laws of finance as well.

To me, that's fantasyland. A pretty picture and an energizing charismatic leader, but as it turns out, no substance and no management.

No business plan. I need more than that.

So here's where I'll post the business plan: LawfulGov.org. As a business plan, Executive Summary format. Soon.

Meanwhile, there's the part Doug is interested in: compensation for patriot activism. I'll lay it out in terms of my own neighborhood in a moment. The cities are a little bigger here, and then so is the cost of living.

It costs somewhere between $4K and $6K to live here in Mountain View, California, +/- the 158th richest and most expensive city in the US. That may seem like a lot to folks back in Three Forks Montana, Where I grew up. But an average house in Three Forks can be had for about $110K; in Mountain view, the median is $340K. Three times as much.

By the way, it truly is all relative. When we moved away from Three Forks, we had turned down a two-story Victorian with a full basement on two lots as "too expensive": $3K!

And anyway, how many computer engineers can live and work in Three Forks? Or even Bozeman, which at that time had 36,000 people to Three Fork's 971?

Mountain View has about 72,000 people. It's like a little town in the middle of a metropolis, with one exception. More high-tech companies got started here or in an adjacent city than in all other locations in the country combined. So, property values shot way up, fast. And even though you now see a LOT of vacancy signs on apartments, and hotel rates have crashed, houses have only gone down a net 10%: the cottage next door, a 1.5-bedroom 1-bath "charmer" sold a few months ago for $678K in a bidding war.

Enough about that. I'll probably move someday, but so what? We'll still need a Mountain View Facilitator. Someone will have to live here and do the work of LawfulGov.org, and pay the bills that go with living here. And Sunnyvale. And Los Gatos. And Milpitas.... 14 cities in this county, and one of them, San Jose, with about a million people of its own. Clearly, a single County Facilitator is an insignificant grain of sand. seven local counties averaging a million or more people each. And WTP can't even field a County Coordinator for each one? You tell me what's wrong with that picture!

The first thing WTP did wrong in its Congress Coordinator recruiting was to create an unqualified free-for-all. First come, first served, everybody else locked out. You didn't get the job of State Coordinator because you were necessarily qualified, all you had to do was hear about it first and get to the signup page before anybody else. The second mistake was the abject lack of instruction and direction. The Freedom Drive happened to the degree that lucky coordinator signups were to be able to make it happen on their own from county to county and state to state. In fact, It seems to me that almost everybody who came to D.C. was a coordinator or delegated proxy for one who couldn't make it. We had about 800 coordinators, about 800 people showed up. What does that mean? Essentially, the organization showed up and forgot or didn't know how to bring the public along! From a business management perspective, that is a big enough failure to warrant firing everyone in the PR and Marketing departments all the way down to the janitors. Ah, but it was indeed a fine love-fest, and I too enjoyed it as that.

But we need to have an impact. Parties and conventions are good, but they don't move the body politic. Oh! That's right! WTP is not political.

Like I said, I just don't get that.

Back to the plan: the structure, the compensation and the duties. Yes, Virginia, there are duties. You don't really think you can earn a living wishing hoping and going to coffee klatches, do you?

A National Facilitator, facilitating 13+ Regional Facilitators (Circuit Court jurisdictions), facilitating 50 State Facilitators each coordinating Senate and HR District Facilitators AND County Facilitators, with each County Facilitator facilitating City Facilitators.

The organization will fill from the bottom up. County Facilitators will be promoted from City Facilitators, State from County, etc. You become a city facilitator and prove yourself competent, and move up as the vacancy exists. Naturally, early-ins will have more rapid advancement opportunity, but advancement should not be the primary value: this isn't an ego trip. It's going to be a difficult journey, and dilletantes won't survive.

Here are the preliminary numbers.

Mountain View had about 72,000 people. Our target is one in 1,000 the first year. That's 72 supporters, members and volunteers. We'll let them choose which they'll be. All will contribute financial support of at least $20 monthly. Most will be merely supporters and members, delegating their vigilance responsibilities to the Facilitator and getting off cheap for $240 a year.

72 contributors at $20 each is a gross contribution of $1440. The city facilitator gets 50%: $720. The county facilitator gets 15% from that income stream: $216. It's not a living yet, but it covers time and expenses already.

The target support-membership is 5%. Multiply these numbers for the target result. It's $720x5=$3600 per month for the Mountain View Facilitator.

The next city over is Sunnyvale, 101,000 people. City support revenue first-year 1% target is 101 people times $20/month equals $2020/month, Sunnyvale city facilitator gets 50% = $1010 per month. 5% final target results in $5050 per month income for the facilitator.

And so it goes. 14 cities in Santa Clara County, maybe an average of 60 supporters each in the first year and 300 final target, times 14 (840/4200), times $20/month ($16,800-84,000), times 15%, equals the County Facilitator being paid somewhere around $2520 first year, and final target at about $12,600.

Wow! The County Facilitator will be able to buy a house without having to eat rice and beans for 30 years!

Actually, there will be a cap on each possible facilitator's compensation, at something like twice the average professional salary in that area. Any "extra" money that results from those caps will be put into a make-up pool for facilitators in smaller counties that don't have a prayer of raising that kind of money for their facilitators' support.

But it's not going to be a hobby. It's a job, and a difficult one. That's why I insist that you need to be paid for doing it. You won't get rich, but you'll do okay.

Some details to know. Small towns and rural counties will actually get a greater support rate; more people in small towns and rural areas like what we're doing. That will help make up for the smaller numbers. Add in the make-up pool mentioned above and you just might make this work.

1% in the first year is an absolute minimum. If you can't get that many people moving (so few?), you're going to fail anyway.

It takes between 3.5 and 5% of a population holding the same idea for that idea to take hold and begin to "spontaneously" jump from person to person. It takes that many before the next level of people will feel safe accepting the "new" idea. It expands rapidly (exponentially) after the first-level jump.

Thus our real target of 5%: you make a living and can do it full-time, and when the idea takes off on its own, the increased workload will require you to do this full-time just to handle the response.

The truth is, you should be able to recruit more than 6% without any trouble. They are out there, looking for our solution. Your job is to find them. Therefore, this is not a sales job, it's a recruiting job. Let them know what you've got, sign them up as they respond. Work your way through the entire city and then do it again. That is, do it again if you're not already too busy recruiting the referrals from the people you've already brought in.

My guess is, once you get the first several, you'll already be getting referrals. People tend to know other people in the same thought-groups. Tell your supporters that the money they contribute is their ticket to delegate the actual vigilance-response work, but it doesn't excuse them from two other duties. They still have to come up with referrals as often as possible, and they still should be on the lookout for, and reporting, unlawful government.

The entire operation will be tied together by a web presence known as a Neticulum. Every city, county, state and district will have a coordinated website that is part of the whole. The facilitator's "local" website will be his primary tool. He'll print his flyers and business cards from there, all his contributors will donate through his site (logging him as the source to account his compensation), and local chat and email group functions will tie his group together as well as giving them access to their state, regional and national groups. And more. At any rate, in his recruiting, his biggest job will be to simply find people who have some interest in the constitution, in lawful government, and steer them to his local website. The website will provide all the education the contact needs to make a decision and sign up.

10% of all support contributions will go into a legal defense fund, rules to be formalized soon.

The remaining 30% will be distributed among the State, Regional and National levels.

The Neticulum operator will not be compensated from support donations. That compensation will come in the form of a commission on all of the advertising that the websites will sell to businesses that want to become known to "our kind of people".

The Neticulum operator will receive 40% of all ad revenues, the facilitator-owner of the site hosting the ad will receive 15%, and the remainder will be allocated to cover operating, lobbying and legal costs.

Everybody gets paid. Everybody will to some extent determine how much he gets paid.

There will be restrictions and requirements, but this is too long already. I'll flesh it out soon at LawfulGov.org.