It occurred on 2/10/15 in the upstairs party room at Big Daddy’s restaurant in Gramercy Park @ 239 Park Ave. South, New York, NY.
The stated start time was 7pm but it didn’t get underway until about 7:20. It was our 1st meeting at this location so it took some guests & members a little bit to find the place. The meeting was well attended, with a headcount of approx. 20 libertarian lovers. The group was about evenly split between chapter members and visitors, which was great.
Libertarian centric conversations where taking place in small groups throughout the room. This is what we love – like minded people (libertarians!) getting together to talk shop. And this was all before the meeting formally begun. The group’s energy was great, there are a lot of libertarians looking to get out there, get in front of people, and become active in getting our message out.
The meeting begun with the chapter’s reelected Chair, Brian Waddell, welcoming and thanking everyone for coming. After giving an overview of what the chapter is, what is planning to do in 2015, and telling a couple weak jokes he then introduced the chapter’s officers and had them cover their respected territory.
The officers went over sectors, and answered questions and heard comments after they finished. Many exciting things were covered. The overall plan is to take full advantage of the fact that there are no elections set for 2015. Take advantage by bolstering our website (mlp.org), identifying potential libertarian candidates for 2016’s elections, building our presence through media, social media, demonstrations, and educating/training people on how to effective spread the libertarian message.
As usual, it was a diverse group of libertarians. Some just curious, some on the fence, some die-hards. We had a libertarian from Chile, talking about how they do it there, Milton Friedman style, known as the Miracle of Chile. We had a couple that recently moved to the City asking questions about how they could run as a libertarian in New York. We had members talking about their 20 years of dedicated libertarian activism; we had visitors talking about what led them to the group. I overheard discussions on non-interventionism, border control, the EPA, Free markets, corrupt elected politicians, you name it. I even heard one guest telling someone how he may have helped the restaurant’s host discover that he was actually a libertarian. Oh, how can I forget, we also had a journalism student there taping the event and conducting interviews with attendees.
Our gracious new host, Big Daddy’s, provided all with great food, great service and a great space for our meeting. I look forward to our next meeting there, set for 3/10/15.