December 5th Potluck

Meeting Notes


We decided to compile a list of local families, and survey them to find out what they might be interested in.

Al list of homeschool families can be used to support a local homeschool group, which could help other families wanting to homeschool make the transition. We could use information on who is homeschooling.

Our budget representative for the school said that we are taxed per average attendance, meaning no children attending equals no taxes to the schools, but that was questioned, and a verification was requested.

Several education options were suggested: Khan academy, Tom Wood's Ron Paul curriculum, Uncle Eric series by Richard Jay Murphy as another libertarian curriculum.

One attendant said he had seen a homeschool co-op, where parents pitched in for an expert in a field to teach a subject to their children together. One suggested the Prax Village as an example.

The term Alternative Schooling was considered preferable to Homeschooling because there are so many options besides the home. The name Grafton Parents and Kids Network was proposed for a local group. It was also recommended to add our group to granitestatehomeeducators.org.

The state bill to dissolve the cooperatives was brought up as an important way to unleash us from that tax burden.

Privatizing the school was recommended.

In order to support the homeschool group, I brought up the recent survey of Grafton put on by the library. Officials at the school district were interviewed, and said problems with rural towns is lack of internet connectivity, lack of quiet places in the house to study, and lack of transportation to get to after school programs.

We discussed mesh networks. Grafton has poor internet and cell service in several places. There are plans which may bring internet to town centers, but there will still be a need to reach people's homes. This is a great opportunity to bring in a system which is more decentralized, better protecting our power over our own data, and creating resilience in the event of grid failures. I brought up Open Mesh and Althea. Open Mesh is in testing phase, and uses 5G, which I think should not be used as it is so controversial. It is open source, which is important. Althea is being used already in some Rural communities. Afterward an attendant suggested he may offer hardware for $1000 for 10 people, or $100 per person. Selectman McGinty was willing to open his shop so locals could get wifi. It was noted it isn't an either/or, but mesh could be compatible with other internet access points.

As far as community centers, the E Grafton church was considered. I have so far been able to determine it is owned by the town and is being leased to the historical society.

I recommended we get more Uber drivers to help with locals who lack transportation.



For elections, one attendant decided to run for office, and three volunteered to potentially support campaigns. Another person was considered for Town Clerc.

The secretary of Orange was said to be friendly. I don't know who that is or how to contact her.

Dylan has his server up, and can host collaborative documents to support campaigns.



Besides my three petitions, John Redman also brought two petitions for warrant articles for people to sign. One is to fire Avatar, and one is to set term limits for some official offices.



Possible good examples of privitizing government functions can be demonstrated with Detroit's Threat Management Center for policing, the North Maine Woods for private roads, and Sandy Springs GA as a town that contracts out most of its services to a private company.

Possible objections were the possibility a company would fail to provide a service when needed, start up costs for tolls, disproportionate charges for long rural roads, lack of maintenance in the event of an emergency, guaranteeing the right of residents to travel without fees or onerous regulations, and large companies buying the town's services and not being beholden to the locals.



I gave suggestions to the group on dealing with police and informants. (Activist Training) We had an extended discussion on protecting our freedom-loving property owners from bad tenants. Some problems told to me before the meeting: the landlord was held financially responsible for violations of the junkyard laws despite not being allowed to remove the tenant's property, the property owner was required to allow access to utilities if they were on the property, skepticism over self written contracts, and difficulty removing the tenant. After the meeting, another attendant told me of a successful website called hipcamp which organizes places to camp like Airbnb organizes room rentals. I found extensive protections, such as insurance in that program.

Some thoughts on avoiding landlord-tenant laws were a sober house where violators could be quickly expelled, and programs rather than rentals as suggested by lawyer Christopher Gronski. One successful free state property uses the voucher system and meets potential tenants in person. I suggested services like Airbnb where the stay is temporary, so you can assess people before making a longer term commitment.



We also discussed branding. Some didn't like the term Free Grafton, because of bad history. I didn't want to run from the word Free, and I wonder if I should keep running from every term that bad actors try to smear. However, different people can try different things. It was suggested we take the bad press head on and make a joke out of the Libertarian Walks Into a Bear.


For food self sufficiency, one attendant recommended walipinis, which is a green house dug under the frost line. A network of liberty people with land to be transformed, materials to build, heavy equipment, labor, and skills was suggested. This forum is one place that could be organized. Also a signal group was mentioned for farmers. Bardo Farms besides D Acres were suggested as local consultants. Other farmers selling store crops could perhaps be reached at farmers markets.


The meeting was well attended and many participants had good ideas.