February 6th Friends of Liberty Potluck Notes

February 2022 Friends of Liberty Grafton Potluck



NHLA Bill Review Training


The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance graciously presented training on how to review bills. Attendees learned how to navigate the nhliberty.org website, prioritize bills, and grade for pro or anti liberty.


L Stone took video of the lecture.


Bill review is critical work that lets us send activists alerts to advocate to the legislature on different bills, and develop the Gold Standard which informs pro liberty representatives where the NHLA stands. The representatives will be scored based on how they vote compared to the Gold Standard, and good candidates will be enforced based on that score.


Bill reviewers can communicate with each other to discuss and ask questions on the forum at discours.nhliberty.org or the member’s Facebook group.


NHLA discussed their official positions on various topics.

-Occupational licensing - a barrier to work

-Drug policy - self ownership and prohibition has failed

-Education - families should control

-Government transparency - mitigates corruption and waste

-Death penalty - government may make bad decisions

-Gun rights - pro 2A

-Localism - supports but not at the expense of liberty

-Taxes - reduce, rely on voluntary funding

-Social programs - create dependency


Attendees were instructed how to log on and gain permission to review bills.


Bills to focus on first were those coming up for votes, those that are interesting to you, those that others are not following, and those that are simple.


Bills with higher priority are those with the effect of law, as opposed to a resolution or study, and high impact. High impact can be determined by how many people are affected, how ongoing the program is, how much money is spent (more than 30 million), and if a new bureaucracy is created.


Bill reviewers can read previous Gold Standards to gain an understanding of how bills reviews are worded. Many bills are resubmitted, so a spreadsheet of past bill reviews is kept.


Attendees were walked through the process of a bill review. All bills will be reviewed by a master reviewer before being submitted, so perfection is not required.


To become a bill reviewer, attendees can contact billreview@nhliberty.org. You may check out nhliberty.org to attend a future bill review training.



Local Strategy Session


Free Grafton announced that Allie May Piper has consented to run for selectboard. This is a very important position–arguable the most important and powerful office in the town. Freedom lovers would have been left with two undesirable candidates, but Allie gave us another option. She is an intelligent, personable, strong, outspoken libertarian. She grew up in the area, has studied ecology, and served as deputy tax clerc in a town before. Free Grafton is eager to publish her vision for the town.


The need for a liberty candidate was discussed as it relates to decisions of the current board. Threats to impose fines for violating the building notification ordinance were levied by the two remaining select members.


An anti-liberty composting toilet ordinance was proposed that baselessly bans activities like having multiple composting toilets, and adds setbacks that would effectively ban composting bins for many people. Many people in Grafton use composting toilets. The basis for creating this new regulation is not due to complaints over problems with their use. These proposals run counter to the well researched and popular Humanure Handbook. The board has not yet voiced their opinion on the proposal. However careful research into the scientific basis of threat to public safety must be established before using the force of government against the people of Grafton.


In the previous selectboard meeting, the board reconsidered the building notification and proposed changes to it. Alterations to law were proposed easily with little research or debate required. The board included a requirement to comply with state law as well as local ordinances in the application. What does that mean for enforcement of building codes?


An understanding of our vision for the future of Grafton as it contrasts with the current board, as well as an understanding of the sentiments of the population should be used in crafting our message to the town. Freedom lovers can assist by watching old selectboard meetings and taking note of time stamps of things the board does that are anti liberty and against the wishes of Graftonites. We can develop a list of issues to compare the candidates with.


My expressed goal was to make taxes pay per service rather than pay or else your house will be seized. I think I can make that case to the town. How to do that with the current legal system was discussed. Many towns defer taxes for those who are making an effort to pay. Some towns make agreements with people of how to pay their taxes. It appears the selectboard has broad discretion. However it was also asserted that the state requires towns to collect funds. This RSA will need to be identified.



To understand town sentiments, we believe we can ask knowledgeable locals, then conduct a phone survey. We would like to know what complaints the locals have with the current direction of the selectboard, what community services they would like to see more of, and welcome them to join the Free Grafton Facebook page.


To publish our message, direct mail was recommended. We may also make signs, pins, etc. We can reach out to people online, at the dump, and at local pro-liberty businesses.


We can identify who to communicate to by determining resolute opponents to avoid, resolute supporters to recruit, undecideds to persuade, and potential supporters among non voters.


We can host a fundraiser in support of Allie’s campaign.


We can re-establish the Liberty List, our endorsements for the campaign given to our supporters.


We can inform people about absentee voting.

We can offer to drive supporters to the polls.


In the long term we can move knowledgeable, polite, and determined activists to Grafton.


We can learn from the political parties what campaign techniques work.




The need for local transport was discussed. Lucien offered to help when he gets a new vehicle. Tim Bowen has been asking for rides which will help him get a job.



February 12th is the deliberative session. A majority of those who show up can alter the budget and warrant articles that go to voters on March 8th. About 50 people showed up last year. This is a critical opportunity to make a difference. Liberty loving registered Grafton voters need to come, and contact your friends to get them to come as well.


The only part of the budget attendees considered cutting was the legal fund, which has been used to launch lawsuits, and according to Brian Fellers is being used to prosecute him for cursing at selectman McGinty.


Warrant article discussed was the one to make the Chief of Police an appointed position, rather than elected. The reason the selectboard gave was that Russell wanted more job security. It was pointed out by an attendant that it can be very hard to fire a public employee. This could leave Grafton stuck with a corrupt cop. We believe this warrant article should be opposed.


I also have three pro-property rights and affordable housing warrant articles. It is possible these may be altered into something that could hurt Grafton at the deliberative session, so it was strongly recommended people attend to support the articles.


Another problem is that the selectboard will take a warrant article, even if it directs them to do something, and consider it “advisory only.” This has apparently been upheld by their lawyers.



“Bonds for the Win” was brought up. It is a new and not well tested or understood movement. It is reminiscent of the Insure the Police movement. It is a possible method of requiring public accountability.


State law also allows for certain changes to be made by warrant article, such as creating an elected body to conduct tax assessments. This may be inclined to corruption. The path out of a school cooperative also includes warrant articles.



Upcoming opportunities to look at include a representative for the Floterial district, a replacement for the C+ state senate representative, uncontested Republican party delegate positions to have a vote in party platform and procedures, future school district representation and deliberative session strategies.


In researching Mesh networks, peoplesopen.net looks promising. It includes open source software on a $20 router. For long distance connections they use Ubiquiti antennas for $60-$80. This is a like minded group that believes in a decentralized internet to protect our data and make it resilient in case of disaster. They have already demonstrated success. We will need to assemble a core group of technical people to assist others, people who can install antennas, and people who want to start the network on their property.