Boston Tea Party Members,

Thank you to everybody who participated in the 2010 Boston Tea Party National Convention. We had a few little bumps in the road this week, but now that the convention is mostly completed (a run-off election will finish on Thursday night), I am very happy with our body of work. We have an excellent five-point program that calls for bold national political moves toward libertarianism. We have four well-crafted, meaningful resolutions that represent the revolutionary nature of the Boston Tea Party. And we welcome in a new national committee for which we all have very high hopes.

You may have noticed that I did not seek to continue serving national office after this term as chair. The primary reason for this is that I want to pass the reigns on to some new people and see what a fresh committee can do. I also plan to focus on some other activist work. I will be working this summer to expand the Indiana affiliate, ideally with finances, a larger and more involved membership, and a slate of candidates for November.

I also have an exciting endeavor I am undertaking for the national party. We talked a couple years ago about starting an policy institute, loosely connected to the party to provide policy research and positions that can be used by our committee, affiliates, and candidates. I have revisited the idea as my term has come to a close, and I will now take on the challenge of starting this organization. By the end of the month of June, I will have established a 501c(4) non-profit organization which will advocate the Boston Tea Party platform by influencing public policy. The institute will provide professional research that will help candidates who support our platform to run on platforms that will be taken seriously by their opponents, the media, and the voters.

While I am working to expand my state affiliate and start this new organization, I call on our membership to also increase involvement in BTP activism. For our party to have success in local, state, and federal elections, we must have strong state and county affiliates. We must have people on the ground, advocating for our party and its platform in their local communities. It is not terribly time consuming to take on the task of starting or leading a state or county affiliate. It just takes some initiative and leadership. The national party is here to support you with organizing, and the rest of the membership can be very helpful with sharing ideas. Summer is the best time of year to take initiative and start a project to advance libertarianism. Please join me in making this a "Summer of Action," and together we will make huge strides in the advancement of liberty!

Douglass Gaking