Title: Growing the Green-Rainbow Party 

Proposal Shepherd: Wes Nickerson, Middlesex

Co-Sponsors: Roni Beal

Vetting Committees: Adcom, Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment

Revised: January 6, 2015

Background: The Green-Rainbow Party is once again in danger of losing its newly re-won official party status in the Presidential election year of 2016. This on-again, off-again cycle interferes with the progress of the GRP in achieving its goals. There are two ways of maintaining party status.

1. Achieve more than 3% of the vote in any one statewide race, including the presidential race.

2. Enroll at least 1% of voters as members of the Green-Rainbow Party, by election day of 2016. (This was done successfully in Maine, using Robo-calling.)

Considerations:

1. Given that the only statewide office being voted on in 2016 is the presidential race, and that no Green Party presidential candidate has received more than 3% in any Massachusetts election since Ralph Nader received over 6% in 2000, it is unlikely for the Green Party candidate to receive over 3% in 2016, which would be a five-fold increase over the previous presidential election. 

2. Given that there are about 5,000 people enrolled in the Green-Rainbow Party now and that enrolling 1% of voters would mean enrolling an additional 45000, that would be a tenfold increase, which is also unlikely for the Green-Rainbow Party to achieve.

Nevertheless, increasing the membership in the Party would help to bring the GRP closer to both of these goals, and having clear, ambitious goals is inspiring.

Proposal Text: The Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment Committee will develop and implement a GRP Growth Plan to achieve stability, sustainability, and long-term Official Party status. 

Implementation: The Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment Committee (MDVRC) will create and present a GRP Growth Plan to Statecom at its Spring 2015 meeting for approval. Once approved, MDVRC will implement and monitor the plan it develops and provide progress reports at Statecom quarterly meetings.

Budget Impact: Budget impact depends upon specific projects and growth methods undertaken.