Membership Dues for 2018

Adopted by State Committee January 20th, 2018

SPONSORS: Matthew Andrews

VETTING COMMITTEES: Membership, Technical, Fundraising

FLOOR MANAGER: Matthew Andrews

SHEPHERD: Matthew Andrews

SUMMARY: Dues for the state party will be set at $20 for 2018.

BACKGROUND: The Green-Rainbow Party needs to set a real dues policy to raise money and recruit committed members. This simple proposal is intended merely as a first step, to get people accustom to the idea that dues are a responsibility of membership. A further discussion will be needed to for a more thorough dues program.

TEXT OF PROPOSAL: The State Committee sets dues for 2018 at $20 per person. A special “Dues” donation page shall be set up and linked to on the home page of the GRP website to encourage payment. Members may designate donations made through other methods as their dues. The month and year a member’s dues are paid through shall be recorded in Nationbuilder. This policy will be carried out in accordance with the bylaws (Section 4.2).

A member’s dues paying status shall not limit any rights legally conferred through voter registration.

IMPLEMENTATION: The Fundraising Director shall be responsible for encouraging dues payment. The Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining the records in Nationbuilder. The Treasurer shall aid the Fundraising Director in reporting dues collection information to the Secretary. The Technical Committee shall automate dues collection and record keeping as much as possible.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
If we can get 200 people to pay $20 dues, we will raise an additional $4,000. There could be some negligible printing costs associated with membership application forms.

REFERENCES AND ATTACHMENTS

Bylaws Section 4.1

Membership in the Green-Rainbow Party is open to all residents of Massachusetts, regardless of age, who are not registered voters in another party or political designation and who fulfill at least one of the following criteria:….

Pay dues to the Green-Rainbow Party. Fee waivers must be available for individuals who are active participants in the Green-Rainbow Party and are unable to pay due to economic constraints. Any membership application may only require a member to provide a name, address, signature, date signature was signed and whether the member applied for a fee waiver.

Approved Proposal

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Elie Yarden commented 2018-01-13 12:05:16 -0500
I wish to act as cosponsor of the proposal.
Elie Yarden tagged this with Good 2018-01-13 12:03:49 -0500
Elie Yarden followed this page 2018-01-13 12:02:16 -0500
David Gerry tagged this with Bad 2018-01-12 16:53:37 -0500
Charlene Dicalogero tagged this with Important 2018-01-12 16:12:17 -0500
Charlene Dicalogero commented 2018-01-12 16:11:54 -0500
Thanks for pushing us on improving the financial health of the GRP Matt. A few observations and suggestions: The use of the word “membership” for a party is different than for a nonprofit or association. I believe the current policy requiring an annual donation (which I believe are subject to all state laws for political action or party committees, as applicable), or a waiver, for unenrolleds to participate in party decision making as a “member”, makes sense. I support strongly encouraging payment of an annual donation by all members, and setting a sliding scale, which could be adjusted by motion annually if needed. (Amending the proposal in this way would make it applicable beyond a single year, so we don’t have to keep revisiting this, at least via the full proposal process.) Note that payment at State Convention has been considered to serve this purpose. I support using May of each year as the start date, to streamline recordkeeping and notifications, rather than having to track all different dates for requesting dues donations.
David Rolde commented 2018-01-05 22:34:30 -0500
We cannot have required dues for GRP membership. Because we are a legal political designation or party, anyone who is registered to vote as Green-Rainbow automatically has to be a GRP member. Dues must be voluntary for people who are registered GRP voters. We can only require dues for membership from people who are registered non-GRP (e.g., unenrolled voters) or who are not registered to vote (because they are not allowed to register to vote or choose not to register to vote). I think I remember we used to have a dollar amount for annual dues in the GRP bylaws. I don’t know how that got taken out. I support putting in a dollar amount (plus a reduction or waiver for people who can’t afford it), but it does have to be voluntary and not required for registered GRP voters.

It is actually one of GRP’s goals to grow til we can retain legal party status by having enough thousands of registered GRP voters so we would no longer need to receive a certain percentage of the vote in statewide elections in order to gain or retain party status. If we want to play this legally-recognized-party game then we have to allow GRP membership by registering to vote as GRP.
David Rolde followed this page 2018-01-05 22:27:11 -0500
Joshua Gerloff tagged this with Important 2017-12-26 12:05:34 -0500
Matthew Andrews commented 2017-12-23 22:40:14 -0500
The correct bylaws reference is actually 4.1 and reads as follows: “Membership in the Green-Rainbow Party is open to all residents of Massachusetts, regardless of age, who are not registered voters in another party or political designation and who fulfill at least one of the following criteria:…
Pay dues to the Green-Rainbow Party. Fee waivers must be available for individuals who are active participants in the Green-Rainbow Party and are unable to pay due to economic constraints. Any membership application may only require a member to provide a name, address, signature, date signature was signed and whether the member applied for a fee waiver.”
Matthew Andrews commented 2017-12-23 22:33:06 -0500
TITLE: Membership Dues for 2018

SPONSORS: Matthew Andrews

VETTING COMMITTEES: Membership, Technical, Fundraising

FLOOR MANAGER: Matthew Andrews

SHEPHERD: Matthew Andrews

SUMMARY: Dues for the state party will be set at $20 for 2018.

BACKGROUND: The Green-Rainbow Party needs to set a real dues policy to raise money and recruit committed members. This simple proposal is intended merely as a first step, to get people accustom to the idea that dues are a responsibility of membership. A further discussion will be needed to for a more thorough dues program.

TEXT OF PROPOSAL: The State Committee sets dues for 2018 at $20 per person. A special “Dues” donation page shall be set up and linked to on the home page of the GRP website to encourage payment. Members may designate donations made through other methods as their dues. The month and year a member’s dues are paid through shall be recorded in Nationbuilder. This policy will be carried out in accordance with the bylaws (Section 4.2).

IMPLEMENTATION: The Fundraising Director shall be responsible for encouraging dues payment. The Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining the records in Nationbuilder. The Treasurer shall aid the Fundraising Director in reporting dues collection information to the Secretary. The Technical Committee shall automate dues collection and record keeping as much as possible.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
If we can get 200 people to pay $20 dues, we will raise an additional $4,000. There could be some negligible printing costs associated with membership application forms.
Matthew Andrews published this page in 2018_Winter_Statecom_Meeting_Proposals 2017-12-23 22:32:52 -0500