[Convention] Fwd: Meeting Minutes - 5/22/2004

[Daniel Melnechuk]

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From: Mlaserte at aol.com
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 11:10:05 EDT
Subject: Meeting Minutes - 5/22/2004
To: gooberthink06 at yahoo.com, OutlawPoverty at aol.com, AbolishPoverty at aol.com,
         greengil at comcast.net, isis at isisdesign.com
MIME-Version: 1.0

DATE:  5/22/2004

LOCATION:  Salisbury Green Clubhouse in Worcester

ATTENDING:  Jon Levy, Wanda Boeke, Mark Laserte, David Rolde, Rich 
Zitola, Samantha Zitola, Jim Bosman

STARTING TIME:  7:15 PM

ENDING TIME:  10:25 PM

NEXT MEETING: TBD - (will be called by Jon Levy)

The following members of the Convention Planning Committee are 
"stepping back" from the committee at this time:  Wanda Boeke, Rich 
Zitola, Samantha Zitola, and Mark Laserte.  This leaves Jon Levy as 
the only remaining member of the 2004 Convention Planning Committee. 
 Mark Laserte and Wanda Boeke will still be available to help the 
committee from time to time.  The committee could certainly use some 
additional members!


AGENDA ITEM 1 - Round Table on the 2004 State Convention

Wanda's observations:

- We should not have entertainment at the convention, as we cannot 
pay for it or even provide a decent-sized audience for the musicians 
that are kind enough to play for us.

- We should make sure that childcare is available for the entire 
business agenda of the convention.

- We need to have constant communication with Adcom.

- A less expensive venue would be preferable.

- We should take a "shotgun" approach to recruiting keynote speakers 
and approach lots and lots of potential candidates for it.

Jon's observations:

- The convention tends to create a negative impression of the Party 
for non-insiders.

- The convention is not terribly inspiring.

- The convention costs too much for what people get out of it.

- Every year the admission price for the convention goes up while the 
attendance goes down.

David's observations:

- We need a less costly venue and better access to public transit.

- There should be less emphasis on pre-registration.

- The food was not so great this year.

- There should be less emphasis on proposals.

Rich's observations:

- The convention should be something that inspires people to get 
involved in the party.  (The convention doesn't do that right now.)

- If GRP candidates win office this year, next year's convention 
should be better-attended.

Mark's observations:

- Mark agreed with Wanda's observations about entertainment.

- The convention should be more inspiring.

- The Convention Planning Committee should operate by milestones 
(e.g., finding the location, establishing the workshops, etc.). 
 Wherever possible, each milestone should be reached well before the 
convention date.  This will prevent convention-planning from being 
overly back-ended.

Jim's observations:

- The Proposals process did not go as smoothly as he had hoped it 
would.  However, overall, the processes were good.

- He wasn't aware of the convention rules changes that had occured at 
the Spring meeting of Statecomm.  The changes caught him blindsided.

- Jim has ideas for improving procedures, nominations, proposals, etc.

Samantha's observations:

- We need more help (more active members) on the Convention Planning Committee.

- A lot of the work that the committee did during the year didn't 
produce any results.

- The 2005 convention should be scheduled by September of this year 
so that people can plan on attending it.


AGENDA ITEM 2 - Evaluations of 2004 Convention

Mark tabulated the data from the Convention Evaluation Forms. 
 Hardcopies of the tabulated data were distributed at the meeting. 
 Contact Mark (mlaserte at aol.com) for a PDF file of the tabulated 
data.  A total of 24 completed Evaluation forms were received by the 
Convention Planning Committee.  Here are some of the highlights of 
the Evaluations:

- 16 of the 24 respondents said that the the date of the convention 
was "Just Right"; 1 said it was "Too Early" and 2 said it was "Too 
Late".

- There was a wide range of opinion on the Devens Conference 
Facility.  However, 15 of the respondents said "Find a New Place" and 
5 said "Stay Here".

- 12 of the respondents said that there was "Not Enough" Early 
Registration Lead Time, and 9 said there was "Just Enough".

- 20 of the respondents said that it was "Important" to have the 
Pre-Registration forms in the GRP Winter Newsletter.  (This probably 
means that the convention attendees like to know about the convention 
as early as possible and like to have plenty of time to pre-register 
and plan their convention attendance.)

- The respondents had a generally favorable impression of the 
workshops and caucuses.  (Most rated the workshops and caucuses as 
"Excellent" or "Good".  A few rated them as "Okay".  No one rated the 
workshops and caucuses as "Poor".)

- 9 of the respondents said that the Green Hours Volunteering was 
"Helpful"; 2 said that it was "Not Helpful" and 3 said that they 
"Didn't Need It".

- There seems to be strong support for having a shuttle from Public 
Transit, with 6 of the respondents saying that it was "Helpful"; 9 of 
the respondents said they "Didn't Need It" and none of the 
respondents said that it was "Noy Helpful".

- There was overwhelming approval of the Packet Information, with 21 
of the respondents saying it was "Just Right".


AGENDA ITEM 3 - Date and Location of the 2005 State Convention

At the next Statecomm meeting, we are going to recommend that the 
next State Convention be April 30th and May 1st of 2005.

We also recommend that the 2006 convention be on May 6th and May 7th 
of that year.

As to the location, we will keep the Devens Conference Center as a 
Fallback Location.  A summer camp might be a good location.  MIT 
might be a good location.  The location must be wheelchair accessible.


AGENDA ITEM 4 - Increasing Convention Attendance

- We need to have Statecomm do more recruiting of convention attendees.

- We need to set the convention date and location as early as 
possible.  Then we need to make the pre-registration forms available, 
ideally in the Fall Newsletter.  Perhaps we could establish goals for 
the number of pre-registrations we want to have by specific dates 
(e.g., 30 pre-registered by November, 80 pre-registered by January, 
etc.).  If we fail to meet these goals, Statecomm could take 
pro-active recruitment measures.)

- Free food would help to generate more attendance.


MISCELLANEOUS

- We should have tabling at next year's convention.

- The committee needs to have a liason to Adcom.

- We would like to have every other meeting by teleconference.

- Next year we will need to get a Pro Forma invoice from the venue 
WELL BEFORE the date of the convention.

- The Party spent $3,200 on the 2004 convention.  To defray the costs 
of future conventions, we MUST HAVE MORE ATTENDANCE!

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