[Convention] We're not sending out a massive postal mailing about the convention// Fwd: Notification of members about convention

[David Rolde]

Adcom last night decided by consensus of those at the meeting (Ron  
(on speakerphone), annie, David (me), Martina, Lisa, Paul, and Dan  
Kontoff) that GRP will not send out a massive postal mailing prior to  
the convention, i.e., there will not be a newsletter mailed out nor  
will there be a postcard mailed out by the Green-Rainbow Party to all  
the thousands of registered GRP voters prior to the convention.

I think everyone at the meeting was aware that both Grace and Dan  
Melnechuk, who were not present at the meeting, had expressed  
concerns with a potential decision such as this.  We made the  
decision knowing that Grace thinks that it is important that we mail  
out a newsletter and that Dan M, while agreeing with other Adcom  
members that a newsletter is not feasible at this time, thinks that  
our bylaws require us to mail out at least a postcard to each and  
every GRP member.

Ron and I expressed the opinion that we do not agree with Dan M's  
interpretation of our bylaws. The bylaws state, "The state committee  
shall notify members and Green-Rainbow Locals of the date of the  
state convention and the number of delegates each city and town may  
elect three months prior to the date the state convention is to  
occur.". Dan M interprets this sentence from our bylaws as requiring  
us to notify each GRP member personally about the convention. Ron and  
I, and by implication the other Adcom members present at the meeting  
last night who all agreed with the decision, feel that this  
requirement of our bylaws can be satisfied by making the information  
about the convention available where our members can see it, i.e., in  
ads in newspapers around the state, on our website, etc.  (The three  
month requirement had been overridden by a decision of the Aug 6  
State Committee meeting.)

Of course it would be nice to send out a mailing to each GRP member  
even if it is not required by the bylaws. But sending out a mass  
mailing is a large expenditure that would use up a large portion of  
our available funds. The mass mailing in previous years has not  
resulted in large attendance at our conventions. A consideration for  
me in agreeing to the decision is that a postcard does not contain as  
much information as a newsletter but costs the same amount to mail,  
so a mailed postcard is an even less cost-efficient way than a   
mailed newsletter to disseminate information to our members.

We felt that it is not feasible to get a newsletter mailed out in  
time to serve as notification of the convention. The content is not  
yet all written and collected. No work has been done on layout. A  
time for printing has not been booked with the printer.

Ron made a proposal, that we all consensed to, that notification of  
the convention consist of announcements or advertisements we will  
place in newspapers, a limited mailing of up to 500 postcards mailed  
to our most active members, a phone calling effort, and fliers that  
will be distributed to the public. i didn't email this out last night  
because I was waiting for Ron to send me the exact wording of the  
decision. Ron has emailed me the wording now. Look below. There is a  
question of what form the announcements in the newspapers will take.  
My understanding was that we were talking about placing announcements  
in free announcement sections of newspapers if possible, while Ron in  
his email below says advertisements. In either case this all needs to  
be done very soon. There is also a question about who will produce  
and distribute the fliers. My understanding at the meeting was that  
Lisa as a member of the Convention Committee suggested that the  
Convention Committee will produce a flier (or use the postcard as a  
flier) and that the GRP, as well as the campaigns, will participate  
in distributing it.  Ron's email suggests that the fliering  effort  
will be solely the responsibility of the campaigns.

Martina pointed out that written notification is not sufficient  
notification for those with limited literacy. This plan that Adcom  
has decided on thus is better in a way than mass mail notification as  
it includes a phone calling effort.

We do hope that the newsletter can be completed and printed before  
the convention and be available at the convention. By not mass  
mailing a postcard before the convention, we are also conserving  
financial resources so that it will be more likely that we will be  
able to afford to mass mail the newsletter before the November election.

Finally, in regards to the remarks in emails by Bill Cunningham and  
Jamie O'Keefe about whether the total set of GRP members is defined  
as including all registered GRP voters or only those who have  
actively participated in the party in some way beyond registering to  
vote using the party name:  Ron and my  (and last night's Adcom  
meeting's) interpretation of the bylaws is that the bylaws do not  
require individual notification of the convention to each GRP member  
but that general non-individual notification is sufficient to satisfy  
the requirements of the bylaws. Therefore it does not matter which  
definition of membership we use. Personally I view the bylaws as  
defining all registered GRP voters as GRP members. Any registered GRP  
voter is able to come to the convention and participate in GRP  
decision making without satisfying any other membership requirements.  
So I think they are all members. However I do feel that members who  
wish to actively participate should make an effort to pay attention  
to what the party is doing and to look for available information  
about our conventions. The party should make our best effort to let  
members know about our convention and encourage them to attend. But  
there is some limit to what we can do.  To illustrate this point  
using an extreme example: I think that we might all agree that it  
would be good if we could send someone to each member's residence  
(and also track down all our homeless members) on the morning of the  
convention and ring their doorbells and rouse them out of bed and say  
"come on come on, come to the GRP convention with me. I'll wait while  
you get ready," but that we can't realistically do this. :)  Mailing  
of a postcard to each member unfortunately would be a major, not a   
trivial, expense.

This was a difficult decision. Many people have strong feelings from  
many different perspectives about convention notification. I trust  
that we can all continue to move forward together.

- David, GRP Secretary

Begin forwarded message:
> From: Ron Francis <ronwf777 at yahoo.com>
> Date: August 24, 2006 10:14:50 AM EDT
> To: davidrolde at comcast.net
> Subject: Notification of members about convention
>
> Notification about convention:
>
> In consideration of many factors, adcom decided at Wednesdays Aug  
> 23rd meeting that notification of members about the upcoming yearly  
> convention, as required in the bylaws, would involve 5 steps
>
> a)      Small Advertisements in newspapers, with an emphasis on low- 
> income communities (no cap on cost was set at meeting)
> b)      Mailing of a postcard to 500 of the most active members  
> members for an estimated cost of $150
> c)      A phonecalling effort to 1000 members (Dan K volunteered to  
> make many calls)
> d)      An email to all online members
> e)      Campaigns of candidates would be encouraged to distribute a  
> flyer or the postcard to tell people about the convention (which  
> could be viewed as a peoples’ convention)