[Procedures] RE: RE: [Green-Rainbow] diversity seats

[Gil Obler]

Jamie -

You are correct that none of our bylaws approaches will solve the
issues of true diversity, they merely enable them.

And I also agree with you that the STV PR seats are the best
place to do diversity. I very much hope that we get most of our
diversity this way and only use the diversity seats when needed.

As you point out, ultimately we will succeed or fail based on
our willingness to recruit and do outreach.

                             Gil Obler
                             Fundraising Director, Mystic River Greens
                             Massachusetts Delegate, US Green Party
                                              
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-----Original Message-----
From: procedures-admin at massgreens.org
[mailto:procedures-admin at massgreens.org] On Behalf Of Jamie O'Keefe
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 11:03 AM
To: Jamie O'Keefe
Cc: Green-Rainbow at massgreens.org; procedures at massgreens.org
Subject: Re: [Procedures] RE: RE: [Green-Rainbow] diversity seats


Hi all,

One thing I will point out is that due to the way the Greens elect state

committee members at (currently) county conventions, at least in areas
where 
there are multiple seats available for that gender, it is far more
likely for 
non-white straight men to get on than the standard one seat per district
the we 
have in most elected offices.  The bylaws specify that we use STV-PR
(Single 
Transferable Vote - Proportional Representation), which means that a
candidate 
only needs to get roughly 1/n of the votes (where n is the number of
seats 
available), to get a seat.  

That is not to say that it is perfect (there are many districts where
there is 
a male seat and a female seat, but there are others (East Middlesex,
Suffolk, 
Hampshire) where the number of seats available is larger and so you need
less 
than 50%+1 to actually win a seat.

Sadly, even where the Greens have rigid requirements that half the seats
be 
female, we haven't been able to fill all of those seats.  And this where
are 
members/voters are about 45% female.  I think in this case we don't do
enough 
to encourage women to run and take on positions of leadership, though it
is 
likely to be more than that.  Likewise, while the Greens are a youth
party in 
terms of membership (58% are 30 or younger, 80% are 40 or younger), the
folks 
stepping forward to run for these seats tend to be older.  So in
addition to 
working at expanding our diversity among people of color, LBGT folks and
those 
with disabilities, the Greens could do a great deal more to make our
leadership 
reflect our membership.

peace,

Jamie

Quoting Jamie O'Keefe <jokeefe at massgreens.org>:

> Quoting Gil Obler <greengil at attbi.com>:
> 
> > For instance, I would support the practice of relying on diversity 
> > caucuses within the Green-Rainbow movement and party for finding and

> > nominating the candidates. I am not sure how to write this idea into

> > a bylaw. But I tend to think that if we work to create stronger 
> > caucuses such as the Lavender Greens LGBT caucus, they will
> naturally
> > produce and push candidates for the state committee.
> 
> We have county conventions, why not have caucus conventions and have 
> the
> 
> caucuses decide how to fill the seats for their caucus.  Isn't that 
> the
> 
> decentralized approach?
> 
> peace,
> 
> Jamie
> 
> James O\'Keefe
> Green Party Candidate for Massachusetts State Treasurer 
> jamesokeefe.org _______________________________________________
> Procedures mailing list
> Procedures at massgreens.org
> http://www.massgreens.org/mailman/listinfo/procedures
> 



peace,

Jamie

James O\'Keefe
Green Party Candidate for Massachusetts State Treasurer
jamesokeefe.org
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