[Membership] Draft Membership Meeting minutes, Somerville

[Kim Lampereur]

Looks like it was an interesting meeting. I'm sorry I was not able to
attend. I had a friend from out of town staying with me Friday and Saturday.
Everything was sort of arranged at the last minute!

When and where is the next meeting?

Kim


Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 08:12:42 -0800 (PST)
> From: Ron Francis <ronwf777 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Membership] Draft Membership Meeting minutes, Somerville
>         notes
> To: membership at green-rainbow.org
> Message-ID: <20060116161242.68304.qmail at web32208.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hey Folks,
>
> Great meeting on Saturday... very productive I
> thought.  Here are the minutes focusing on decisions
> (plus Somerville update)
>
> 1) Brochure:  Lisa is going to contact Jamie about
> finishing the minor details on the existing brochure
> so that the Party has one updated brochure that can at
> least be distributed.
>
> It was pointed out that, in the long-term, the
> brochure needed a makeover and also was thought not to
> be accecible to low-income people or people of color.
> Wanted issue of climate focus in brochure somehow.
>
> 2) "10K" phonecalls.  Pointed out that the actual
> number of phone numbers that work is probably closer
> to 2500 and the number of working phone numbers is
> closer to 1000.  We are setting ourselves up for
> failure unless we are realistic about what we can do.
> We were comfortable with the person making the
> phonecalls should use a form to collect the data
> systematically and that people talked to, would be
> redirected to appropriate committees.
>
> Concern about followup since the data is less useful
> if there is not a serious effort to follow up with
> folks, with regular phonecalling and get them to make
> certain commitments.
>
> 3) We discussed turf battle questions.  Lisa is going
> to try to facilitate phone conference calls that try
> to sort out turf issues (MRGRA and Cambridge Issues
> Group Effort, and MRGRA and West Somerville GRP
> effort) to make sure that all organizers understand
> what is the relationship of these different "locals"
> efforts and are comfortable with these relationships.
> Perhaps two people from each effort should be involved
> on the conference call.  (note to Lisa: I suggest that
> Lloyd be included inthese calls as Chairperson of
> MRGRA)
>
> 4) Cambridge Green Rainbow Issues Group
> Elie described the efforts that he is making in
> Cambridge.  We discussed the Ward 5 experiment and the
> need for trying to involve more people of color.
>
> Decision was to limit outreach to only areas that have
> people of color and low income people (Area 4 chosen)
> and focus on the issue of Rats and Evictions.  We will
> try to organize an event 5 or 6 weeks (open to all but
> focused on Area 4) from now with a followup outdoor
> event for the spring.  Noted that many people are
> disenfranchised in these communities.  Elie was glad
> to have consulted the membership Committee on this.
>
> Elie will continue to organize individuals into teh
> newly forming Cambridge GRP Issues Group
>
> 5) West Somerville GRP
> The new local effort was reviewed (see previous
> reoprts).  More data:  approximately 25% of the
> mailing that went out came back as returns.  We'll see
> what happens at the next meeting.
>
> [subsequent to membership meeting the West Somerville
> Meeting occurred Sunday night:
>
> the meeting / potluck was held at the home of a person
> that is newly involved and involved with 8 poeple
> attending with several others calling in saying that
> they could not attend for various reasons.  A 9th
> person intended to show but did not.
>
> Of the 6 who are newly involved, including one who is
> differently abled, 5 of them took on major roles for
> the next meeting which will be only 2 weeks from now
> (an acceleration of meeting frequency).  All 8 people
> indicated that they would attend the next meeting.
>
> The meeting was scheduled for 2 hours and group
> members agreed to limit the meeting to 2 hours out of
> respect for the host's desires.   As it turned out all
> 8 people stayed for 2 1/2 hours of active conversation
> with the blessing of the host !
>
> 5 newly involved people:
>
> 1st person is setting up a new list serve and is in
> charge of taking the old list serves out of service.
> 2nd person is reserving the space for the meeting.
> 3rd person is calling to get critical info on the main
> campaign that the group seems to be focusing on.
> 4th person is helping with coordinating and
> distribution of a survey to group memebers.
> 5th person offered her home again and indicated a
> willingness to help locate more places that are
> accessible.
>
> other smaller tasks were assigned to various folks...
>
> $40 dollars were raised with all members contributing.
>
> The group seems to be coalescing around two issues
> (both issues were discussed at length and the group
> indicated that there were good advantages to choosing
> these two issues ....):
>
> a) blocking of political participation at Somerville
> Artbeat festival
>
> b) Trach pickup (incluidng some public health related
> concerns in Somerville)
>
> The next meeting will be thursday Feb 2nd 6:30 at the
> Havarat Shalom in Davis Square.
> ]
>
> Back to Membership Committee minutes....
>
> 6) Group decided to do an Abolishing Poverty local
> organizing effort in Concord / Maynard / Acton Area
> with Lisa as main anchor.  The effort will involve
> trying to set up a meeting in Early March after having
> gone to participate in several of the Pantry / Dinners
> that are held in the area.  Note that the Areas of
> Maynard and Acton do have significant numbers of
> low-income / homeless people.  The plan is to make
> people aware that the GRP stands for Abolishing
> Poverty with a big banner and to try to get folks to
> come to a meeting about 5 to 6 weeks from now.  Lisa
> has pointed out repeatedly that the meeting must have
> child care, transportation and food or you shouldn't
> even do it.  Key part of plan is to have a banner.
>
> 7) Abolishing Poverty Banner.
> Lisa will design a banner and the group will raise
> $300 for the new banner by having Lisa put out an
> email.  The banner will be fairly large, colorful, and
> used to faciliate abolish poverty local organizing
> among other uses.
>
> 8) Budget
> The Committee called Dan Melnechuk on the spot to
> enquire about our budget level for Membership
> projects.  Left Message.
>
> 9) Assessment of where we are at the end of 2005 and
> where we would like to be by the middle of the year
> 2006
>
> Current Status:
> Seem to have 3 locals that really do function
> coherently as GRP entities, and 4 locals that are
> doing great work but seem to involve the effort of
> individuals associated with GRP, or involve very few
> people with no definitive plan for growth.
>
> Goals for membership:  By June 31st of 2006:
>
> 10 coherent locals in 3 categories (A, B, C)
>
> A) Existing Efforts
> Hopefuly 6 of 6
>
> MRGRA
> Nashua River
> Boston / JP
> Cambridge issues Group
> West Somerville GRP
> Concord / Maynard / Acton
>
> B) Proposed new efforts (still need anchors to agree)
> 2 of 3 (would be nice)
>
> District 7 connected local along the lines suggested
> by Ebony
> Worcester
> Marthas Vineyard
>
> C) Proposed strengthening of existing efforts (again
> need help of anchors in these areas)
> 2 of 3 would be nice
>
> Cape Cod
> Medford
> Brookline
>
> Need to discuss Berkshire with Wanda...
>
> If the plans go through then we should have 10 locals
> that stroingly identify and act as GRP ("coherent"
> locals).  5 of the 10 locals should involve people of
> color / low-income people.
>
> (Also did discuss briefly idea of organizing East
> Somerville but don't have an anchor)
>
> submitted by Ron
>
>
>