[Platform] ABWG Report-Next Meeting on 5-13 and Minutes of the 2 previous meetings

[Mike Heichman]

Mike Heichman wrote:

> ABWG 5-05-08
> Draft Minutes
>
> Present: John Andrews (facilitator), Mike Heichman (recorder), Dave 
> England, Tom Flittee
>
> TUESDAY, MAY 13 AT 8:30 PM—NEXT TELECON MEETING
>
> I. Dave asked some questions about the petitions and the process of 
> gathering signatures. Informative discussion followed.
>
> II. Dave is very interested in the IRV and wanted it included as one 
> of our choice of ballot questions. His hope is that we get this on the 
> ballot in about 10 districts, and this would set the stage for a 
> possible binding statewide ballot initiative in 2008. We discussed 
> whether GRP activists would be interested in working on this issue in 
> their districts and if the public would be interested if they are not 
> first interested in third party politics. Dave believes that the LWV 
> and Common Cause, which support IRV, might be interested. Dave has the 
> language ready and will complete an ABWG proposal form.
>
> III. The minutes of the April 27 meeting (See at the bottom of this 
> report.) were provisionally approved. If you have any corrections or 
> comments in the next couple of days, send it to us.
>
> IV. We need to pick up the ballot forms from the Secretary of the 
> Commonwealth. Dave will contact the office and see if it can be sent 
> to us and/or we can download it from their website. If that doesn’t 
> work, John will ask Eli Beckerman to pick them up.
>
> V. Outreach and Volunteer Recruitment
>
> A. Jill has done some outreach for the Secure Green Futures Question. 
> John thinks they will be soon ready with the language.
> B. A number of people are working on the Health Care Question 
> including Ann Eldridge Malone (MNA & Health Care) and Tom and Steve 
> from our Amherst chapter. John thinks the wording will be ready soon.
> C. Mike reported on his contacts with Dan and Jamie. Dan sent out the 
> new State Comm. contact list earlier today. We are now ready to call 
> members of the State Committee, especially focusing on encouraging the 
> involvement of the new members. Jamie is working on the Local Chapter 
> contact list tonight. Mike will also have a discussion with Jamie on 
> how the Membership Committee can play a role in helping us to use this 
> project to increase membership, build new chapters and strengthen 
> existing ones.
>
> CHAPTER REPORTED AS ACTIVE FROM JAMIE:
>
> Mystic River Green Rainbow Action
> Nashua River
> Worcester
> Amherst
> Southampton
> Central Berkshire (maybe)
>
> Others in semi/proto-existence
>
> Boston
> Somerville
> Belchertown
>
> D. Mike proposed that we use the outreach that SPWG had done to 
> encourage their involvement in our Project. Mike is confident that 
> some of our members who testified at the 3 SPWG hearings could be 
> identified as potential people to work on a specific ballot question. 
> John will see if he can get the contact list.
>
> VI. A concern was expressed about needing more people in our core 
> group. John will send out another email seeking additional participants.
>
> Advisory Ballot Working Group Meeting by telecon, April 27, 2008 
> (MINUTES PROVISIONALLY APPROVED)
>
> Attending: John Andrews (facilitator), Tom Flittee, Bill Cunningham, 
> Mike Heichman (recorder)
>
> Next Meeting: MAY 5: 9-10 PM (STARTING ON TIME)
>
> I. Start of the meeting
>
> A. Informal Discussion before we started the meeting. How can this 
> project be a learning experience for our party? Maybe we can build 
> this into the campaign? Should consider a debriefing a meeting after 
> the election to assess what we have learned. For next time, maybe 
> create a booklet on how to run a local advisory ballot campaign?
>
> B. We send our regrets and love to Jill who is dealing with the loss 
> of her beloved Great Dane, Gandho.
>
> C. Mike's idea about getting support from the different parts of the 
> GRP were put on the agenda under Action items.
>
> D. Mike proposed that we also request a meeting of the Platform Comm.
>
> E. Bill had sent something out previously of ways of bringing the 
> different ballot question campaigns together. He will bring it back on 
> our agenda at a later date when it is more appropriate.
>
> F. The minutes of the meeting on April 20 were accepted.
>
> II. John reported on responses that he had received from people who 
> want to support this project.
>
> A. Lawrence Fine-also wants to be in our core group and work in 
> Brookline,
> B. Kim Walsh volunteered to work in her district.
> C. Mike Sanches wants to work on health care in Cambridge,
> D. Jill has found some people who are interested in working on 
> healthcare- many not members of our party but active in health issue 
> groups like MassCARE.
> E. Some interest in Secure Green Futures from Fossil Fuels 
> Subcommittee and students in Mass Youth Climate Action.
>
> III. Contacts with locals
> A. Bill said that not much interest was shown at an MRGRA meeting 
> yesterday. (Several members missed the meeting and ABWG was not 
> announced as an agenda item.)
>
> B. Tom said that the Amherst local met last week and they were
> interested in becoming involved in this project.
>
> C. Mike reported that he will be working with Gary Hicks about having 
> a meeting of the Boston chapter to discuss involvement.
>
> D. Mike will contact Jamie O'Keefe and then Larry Ely—to get the 
> contact list of local chapters and local activists. Mike will contact 
> Dan Melnechuk for the State Comm/Adcom list.
>
> IV. Progress Reports on Specific Questions Under Consideration
>
> A. Jill and John have been working on the health care and Secure Green 
> Futures.
>
> B. John thinks that some of the climate activists and those interested 
> in coal plants, etc. would be interested in Secure Green Future. 
> Suggestion under consideration is to call for "carbon neutrality" 
> rather than 80% reduction.
>
> C. We decided to have a point person on the ABWG for each question.
>
> 1. John and Jill will be contacts for Secure Green Future.
> 2. Tom will talk to Jill regarding who will be contact for health 
> care. Tom said that Steve Randall (StateComm member from Amherst) may 
> take the lead on the health care question, but Steve is not on the ABWG.
> 3. Gary and/or Merelice are probably the point for foreclosure (Mike 
> will e-mail both.)
> 4. Dave England proposed an IRV question. John will email Dave to see 
> if he can help advance the question.
> 5. Tom or Jill for Health Care? (Tom will talk with Jill.)
>
> V. Approval of Ballot Question Proposal Form
>
> According to "Proposal ABWG.03 Adopted Ballot Questions" as adopted at 
> our 4/20/08 meeting, persons sponsoring a particular ballot question 
> for adoption by the ABWG must fill out a proposal form. This is 
> intended to make sure they have thought through their proposal. It 
> also helps the ABWG evaluate the maturity of the proposal. John 
> described the ballot question approval form that was emailed out 
> before the meeting. A few small changes were made. The approved form 
> is an attachment to these minutes.
>
> VI. Mike's ideas on requesting support from the GRP were discussed and 
> accepted as follows:
>
> A. State Comm. members (especially new members who have not yet become 
> very active in the operations of the state party) should be asked to 
> participate in this project. They could play a leadership role in 
> organizing a campaign for at least one of the questions in their 
> representative district or play a supporting role in contacting and 
> encouraging the participation of other GRP members in their county.
>
> (MIKE WILL CONTACT DAN AND GET CONTACT LIST. JOHN WILL SEND A LETTER 
> TO THE STATE COMM LIST.)
> B. ComCom can help out with the media. Especially since this might be 
> one of the major projects of our party this year and since one of our 
> goals is to use this project to help build the GRP at the local level, 
> it would be very helpful for the ComCom to update the membership 
> brochure ASAP and include our 2008 plans (this project, the 
> presidential election) in the new brochure.
>
> (THE SUPPORT OF COMCOM WITH THE MEDIA WILL BE REQUESTED LATER. MIKE 
> AND JOHN A. WILL COMMUNICATE WITH ELI ABOUT THE MEMBERSHIP BROCHURE.)
>
> C The Membership Comm can be encouraged to identify local chapter and 
> local activist contacts so we can reach out to them for our campaign. 
> Additionally, we can let the Membership Comm. know where we are doing 
> local organizing and ask the Committee to assist with the 
> establishment or strengthening of chapters during the campaign or 
> immediately after the November election.
>
> [It was noted that Membership Comm needs more volunteers if it is to 
> play a significant role in our work.]
>
> (MIKE WILL CONTACT JAMIE AND DISCUSS HOW WE CAN BUILD MEMBERSHIP 
> DEVELOPMENT INTO THIS PROJECT. WE MAY WANT TO CREATE AN UPDATED 
> BROCHURE ON HOW TO BUILD A LOCAL.)
>
> D. We can ask the Tech Comm to place this project on our home page. As 
> the campaign develops, the Tech Comm can provide links to the websites 
> of the individual ballot initiatives. The Tech Comm. can also provide 
> the individual ballot questions support in establishing their website, 
> if desired.
>
> (ELI ALREADY PUT FIRST APPEAL ON THE HOMEPAGE. JOHN WILL REQUEST THAT 
> A LIST SERVE BE ESTABLISHED FOR THE CORE ABWG GROUP. LATER WE WILL 
> CONSIDER LISTS FOR THE LARGER GROUPS WORKING ON PARTICULAR QUESTIONS.)
>
> E. The Finance Comm. can use this campaign to raise $ for our party 
> and provide some of those funds for ABWG. If the state party is 
> successful in raising enough $, it could make a $ contribution to the 
> individual ballot questions.
>
> [John noted that the multi-partisan nature of the district coalitions 
> working on a particular question could require that GRP fundraising be 
> kept separate from the work on the ballot itself.]
>
> [WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT FINANCES AT OUR NEXT MEETING. TOM SUGGESTED 
> THAT WE ALSO HAVE AN ASSESSMENT OF OUR OWN VOLUNTEER RESOURCES AND 
> MAKE REALISTIC ASSESSMENT OF WHAT CAN WE DO TO ASSIST THE LOCAL 
> CAMPAIGNS.]
>
> F. GRP members across the state: We can encourage them to be "roving 
> volunteers". (Example: Someone in Lexington could travel to Cambridge 
> on a specific day and help with collecting signatures.)
>
> WE CAN HAVE AN EVENT LIST ON OUR WEBSITE.
>
> Next Meeting: Telecon on Monday, May 5: 9-10 PM. Everyone is requested 
> to call in on time and help us finish as close as possible to the 
> stated end time.
>
> Adjourne
>
>