[Platform] ABWG next meeting on 5-20, draft minutes of 5-13 & minutes of 5-05 meetings

[Mike Heichman]

Mike Heichman wrote:

> Hi Everyone:
>
> Below are the draft minutes of the May 13th meeting of the ABWG 
> (Advisory Ballot Working Group) and the approved minutes of the 
> previous meetings. We hope that more GRP members will contact us and 
> get involved with this project.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike Heichman
> mikeheichman at verizon.net
> 617-265-8143
> ABWG
>
> Next Phone Conference: Tuesday, May 20 at 8 PM
>
> ABWG---Draft Minutes 5-13-08
>
> Present: John Andrews (facilitator), Mike Heichman (recorder), Tom 
> Flittie, Jill Stein (only for Health Care Report), Bill Cunningham, 
> Dave England
>
> I.    Issue Reports
> A.    Health Care (Jill)—in the hands of Sandy Eaton and Ben Day from 
> Mass CARE. 5-6 people are working on refining the language of the 
> previous ballot questions. There is some interest in putting this on 
> the ballot in different districts. Jill will try to get the final 
> language by this week and will send the form to us. We will ask Steve 
> Randall to submit it to the Attorney General.
>
> B.    John will send out the Secure Green Futures form and question in 
> a few days.
>
> C.    Dave will do the same for the IRV question in a few days.
>
> D.    Mike did not have much to report on the potential Foreclosure 
> question. Everybody’s attention has been on the May 13th public 
> hearing of legislation at the State House. Mike had requested that 
> someone from the group attend our meeting this evening or to send him 
> a report, but neither happened.
>
> II.    Open Discussion on Various Issues.
>
> A.    Given the lack of time and the small size of our core group, we 
> decided to modify the process of the ABWG approving proposed ballot 
> questions. We will give more responsibility to the specific issues 
> “committees” to draft the question. We will only require that they 
> fill out the form, which would include the question, and send it to 
> the ABWG mailing list. Once this was sent out, we would have only a 
> few days to provide feedback and/or express major concerns, etc. If no 
> major concerns were communicated, that would signify our approval. The 
> Ballot Question Committee would be responsible for vetting the 
> language with the Attorney General.
>
> B.    Concerns were raised about the size of our committee.
>
> 1.    John will send out another volunteer appeal with a request for 
> more people to join our core group.
>
> 2.    We will ask each “Issue Committee” to send us someone to 
> represent their question to our group.
>
> C.    Peter Sacks is the person in the Attorney General’s office that 
> we should send a draft of our advisory question for his approval.
>
> Contact information for him:
> Peter Sacks, Assistant Attorney General
> Office of the Attorney General
> One Ashburton Place, Room 2007
> Boston, Massachusetts 02108
> 617.727.2200 Ext. 2064
> FAX: 617.727.5785
>
> D.    Bill agreed to write a draft guide about the 
> public-policy-petition-process.
>
> E.    Bill will submit a draft document of the important information 
> that every Issue Committee needs to know about putting a question on 
> the ballot, conducting the campaign, etc. He will send this out before 
> our next meeting and we will discuss this on May 20.
>
> F.    Steve Baer has been endorsed by his local chapter for his 
> campaign for State Senate. His campaign was successful in getting 
> enough signatures and he will be on the ballot. Dave has been in 
> contact with him and thinks the ABWG Project would be a good idea for 
> Steve’s campaign.
>
> G.    We discussed some of the goals for gathering the signatures and 
> placing the questions on the ballot—building the GRP, working in 
> coalition with other groups, place important issues before the public, 
> set the stage for future joint work, etc.
>
> H.    We discussed some things that need to be done by the Issue 
> Committees very quickly—establishing a Committee, having a Treasure, 
> creating some simple literature for the signature-gathering portion of 
> the campaign, etc. We also discussed some ideas for what committees 
> could do after they get on the ballot.
>
> III.     Make contacts to State Comm. and Local Chapter Contacts
>
> A.    Mike will send out the State Comm. and Local Chapter Contact 
> Lists and ask members of our core group to make some phone calls.
> B.    John will send out information to those who will be receiving 
> our phone calls.
>
>
> ABWG 5-05-08 (Minutes Approved)
>
> Present: John Andrews (facilitator), Mike Heichman (recorder), Dave 
> England, Tom Flittee
>
> 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 were 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.
>
>
>
>