[statecom-discuss] State Committee Minutes - 1/27/07
Colby Peterson
saphron at verizon.net
Thu Feb 1 09:39:25 EST 2007
Green-Rainbow Party State Committee Meeting Minutes (Not yet approved)
January 27th, 2007, Amherst, Massachusetts
Meeting Officers:
Facilitation Team: Luc Schuster and Jill Stein
Scribe: Colby Peterson
Keeper of Time: Merelice
Feeler of Vibes: Dan Kontoff
Reader of Rules (Parliamentarian): Dan Melnechuk
Four names were added to the Statecom
Seated by consensus: Nat Fortune (Franklin), Larry Ely (Hampshire),
and Martina Robinson (Hampshire), Nancy Lee Wood (Bristol)
Present:
Eli Yarden, Middlesex
Grace Ross, Worcester
Larry Ely, Hampshire
Jill Stein, Middlesex
Luc Schuster, Middlesex
Merelice, Norfolk
Ralph Walton, Suffolk
Gary Hicks, Suffolk
Maureen Doyle, Worcester
Paul Mushrush, Worcester
Martina Robinson, Hampshire
Nancy Lee Wood, Bristol
Colby Peterson, Worcester
Kim Lampereur, Suffolk
Dan Kontoff, Suffolk
Eli Beckerman, Middlesex
John Andrews, Middlesex
Nat Fortune, Franklin
Robert Crowner, Hampshire
Daniel Melnechuk, 4-year Term
Jamie McLaughlin, Middlesex
David Rolde, Middlesex
Annie Butler, Middlesex
Wanda Boeke, Berkshire
Jeff Turner, alternate and seated from Berkshire
Sue Bartone, alternate and seated from Hampshire
Jamie Cooney, observer and alternate from Berkshire (not seated)
Approving the agenda:
9-9:30 Gather and Settle In
9:30 - 9:40 Delegate Meeting Roles
9:40 - 10:40 Officer and Committee Reports
10:40 - 11:00 Rank Proposal
11:00 - 11:30 National Reps workshop
11:30 -12:15 Membership Workshop
12:15 - 1 Lunch
1 - 1:30 Strategic Planning Workshop
1:30-2:15 Legislation Workshop
2:15 - 4 Proposals
Workshops
Committee / Officer Reports:
Treasurer: Dan Melnechuk
Passed and explained out treasurer report.
Summary: Good return from last newsletter: Almost $1500. Bunch of new
members as well. State sharing and national donors from GPUS helped
with this process. We are now an officially recognized political
party. Our filing requirements have changed. Limits for donations now
increase to $5k per year per person. The party may now donate up to
$3000 dollars to candidates and possibly unlimited uncoordinated
spending.
Communications Committee: Colby Peterson
Summary: The main thing the ComCom is working on includes the
Brochure and the web site. The ComCom made a decision not to produce
the GRP brochure without first translating and ensuring that
alternative languages were presented. A joint session of the ComCom
Membership Tech Com never happened. Colby Peterson stepped down as
Communications Director.
Membership:
No report was delivered.
AdCom: Luc Schuster
Summary: AdCom has been meeting regularly. The new AdCom session just
started, but participation has been lopsided. The National Committee
is requesting information from the AdCom, the information is due
February 15th.
CDLC: John Andrews
Summary: Two meetings: Making a candidate manual. Melissa Harrell is
collecting additional information. This will be made into a package
to distribute to candidates. Candidate questionnaires have gone out,
but only 2 or three have come back. Fifteen candidate questionnaires
have gone out, past and present candidates. We are not in a good
position to recruit candidates for municipal election at this point.
We are seeking people who may be thinking about running.
Vetting of proposals took half of the meeting- adding a lot of time.
Q: US Senate next year?
A: No movement yet on this.
Platform: Jill Stein
Summary: Met last month, developing outreach reports that relate to
current issues. Fifty word blurbs that can be related or applied to
current events.
An ongoing challenge will be to help better merge the Rainbow and
Green platforms. Members expressed concern that the Rainbow
integration has not been fully implemented within the party and the
Platform Committee.
Technology Com: Dan Melnechuk
Summary: Confluence of issues: Addressed VERIZON and "incredibly
extreme" measures to prevent spam.
Membership & Diversity Committee: Kim Lampeurer
Summary: Couple of meetings. Updating the membership brochure should
be a priority. Mailing to our membership and campaign compacts for
fundraising. Ask locals to do follow-up phone calls.
Abolish Poverty proposal & strategy proposal -- suggestion to merging
the two proposals. Withdrawing of abolish poverty action plan
proposal in favor of Eli Beckerman and John Andrews, with the right
to raise issues during the proposal process.
Ranking Proposals
Martina introduced a proposal that didn't make it onto the email
list. A brief discussion to determine whether or not the proposal
needs to be addressed by StateCom was had.
The ranking process was introduced.
Proposals:
A: AdCom Size Change
Sponsors: Luc Schuster, Jill Stein, Elie Yarden, Merelice
The idea of reducing the size of AdCom is to keep the AdCom focused
and allow the various directors to better carry out their functions.
B: 3-Day Phonebanking
Sponsors: Merelice, Ron Francis
The party has already expressed interest in phone-banking. This
proposal assigns responsibility and moves phone-banking forward with
implementation procedures.
C: 2008 National
Sponsors: Owen Broadhurst, Elie Yarden, Jamie McLaughlin
This proposal takes a position on whether or not the GRP will be
involved with the 2006 presidential elections.
D: GRP Strategy Development
Sponsors: Eli Beckerman, John Andrews, Merelice, Gary Hicks
Sets up a process for the GRP to set its strategy and carry it out
over the next couple years. Sets up a working group to guide this
process. Writes a plan for approval for the StateCom.
E: Mission Statement
Sponsors: Colby Peterson et. al. from the Communications Committee
Asks for 45 minutes of StateCom time to discuss and develop a party
mission statement.
F: Ashley Treatment Proposal
Sponsors: Martina Robinson, Paul Mushrush
9-year old severely disabled girl underwent a radical operation to
alter her body chemistry to make it easier to take care of her. The
GRP platform is against this, we should take a position on it.
Rules and procedures were discussed and reviewed after members raised
concerns.
National Reps Workshop
Jamie McLaughlin:
We reviewed the national questionnaire to make sure that things are
not overlooked.
We have a list of presidential candidates- several have already
announced.
Jamie met with Kat Swift in TX. Talk within the party also surrounds
whether or not we should run a celebrity. For example: Medea
Benjamin, Cindy Sheehan, Susan Sarrandon.
Ballot lines: Many states actually lost their ballot lines.
New Hampshire: Is there any way MA can help with organizing in NH?
Jamie M. would like another female on the NC.
Elie Yarden:
NC controversy: Delegation apportionment committee (DAC). How are
delegates apportioned within the GPUS?
The main issue is how states are represented nationally- what are the
criteria?
The DAC presented a compromise solution. There was a loud negative
reaction to weighted voting.
The details of the report is found in a handout authored by the DAC.
If the delegation proposals pass, the number of delegates from MA
would increase to 8 members. The NC would increase to over 200
people. VA and OH would lose members.
Questions:
Q: Does this relate to the nat'l nominating convention in 2008?
A: Not really, these seem to be distinct issues, but the controversy
overlaps.
Q: Is the NC healed from the contentiousness from a couple years ago?
Is it moving forward? How does this relate directly to MA?
A: There are still live state level issues relating to the Cobb vs.
Nader controversy from 3 years ago. This division is still present.
Q: Are there enough people / interest to fill these 6 additional
positions if this measure were to pass?
Elie has said that he would vote for reapportionment but oppose
weighted voting.
Time expired, straw poll to extend the time by 5 minutes passed.
Q: Have there been diversity problems addressed?
A: It seems that there has been little movement on this. The nat'l
paid staff in DC is all white. The majority of the NC is white middle
class male.
Entrenchment could be an issue on the NC. Internal power struggles
prevent movement on diversity and other compositional issues.
Time expired. A straw poll to continue. It seemed divided around
half. The facilitator decided to proceed with 5 additional minutes.
Delegates do not have to be from the State Committee.
David Rolde said he favors apportionment based on Green membership
per state, as opposed to total population of state.
Q: If there is entrenchment, what does it matter what we do for 2008?
A: Presidential politics relates directly to our party status. Our
delegation could loosen entrenchment by putting pressure on various
parts of the structure.
An idea was suggested to better divide the daily email flow.
The GRP delegation to the N Convention was seen as a model of
principled discussion.
A 1-hour QA session was suggested. Grace Ross volunteered to schedule
it. Another suggestion was made to make a NC delegation QA at the
state convention.
Time expired.
12:32PM Lunch
This scribe notes that Annie Butler's mac and cheese was fabulous.
1:09PM - Introductions
Possible Officer Elections
A straw poll was taken whether or not we wanted to hold elections. We
went forward with elections.
Fundraising Director
Gary Hicks
nominators:
Grace Ross
Annie Butler
John Andrews
Mike Heichman
Eli Beckerman
Kim Lampereur
Martina Robinson
Jamie McLaughlin
Paul Mushrush
Maureen Doyle
Communications Director
Bill Cunningham
nominators:
Elie Yarden
Mike Heichman
Colby Peterson
Merelice
Grace Ross
Gary Hicks
David Rolde
Maureen Doyle
Paul Mushrush
Merelice
Annie Butler
Female Alternate to GPUS
Martina Robinson
nominators:
Mike Heichman
Annie Butler
Jill Stein
Merelice Wanda
Gary Hicks
David Rolde
Maureen Doyle
Paul Mushrush
Kim Lampereur
Jamie McLauglin
National Platform Committee
Dan Kontoff
nominators:
Paul Mushrush
David Rolde
Maureen Doyle
Gary Hicks
Grace Ross
Mike Heichman
Kim Lampereur
Wanda Boeke
Annie Butler
nominators:
Colby Peterson
Dan Melnechuk
Martina Robinson
Jamie McLaughlin
Paul Mushrush
Maureen Doyle
David Rolde
Gary Hicks
Larry Ely
Wanda Boeke
Merelice
Mike Heichman
Elie Yarden
Kim Lampereur
Grace Ross nominated Jeff Turner and Jamie Cooney as Berkshire
alternates. Jeff Turner was seated.
1:29: PM: Strategic Planning Workshop - John Andrews
Strategic planning is currently done case-by-case.
To have a strategic plan that looks at all of the issues- how do we
want to reach out to the people and engage them? The purpose of the
strategic committee would be to organize issues and actions around them.
The processes which we develop should have a feedback loop- where
each process feeds into a new one. Resources should build as we
execute strategy, as opposed to making a strategy into the long-term
where nothing gets done and we are left with the same resources we
started with.
One scenario would be choosing the best issues that would increase
our resources so that we can have a better foundation to tackle less
founded issues.
Grace Ross suggested that we introduce cyclicar or systemic models
into the discussion- models that run in cycles.
Elie Yarden made a distinction that this is a party building
strategy, not a vote getting system. Elie made another distinction-
are we making a "third party" or an "alternative party"? It should be
a strategy where we build an "alternative party." He said that we are
a revolutionary party.
Gary Hicks said that part of what makes us revolutionary is that we
are not solely electoral, but that we seek to build alternative
institutions to what we currently have.
Dan Kontoff said many processes are already happening around the
country.
David Rolde said that picking issues may disempower individuals who
are working on specific issues and they may leave if we don't work on
their issue.
David also said that the strategic planning must be able to deal with
on-the-fly issues
David also said that it would be a good idea for traditionally
opposing people should work together to make it a united effort
David also said that the party IS the strategy, not the end
David also said that if there aren't issue groups already working on
the issue, is there a way that we could organize an issue group?
John Andrews responds: We didn't design this to discourage work on
less pressing issues, but rather to simply identify issues where
there is some support. The strategy is designed to help us grow, and
there may be issues that we are not currently able to fully address
without building more resources.
Annie Butler said that we have a problem with party discipline. How
do we establish party discipline? Is this a "do whatever you want"
party? The state party must have discipline.
Nancy Lee Wood said that this should be more than change, but
systemic transformation.
Larry Ely said that there is less cohesion among Gs than we believe
we have. This will be an defining exercise for us. It is important
that we show leadership.
Elie Yarden said that one of the first jobs will be to define
"issues" and what that means in American society.
Eli Beckerman said we don't have a process to develop a party-wide
strategy, part of this is to bring a sense discipline.
Workshop Ended.
Sue Barton, made alternate, and seated
Nominators:
David Rolde
Nancy Lee Wood
Jamie McLauglin
Martina Robinson
Larry Ely
Colby Peterson
Mike Heichman
Grace Ross
Jill Stein
Jeff Turner
Merelice
Wanda Boeke
2:09PM - Ballots were filled out and collected
2:17PM - Legislation Workshop - Grace Ross
Ways to originate bills:
The people
The legislature
The governor or executive branch
Bicameral legislature means that you have to file a bill on both
sides, both House and Senate.
Getting a bill passed:
Public pressure:
Campaign contributions
Committee meetings or hearings
Governmental pressure:
Find a legislator or legislators that support your bill.
Getting a coalition of legislators to support your bill.
Getting the executive branch to support your bill.
Legislative leadership (getting the bill on the floor and to a vote)
Representatives are legally required to file bills that originate
from constituents.
Insider strategy as an outsider verses outside strategy as an insider.
Bills must go through many committees before it can be considered for
a final vote. The budget is another process that happens alongside
the general bill process- House I is the governor-submitted budget.
The House then creates a budget that may have certain riders that
encourage legislation- it may expedite things or contain negative
aspects.
2:57 PM - Two minute break.
2:59PM - Considering Proposals
Official election results:
Fundraising Director: Gary Hicks
Communications Director: Bill Cunningham
NC alternate delegates: Dan Kontoff, Annie Butler
3:09PM
Proposal Ranking Results
Expedited Round:
1. F - Ashley Treatment Proposal 75% no concerns
2. B - 3-Day Phonebanking
3. D - GRP Strategy Development
4. C - 2008 National
5. E - Mission Statement
Regular
1. D - GRP Strategy Development
2. E - Mission Statement
3. C - 2008 National
4. B - 3-Day Phonebanking
5. A - AdCom Size Change
6. F - Ashley Treatment Proposal
Expedited Round:
F - Ashley Treatment Proposal
Presented by Martina Robinson
Ashley is a severely disabled person in Washington State whose body
chemistry and physiology is being altered to prevent her from going
through puberty. Martina believes that the GRP should speak out
against this procedure because our platform is consistent with
opposing this. The GRP should issue a press release or statement that
condemns this issue and offers alternatives.
David Rolde and Elie Yarden agreed that we should condemn the medical
industry that allowed this to happen and not the parents.
Wanda Boeke asked if the recommendations of the medical profession
were followed.
Gary Hicks said that anything that goes into this statement must
relate that "this kind of crap" was going on for a long time, i.e.
eugenics.
Q: Colby Peterson asked if this has already happened:
A: Yes, it happened on January 6th.
There was a fast-paced rules and procedures discussion that degenerated.
The proposal moves to AdCom.
Annie Butler trusts that the AdCom and Martina can work out the wording.
B - 3-day Phonebanking
Presented by Merelice
This proposal adds specific responsibility to bodies to organize and
implement this effort by a certain date.
Q: Where will this happen?
A: There are many options.
Q: Who will write the script? Will there be other non-financial
components to the script?
A: There will be samples and other resources available- this is part
of the responsibility of those who will be organizing. This is
primarily a fundraising call. There is a historical precedent that
the more focused the phonecall, the more effective.
Q: Does this put this effort into any financial tier?
A: The cost estimate reflects the follow-up mailing, not the
telephone effort.
Mike Heichman advocated that we should have a multi-purpose phone call.
Larry Ely said that we should take advantage of our member's time and
good will.
Merelice said that we are starting with familiar people, Merelice
also said that flexibility and judgement when talking on the phone
can be had. Merelice is concerned about our phone database. This is
something we need to work on, but not something that should stand in
our way.
Time has expired.
3:47PM
D - GRP Strategy Development
Presented by Eli Beckerman
This proposal does not cement the process, but rather sets up a
number of goals and groups. This proposal sets up a strategic working
group that will develop the plan that must be eventually approved by
StateCom.
Concerns:
Merelice offered a friendly amendment. Section 3-C will add the 2008
presidential campaign to the list.
Dan Melnechuk had a concern that we could run a poll to get a sense
of what our membership is concerned with.
Response: No money has been allocated for this purpose.
Grace Ross offered an amendment to section 1-A that "contribute to
the diversity of the group". Concern with 3-A: Can we make the
consideration of our 10 key values come primarily before the other
listings? Grace proposes that we switch 3-E with 3-A. This was adopted.
Grace Ross wanted to emphasize that our own principles matter more
than the Republicans and Democrats- less contrasting.
C - 2008 National Elections
Presented by Elie Yarden
This proposal takes a position on whether or not the GRP will be
involved with the 2006 presidential elections.
Mike Heichman wanted to insert language to automatically have this
decision reviewed by the State Convention. Elie agreed that this is a
friendly amendment.
Mike H said that item three is too premature.
Response from Elie Yarden- the intention of the proposal is that if
the GPUS is going to engage in nat'l elections, it is not prepared to
do so if we don't have our own GRP people to participate.
Merelice said that we can ask candidates if they want to run in our
primary. We are held to the results of our primary since we're
"official" now.
David Rolde was concerned that if the GRP nominated a 3rd party or
independent then we may not be able to put a Green on our ballot
line. Number 3 was changed to specifically address our primary ballot.
Dan Kontoff, are we endorsing a candidate now?
Response: No, we are endorsing a principle.
The proposal was adopted with no remaining concerns in the expedited
round! 4:04PM.
E - 45 minutes to develop a mission statement
This proposal was withdrawn by the sponsors.
Proposals Regular Round:
GRP Strategy Proposal continues in the regular round:
Grace Ross: section 3-D, what is a "core outreach message"?
2-B: Are we paying a facilitator or director?
Response: If offers us the option, but it is not a assumption.
David Rolde is concerned that the membership of the committee is set
and that the participation is less democratic.
Response: The feeling was that the group of people should be ID'd ASAP.
Grace Ross offered a friendly amendment that the process will be
posted and widely advertised to solicit participation. This is okay
with David, but the sponsors have yet to respond.
David Rolde offered that "core outreach message" should be developed
after the issues are identified.
Response:Perhaps this is done at the same time. This section was
changed to address
Nancy Lee Wood said that if we're thinking about systemic
transformation, we have to think in large terms, which includes
placing various elements under core issues and working not only as a
political party, but also as an educational forum. The public may not
be a good starting place.
Ralph Walton asked about reconciling the G with the R politics.
Merelice (as sponsor), originally there was a lack of assignment of
responsibility, and now we have it in this proposal. Yes, there is a
desire to be inclusive, but we built in an inclusive effort to
recruit and there must be a working body to pull together- I am not
comfortable to expand the working group-which is not making
decisions, but rather creating coherency from a variety of sources
and voices. This is not to be a side workshop, but rather a major
focus of the convention.
10 minutes have expired. 4:22PM.
8 minutes were allocated to continue discussion.
Dan Melnechuk said that our committees have open membership, by
saying that this committee has closed membership, it is important to
say that these members are the official decision makers in the group.
Response: If you are designated as a member, you will have final
decision making power.
Martina said that this will bring discipline to our party.
Gary Hicks: 1-A, the committee should be called Membership &
Diversity Committee. This process should not be held hostage by the
Presidential 2008 process. 2008 was changed to 2009.
Grace:
2-B "estimated cost of facilitation"
1-A I want this widely advertised and a call for volunteers.
8 minutes have expired. 4:30PM.
3 minutes were allocated.
Grace:
3-D: Based on my personal experience, I believe that core outreach
messages are more valuable than a single core outreach message. A
friendly amendment was accepted.
Elie:
This is to develop a strategy to problem solving. There will be a
lot of problem solving.
1 minute was allocated
David:
1-A: We've never had a committee with fixed membership. I don't see
any reason not to have it open membership. This is not considered
friendly amendment by the sponsors.
David and the sponsors had a side meeting to reconcile differences.
After the return, David withdrew his concerns and the proposal was
adopted.
Time expired. We will return to resolve the proposal.
4:40PM Fundraising Committee Introduction
Several members volunteered to help with some activities.
Setting the Next meeting
April 14th, 2007: Greater Fitchburg-Leominster
Gary Hicks volunteered for male facilitator.
Wanda Boeke volunteered for female facilitator.
Planning a Convention:
When:
Mike H argues for later in the year (autumn) since we're starting to
get our committees riled up from this meeting. We still have a lot to
figure out.
Merelice said that its important to get our new excited people
involved- and to do that would to be hold a convention. She is
arguing for an earlier date, May/June.
Gary Hicks advocated for a June convention so we can consolidate our
forces before the presidential business.
Grace Ross noted that we have another meeting to bring people in
before September, she is advocating for Sept, but no later.
Martina Robinson said she has been asked by many people wondering if
there will be a sign-language interpreter?
Elie Yarden said that the NC is throwing around meeting times in May
and June 17th.
Dan Melnechuk said that the by-laws said that the convention must be
between Feb 1st and the last day to file signatures for public
office. The deadline is moot in '07. Dan suggested a warm time. Dan
said we should pick it soon so we can advertise soon.
Merelice asked Dan Melnechuk about StateCom presidential ballot.
Dan Kontoff asked if we have a (convention planning) committee for
this? Dan Kontoff likes September and June.
Response: Indeed we do have a committee.
Jamie McLaughlin asked not to have in June, for personal reasons.
Ralph Walton asked if there is a legislative schedule that we should
know about?
Maureen Doyle joined the Convention Planning Committee.
The meeting ended at 5:04PM.
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