[statecom-discuss] concerns, concerns, concerns

[Mike Heichman]

Hi Members of the State Committee:

I believe that there are too few of us who are too overextended and are 
doing too much of the work.

Recently I send out information with some requests and too often I 
receive nothing back in return. I know that I'm not alone.

One example-What's the date for the next State Comm. meeting? Some 
people seem to think that it will be either July 28 or July 29. Is this 
true? If so, how long are we supposed to hold both of those dates open 
on a summer weekend? Also, what is the deadline for making proposals for 
the meeting, including adequate time to vet these proposals? Has this 
announcement gone out? if so, I apologize for missing it. I'm concerned 
that not enough attention is being placed and I worry that once again we 
may not have a quorum and may not be prepared to make use of our 
collective time and energy.

Another example-the convention. I have argued consistently for a later 
convention: I have said that the ideal time for the convention would be 
after the November election and before Thanksgiving. We decided to have 
it on August 27. It's good to know that we have a date, time and 
location. It's good to know that we have a committee that is working on 
a newspaper-one of its functions is to notify our membership about the 
convention. I hope that it will arrive before August 27. However, I 
doubt that it will arrive to give prior advance notification.

More importantly, I have sent out two messages to the convention 
planning committee about the agenda, with some recommendations on how to 
make the convention more meaningful to those who plan on attending. 
These ideas (and the ideas of others) should be part of the call to 
convention. I haven't received any responses to my suggestions.

I have just heard from another member of the State Comm. that the 
Convention Planning Committee has requested and has not received 
additional assistance from Adcom. Is this true? Our convention should be 
an opportunity to move our party forward. If we believe that we cannot 
take adequate steps to improve our August 27 convention, we should 
reschedule!

Below is my June 18 letter to the Convention Planning Comm.

Mike Heichman


----------------------
June 18,

Hi Convention Planning Committee:

Requests for the Agenda:

1. At the 6-17 meeting of the Boston GRP chapter, we decided that we
wanted to organize a workshop for the annual convention on Dafur. I was
instructed to make the request to the Convention Planning Comm. When you
can, let me know the details that we need to know (amount of time, etc.)

2. I would like time during the convention for “Presidential Election,
2008”. If you approve, I would like to see if I could contact the known
(and maybe potential) Green Party presidential candidates and invite
them to participate in our convention. Ideally there would be an
opportunity for the presidential candidates (or their reps) to meet with
people, give them literature, etc. Also there should be an opportunity
for them to address the group. As of now it is hard to predict if any or
how many would actually attend. If no one came, we could instead
organize a panel of GRP members who would represent the ideological
differences in our party (viewpoints like this should be a major
priority for 2008, a minor priority, we should have nothing to do with
this, etc.)

3. As of today, I believe that there will be a member of our party who
will be seeking the endorsement of our party for the US Senate race in
2008. I have been in active contact with him. He has begun to surface
within the party and I expect that this will greatly increase the next
couple of weeks. I’m asking that you place on the agenda the possible
endorsement of a GRP candidate for the US Senate. There should be an
opportunity for him and any other candidate to meet and talk with the
members, to make a speech, and time to debate whether or not to endorse
a candidate.

4. I would like different kind of workshops than most of those that you
have previously listed. Why would we want to have a workshop on SHARC?
Is this something that is controversial in the party that our members
need more information or needs to be debated? Is anyone proposing that
the State Party take up this issue? Similarly, why have workshops on the
“People’s Music Network”, “Disability Rights (Sexuality”, “How to be
environmentally conscious and still have a life”, Peak Oil, and local
agriculture?

On the other hand, I like the “How does legislative Process work”? We
could also have other skills workshop like … “How does the consensus
process work?” What else do members of the party need to know and discuss?

5. One of the major things going on in the State Party right now is
SPWG. I suggest the following for the convention. SPWG should come up
with a report and either there could be time for discussion or we could
meet in small groups and answer/discuss some questions that the SPWG
could come up with to guide the process.


Please respond.

Thanks,

Mike Heichman
mikeheichman at verizon.net
617-265-8143