[statecom-discuss] How can we have a successful State Comm meeting on November 17?

[Merelice]

Greetings,

I wish to applaud and thank Mike for his deep interest in making
StateCom meetings productive and for starting to do what the
co-facilitators of StateCom meetings, along with AdCom, should be
doing in preparation. I believe it was precedent-setting when Eli and
I -- as co-facilitators of the last StateCom meeting -- put out
advance notices and instructions for posting proposals. We learned
then that there are no guidelines for people who have volunteered to
co-facilitate a statecom meeting.

The co-facilitators who were selected at the last meeting for the next
meeting are no longer available. Nat and I -- as cochairs of the party
-- had a conference call this week to begin to carry out the needed
steps for the next statecom meeting which is just three weeks away.

I hope Mike will reconsider one of his complaints about the last
meeting: the presentation about forming ward and town committees. Very
few party members -- myself included -- are fully aware of all that it
means to be an official ballot-status political party. If we are
serious about being real, it's important to be educated about these
things. StateCom is an especially appropriate body to be more
knowledgeable about the possibilities so that its members can inform
their local areas.

It takes just three registered members to form a Ward or town
committee. While in some cases that might seem to be an insufficient
number for a viably active local chapter, it provides a local presence
and identifiable contact for people who are interested in learning
more about the party. We should have dozens of such contacts scattered
around the state. Amherst has an official state-recognized committee
and it is inspiring to hear what they can do as a result. The fact
that no such committees have been formed since the summer meeting is
no reason why we shouldn't learn how to build toward that goal.

Merelice


On 10/25/07, mikeheichman at verizon.net <mikeheichman at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: mikeheichman at verizon.net mikeheichman at verizon.net
> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:30:07 -0400
> To: statecom-discuss at green-rainbow.org
> Subject:
>
>
> October 25, 2007
>
> Hi Members of the State Comm. Meeting:
>
> I hope that we will have a successful State Committee meeting on November
> 17. I know that for many of us,
> including myself, believe that some of the recent State Comm. Meetings have
> been disappointing. However, I have to
> believe that we have the capacity to better run our meetings so that we
> will be able to do our job in leading our state
> party.
>
> In order to accomplish this, I recommend the following:
>
> I.      Improve preparation for the meeting-the more that we all do to prepare
> for the meeting beforehand the more
> likely we will have a successful meeting
>
> A.      I hope that our wonderful co-chairs (Merelice and Nat) will work with
> the co-facilitators to do all that is
> necessary to organize the meeting.
> B.      I hope that everyone who has ideas on what they want us to accomplish on
> November 17 will communicate
> their desires beforehand.
> C.      I hope that every member of the State Comm. who has a proposal to move
> the Party forward will send out their
> proposals soon and have them vetted by the appropriate committees. I hope
> that every member of the State Comm.
> will read and respond to the proposals, and if they are in general
> agreement, to co-sponsor the proposals. The more
> that we can respond to misconceptions and concerns beforehand the more
> likely our meeting on November 17 will
> be more efficient.
>
> II.     I hope that we can better use our time on November 17. I propose that
> we "bend" our rules so that at the start
> of the meeting we can discuss the agenda. The purpose is to become clearer
> about what we want to accomplish.
>
> At our July 29 meeting, we were "forced" to spend quite a bit of time
> planning for the upcoming annual convention.
> This was time well spent because it was truly an "Urgent Matter". However,
> I was very upset because I believed that
> we wasted approximately an hour discussing the upcoming "Deadline for Ward
> and Town Committees". Now that the
> meeting is over, I would like to know how  this discussion led to action.
> How many Ward and Town Committees were
> established? My prediction is NONE. I am prepared to apologize if I am
> wrong.
>
> If I am not wrong, then we wasted an hour of our meeting instead of
> addressing proposals which had the purpose of
> moving our party forward.
>
> I will resubmit my proposals that were not addressed at our last meeting. I
> urge others to submit their ideas on how
> to move our party forward.
>
> Let's do what we need to do to have a successful meeting.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike Heichman
> mikeheichman at verizon.net
> 617-265-8143