[statecom] V-Meeting Continues - Clarifications + To Dos

[Wanda Boeke]

A NOTE ON FACILITATION
As per a phone call to me at 6:40 Tuesday evening, Jamie O¹Keefe let me know
that he was stepping down as co-facilitator of the virtual meeting. He will
be communicating with the State Committee about this.
 
Following nomination at Sunday's (6/29) State Committee meeting, and later
in consultation with the AdCom and Jamie O'Keefe, Eli Beckerman and I are
stepping forward to facilitate the virtual meeting in order to continue the
process of approving delegates to the national convention and to follow
through on the Delegate Selection Plan.
 
Again, many thanks to Jamie for the time and effort he put in on
facilitating thus far.
 
BACKGROUND
There was consensus on Proposal A to have me co-facilitate. Jamie O¹Keefe
did not report this, but I spoke with some of those who had concerns (in
addition to concerns being addressed online) and concerns were cleared up.
So, you have honored me with your confidence in my ability to have us
address our tasks as delineated in the Delegate Selection Plan. At the June
29th meeting, the State Committee confirmed the consensus it built.
 
The State Committee passed a ³proposal² on June 29th meeting in support of
Eli Beckerman as well as myself as co-facilitators. The State Committee as
its normal course of business (last item in the Standing Rules agenda) is to
decide who will co-facilitate meetings, usually an upcoming meeting. It is
the only body that does so (unless a nominated facilitator finds a
replacement if unable to attend).
 
The proposal format was irregularly used during Sunday¹s meeting.
Nevertheless, the intent of the State Committee is clear, and, as mentioned,
it is the only body that can decide on facilitators. I would urge members
not to jump on this slip-up in process to undermine the State Committee¹s
intent.
 
For what it is worth, I believe, it was the first time the facilitators of
the meeting had facilitated one. In the past, veteran facilitators, familiar
with GRP rules and process, were often teamed up with less experienced
facilitators, but recently this ³tradition² has dropped by the wayside.
 
There was unity on AdCom during the Monday evening AdCom teleconference
regarding Jamie O¹Keefe and Eli Beckerman¹s discussing who would be the male
facilitator for the virtual meeting. With Jamie¹s stepping down, I believe
all concerns regarding the current facilitation have been satisfactorily
addressed.
 
I am pleased to work together with Eli as a co-facilitator. We have three
days in which to get our job done and two heads are definitely better than
one.
 
ALTERNATES STATE COMMITTEE REPS WELCOME
Although not reported to the virtual meeting (until now) parliamentarian Dan
Melnechuk clarified during the Monday evening AdCom teleconference that
alternate representatives to the State Committee are welcome to step into
State Committee meetings at any point during a meeting if there is not full
representation from their region. They must be substituting for a full
representative and have approval of the rep and/or local. For the virtual
meeting, they should listed as an alternate (credentialing sheet published
May 5 on lists) since calling town clerks or receiving membership dues to
establish GRP membership is not viable in an online meeting. Alternates can
then fully participate in forming consensus, decision-making, and voting
during a particular meeting.
 
PURPOSE OF THE MEETING
I reiterate the purpose of this virtual meeting as per the Secretary¹s
abbreviated minutes: ³State Committee reaffirms that the sole [underlined]
purpose of the current online meeting is to approve and select additional
delegates to the convention and that the format of that meeting be changed
to one that enables that single purpose.²
 
Since the delegation is still not complete, we are keeping this meeting open
for the sole purpose of adding delegates (7) and alternates (17) in hopes of
reaching a total of 32 delegates and 32 alternates. We encourage the
remaining slots being used to strengthen the diversity of the MA delegation.
We may further ask full delegates to switch to being alternates in instances
where that may strengthen the delegation's diversity. We are also
undertaking steps to ensure that delegation members may be approved as they
step forward.
 
TO DOs
1) As per the AdCom telecon Monday evening, various tasks have been taken on
by various individuals in order to fulfill the GPUS delegation requirements.
Elie Yarden has been charged by both CDLC (previously), and again by AdCom,
with recording delegate information, eliciting candidate preference, and
implementing the allocation and diversity equations. Jamie and Dan will
still be credentialing, and will credential delegates before they are
presented to us. Our job is to approve the delegates Elie sends to us.
 
2) We should also, ourselves, field delegates. So, please contact people in
your local or in your area to see if there are interested volunteers. Also,
please keep in mind that we want our delegation to reflect the richness in
makeup that is Massachusetts.
 
Again, we have basically 3 days in which to supply the approval of delegates
(GPUS extension deadline). We have the prerogative to keep the meeting open
as long as seems reasonable (up through the first day of the convention,
even). This is up to all of us to decide.
 
Longwindedly,
 
Wanda Boeke