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

[Mike Heichman]

Dear Facilitators:

When you wrote, "We encourage the remaining slots being used to 
strengthen the diversity of the MA delegation."

I would suggest a much stronger word than "encourage". If I understand 
our rules and responsibilities accurately, we must have gender parity 
and must demonstrate that we are taking strong steps to meet our other 
goals.

While I have to take my share of the responsibility that our affirmative 
action goals in choosing our delegation did not include sending our 
members who are low-income, (I would like to know how that happened.), I 
would encourage all of us to encourage our low-income members to attend 
the convention. I deeply regret that I have heard of no effort to find 
out if any of the delegates chosen to far are in fact low-income and 
need our assistance. Because of this omission, as far  as I am 
concerned, the message is that we are comfortable in sending up to 64 of 
our PRIVILEGED members of our party. I find this to be very upsetting.

Mike Heichman


Wanda Boeke wrote:

>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
>
>
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