[statecom] Special State Committee Meeting now in session

[Jamie O'Keefe]

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Very important email, please read...
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Dear Statecom Reps,

Special State Committee Meeting now in session!

This is a long email. Please read it all the way through.

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Why we are holding a special State Committee meeting?
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We need to approve the delegation to our Chicago National Nominating
Convention on July 10-14 and whatever else is needed to get them to
Chicago.

The meeting will take place in email and phone space - it will NOT be
a meeting where we get together in a room. We have done this before
and it usually takes a few days.

This meeting is a required step in our Delegate Selection Plan.  And
when we did not meet the time line to bring a proposed Delegation to
the April State Committee meeting, we needed another way to approve
our Delegation.  You can find a copy of the Delegate Selection Plan
at:

   http://green-rainbow.org/Elections/2008/2008presdelegateplan.pdf

The three relevant sections are:

o  Method of Selecting Delegates for a Candidate, p15-17

o  Method for Selecting Uncommitted Delegates, p17-18

o  Ensuring the Diversity of our Delegates, p14-15, also p18

As those of you at the April 12th State Committee meeting know, this
meeting was pre-approved by consensus.  While it is a formality we
need to have 10 delegates (1/3 of seated delegates (28) rounded up) to
call the meeting.  According to the minutes, 21 of 28 State Committee
members were part of this consensus decision
(http://www.green-rainbow.org/pipermail/statecom/2008-June/008417.html).
 In addition, at the May 25th Administrative Committee meeting, we
agreed to call the meeting to open on June 11th.

Dan Melnechuk agreed to take responsibility for calling the meeting
and run it, but due to family commitments, was unable to do so and
asked that someone else on Administrative Committee to fulfill his
responsibilities to call the meeting and, later, for Jamie O'Keefe to
run it.

To be clear, this IS the start of the special state committee meeting!

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Agenda & Process of this meeting
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Below is the Special Meeting Agenda

1. Credentialing

Address any credentialing issues with delegates to the state
committee. If none, this item is skipped. Decisions on credentialing
will be made by those delegates whose credentials are not under
review. Quorum is calculated based on delegates whose credentials are
not under review.  1 Day is alloted for this agenda item.

Dan Melnechuk has agreed to handle credentialing.  All requests to
be appointed to fill vacancies of the State Committee should be mailed
to isis at isisdesign.com and jokeefe at jamesokeefe.org so that we may
compile a list of valid members who wish to be appointed, their nominees
and their address and other contact info.  As per Section 8.5.2 of the
GRP By-laws, and other other relevant documents, we will present
such a list to the State Committee for approval.

2. Consideration of proposals

Proposals will be considered in the order that they are posted to
statecom at green-rainbow.org.  I will resubmit the proposal with the
consensus ballot with the Subject line:  PROPOSAL #1 (#2, #3 ... should
there by any other proposals).

Each proposal will be given at least 1 day for people to voice their
concerns on statecom at green-rainbow.org.  More time may be necessary
should there be no concerns, and quorum has not been reached.

To facilitate the decision process, we will use the same consensus
ballot test that we do at the beginning of our regular meetings. For
each proposal, fill out the ballot below with either:

o  "No concerns", or

o  "Yes, I have concerns, and they are...".

While this may at first seem backwards, you need to have your head
in the consensus frame of mind.  In particular, when the facilitator
asks at a normal meeting "are there any remaining concerns?", if
everyone is silent, then the proposal passes because there are no
concerns. Here in email land, we need to note the silence by
recording "no concerns".

Consensus Ballots for a single proposal will be of the form:

BALLOT: PROPOSAL #1
DELEGATE NAME:
DELEGATE EMAIL ADDRESS OR PHONE IF NO EMAIL:
DELEGATE CONSENTS ('Y' for yes and 'N' for no):

So first read over a proposal and then mark your ballots and send
back to this list and not a particular individual. Please do not
change the subject line when you reply so that me, as facilitator,
can keep track of the meeting.

After ballots come back, they will be tallied and any proposal that
has at 100%  "No concerns" passes without any discussion. Quorum is
set at 2/3, rounded up, of the State Committee, which as there are
28 State Committee members, quorum should be 19.  So please reply
quickly so we can get through this.

Seeing as this meeting is on till we are done, as we have to get this
done and fast, please be clear about your concern so that all of us
can try to alleviate the concerns.

To alleviate the concerns, the sponsors of the proposals may consider
and make modifications.

If after trying to address concerns some still remain on a proposal, a
second ballot may need to be taken on an item to see if we are over
2/3rds "no concerns" and if so the proposal, will be considered passed
as we have a fallback to 2/3rds votes if we can not reach consensus.

You can email back clarifying questions in which case please post
"CLARIFYING QUESTION" in the message line.   Or you can fill out and
return your ballot with concerns (please briefly describe) or no
concerns.

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Proposal Format
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The form for submitting a proposal should be the same with all
complete proposals and is specified here:

http://green-rainbow.org/StateCom/complete_proposals.html

Proposals will be considered in the order in which they are posted.

So there you have it.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate
to email me or call me for faster response at 617-447-0210.

Peace,

Jamie O'Keefe
Middlesex State Committee Member
Membership Director

PS: When you send in your ballot, please try to send in only the
ballot part and removing the remaining sections of email. Thanks!