[statecom] Special State Committee Meeting now in session
Byron Cunha
byroncunha at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 17 14:09:14 EDT 2008
man! i've been trying to get involved in the political process from a fringe party for months. i chose the green party because of the intelligence and pesistance of governor's cadidate ross. but since i've been receiving e-mails from what appears to be affiliated members, i came to the conclusion that the e-mails i have received are from people who only want to hamper any efforts from people to gain political power through the green party. in fact, i think the efforts behind the e-mails i have recieved are to abolish interest in the green party. to bad. the green party only just began.
--- On Tue, 6/17/08, Yarden <yen.yarden at verizon.net> wrote:
From: Yarden <yen.yarden at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [statecom] Special State Committee Meeting now in session
To: "State Committee Official Business" <statecom at green-rainbow.org>
Cc: "Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) Administrative Committee" <adcom at green-rainbow.org>, "candidate development" <candidate-development at green-rainbow.org>
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 2:28 AM
Jamie,
Thank you,
I have taken the action of submitting the "Report of the CDLC on
Delegates to the 2008 National Nominating Convention of the GPUS to be
selected by the GRP" to the discuss list of the State Committee, the
Administrative Committee and the CDLC. I now submit it as the primary
item of business of the "Special State Committee Meeting now in
session"
Please note that all reference to Delegate Selection Plan in the
submitted report refers to the Green-Rainbow Party Presidential
Nominating Convention Delegate Selection Plan, Approved by the Green-
Rainbow Party State Committee, April 12, 2008 and signed by co-chairs
Nathanael Fortune and M. K. Merelice; here attached.
It would be useful if you sent to the co-chairs of the CDLC copies of
the CDLC presentation used in 2004 so that that model may be used to
format all the detailed information necessary for the approval
required of the State Committee. I am henceforth acting as a delegate
from Middlesex to the Special State Committee Meeting now in session.
Elie Yarden
The Report of the Candidate Development & Legal Committee follows:
Report of the CDLC on Delegates to the 2008 National Nominating
Convention of the GPUS to be selected by the GRP.
In accordance with the decision (Cf. minutes of that meeting, taken by
Mike Heichman, and approved by Elie Yarden, and John Andrews) of the
CDLC at its telephone meeting of June 11, 2008, facilitated by Dave
England, co-chair of the CDLC, and with Grace Ross, John Andrews, Mike
Heichman, and Elie Yarden, I hereby forward to you the report that I
was asked to prepare on behalf of the CDLC for presentation to the
State Committee meeting to discuss and approve the selection of
delegates needed to complete our allocation of delegates not selected
by the candidates whose names appeared on our GRP primary ballot.
The number of such positions to be filled by party members who
volunteer to be delegates is 21 and the following gives a picture of
what we have achieved and of what remains to be done:
Able to remove the following applicants;
Gregory-Dean Smit aka Brother NorthStar, Leveret, 1st Congressional
District
Howard Weiss, Cambridge, 8th Congressional District
David Schwab III, Williamstown, 1st Congressional District
from the list of those volunteers who contacted the CDLC directly for
apportionment on the ground that Grace Ross reporting for the McKinney
campaign stated that they were on the list appointed by the McKinney
campaign, there remained 8 applicants to be contacted.
Having made contact with 7 of the 8 applicants, I can inform you, that
I have received responses from all seven (7) that they are willing to
act as uncommitted delegates or as delegates pledged to candidates on
the GRP primary ballot who have chosen to not select their delegates,
and thus leave the selection in the hands of the State Committee.
Those who have stated a willingness to do so have also indicated that
they are doing so with the understanding and expectation that this
listing of preferences will assist in their selection as delegates.
They are:
Andrew Fitzgerald, Somerville, 8th Congressional District
Scott Laugenour, Lenox, 1st Congressional District
Travis McGee, Danvers, 6th Congressional District
Anaelisa Vanegas, Lee, 1st Congressional District
Kenneth Duncan, Pittsfield, 1st Congressional District
Hallett German, Peabody, 6th Congressional District
Jill Stein, Lexington, 7th Congressional District
The above persons have indicated alternative choices. Thus the only
volunteer who remains in the uncommitted camp is,
Samantha Zitola, Clinton, 3rd Congressional District
In addition to the above, indicating agreement or preference to become
delegates pledged to Nader are:
Elie Yarden, Cambridge, 8th Congressional District
John Andrews, Lexington, 7th Congressional District
Additional GRP members have indicated a willingness to be a delegate,
Nat Fortune, Whately, 1st Congressional District
Wanda Boeke, Berkshire County, 1st Congressional District
Nancy Lee Wood, Taunton, 4th Congressional District
Thus, _at this time_ the CDLC has 13 volunteer delegates to propose to
the State Committee for approval. Combined with the delegates being
selected by the Candidates; 9 by Cynthia McKinney and the 1 delegate
each already submitted to AdCom by Kent Mespaly, and Kat Swift, the
GRP is 8 short of the number needed to meet its GPUS allocation of 32
delegate places.
Members of the party not wishing us to fall short of having a full
delegation have been stepping in and, as predicted by Dave England, co-
chair of the CDLC, on the basis of what happened in 2004, there is no
good reason to conclude that we will fail to meet the goals of our
present delegate apportionment plan. The chief difficulty, one
continuously pointed out by Jamie McLaughlin, alternate delegate of
the GRP to the NC of the GPUS, remains the problem of assisting would
be delegates to attend the convention. While there is no necessity
for all appointed delegates to physically attend the convention, they
must be accessible to provide proxies to those who will be. It is
definitely not in the spirit of our procedures to delay decision-
making to the point of preventing people who might otherwise attend
and participate, because they lack the financial means to enable late
or last-minute decisions. Jamie is not only pointing this out but is
actively seeking remedies by arranging to find less expensive
alternatives now.
The task of meeting the goals of our Delegate Selection Plan with
regard to distribution, diversity, and other matters
requires the information delivered to the Administrative Committee of
the GRP by the individual campaigns, and will be examined by the
Administrative Committee for submission to the State Committee. We do
not select those delegates. it would be best that all members of the
State Committee participating in this meeting familiarize themselves
with the Delegate Selection Plan approved at our last State Committee
meeting and available on the party web-site.
Please _note!_ The names of additional volunteers will be appended
to this list as they appear.
Elie Yarden
for the CDLC
***************************************************************
In accordance with the decision of the CDLC telecom meeting of June
11, called and chaired by CDLC co-chair, Dave England and attended by
Mike Heichman. John Andrews, Grace Ross, and Elie Yarden, and all
those attending were given the freedom to append personal comments to
this report, whether or not they were specific to our discussion, and
decision. This is intended to reflect the general commitment of the
people involved, to enable _open_ decision making.
Thus far, the only statement thus far submitted, that of Mike
Heichman, is hereby appended.
From: mikeheichman at verizon.net
Subject: CDLC proposal to The Virtual State Comm Meeting
Date: June 15, 2008 5:46:15 PM EDT
To: yen.yarden at verizon.net
Cc: mikeheichman at verizon.net
June 15
Hi Elie:
Please add my comments to your report to the CDLC and to the State
Committee meeting in regards to the State Comm. meeting that is
supposed to be starting later today.
1. The State Committee should ONLY approve a plan that comes very
close (I suggest within 2 delegates) to the diversity goals set forth
by the GRP Plan to apportion delegates. Specifically, the diversity
goals that I am making reference are gender, race, low-income, GLBTG
and geography. In order for that to happen, the State Comm may have to
recruit more diverse delegates, limit the number of delegates who do
not meet our diverse requirements, or take other creative steps.
2. The State Comm. should only approve delegates that are pledged to
delegates who are currently pursuing the Green Party's nomination for
the presidency (McKinney, Swift, Mesplay and Johnson) and the rest of
the delegation should go as Uncommitted Delegates. Specifically, no
delegates should be sent to Chicago pledged to support Mr. Ball and
Ms. Brown who are no longer candidates pursuing the Green Party's
nomination or Mr. Nader, who had never publicly announced his
candidacy for the Green Party's nomination and has instead decided to
pursue the presidency as an Independent candidate. In my opinion it
would be a violation of our plan to send delegates to Chicago pledged
to Mr. Ball, Ms. Brown and Mr. Nader. I do acknowledge that there are
other members of the Party who see things differently than me.
3. The State Committee should include in their decision a mandate that
the State Party raise enough funds so that every low-income member of
our delegation will have the necessary financial support that they
will need to go to Chicago. If the State Party fails in this attempt,
the State Comm. should mandate that no delegate from the GRP will be
sent to represent our party to the Chicago convention next month.
Thanks,
Mike Heichman
On Jun 16, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Jamie O'Keefe wrote:
> -----------------------------------------------
> Very important email, please read...
> -----------------------------------------------
>
> Dear Statecom Reps,
>
> Special State Committee Meeting now in session!
>
> This is a long email. Please read it all the way through.
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Why we are holding a special State Committee meeting?
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> 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!
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Agenda & Process of this meeting
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> 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.
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Proposal Format
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> 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!
> _______________________________________________
> StateCom mailing list
> StateCom at green-rainbow.org
> http://www.green-rainbow.org/mailman/listinfo/statecom
_______________________________________________
StateCom mailing list
StateCom at green-rainbow.org
http://www.green-rainbow.org/mailman/listinfo/statecom
More information about the StateCom
mailing list