Title: Short Term Attainable Goals for the GRP

Sponsors: Mike Heichman, Suffolk County and

Contact Info for Floor Manager: [email protected], 617-265-8143

Committees Vetted: Adcom, ComCom, CDLC, Membership & Diversity, & Platform

Background: Our party desperately needs a strategic plan. Unfortunately, it seems that the recent current effort has once again gone limbo. While important work was done, their initial plan proposed goals and timelines that were very unrealistic (opinion of Mike Heichman).

Summary: The June 23rd StateCom meeting will adopt attainable goals for the rest of 2012 and establish a process that will continue to develop attainable goals with a realistic timeline.

Proposal:

I.            Adcom

            A.            At the 6/23 StateCom meeting, the StateCom will fill any current vacancy.

            B.            Adcom will conduct an evaluation of its structure (This is unfinished business that has been on their busy agenda for a while) and come back with a report, including any recommendations, to the Fall StateCom meeting.

            C.            Adcom will come up with a report for the Fall, 2012 StateCom meeting of its major goals for the rest of 2012 and 2013, and include a list of things they will need from other structures of the State Party to accomplish their objectives.

II.            Working Committees

            A.            At the 6/23 StateCom meeting, the StateCom will remove any Director of a Working Committee that is not doing his/her work and seek to find a replacement.

            B.            All Working Committees will come up with a report for the Fall, 2012 StateCom meeting of its major goals for the rest of 2012 and 2013, and include a list of things they will need from other structures of the State Party to accomplish their objectives.

III.            Convention Planning Comm.

            A.            At the 6/23 StateCom meeting, the “Committee” will deliver a report of the progress that they have made in selecting a date and location of the meeting, and any other progress that they will have made.

            B.            At the 6/23 StateCom, at least 4 members will join the committee.

            C.            This committee will work closely with Adcom to plan the convention. A report of their progress will be made at the Fall StateCom meeting.

Sponsors: Merelice, Norfolk County, and TBD

Floor Manager: [email protected]

Vetting: Administrative Committee has vetted

Background:
Regional Conventions are currently organized by county and are the source of most StateCom reps. For some counties, attendance is poor to non-existent, and the conventions sometimes provide little excitement or party momentum. Most counties exist only on paper and have no electoral, legislative, or fiscal responsibilities for statecom reps to monitor as a team.

Regional conventions are one of three ways that GRP members can be elected to the State Committee, and this particular method was developed to provide proportional representation of GRP members on the State Committee.

This proposal was originally brought to StateCom in 2009 but postponed until after the 2010 census. It changes the basis of regional elections from counties to

1 - U.S. Congressional Representative districts, OR

2 - State Senatorial Districts.

In either case, GRP members could work together to have possible influence on their common Congressional  Representative or State Senator, providing some electoral glue which does not exist in counties.

With U.S. Congressional districts, this change would maintain the approximate number of regions now defined by counties while giving GRP members the opportunity to work together to monitor and respond to the actions of their Rep. However, recent redistricting has made congressional districts in western Mass. geographically too vast to provide much cohesion among statecom reps and their local chapters.

With State Senate districts, this change would mirror how StateCom delegates are elected every four years as part of the presidential primary election. But with 40 senatorial districts, it would be impractical to implement proportional representation unless several districts were combined.

Changing the basis of defining the regions is a bylaw change and requires 2/3rds approval.

Text :
The bylaws of the Green-Rainbow Party will be changed to redefine the regions which are the basis of regional conventions. Instead of being based on counties, the regions will be based on [language to be made final when StateCom decides whether the basis is U.S. Congressional Representative Districts or State Senatorial districts].

Financial impact: no immediate impact

Implementation: If the change is to U.S. Congressional Districts, it can be immediately incorporated into the bylaws for the next round of elections. If the change is to State Senatorial districts, a request will go to CDLC to make recommendations -- with input from local chapters and GRP members -- regarding the best combination of districts to make the number of districts be around 12 rather than 40.