SPONSORS: State Committee member #1_Eileen Wheeler Sheehan State Committee member #2 Brian Cady
VETTING COMMITTEES: Adcom, Membership
FLOOR MANAGER: John Blumenstiel SHEPHERD: Eileen Wheeler Sheehan
SUMMARY: To establish a three-person committee of officers, StateCom members, or others appointed by Statecom to make timely decisions regarding sponsorship or endorsement of coming events. This will enhance our ability to work collaboratively with like-minded organizations and build/strengthen movement cohesion while raising the visibility of the GRP.
BACKGROUND: With the crisis in American politics, there is an urgent need to build a coalition of progressive individuals and organizations to counter our decline into chaos. The GRP(GPUS) is the strongest of the progressive political parties in America. As such we carry the progressive agenda into the electoral arena. We will only be successful in this effort if we can consistently and effectively collaborate with others. To date, we have missed many opportunities to raise our visibility and play a leadership role by having a very cumbersome process of endorsing or sponsoring appropriate actions, events, etc. This proposal aims to counter that by creating a small numbered committee that could within days review various opportunities for endorsements/sponsorships by GRP. Those seeking such would reach out to these three members, and present through a developed format a proposal for participation. The members would consult with the proposer and one another and determine a "yea" or "nay" decision for the proposer to inform the requesting organization. I believe this to be of maximum importance for the growth of the party through the expansion of our collaborative engagements.
TEXT OF PROPOSAL: The proposal is as follows: The Statecom will establish a set of guidelines ( proposed guidelines accompany this proposal below) to be utilized in determining if we should be endorsing or sponsoring a future event, action, candidate, or other possibilities to participate in such as requested by other organizations. Furthermore, the Statecom will annually establish a three-person committee from the membership who will respond to such proposals with "yea" or "nay" decisions on the requests in a timely manner. The decision-making would be made by either a three-person consensus or a 2/3 vote ( TBD by Statecom in the initial guidelines) and a decision shared with the initial proposer who will communicate the decision to the requesting organization.
Showing 8 reactions
I see little difference – the standing law; the Rapid Response Protocol, specifies who the three are, whereas this new proposal leaves that to Statecom.
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Title: Rapid Response Protocol
Proposal Shepherd: Daphne Stevens, Worcester
Co-Sponsors: Wes Nickerson, Elie Yarden, Danny Factor
Vetting Committees: Adcom
Revised: January 7, 2015
Background: In the fast-paced news cycle of contemporary politics, events and issues change rapidly. In order for the Green-Rainbow Party to improve its visibility and relevance, it needs to respond rapidly to current events. The Green-Rainbow Party many times misses out on opportunities to endorse and participate in events such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, because of a slow decision-making process, that often involves going through one or more committees, that only meet once every two weeks or even less often. This proposal would empower the Co-Chairs of the Party, at their discretion, to take action if needed between meetings of Adcom or other committees, if an event is in keeping with GRP values and previous GRP participation or endorsement of similar events. This proposal would also require both co-chairs as well as the treasurer to all three agree before any money is spent which is not budgeted or approved by the rest of Adcom, in order to safeguard Party funds from unsound spending.
Proposal Text: Amend the GRP Bylaws by adding the following two sentences to Article 9.11 under Duties of the co-chairs shall be to:
- Exercise discretion in expediting, endorsing, participating in, and promote important, urgent events, such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, in the name of the Green-Rainbow Party, in keeping with GRP values, and previous GRP endorsed events.
- Delegate responsibilities as necessary for the sake of punctuality.
The full text of Article 9.11 as amended would read:
Duties of the co-chairs shall be to: Act as official spokes people for the Green-Rainbow Party; Set the agenda for administrative committee meetings; Arrange for the facilitation of all state conventions, state committee and administrative committee meetings; Notify other administrative committee members and directors of meetings; Ensure that other administrative committee members and directors are performing their duties. Exercise discretion in expediting, endorsing, participating in, and promote important, urgent events, in the name of the Green-Rainbow Party, such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, in keeping with GRP values, and previous GRP endorsed events. Delegate responsibilities as necessary for the sake of punctuality.
Amend Article 9.10 by replacing the words, “if two of the three agree” with the words, “if the co-chairs and treasurer agree”
The full text of Article 9.10 as amended would read:
“All administrative committee members shall be able to oversee the work of all Green-Rainbow Party staff. The co-chairs and treasurer may authorize financial expenditure that are not in the budget and have not been approved by the rest of the administrative committee if the co-chairs and treasurer agree, provided such expenditures are ratified at next AdCom meeting.”
Implementation: N/A
Budget Impact: No cost to modify the Bylaws themselves. There is an unknown potential cost of participation in more events. Any potential cost is covered by Article 9.10.
Bylaws 9.10 & 9.11 are not related,but articles 9.16 & 9.17 are: (from https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/greenrainbow/pages/38/attachments/original/1588222718/GRP_Bylaws__Modified_January_26__2019.pdf?1588222718)
-————————————————-9.16. Duties of the co-chairs shall be to:
● Act as official spokespeople for the Green-Rainbow Party;
● Set the agenda for administrative committee meetings;
● Arrange for facilitation of all state conventions, state committee and administrative
committee meetings;
● Notify other administrative committee members and directors of meetings;
● Ensure that other administrative committee members and directors are performing their
duties.
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Green-Rainbow Party Bylaws: Modified January 26, 2019
9.17. Duties of the treasurer shall be to:
● Ensure that the Green-Rainbow Party prepares a yearly budget.
● Record all financial transactions involving the Green-Rainbow Party;
● Present summary financial reports at every administrative committee meeting;
● Present a full financial report at every state committee meeting;
● Present an annual financial report at state conventions;
● File financial and tax reports as required by law;
9.18. The co-chairs and treasurer may authorize financial expenditures that are not in the
budget and have not been approved by the rest of the administrative committee if two of
the three agree.
-————————————Comment: It appears the stated changes passed within the 2015 approved proposal were wrongly never added to the bylaws.
Brian
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Give me examples of things that we could not act on fast enough.
John Blumenstiel
I really don’t see how difficult it is to wait two weeks for ad com to meet. In the rare evewnt that we can’t maybe an ‘emergency’ meeting can be set up like we did last fall to endorse a candidate.