SC Call Notes — April 29, 2004
Participants:
Ben Manski, Jake Schneider, Greg Gerritt, Jo Chamberlain, Emily Citkowski, Marnie Glickman joined part way through, Kara Mullen joined for a short period to make a report.
Call Functions:
Facilitator, Jake
Time Keeper, Jo
Note taker, Greg
Abbreviations used:
AFT = American Federation of Teachers
AC = Accreditation Committee
ANM, ANMC = Annual National Meeting Committee
BRPP = Bylaws, Rules, Policies and Procedures Committee
BC = Black Caucus
CC = Coordinating Committee
CCC = Coordinated Campaign Committee
CG SC = Campus Greens Steering Committee
DC = Diversity Committee
FC = Fundraising Committee
FEC = Federal Election Commission
GP = Green Party
GW = George Washington University
IC = International Committee
ICA = Institute for Cultural Affairs
LC = Lavender Caucus
LG = Lavender Greens
PEC = Presidential Exploratory Committee
PCSC = Presidential Campaign Support Committee
SC = Steering Committee
[Brackets denote editor’s suggested corrections. Some punctuation corrections done with no content change. -ed.]
Published Agenda
Agenda Review
OLD BUSINESS AND REPORTS
Office 10 minutes
Finances 15 minutes
State sharing program
No disbursement $100 or more shall be made unless approved by the SC. This includes all disbursements that have been approved by the CC. In order to receive a disbursement from the national party, the SC must receive the request for disbursement at least 7 days prior to when the disbursement. The SC shall either (1) conduct an on-line vote for the disbursement within three days of receipt for the request or (2) discuss and decide whether to approve the disbursement during their bi-weekly conference call.
Convention 20 minutes
African American tour 20 minutes
Recruitment for SC 5 minutes
logo contest (when Kara gets on the call) 5 minutes
Merchandising committee status 5 minutes (Kara)
Voting Queue 10 minutes
VP nomination proposal
Currently Under Discussion
Change Fiscal Policy to permit donations to the maximum applied by law
Floor Manager: Marnie Glickman
Limited Proxy Voting at the 2004 Presidential Nominating Convention
Floor Manager: Greg Gerritt
Diversity at Green Party National Committee meetings
Floor Manager: Jo Chamberlain
Currently Voting
2004 Convention Floor Rules
Floor Manager: Jake Schneider
2004 Convention Floor Rules — Amendment One – “No Nominee” Subject to Runoff
Floor Manager: Jake Schneider
2004 Convention Floor Rules — Amendment Two – “Willingness to Accept” Removed
Floor Manager: Jake Schneider
*****
Agenda Review: Added one item, preparation for call with Sierra Club
OLD BUSINESS
Office Report
Emily Noted that SC had seen written report. Key issue, having a hard time finding interns, especially unpaid interns in the summer, and as interns do a lot of data entry, data entry is taking up a lot of her time. All potential interns for the summer are Democrats, no Green has applied. Wondering if we need to ask them to sign a non disclosure form.
Ben noted that a non disclosure form would be appropriate and he agreed to find a boiler plate one on line.
Greg noted that he was uncomfortable with non Green interns.
Others agreed. Also Emily was asked to work with DATA Base working group (DAWG) to figure out security for data base. It was agreed that Emily would also ask DC Statehood and other DC area Greens for suggestions on interns.
Finance Report
Jake begins: Note that Finance report goes out to CC every week. Financial picture is not good, as other than dedicated convention funds there is only $20,000 in the bank. Likely to need to draw down reserves within a week.
New Sustainer program is working well, a new cost accounting system is being put into place, fiscal policy is being worked on. New copier for office was authorized to save on copying bills at commercial places.
Committees were asked to send in budget amendments for the mid year budget revision that the CC agreed was wanted when the budget passed this winter, but only two committees have complied.
Concerns: There is no money to get Direct Mail program started, and without that we fall further behind each month. Do we institute a spending freeze until we accumulate enough money for program to begin? If not that, how do we accumulate enough money to begin a Direct Mail program properly? Kara is doing direct mail work rather than what she was hired to do.
Discussion about how to get the African American outreach program moving, and how it will be funded. To be continued. SC is aware of discussion in the CC and Black Caucus about this and will continue to work on it.
So far $22,000 in convention registrations has come in, still expecting to reach budgeted $50,000. ANMC believes it is on budget, but SC has asked that up to date budget be presented. Ben noted that it will be available this week. Ben also noted that overall convention income on website is not the right number. On the website it is $141,000, he believes the right number is in the $70 to $90,000 range.
Budget Freeze proposal. Some discussion. Vote 3 no (Jake, Greg, Ben) 1 abstention (Jo)
Finances continued. Fundraising committee has talked about state revenue sharing and agrees that program needs to be reinvigorated.
Kara joins call and reports: Fundraising committee is concerned about financial situation. There is not a sufficient buffer. Logo contest is going well. 90 entries, CC will vote after judges pare it to top 10 entries.
Discussion on status of merchandising committee. There has never been a vote of CC to create them, but they have functioned as an ad hoc group. Probably the best place for them is as a subcommittee of fundraising committee.
Marnie joins call.
Convention
Ben starts discussion. Updated budget will go out early the week of 5/3/04. ANMC is meeting weekly by conference call.
Discussion. Obviously the details are being looked after, but is anyone paying attention to the big picture? Is anyone working on turnout, keeping up with hotel registrations, looking at the big picture financially? What are the weak points, what help is needed?
Ben noted that Ruth, Adam, and Emily are looking at the big picture but that only 6 people are doing most of the work, by phone, not on line. Therefore the Committee could use more help. Specific questions from Marnie could be best directed to Adam. Also, is anyone actively recruiting help?
Platform seems to be behind schedule, missed a deadline. No Platform yet available for discussion. Greg will contact Holly H. and Budd D. to get perspective on this.
Issue about how much time is allotted for voting for nominee is still an issue.
Discussion of when staff needs to be in Milwaukee. 21 to 27.
Discussion of African American Outreach
Not much SC can do right now.
Need an updated proposal from Director of African American Affairs as any changes beyond minor tweaking need to go to the CC.
SC recruitment/nominations.
No word yet from anyone that they are seeking a slot.
Voting queue
Proposal for VP nomination process. 2 week discussion , then vote. Greg will floor manage.
Diversity proposal to have voting started over the weekend.
Others are on track. Voting going on on rules, other proposals moving into voting.
Sierra Club call
Conference call between Sierra Club leadership and GPUS leadership will be this week. 3rd in the series.
Marnie asked for further clarification on the issue on spending money that she asked us to consider. It was first dealt with in financial section before Marnie got on the call, and voted down. SC agreed to reexamine it and a short discussion occurred in which most of SC continued to think proposal was not a good one in the format that it was presented in. Greg’s comment was that it was a waste of time for every expenditure including routine ones, to get a vote from the SC.
Adjourned at 11:15 EDT
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green