Participants:
Co-chairs: Craig Thorsen, Jason Nabewaniec, Sanda Everret, Jill Bussiere, Phil Huckelberry, Cliff Thornton, Budd joined about 1/2 hour into the call.
Secretary: Holly Hart
Treasurer: Jody Grage
Staff: Brent McMillan, Tamar Yager, Emily Citkowski
Facilitator: Greg Gerritt; Jason took over as facilitator during the last item (discussion of budget and finance).
Abbreviations used:
AC = Accreditation Committee
ANM, ANMC = Annual National Meeting Committee
BAWG = Ballot Access Working Group
BRPP = Bylaws, Rules, Policies and Procedures Committee
BC = Black Caucus
CC = Coordinating Committee
CCC = Coordinated Campaign Committee
CG SC = Campus Greens Steering Committee
ComCom = Communications Committee
DC = Diversity Committee
DIA = Democracy in Action internet service
DRC = Dispute Resolution Committee
FC = Fundraising Committee
FEC = Federal Election Commission
GP = Green Party
IC = International Committee
LC = Lavender Caucus
NPWG = Nominating Process Working Group
NWC = National Women’s Caucus
PEC = Presidential Exploratory Committee
PCSC = Presidential Campaign Support Committee
SC = Steering Committee
SPWG = Strategic Plan Working Group
[Brackets denote editor’s suggested corrections. Some punctuation corrections done with no content change. -ed.]
AGENDA
I. Sanda asked to add an item on the agenda, and had to leave early, so this was addressed first. CA SoS contacted GPCA. They are giving them the option to buy the Green registration list for the state of CA which includes email addresses for $30 (sic!). They are taking up a proposal to share it with GPUS as part of the state sharing program. Emily stated that she and Richard Scott had also been working on getting the CA Green registration list, but Richard found that he could only request the list county by county. They are requesting the LA County list, currently. They were told it would be $146. Tamar asked if this would include phone numbers, as well; and noted this could be used for direct mail. Jody asked if we should go ahead and get the LA list now or wait. Decided to wait.
II. STAFF REPORTS
A. POLITICAL DIRECTOR; FUNDRAISING-MAJOR DONORS – Brent
Summary on ballot access: currently have 25 lines, waiting to hear on several. Elections, currently at 287 candidates, increase of 1 a week. Brent sent out a report earlier this week about meeting on August 22 with delegation from Central and South America concerned about US Elections. Upcoming meeting with delegation from Japan. Also received invitation to speak before Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, from Alcee Hastings.
Fundraising – prospecting. Contacted 9 philanthropists involved with the Tipping Point Network, project of Co-op America, network of philanthropists and cultural creatives working on sustainability. $5000 pledge come in from new donor in Chicago.
B. OPERATIONS DIRECTOR; FUNDRAISING-MERCH,ONLINE, STATES – Emily
New intern from nearby university will start on Sept. 3, 2 full days a week. Emily is still looking for general office interns and a merchandise intern, as the current intern will be leaving at the end of the month. Additional room, landlady agreed to the price of $500 (instead of $800). Finance Committee discussed this and wants to go forward with that. Right now, we are trying to delay the start of renting that office space, so no formal proposal, yet. Database data migration will also take place on Sept, 3. Emily will send out current data files to Steve to do the import, will take about a week, possibly a little more. Should be ready for FEC reports the end of Sept. Merchandise Committee is coordinating with McKinney campaign; ordered campaign materials – buttons, t-shirts – authorized to spend up to $1000 to set up in online store. GPUS would sell bulk to campaign and state parties at cost, so they can make money on these items as well. Campaign has no money to help front production costs.
Online fundraising: $5000 for the month, GP cards, sustainers and merchandise (typically the 3 categories that bring in $ online).
14 states have qualified for the $5000 contributions for McKinney/Clemente campaign toward FEC matching funds. There are a few more states in position to reach this goal. Richard Scott and PCSC chairs will send email to people in these states.
Emily was invited by Gregg Jocoy to appear on his blog radio show; used opportunity to talk about seed fundraiser program, how states can raise funds for their parties.
C. FUNDRAISING – MAILINGS, SOLICITATIONS, EVENTS – Tamar
Working on letter to convention attendees, from the 3 non-nominees, supporting the winning ticket. Tamar spoke with company planning to do the test phone canvassing fundraising. Tamar is interested in using the CA list for direct mail with follow-up phone calls.
III. Campaign
a. CO situation (Jill – speaking with CO/Brent – speaking with CO and DRC/Holly – info from SoS)
JIll spoke with Claire Ryder and Alison Duncan (Dispute Resolution Committee). Phone was cutting out, hard to hear. First step was to get approval from GPCO; there was support, but not overwhelming. CO SoS is not going to remove candidates from the ballot; as well, there is not overwhelming interest in CO in doing this. Jill feels mediation would be good; there has been misunderstanding and upset, could work out better communication and move on so this type of thing doesn’t happen again. Brent stated that this has gone into Dispute Resolution, and asked that that process be respected; this includes not meddling. The DRC will not make any public comments while the process is going on. Brent felt that the process was moving forward well. Agreed that affiliation agreements need to be made available online, and we need to address the affiliation agreements being clear on use of ballot lines for national nominees. Jill stated that, initially, there were only 2 or 3 people talking about removing candidates from the ballot, but because of the tone of messages on the NC list and messages sent privately and nasty phone calls made people in Colorado more likely to consider removal of our candidate from the ballot than they would have been otherwise.
IV. Question on GPUS as part of ACLU effort concerning IA petitioning – Jill – 5-10 minutes
Any update?
We have been informed there is no down-side to this
AGREED that GPUS will support this effort.
NO further update.
V. MA situation – Cliff – 5-10 minutes
Cliff participated in a meeting last week. Cliff would like to suggest having two facilitators (one from each faction) for further meetings to create greater synergy. They seemed very happy to have someone from the SC there to observe.
AGREED to recommend Cliff forward his suggestion to GRP-MA.
VI. PORTFOLIOS
Reports, updates as available
Cliff – Media, Outreach: No one showed for the Outreach call; reading Media, making suggestions as appropriate.
Jill – IC, DRC, GPAX. She has just subscribed to the GPAX list and written to the co-chairs, suggesting GPAX committee could study non-violent communication.
VII. VOTING QUEUE/Misc. – Holly
Updates:
a. – NC Certification of 2008 SC Election – will go out the next cycle, in a day or two.
– Resolution regarding the “War on Drugs” – see forwarded proposal; Cliff will clarify what is being asked of the NC, and send the proposal on
2 weeks, discussion; 1 week vote; Floor Manager: Holly; Threshold: 50%
b. Forum Managers – Holly will follow up
c. Forum – Holly will look into whether GPUS still has access to a PHPP bulletin board used some time ago. PORTFOLIOS – latest update has been finalized and agreed on.
Discussion went into the need for strategic planning; agreed to add this to next call agenda.
VIII. TREASURER’S REPORT/Discussion of Budget – Jody
$16.6k in General Acct, $0 in Reserves; $59.3k in first tier of Accounts Payable with $16.8k in second tier. As of end of July, $9;5K earmarked for state sharing; $6.4 ballot access; $2.1K for IC; $0.1K for Others. Income this month, excluding earmarked funds, $8.3K. $6K pledged for the loan has not been deposited yet.
Questions, clarification regarding budget, fundraising, finance.
Phil pointed out that, from an operations perspective, BAC brought in more money than it spent. We’re trying, but our system isn’t working. We continue to not have funds for budgeted items. Jason noted that this problem has been going on for a number of years, complaints brought up by NWC, IC, BAC. Some expressed concern that funds weren’t available that had been budgeted.Jody stated the need to make sure request are put in in timely manner.She has put together a paper on how to make requests. Phil believes this is not sensible, we are budgeting money we don’t have, makes it difficult for a committee to plan and raise money. Jody pointed out that cash flow reports note how much of a deposit is earmarked funds. Phil wants more data, where $ comes from, etc. Jody said she doesn’t have that data. Emily said that an SC or committee co-chair could request that information – you need to ask. Emily or Tamar can get information regarding sources. Jody will add to her paper how to go about getting this information. Phil would like more information on what is being recorded, how and how much time goes into it, better understanding of the money flow. Phil stated the SC needs a better understanding of the fundraising, finance operation and how the SC should be engaging with that, what should our priorities be. Jason suggested a call focused on fundraising, so the SC can make better judgments on how to improve things; there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Jill asked of those most involved with fundraising could put forward their priorities. One problem is a big shortfall with annual meeting; we could try to do some problem-solving; communication and advocacy through channels already existing. Jody stated it’s also important that the SC know the expense side, as well, suggested a walk-through of what she, Emily, Tamar and others involved in fundraising, finance do. Phil believes the real issue is not clarity, but revenue; that SC and others need to have a better understanding of this.
Jill re-capped: We are talking about a phone call devoted to fundraising/finance. Would be helpful to email questions beforehand. Figure out which areas we need to address; then how to address them. Maybe two phone calls. Phil asked for calls to be in executive session, because there are things that need to be raised in terms of our fundraising apparatus.
IX. FACILITATOR – DO WE WANT TO CONTINUE MEETING FACILITATION
We were not able to get a facilitator for this meeting. Holly will contact the former SC members who had offered to facilitate, and attempt to get a facilitator for the next meeting. We will re-evaluate next meeting whether we want to continue with an outside facilitator.
NEXT CALL; Sunday, September 7, 2008; 8:00 p.m. EDT Call will focus on fundraising/finance.
8/24/08
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
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