GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 10 December 2017
SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS:
1. Standing Business: Treasurer’s Report, Fundraising Report
2. New Business:
GPAX Proposal to Endorse Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases Unity Statement and Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases
2. Voting Queue:
In queue – Proposal for GPUS to join the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC); Presenter: GPAX; Floor Manager Gloria Mattera, Majority of Yes and No Votes; Discussion 11/20/17-12/10/17, Voting 12/11/17-12/17/17;
https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=887;
Received for queue – Proposal to approve Alex Law for Finance Committee; Presenter: Finance Committee; Floor Manager: Andrea Merida; Majority of Yes and No Votes; Discussion 12/18/17-12/31/17; Voting 1/1/18-1/7/18;
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VNBf7-CpOsBZT96XvPgJe9sgneHZAnFtK5IGzj7o36s
3. Old Business: 2018 Budget discussion, Letter to AFL-CIO approved, Review of pending agenda items
4. Executive Session: 2018 Budget discussion – consensus to send budget without additional tiers for increased income and propose budget amendments if/when income increases; consensus to send budget with one total figure for staff salaries and expenses with negotiations continuing on breakdown of the total amount
The full minutes are available at http://gpus.org/committees/steering/minutes/december-10-2017/
The call recording is available at 712-451-0309, 936334#, reference 12
Jody Grage, Secretary
AGENDA:
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min.
a) Facilitator: David Gerry
b) Roll call: Hillary Kane, Jody Grage, George Martin, Darlene Elias, Chris Blankenhorn, Andrea Merida, Mike Dennis, Gloria Mattera
Absent – Darryl! Moch
Observers – Starlene Rankin OR, Deanna Murphy MN, Tamar Yager VA
c) Agenda revision suggestions – GPAX proposal to new business
II. NEW BUSINESS – 10 min.
GPAX is asking for a 24-48 hour response to their Proposal to Endorse Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases Unity Statement and Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Whereas the recently formed Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases [ http://noforeignbases.org/ ] has adopted a Unity Statement [ http://noforeignbases.org/345-2/ ] that seeks to unite people in opposition to an important manifestation of U.S. imperialism and militarism; Whereas the Green Party of the United States opposes U.S. imperialism, militarism and war as a matter of principle, reflecting the pillar of Non-Violence and other of our Ten Key Values; Whereas the Unity Statement is wholly consistent with the Ten Key Values; Whereas a number of individual Greens have already been involved in forming and building this Coalition; Whereas it is in the interest of the GP-US to be an active part of the peace movement in the United States, and the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases has become a significant focal point of that movement, as reflected in the number of organizations and peace activists who have already signed onto the Unity Statement [ http://noforeignbases.org/unity-statement-list-of-endorsers/ ];
PROPOSAL: Therefore, the GP-US Peace Action Committee respectfully requests that the Steering Committee authorize the following actions:
1. A representative of the Steering Committee shall sign the Endorsement Form for the Unity Statement [ http://noforeignbases.org/340-2/ ], indicating that the Green Party of the United States supports the Coalition
2. A representative of the Steering Committee shall endorse the upcoming conference, to be held in Baltimore, MD on January 12-14, at the Supporter Endorsement level [ http://noforeignbases.org/conference-endorsement/ ], with the understanding that the Peace Action Committee shall be responsible for raising the $150 needed to fulfill that obligation, which will entitle the GP-US to have a half-page ad in the Conference program; and
3. A representative of the Steering Committee shall work with the co-chairs of the Peace Action Committee to facilitate payment of the $150 and production of an appropriate advertisement for the Conference program.
III. STANDING BUSINESS – 25 min.
a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane, 10 min.
Bank balance – total in all accounts plus PayPal 120,142.22 – declined $20k in last two weeks, fundraising down, expenses up with committees spending budgeted funds for voter rolls, Election Database project, travel reimbursements for anti-oppression training in Philly; Quick Books – started entering backlog of financial data, amendments to FEC due Monday and report due Wednesday; Puerto Rico event – $200 expense from Outreach Committee budget line – 22 Nov minutes; Treasurer’s Report to the GNC – Tamar still needs to help with tracking codes; ANM Final Financial report – by 31 December
Budget requests: Outreach Committee – 10 min
Outreach Committee request for $2,210.00 – (1) $1500 to be used in updating our Green Party literature. (2) $60 for a ½ page advertising space in the Conference Journal. (3) $400 to help state parties that have just become accredited with a tabling kit. (4) $250 for VistaPrint services.
Discussion: Declining bank balance. Need for discussion about how messaging and branding are vetted. Use of graphic volunteers rather than paying designer – who is already over budget. Need for overall plan from Outreach Committee. Expenses could be made from 2018 budget. Vista Print not union nor environmentally friendly. – Consensus to deny funding
b) Fundraising report – Starlene Rankin, 5 min.
Sent 3 eblast in December – Cynthia wrote one early in the month that brought in $271.50; Go Green for holiday about merchandise – $50 plus 32 orders – $842 so far; year end survey last Friday brought in almost $1400 plus info on responders; no check deposit since 17 Nov; direct mail – last letter with tote bag offer just arriving now; phonebanking – worked out final kinks with CallHub and have a few more volunteers signed up so ready to start calling for year end donations from those who contributed lst and 2nd quarter; FL NY WA LA lists already received; waiting on NB to set up new stripe payment process to thwart bogus donations; Chris – will talk to IL to send 2016 list they have
IV. VOTING QUEUE – Jody – 5 min.
Received for the queue: Proposal to approve Alex Law for Finance Committee; Presenter: Finance Committee; Floor Manager: Andrea Merida; Majority of Yes and No Votes; Discussion 12/18/17-12/31/17; Voting 1/1/18-1/7/18;
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VNBf7-CpOsBZT96XvPgJe9sgneHZAnFtK5IGzj7o36s
In the queue: Proposal for GPUS to join the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC); Presenter: GPAX; Floor Manager Gloria Mattera, Majority of Yes and No Votes; Voting 12/11/17-12/17/17; https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=887
V. OLD BUSINESS – 40 min
a) 2018 Budget – ongoing discussion and decisions (except for staffing considerations in Executive Session) – 20 min
Hillary – discussion with union with Gloria/Hillary/Scott/David Doonan, laid out financial situation and the probability of staff cuts, agreed to share budget with them and did; had staff call(s) with proposal for total amount for salaries at or under under $132k which means cuts; each staff member agreed to accept cuts of varying degrees to get to that amount and this will let us propose a budget to the NC while we continue to negotiate; gratitude to Hillary and Gloria for their work on this; further discussion on staff issued in Executive Session
b) Letter to AFL-CIO and other unions inviting conversation with GPUS on electoral reform – Mike – 10 min
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1co2U4d0_S8j4Pduod7SwgvP5haxz5eDqnxk_bxGbu6Q/edit?usp=sharing – ; consensus to approve, Jody will send promptly
c) Review pending agenda items – very brief updates as available – 10 min
1. Staff computer purchase protocol recommendation from FinCom – Hillary
FinCom working on general ideas, policy for approval should be ready for next SC call
2. Strategic planning scheduling – George, Gloria/Darryl!
3. Election database Phase II and III update – Hillary –
Kendra Markel reports that Phase II will be done by 31 December
4. Voting page maintenance/Tech issues update – Chris/Hillary – Hugh sent invoice and talked about progress before end of year or soon after since 2018 budget not finalized – need pausing point since reassessing likely necessary with 2018 budget
5. ETC Final Report – Committee member David Gerry reported that the final report is being written by Charles Sherrouse and should be done by end of year
Next SC Call – Special Budget call on 13 December with regular and executive sessions – 8:30-10 pm Eastern
Next regular SC call on 14 January – agenda item: committee reports from liaisons
Recorded call ended at 9:05 pm Eastern
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION – 60 min.
Roll Call: Hillary Kane, Jody Grage, George Martin, Darlene Elias, Chris Blankenhorn, Andrea Merida, Mike Dennis, Gloria Mattera
2018 Budget discussion – consensus to send budget without additional tiers for increased income and propose budget amendments if/when income increases; consensus to send budget with one total figure for staff salaries and expenses with negotiations continuing on of the total amount
Executive Session ended 10:27 Eastern
TOTAL TIME: 2 hours 27 min
Jody Grage, Secretary