SC Call Notes — 11 February 2005
Participants:
SC: Jake Schneider, Greg Gerritt, Gwen Wages, Gray Newman, Jody Haug, Maya O’Connor, Jo Chamberlain, Marc Sanson, Peggy Lewis
Staff: Brent McMillan, Emily Citkowski
Note taker – Greg
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.]
Published Agenda
2 hrs 20 min so far…
5 min – facilitator, timer, note taker (Greg); agenda review
25 min – staff reports
Brent – PD/CCC/BAWG-PCSC/etc.
Emily – OD/DIA/etc.
30 min – FINANCE Portfolio (Jake, Marc): Finance, FundCom Communication Consultant (Jake), Green Card (Emily, Jody)
5 min – Recount, etc. (Marc)
5 min – Voting Queue (Greg)
5 min – Business cards (Emily)
5 min – Secretariat (Greg)
5 min – GPUSA-FEC situation; trademark/Servicemark (Gray)
5 min – SC FTF meeting (Jody)
5 min – SC terms of service (Jody)
5 min – Work Groups follow up (Marc)
5 min – Review Executive Session policy (Jake)
5 min – Coordinator listserv progress (Peggy)
Portfolio reports:
5 min – ELECTORAL (Gray, Jo): CCC, Office Holder Network, PCSC, Legal Team
5 min – POLICY (Greg, Gwen): Platform, Peace, Intnl, DC, Strategic Plan
10 min – OUTREACH (Peggy): Media, Green Pages, Merchandise, Campus Greens Earth Festival 2005 in NJ
5 min – INTERNAL (Maya): Personnel, Dispute Resolution; (Greg): BRPP – P&P progress
5 min – INTERNAL (Jody): Accreditation, ComCom, Event Planning
Agenda Review, switched the order of some things including when to discuss Executive Session Policy.
Executive Session Policy
SC has never quite finished ES policy but has been working based on the following draft.
Policy for Executive Sessions for Steering Committee of Green Party of the United States
Preamble:
The Green Party of the United States has a very strong commitment to openness and transparency in the conduct of its business. Historically Executive Session has been used in the United States has been used to hide things, and this tendency has been the genesis of open meeting laws throughout the country. We intend to honor the practice and spirit of open meetings laws.
When Executive Session is Appropriate
Honoring the struggle for openness and transparency the GPUS Steering committee will resort to Executive Session only under very specific circumstances. Executive Session is appropriate only for personnel matters that relate to the private lives of employees, for legal matters in which the Party itself is involved in actual or likely legal proceedings, and when dealing with the proprietary information of vendors. No other circumstances are appropriate for Executive Session.
Entering and Exiting Executive Session
It shall take a unanimous vote by the Steering Committee members taking part in the meeting or call in order to enter Executive Session. Any Steering Committee member who believes that Executive Session is the inappropriate response to the business at hand may prevent the body from entering Executive Session. Entering ES is conditional, and at any time any of the members of the SC believes that the discussion is entering areas that are inappropriate for ES, they may withdraw their consent for ES and the meeting returns to an open meeting.
Topics for which Executive Session is denied or permission is withdrawn shall either no longer be topics of discussion, or the SC may choose by a majority vote to discuss them in open session.
When the SC does enter ES, it shall note both the time of entering and exiting ES and provide a general summary of topics discussed, noting that the summary shall in no way reveal the private business of the people or vendors involved.
_______________________________________________
Jake Schneider and Marc Sanson proposed some changes.
Original sentence:
Executive Session is appropriate only for personnel matters that relate to the private lives of employees, for legal matters in which the Party itself is involved in actual or likely legal proceedings, and when dealing with the proprietary information of vendors
New language:
Executive Session is appropriate only for personnel matters, sensitive legal and financial matters in which the Party itself is involved in actual or likely legal proceedings, and when dealing with the proprietary information of vendors and contractors.
Discussion centered around whether or not it was appropriate to add financial matters to this sentence.
Vote to approve was 7 yes and one no (greg)
Staff reports
Brent:
CCC has been discussing ballot access and how to integrate work of Ballot Access Working Group into its work. Brent held a call with state associates for the Pacific Northwest and is working towards regular regional calls with state associates of CCC. (Note: state associates are the person in each state party who is the conduit for information from the CCC to their state party such as informing potential candidates of the availability of campaign funds from the CCC.)
2005 should see 4 campaign schools at least. Pacific NW, Ohio, Great Lakes, and DC
BAWG draft report of the status of each state is being circulated to state contacts for fact checking. Will be released soon.
Fundraising – January mailing went out recently, no returns yet. February mailing will be at the printer by the 18th. David Cobb will be a signatory on the letter for March. Peter Camejo was asked to be a joint signatory on the March letter but refused. The Cobb campaign sent a check for $15,000 to the GPUS from the surplus from the OH recount fund. It is possible that when the final accounting from the campaign is complete the Cobb campaign may be able to send additional monies.
Brent has talked to previous fundraiser and now knows what was done with the telephone fundraising campaign last year. He is developing a 2005 campaign.
Work progresses on getting all Green candidate donors into our data base.
Emily:
Met with IT folks about transforming office computer systems to open source. This will take some time. Office is getting a used computer set up for Linux that will allow for training people in the office on open source programs and to use as a back up for current office systems. There is also now a new way to import records into the current data base when the records contain no financial data.
DIA, there is now a straightforward way on the website for donors to designate a portion of their contributions to either a state party or a caucus. The Fundraising Committee is still discussing whether to add committees to that system.
Platform summary is almost finished. Next Greenline should be going out next Friday.
3 interns in the office. All will be with us until at least May and seem to be working out well…
Portfolio review
Finance Portfolio
Jake: Green Institute and Liberty Tree Foundation each received $250,000 donations. Is there some way to have these deep pocketed donors donate more to the party? Discussion included ideas for donations to state parties, and the thought that the C3’s like the Green Institute can provide tax deductions and think tank services that the party can not, so it is actually a good thing that money is flowing to them now. Also noted that we now have some more concrete projects that we can go to deep pocketed donors with, which increases the likelihood of larger donations.
As party has received two large donations recently there is some ability to fund committee work. Committees and caucuses have been asked to submit specific proposals for funding. The SC voted unanimously to send a resolution to the CC asking for approval to fund Tier one committee and caucus projects. If the CC approves releasing tier one funds up to $8700 will be available, but it will be distributed only upon the receipt of fully developed project proposals from the committees and caucuses. Each committee or caucus will only be eligible for up to the amount they are allocated in the Tier 1 budget. Jake will write up the resolution and circulate it to the SC for approval before it goes to the voting page.
One project that will probably be placed in the hopper for tier 1 funding when available is a part time organizer for the annual meeting.
Web Project Coordinator:
Job description being drafted by Marc and Emily, the Web working group will finalize on Friday and bring to the SC.
The SC then entered Executive Session to discuss matters relating to a previous IT consultant.
SC returned to open session following discussion of the consultant.
Green Card
Fundraising Committee, Jody, and Emily have worked out the details of what it will look like and have most of the plan for how to market it. Several SC members have reservations about the project, not sure it wilt be a valuable tool, but as it is a relatively inexpensive start up are willing to let the fundraising committee proceed. Other SC members think it will be a very good project.
Voting Queue:
What we have is the three part BRPP package and the bylaw proposal from CA/MS all relating to who may serve on the SC. There was much discussion over whether it is appropriate to send to the CC all 4 resolutions as some contradict others. Eventually the idea that the CC with a little explanation will be able to discern what measures contradict and vote accordingly prevailed so all 4 resolutions are to be posted starting Monday for 3 weeks of discussion and then a vote. Marc stood aside noting it is not responsible to advance 4 contradictory resolutions simultaneously, nor is it appropriate or technically feasible to direct delegates to vote yes on only one proposal. The three bylaw proposals, 2 from BRPP and one from CA/MS require 2/3 votes. The resolution included in the BRPP package requires a 50% vote. Gray will floor mange the CA/MS bylaw. Peggy the resolution from the BRPP package and Greg the two bylaws in the BRPP package.
SC Face to Face meeting:
Continued discussion by email.
Working Groups:
Greg noted that CC has been notified of makeup of the two WGs and that the members have been notified. We are in the process of finding space for list serves for the two WGs and then they shall be able to gear up.
Portfolio review (continued)
Electoral Portfolio
CCC
CCC conference calls are not well attended but those who attend are enthusiastic and moving forward. Legal team has new volunteers, Office holders network meeting in Minneapolis was postponed. PCSC had a conference call and is in the process of electing new co chairs. PCSC is working with BAWG and CCC on ballot access. The Presidential Nominating Process WG will be included in this portfolio.
Policy Portfolio
Peace committee is developing a proposal for Peace flags that could be sold to state parties. Also discussing Ward Churchill and the appropriate message on peace and oppression for the Green Party and its candidates. This has been a very interesting discussion.
Outreach Portfolio
Media committee has been very involved in the discussion about the message on Ward Churchill. Have produced several releases on various topics in the last week or two. Greenpages committee is still in discussion with NY. Merchandising committee is being resurrected slowly.
Internal portfolio
Personnel committee is going through entire personnel manual. Developing a supervision policy. Dispute Resolution committee has opened it’s doors but no business yet.
BRPP sent along the package on SC eligibility. Working on whether or not committees may remove members and if so how. BRPP is being asked to develop a generic list of committee p&p’s for committees to use as a model. Accreditation has sent out a notice asking for specific comments on the VT situation and will ask again, noting that people should use the form they have developed. They have also sent out the form to other Greens with compliants about specific state parties or caucuses, though they have not yet seen any returned. MT and OK applications are progressing. AC has looked at Women’s Caucus rules come to an agreement with WC and the WC is now moving into a vote on those rules.
Annual meeting committee has heard from LA and OK about bids to host the summer meeting in New Orleans and Tulsa respectively.
Adjourned 9:30 EST
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green