GPUS-SC Conference Call
13 February 2006
9:00 p.m. EDT
Participants:
Jody Haug, Jake Schneider, Budd Dickinson, Brent McMillan, Holly Hart, Marc Sanson, Pat LaMarche, Gwen Wages, Emily Citkowsi, Steve Kramer
Rebecca Rotzler checked in, but was not able to be on the call.
Facilitators: Jake
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.]
I. STAFF REPORTS
BRENT
[Etopia Media interview was great! – hh]
POLITICAL DIRECTOR REPORT
Ballot Access:
– Court ruling in favor of GPAK’s status as an official political party.
– GPUT has submitted necessary signatures for recognition as official party; expecting a challenge.
ca. 166 Green candidates at the moment.
Deadline is March 1st for the first cycle for those requesting CCC resources.
On Thursday, took basic training for DIA to use those tools for CCC (blog and listserv); will work with Emily and soon have these tools set up.
FUNDRAISING
$25,000 donation brought in last week. Brought in first donation from January prospect mailing today; a $500 contribution, hope it’s indicative of what is to come.
Working on next mailing, from officeholders.
Executive session — 9:16 p.m. – 9:19 p.m.
EMILY – National Office
Blog/Web Resources Policy: DIA has blog and listserv capabilities. To use, one needs a login; DIA can partition different parts of the program so an administrator has access to part or all; however, login gives access to more areas which can include sensitive information.
Need policy: unlimited blogs and listservs, but not the best tools; for access, need DIA login which gives access to sensitive information.
Recommend: that contract employees as administrators for blogs and listservs.
Holly – raises question of wiki use, question about who uses GPUS resources, maybe funds and staff time. Clarified by Marc that it was set up for Green Pages use, Deirdre Helfferich administers.
Recommend: that Deirdre Helferrich be asked to be point person for those interested in using a wiki for committee work.
Steve – IT committee is setting up a meeting in the near future. Will be discussing P&P’s for IT and for how GPUS is to handle this stuff. Wiki program is good, but it’s more or less public access, so whatever goes up should not be sensitive. Looking at a time-frame of some weeks, probably next month for general policy.
PROPOSAL – Marc – until IT present w/ another policy, only employees and contracts have administrative access to DIA.
AGREED
Web Referrals
Tom Sevigny was in charge of sending volunteer contacts from web to states. Someone has offered to find a volunteer and put that person in touch with Emily. If that doesn’t happen, office intern Dave Bosserman could handle this. Emily will give SC an update as things develop.
Marc – should come under someone’s job description, reluctant to hand on to volunteer we don’t know.
AGREED. We will ask Dave Bosserman to help with this.
II. TREASURER’S REPORT – Jake
$25,000 donation helped, paid off all bills. A $5000 donation bounced. Procedure is that Emily sends letter to donor to ask for a good check.
Good shape financially at the moment. Direct mail starting to bring returns, hopeful.
Next big pay-out will be first quarter state sharing. Approx $11,000 State sharing is no longer listed in “available funds” in the budget.
*******
III. VOTING QUEUE – Holly
ADOPTED
#197 – GPRI/IAGP: Amendment to Proposal 175 – Creation of a Delegate Apportionment Committee – Broaden Participation
adopted, 2/6/06
#198 – GPRI/IAGP: amendment to Proposal 175 – Creation of a Delegate Apportionment Comm – Change Vote Counting System
adopted, 2/06/06
#206 – SC Co-chair Election completed, 2/6/06
Budd Dickinson elected SC Co-chair
#200 – GPMD: Endorsement of Letter from Coal River Mt Watch
adopted, 2/12/06
#202 – SC: NC Approval of Forum Managers
adopted, 2/12/06
#205 – AnmCom: Hosting of 2006 Annual National Meeting
result, 2/12/06: later July dates were chosen
VOTING PERIOD
#201 – GPIL/PPMO/GPRI/GP-ARK/GPOK/GPME/WIGP: Bylaw Amendment – Steering
Committee Recall; amended 2/12/06
voting period through 2/19/06
Kramer// 2/3
DISCUSSION
None
RECEIVED for VOTING QUEUE
received, 2/10/06 – SC: Policy for State/Local Green Party use of GPUS
Earthflower Logo
2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
Floor manager: Jody// 2/3
FLA/CA/NY/PA/VT proposal on SC co-chair election, rec. 12/5/06, amended –
Continues under referral to BRPP
********
IV. NEW BUSINESS
I) Co-Sponsor the March 4-6 Venezuela Solidarity Conference in
Washington, DC – Rebecca
Marc – don’t know enough about this; refer to International Committee
AGREED
2) Black Caucus – Gwen
No one has moved forward on complaints or resolutions, with exception of a recent call that the Black Caucus hold elections.
Concern if there is no functioning BC, with no elections for two years; last
fall, there was a question about receiving proposals from the BC.
Question of whether the Diversity Committee proposed asking the BC to call an election.
Question of whether DivCom is functioning. They do not currently have officers. Rebecca oversees the Outreach portfolio which includes DivCom.
PROPOSAL – Jake – Holly will contact Rebecca and ask her to report on next call what is the status of the DivCom and BC as regards to their functioning and elections. AGREED
[Rebecca reports DivCom is planning on internal elections, and will then take up the question of asking the Black Caucus to hold elections – hh, 2/14/06]
Marc – reading from IDCAP joint proposal, will send to Holly for notes.
3) CA – Call for Steering Committee to resign
Jake put out a draft response.
Discussion:
Holly – it’s not an official position of GPCA or GPCA delegates; we shouldn’t respond to it.
Steve – same, agrees.
Gwen – don’t think we should respond, message was just inflammatory, not a nat’l proposal.
Marc – thought it was a request based on GPCA delegation; if so, we should respond – “we don’t choose to respond,” or “we decline your request.”
Budd – there was no official vote of any body, just a consensus on a delegate call. Don’t think a response is necessary at this time.
Jody – recommends resounding silence.
Pat – someone should call for an affirmation, otherwise we should take up the offer. Get the party away from demanding everyone quit every time a decision is made they don’t like.
Jody – there was a proposal passed a couple months ago. Maybe it should be sent out once a week.
Marc – agree, recommends sending it. AGREED.
4) Divestment Proposal
Holly – Info on GP positions regarding Middle East and the Divestment Proposal will go up on web.
Budd – thought of asking to issue a press release clarifying our position, but if information is prominent on the website, we perhaps don’t need a new press release.
******
V. OLD BUSINESS
1 – Updates
a. Report on “State of the Union” Address
None – [it went well, great videos and messages up on the web – hh]
b. Delegate Apportionment Committee election – Holly
– Initially 9 candidates, 11 altogether, but still following up on who is still interested. [Since the call, several more volunteers have expressed interest – hh, 2/17/06]
Marc – except for actual proposal on voting page, there’s been no discussion on NC list.
Holly will send another notice tonight: Sunday night, 2/19/06 is the deadline for volunteers; two weeks discussion, 1 week vote.
Jody – point out there are 6 guys on list; ask for women to volunteer.
c. SC co-chair Elections working group – Steve
Question on how to coordinate with BRPP project on this topic.
Suggest a letter to FairVote outlining SC co-chair elections process to get their over view.
Marc – need language in place, soon. 3 things requested: report on last year’s election; language – changes for bylaws to remove ambiguity; establishing an elections team to handle elections for next year. Committee was to sunset December 1 unless granted an extension, which SC has nebulously granted; need to set dates on next call.
Gwen – ask WK to send out letter immediately to Fairvote, can combine info from BRPP.
PROPOSE – ask WK rep. to be on next call for progress report. Holly will send notice and call info. AGREED
d. MOU w/ Workers’ Party of Pakistan/Communications w/ American Muslim Association – Gwen
Will cc IC co-chairs to put on their agenda. IC is now taking up this matter.
e. Legal Team – Steve
Steve has been discussing off-list with Matt Abel setting up a legal team. He will be leading the legal team we will be putting together; will be considering people contacted earlier, and get something working.
Holly – is the fact that Matt Abel on NC going to raise potential conflict of interest question? Should he be considered an advisor for now?
Marc – concern about the way recent question was handled. GPUS needs a vetted legal team with a confidentiality agreement in place.
PROPOSAL – Marc – for short term, it would be useful to get a list of 2-3 people for SC to approve as part of a legal team; get a confidentiality agreement, so we will have someone in the near future, if needed. AGREED
Gwen – for legal team, must attorneys be vetted by state and NC vote?
Steve – as unpaid contractors, does not need to go through NC.
f. Web update – Holly
Minutes from SC calls are now current on the website.
Member suggested SC bios on website.
Rotating stipend – code weaver asked about this for persons working on voting page and similar items.
NC needs to pay attention to code weavers’ advice.
Discussion:
Concern that code weavers provide info that is not heeded; we need to listen to them; vet relevant proposals through them to make sure they’re feasible.
Brent – code weavers are volunteers, not paid staff.
Marc – shares concern, we can’t keep having proposals saying the code weaver’s will do this, that, etc.
Steve – topic came up during IT meetings; their organizational design includes code weavers; however, they prefer to be completely ad hoc.
Gwen – if a code weaver has a project they want to be paid for, let them bring a proposal; code weavers have very important info about how are systems work, should be listened to; but we really need to have an official committee for this.
Jody – accept volunteer help like we accept other volunteer help.
2 – Contracts – Brent’s contract; other contracts
Executive session — 11:02 p.m. – 11:13 p.m.
Brent leaves call.
3 – Committee Reporting, Work and Accountability – Marc
Marc – Jody reposted proposal; no additional comments. Noticed that a lot of what we’re asking is actually required in GPUS bylaws, so will be re-writing the proposal to address those bylaws.
NEXT CALL: February 27, 2006, 9 p.m.
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
2/13/06
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green