GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – July 13, 2014
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND
a) Facilitator – David Doonan
b) Roll Call – Kate Culver, Charles Ostdiek, Budd Dickinson, Starlene Rankin, Jeff Turner, Karen Young, Tamar Yager
Absent: Darryl Moch, Jesse Townley
Observer – Jody Grage
c) Agenda revisions – Karen: Remove Rebranding; Kate: Add Logan Martinez Peace Action proposal
II. Old Business
a) Rebranding – final approval – KY (tabled; to be done online)
b) Annual Meeting Schedule –
We discussed and approved the GNC schedule at the ANM.
Voting for SC concludes at 5 pm local time. We need to determine how to stop vote at that time. David and Tamar will research.
c) SC in-person meeting – KC
Meet with staff from 1 to 2 pm.; Discussed 5 or so priorities for 2 to 5pm: SC culture; set some tasks; discuss roles.
d) Other ANM prep – KY
Charles will coordinate with Scott McLarty on lighting equipment.
e) Forum Transition – SR
Etiquette will be posted to the NC list. Delegate/alternate/observer list being compiled. Tutorial done – David will update shortly.
Forum admins and floor managers still needed – call to GNC list and/or at ANM proposed, including delegate list maintenance. Charles volunteered. Starlene and Jesse staying on and maybe Darryl. Holly and Frank already doing forum manager role.
After ANM: “We each pick a Forum or a Forum Thread on the NC BB and agree to post to it everyday and try to facilitate a productive and enjoyable conversation about something going on that is of concern to the NC.”
III. Standing Business
a) Treasurer’s Report JT
$15,000 is in general fund, $14,000 of that is current claims for payroll, state sharing, etc.; $8187 – for ANM, bills for rebranding coming. We are about even with some of reserve fund used for ANM.
b) Finance Items for decision including:-
(1) SC approved using $587 remaining in BAC budgeted funds and $1000 advanced from the general account to be repaid from money from the BAC silent auction in St. Paul. KY – yes, CO – yes, JT – yes, BD – yes, TY – abstain, KC – yes, SR – yes.
(2)Request to move funds from the general fund to the reserve fund in payment of sharing owed to the Black Caucus and the Lavender Caucus – $575 total. There was SC consensus .
(3) Approve paying the balance of state sharingby the end of 2014at the discretion of the Finance Committee as funds become available, without risking our ability to meet basic overhead needs.$3840 total sharing with $880 authorized to pay to date. There was SC consensus.
c) Fundraising Report – Report received from David S.
d) VOTING QUEUE – BD
In the queue:
ID 752 – Strategic Plan Objectives/Action Plan: Growing Membership and Diversity -Voting 7/7-13
ID 753 – Election Tabulation Committee -Voting 7/7-13
Seven platform amendments from Platform Committee with sponsoring state (voting 7/14 – 20, except #757 extended one week with a request for another week):
ID 755 – HI Middle East proposal
ID 756 – VA Middle East proposal
ID 757 – VA Population proposal
ID 758 – IA Gun Controlproposal
ID 759 – IA Internet proposal
ID 760 – MD Domestic Security proposal
ID 761 – MD Health Care
ID 762 – SC Co-chair Election (voting 7/19 – 26)
ID 763 – SC Treasurer Election (voting 7/19 – 26)
Received for the Queue: None
e) Liaison Reports Discussion: All – tabled to next call
IV. New Business
a) Change the code in the voting page subject headers to shorten them. CO
We will require someone to change the code. We need to change some typos, too. Charles and Budd will mail specific changes needed to David Doonan who will advise if he can or cannot achieve the changes. We need to get control of the code so we can make changes in the future. There was consensus to shorten the subject headers.
b) Nationbuilder – The GPUS IT Advisory Committee recommends to the Steering Committee that GPUS moves to the Nationbuilder platform for both its database and website front end. KY
Karen – “The IT Advisory Committee recognizes that support for the open source software movement is important to Greens, and will explore ways that this committee might engage in education and advocacy for open source in the Green community. The Web Content and IT Committees will work together to develop the new website and hire a web developer to execute the customization of a Nationbuilder template to our specifications. We request funding of up to $3,000 for this purpose.”
Monthly charge is $300 or a little more for our number of working email addresses. Salsa $500 per month now but going up to about $1175.
SC consensus to approve move to NationBuilder for website and database.
Jane Hunter, NJ, will help hire and supervise web developer.
V. Logan Martinez Peace Action proposal – KC
Asking for endorsement and promotion of Peace Action Days August 6 & 9, 2014. SC consensus to approve the endorsement.
Budd Dickinson
Secretary