SC Call Notes — July 17, 2004
Participants:
Jo Chamberlain, Gwen Wages, Jody Haug, Maya O’Connor, Jake Schneider, Marc Sanson, Peggy Lewis, Greg Gerritt
guests – David Cobb and Pat LaMarche
staff – Emily Citkowski, Kara Mullen, and Brent McMillan
Abbreviations used:
AFT = American Federation of Teachers
AC = Accreditation Committee
ANM, ANMC = Annual National Meeting Committee
BRPP = Bylaws, Rules, Policies and Procedures Committee
BC = Black Caucus
CC = Coordinating Committee
CCC = Coordinated Campaign Committee
CG SC = Campus Greens Steering Committee
DC = Diversity Committee
FC = Fundraising Committee
FEC = Federal Election Commission
GP = Green Party
GW = George Washington University
IC = International Committee
ICA = Institute for Cultural Affairs
LC = Lavender Caucus
LG = Lavender Greens
PEC = Presidential Exploratory Committee
PCSC = Presidential Campaign Support Committee
SC = Steering Committee
[Brackets denote editor’s suggested corrections. Some punctuation corrections done with no content change. -ed.]
Published Agenda
15 minutes – Cobb/LaMarche (if it works for them) – Marc
5 minutes – resignation pledge
2 minute – use of “co-chair” clarification
2 minute – conference call schedule clarification
10 minutes – retreat – logistics, agenda, etc.
5 minutes – Committee membership recruitment – Marc
10 minutes – Electoral Portfolio (Gray, Jo): Legal team, CCC election
5 minutes – Policy Portfolio (Greg, Gwen): Strategy Group
15 minutes – Outreach Portfolio (Peggy): Logo, Sierra Club call, American Candidate, etc.
15 minutes – Internal Portfolio (Maya, Jody): Event Planning (site, process); Archives; Dispute Resolution; Future Topics (for input from CC+)
5 minutes – Internal Portfolio (Greg): Web Team, BRPP
15 minutes – Finance Portfolio (Jake, Marc): FundCom mailing, etc.
*****
With David and Pat on the call we went right to them even prior to Agenda Review so as to not take up too much of their time. Marc Sanson has been designated SC liaison to the campaign. Various committees, CCC, Ballot Access WG, Media, have already started working with the campaign. PCSC has not quite figured out its role.
David and pat both gave very upbeat assessments of the campaign and the support they are getting from state green parties. Spent two weeks settling in, doing media interviews and fundraising, now going on the road. Want to keep working with the party.
David and Pat are invited to join the SC call each time, but may send a representative from the campaign to update us instead. Everyone was reminded to send events to the Cobb/LaMarche scheduler if you want them to be there. Pat will be doing a sleeping in shelters (homeless, battered women, etc) tour starting mid September, ending at Vice Presidential debate on Oct 5.
Ballot access is first priority, so campaign stops right now are focused on petitioning states. Brent reported that GP of WV will have its first meeting on Aug 28, direct result of Cobb nomination.
There are 5 states with which there are concerns as to whether or not they are going to put Cobb/LaMarche on their ballot line. UT, FL, NM, VT, CA. FL has a state meeting resolution to place no candidate on the ballot that will be voted on soon. UT they are discussing what to do, Cobb may go to their meeting and try to encourage participation n the campaign. NM we are unsure how strong the movement is. VT we have seen reports that they will put Cobb/LaMarche on the ballot and endorse Nader/Camejo. CA is taking a county by county poll. In most cases the state party is working this out and other than encouragement to campaign supporters in those states we just watch and wait.
Jody will put together a review of floor rules and citations of bylaws on placing the nominee on ballot lines so that folks will be clear what the organizational rules are. The accreditation committee has also been informed and will keep an eye on the situation as well.
David and Pat left the call here amid wishes of good cheer.
Agenda review:
Reminder to record votes if any are taken.
Discussion of observers on calls
Move finances up in the agenda to the beginning of portfolio reports
personnel
web team
suggestions for website
Friendly fire at Ft Drum
2004 accomplishments
web links
Resignation pledge:
Peggy has posted the CA system on removing co chairs. Peggy and Jody will bring back a draft pledge to sign which will be discussed on line and at the next meeting.
Use of co chair title:
co chair is in the bylaws, but if someone does not like it [and] no one objects to them using co chair person, co chair woman, etc. In all formal situations co chair is the proper term.
Schedule of calls:
At least every first and third week of the month, and months with a 5th week, we can see if it is needed. Right now on Thursdays, moved up to 8PM EDT, but some folks work schedules are about to be posted, so we are waiting for that to finalize the schedule.
Retreat logistics:
Nearly everyone will come in friday night for social event. Saturday all day we shall be at the library meeting; social event with DC folks/hosts/maybe political/social event on Saturday Night. Sunday half day of work at location tba. Emily is working on this. SC members with insufficient resources will speak to Jake about use of travel budget. With home stays and use of library for meeting, meeting costs will be extremely minimal.
Recruiting committee members:
Marc pointed out that many committee websites are out of date so it is hard to recruit members from state parties without some sort of introductory materials, so committees should get their websites up to date, with contact info if they want new members. Greg pointed out that we have looked into this before and reminded committees previously, and some committees do keep very excellent pages and are getting new members.
SC also designated a small team, Greg , Gwen, Jody, Peggy to start developing a job description for volunteer coordinator. Marc wants to be in the loop as well. At this stage more of an effort to define the work than anything else. SC members are also asked to focus on the functioning of committees within their portfolios. Financial Report. Jake. We have $30,000 total. No extraordinary debts, just regular bills. Fundraising is hard work. Plans have been circulated. Kara has written a report, all should look at it. Discussion of role of fundraising director in Presidential campaign. Coordinating mailings?
Financial Portfolio
Internet Fundraising proposal from Democracy in Action (DIA):
Concerns about privacy, spamming, how it integrates with database, costs, volunteer efforts. Discussion will continue, with answers to questions. Fundraising committee is taking the lad, SC will continue to review that work. Several phone conversations about this will take place soon. Either will make a decision on line or decide at next call if at all possible.
Convention:
Accountant Doug Malkan and Jake are still crunching numbers. Will put out a report as soon as they are done. Still contesting Midwest Center bill, and Emily found some money in a box that came in from Milwaukee.
Data Base:
Need $400 from fundraising committee budget to bring David Spitzley from MI to DC to teach the news data base to the staff. Approved by consensus. There are still concerns about results from this project, but it needs to move forward.
Fin Comm is working on revisions to fiscal policy that will eventually come to the CC for a vote.
Fin comm will also have discussions on funding Black Caucus outreach work. Need some way to go forward with that.
Marc– With new portfolio on finances he is just getting up to speed. Feels we have missed some Fundrasing opportunities because of organizational issues, such as volunteers being unable to follow through in places that might more properly have been staff responsibilities, slow decisions, etc. Sometimes we seem penny wise and pound foolish.
Kara– Has developed work plan, trying to implement it. Working on Direct Mail; hopefully a consultant can handle that soon. A mailing before turning over list to Cobb campaign for a mailing (coordinating timing), Internet fundraising (the DIA plan), and database merger and management. Would like to see a real investment in fundraising by the party.
Emily– big deposit this week, including one very large contribution. Still working on data base and trying to keep up now while preparing for future needs.
Electoral portfolio
Jo reports. Has not gotten onto all the committee lists yet. CCC has language calling for applicants to fill the 10th seat. Process is call for applications, then the SC votes to choose a candidate from the applicants. Application letter will go out this weekend.
Policy portfolio
Greg and Gwen. Working to make sure 2004 platform gets finalized and up on the website. Peace committee has list running, working on convention protests. Gwen is working to get on diversity lists and with caucuses. Getting on IC list.
Strategy:
Follow up to plan passed months ago by CC that has languished. Greg and Gwen will discuss this and come back to SC by email.
Outreach Portfolio
Peggy– Gotten on all committee lists. Green Pages is discussing where to hang their webpage. Feeling on SC is that it should be part of party webpage. Merchandising is weak organizationally, needs co chairs. Needs to find a way to complement State parties merchandising, not compete with it. Logo, selling two t shirts for now.
Sierra Club, next conference call between GPUS and Sierra will be Tuesday 20th of July. Greg is meeting with some of Sierra BOD on Friday in Boston.
Green Festival is looking for a place to plug us in.
Youth Festival, Phil Huckleberry is in contact with them and will be representing us.
American candidate, Scott McLarty is our contact and rumors are that a Green will be in their final group.
Need to start a Green speakers bureau. Jo is working with other parties around doing debates with small party and independent candidates for president.
Internal portfolio
Jody is working on next year’s annual meeting. Much discussion about location, needs, changes. ANMC will coordinate but need active host site. To improve communication, Jody will put bullet points on all SC conference call notes sent to the CC. Archives project not yet going.
Maya– Has been meeting with staff. Trying to get personnel committee up and running. Lots of documents to look at, may need legal advice to finish personnel policies etc. Dispute resolution looking for co chairs, still moving slowly. Maya is considering serving as co chair until committee is really up and running.
Discussion of role of volunteers/communication committee in DIA internet fundraising proposal. Where time is of the essence can we rely on committees to move such proposals forward swiftly enough? With DIA, does SC need to approve now or wait for Fund Comm to finish? Maya proposed approval now, but [after] further discussion, the resolution became: give Fund comm a little more time to work.
Consensus on that. SC will follow up on line.
Observers on SC call:
Several members of SC are not keen on the idea, feel it will inhibit frank discussion. Others think it is a good idea with proper safeguards. Issues remain and the SC will discuss this further. Executive session is an issue. Jody will start to draft a note to the CC explaining where we are.
Website links, Ft Drum and other website issues
Greg explained how the website team works and that this probably is not a good use of SC call time since the committee can handle it. General agreement.
Call evaluation
Need to do more on line
clearer delineation between discussions and proposal
write up rules for call process
Adjourn
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green