SC Call report — 9 July 2005
Participants:
SC: Jody Haug, Holly Hart, Steve Kramer, Brent McMillan, Jake Schneider, Gwen Wages, Emily Citkowski, Rebecca Rotzler, Pat LaMarche, Marc Sanson
Facilitation: Gwen
Time: Pat
Notes: Holly
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.]
SC Vacancy – has been announced, no need to discuss now
Staff reports
Emily:
3 items:
1) Interns all set for the rest of the summer, looking for interns for fall. Interview scheduled with a student. DC office remained open during nat’l meeting, thanks to intern and a DC Green who processed deposits, mailings, answered phone.
2) On (7/28), attended Congressional briefing on Supreme Court appointees sponsored by Feminist Majority Foundation. Director Eleanor Smeal and other panelists spoke. Most focus was on internat’l issues, not much time about nat’l situation. Had there been time for questions, Emily would have asked her about recent comments by Howard Dean and Hilary Clinton about needing more “pro-life” Democratic candidates. Recommends keeping in touch with this group.
3) Office lease – Lease expires in October. Jake and Emily met with landlord before Tulsa mtg. and will need to have another meeting with landlord to discuss lease options. Rent will be going up a few hundred $/mo. They looked at a few options in terms of moving somewhere else in DC; current rent is under market value, so finding somewhere cheaper would be difficult. Jake send out more comprehensive report to list, and can consider various lease options.
Jake – finances? income $20K, not including what came in on merchandise and Tulsa (ca. $500); no substantial change. Awaiting final Tulsa bill.
Brent:
1) CCC – came out of Tulsa with half strength; need to recruit 5 more members; recommends recruiting Greens in the south. Jen Walling is the new co-chair. First post-Tulsa meeting will be this Sunday.
Resource subcommittee is important. They have had 4 applicants (lower than usual, but this will likely pick up). Brent will summarize with Jake where CCC is at in terms of its budget – what resources and campaign schools are possible; Coordinated Congressional Campaign unofficially began this week. New listserv is up and running.
Old listerv – password is lost, meaning the old membership list and archives are lost.
Jake – will call Juscha Robinson and Masada Disenhouse and see if the password can be tracked down.
Pat – as we try and recruit for CCC, we should send a brief synopsis of what being on the committee requires.
2) BAC/BAWG – new listservs; TX is working on their ballot access strategy and fundraising toward that end; PA is talking about their ballot drive for 2006.
3) Fundraising – took a bit of a hit this month in other area: direct mail is not out yet, will get on track this next month. Sustainer program: will be working with Morgen D’Arc to get phone campaign going.
Voting Queue:
Holly – SC co-chair vote will be coming up after nominations close; DC alternate 153 proposal on apportionment; working group; HI – 2 proposals concerning whales coming up.
Jody – notes proposals come to SC to be passed on to voting queue.
Working Groups:
1) Brent: SPWG – about half way through assigned work, looking for directions from SC. Would like direction on how to proceed; identify next steps (contacting states that didn’t have representatives in Tulsa to send copies of report), corrupted data retrieved, regional analysis, addendum; 3rd phase is organizational phase, not yet begun.
Recommends SC craft new proposal and have NC vote on next steps, clear directions. Marc and Brent write up proposal for SPWG to request NC for clear directions on what their next steps should be.
2
) Steve: NPWG – they were to have two reports. Interim report was filed in April; final report delivered in Tulsa. They are now at the end of their mandate – do they continue or not? NC will need to decide. Separate reports will be coming out of committee, as consensus process broke down at the end; possibly this will be a single report but not a consensus report. It will be up to the NC how to proceed.
Suggestion is that we accept the report and then see what proposals come in, run them through voting queue and see what comes out before attempting another stab in this direction. Those on working group were those who had some more well developed ideas and a lot of the debate was sort of a debate between different processes, competition rather than something that could be synthesized as a consensus process.
Suggestion of a new working group that tackles the basis of these contentious items, offer an opportunity to deal with solution to probems that some fo the angrier people have, from a “heritage” and “flavor” angle.
DC proposal (different than the one they submitted at Tulsa) addresses part of this situation; others may be working on this, as well.
May be better to appoint impartial chair to facilitate that is not part of the committee.
We will wait for report to come out; see what various states come up with in the way of proposals.
Tulsa Review:
1) Jake: we won’t know where we’re at financially until we get the final bill from U-Tulsa; guessing GPUS has around $20k
Doug Malkan – most reimbursements will be reflected in end of July monthly statement – based on end of July expenses will be pretty close to where we are at.
Jake asks that requests for reimbursements include cover letter with breakdown, receipts and specific note of where funds were to come from. Jake and Emily will make sure to note who, of those receiving Diversity waivers, had already paid and who hadn’t.
2) A couple of the meeting facilitators made mention that the SC was huddling a lot during the meetings. Agreed this should be curtailed as much as possible. More organization needed going into plenaries.
3) Noted that there was no post-meeting review form; should SC put something together? Fundraising workshop for state parties was well attended, but not mentioned in the report.
AnmCom should have something to go out. Marc will suggest to AnmCom this be sent by mail: not too big an expense and there is a better chance of response.
4) A number of reports are going out, several negative. Which is/are “official” – ? Workshops, other events are not getting reported. There was nothing on SPWG, Eder’s campaign school, fundraising workshops.
Per past years: notes go out, corrections are made, minutes are considered official report?
Need more – Encourage committees to write reports.
Put out call for various committees to submit reports to be compiled into a final report, and get them to us by 10 days from now.
F2F Meeting In September:
Move it back so all can attend. **AGREED
Office lease will have to be taken care of at same time
GPAX – asked to consider weekend of /24 in DC
Brent – possibility of setting up meetings with leaders within women’s or labor movement between nat’l SC co-chairs while here (breakaway AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood now straining w/ Democratic Party) **AGREED
Plan to start the afternoon of 9/23, and possibly take part in 9/24 events.
No money budgeted for travel – do we cover this ourselves?
No cash flow problem, but haven’t gotten the final bill from U-Tulsa.
Jake – Doesn’t like idea of SC paying out of pocket; On agenda for next call.
Marc -Will add to finance committee agenda for next call
Executive Session
Personnel and legal matters, 7:46p.m. – 7:51p
Black Caucus/Website
Gwen was informed last night (7/28) that BC website was not attached to the GP website. BC Co-chairs were upset because they were not informed the website would be taken down. Gwen was concerned about apparent lack of process. Web team was concerned there could be a legal issue; most recently, Preston Holston, original designer of the webpage, wrote he has no intention of pursuing any legal action, but just prior to this, there were questions about intellectual property and ownership of the site. Webteam removed link until these questions could be cleared up. Communications went out to all, but Gwen’s older e-mail address was included and she didn’t receive the earlier messages. Rebecca reposted original message to SC from 7/27/05
Preston has given permission to use the site and would be happy to continue working with BC, as BC co-chair Michelle Tingling-Clemons added acknowledgment of his art work on the web.
Get report posted to web committee so they know we have permission, then web team will put the link back.
Gwen will ask Preston to send a message to the NC; immediately get Elaine Brown back on his/their website.
Pat will send content release form and forward to webteam.
Questions/Concerns:
Was Preston paid a stipend by nat’l party? Brent & Emily have received complaints about this, but have taken no action. Gwen – no, he did it for free.
Jo Chamberlain reminded us we paid $700 for website to be put up for BC, went to someone who never did the work and never returned the money. We’re missing $700 for work not done.
Note that not pursing action and giving permission are two different things. Make sure we have in writing from Preston that he has given his permission to use his work.
B
rent – Staff takes lots of heat; decide that staff should not take ay action til SC reviews situation.
Should SC begin discussion of proposal to NC remove accreditation of BC because of it’s non-functional condition and start over?
Jody – An AC complaint form was requested within the last couple days – should go through AC. AC process is rather slow. Many Black Greens have pulled out – obvious there is a problem; disaffiliation is not the answer, but need to deal with problem.
Concern about impact on Elaine Brown’s campaign.
Action:
Set up special call with BC, SC and AC; people expect SC to do something, others think we should stay out – we should get to bottom of problem and help find a solution. Issue isn’t just going away by sending to AC; can’t defend status quo or disaffiliation in campaign season; figure out way to get mediation, deal with situation over next two months. One BC co-chair disappointed in Milwaukee mediation, but would be interested in professional mediator.
Brent has let Elaine Brown know that at the moment the BC page is not one of ours, but she is on our home page.
J
ody – advantage to filing the AC complaint form, even if people later decide not to follow though, timeline
Pat – proposal – a statement in support of of AC process; in addition, ask that before this process mediation process will go through instead.
Jake – stand aside
Jody – Yes
Marc – Yes, still need separate call to discuss this, though.
Rebecca – Yes, ditto Marc, sending .net url link which is up.
Gwen – Yes.
Steve – Yes, ditto Marc.
Pat – Yes, fix the wording
Holly – Yes, ditto Marc, need specific language
Brent – happy to see SC taking action
Muslim Outreach
Jo Chamberlain recommends an SC co-chair work with IC on this
Brent – GPUS was recognized by AMA last year for our work in anti-war effort; need to keep in contact with that organization.
Rebecca and Steve both have had some outreach experience and responded to Jo’s message; agreed to share responsibility.
Rebecca – Include IC for International issues/outreach and DivCom for Muslim- American issues/outreach.
Portfolio review
Finance Portfolio
Jake: Funcom co-chair elections Monday night; need more members; Fincom also will get new co-chair.
GPUS fiscal policy: check over $2000 must be approved by second signatory, done over email.
3 checks in need of approval $10,779 for Tulsa, two more – one is $,2,748 for platform summary printing. Need designated signatory; Jody nominates Marc. Marc accepts
Kendra Markle invoice from last January, 2005. Question of whether she did work (apparently, she did). Communication problems and difficulty getting requested information from her. Brent now has passwords to elections database. Jake would like to pay the invoice, interested in having her help if needed in the future.
Consensus to pay invoice. Will place on future agenda the need to discuss personnel accountability issue.
Electoral Portfolio (Steve)
Steve taken over from Jo, would like to pass portfolio to another
Policy Portfolio (Gwen)
American Patriot Party proposal, impeachment post from NC
*
*Drop APP proposal, not implementable or feasible
** Impeachment post from NC ??
Outreach Portfolio
No report
Internal portfolio (Jody)
No report
Portfolio reorganization- see plan
Reorganization proposed
– 1 SC co-chair per portfolio
– New State Support portfolio overseen by 2 SC co-chairs
Need to discuss:
What is involved in state support portfolio
Marc – overlap but a lot of work needed in outreach – raising profile; needs own portfolio; how to get all committees involved in state support
Jody, Emily – agree, need one for state support, one for outreach; add to Outreach – Merch, GPages, Fundraising conversation about outreach (celebrity greens), started to talk about an outreach committee – tabling, celebrity outreach
Steve – legal team: propose own portfolio (internal, electoral – ballot critical importance)
Brent – ballot work critical
Rebecca – requests to put up portfolio re-organization and discussion and suggestions on SC listserv, separate from minutes.
Gwen – not ready for re-organization, need to put this up again and review, report on what our portfolios are, and email on suggestions we’re making.
Marc – missing any kind of legislative focus; could use some kind of committee, or maybe electoral portfolio as a whole – pro-active legislative agenda to promote in media, lobby.
Brent – seeing more states doing this (WA) (DC). Nat’l office can help with that type of effort – DC media contacts, Congressional info, great resources, one of the purposes for nat’l office, encourage use of office as platform for this type of work.
*
*Post portfolios and new design and discuss further online; legal team -two focuses, electoral and internal;
how to raise profile;
state support;
legislative agenda;
outreach.
Prioritizing Left-Over Items For Next Call Delegate Privacy Policy (Steve)
Staff harrassment, listserv situation
IC listserv protocol to NC?
BRPP listserv/committee members update – after BRPP elections
DRC – need proposal to expand mission
Next SC Conference Call – August 8, 9 pm EDT
Call with AC regarding Black Caucus conference call to be determined at that time.
Marc and Jake – welcome SC newbies
Adjourned 10:10 PM EDT
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green