Sunday, June 14, 2009
8:00 p.m. EDT
Co-chairs: Jason Nabewaniec, Budd Dickinson, Jill Bussiere, Sanda Everrette, Phil Huckelberry
Seceretary: Holly Hart
Treasurer: Jody Grage
Staff: Tamar Yager, Brent McMillan
Craig Thorsen was not on the call, but did not announce himself or participate. Cliff Thornton was not able to be on the call
Facilitator: Budd Dickinson
I. STAFF REPORTS
a. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – Brent
Brent will be in the office this week, going on a week’s vacation Saturday. Tamar will be in the office Ts, Th-Fri. Brian will be there. Isaac, new merchandising intern will be starting for the summer. Staff meeting – spoke about NCOA, working to update records based on last report. Latest GreenLine has gone out. Tamar and Brent went over history of database – CivicCRM vs. DiA.
National meeting currently has 54 registration as of friday. next week, Hillary Kane and Matt Abel will be doing an email blast advertising workshops for national meeting. Next fundraising appeal will focus on the fact that it’s time to start thinking about the next electoral cycle.
We do not want to assume any standing order for Green Pages; Brian is reaching out to find out whether there will be orders; they don’t want to end up with a lot of papers left over.
Office has been moved, phone lines are up; fax line has been dropped; internet will be up this week. work stations are set up; Brent did some carpentry work.
On Friday, Brent will talk with U.S. Environmental Scholars about mobilizing communities around global warming. Invited by Sen Pat Leahy, breakfast meeting event Tuesday at U of DC.
Candidates – 130 candidates, currently; in 2005 at this time, we had 111 candidates, in 2007, 96. Good elections week, wins in Maine and Massachusetts. Currently 161 elected Green officeholders.
Received and is reviewing a copy of Theresa Amato’s book “Grand Illusion.” Covering 2004 Nader campaign, focusing on ballot access hurdles. brent believe Nader’s comments bout Terry McAuliff’s actions in trying to influence which states Nader was on the ballot may have contributed to his loss in his run for Governor of VA.
Ballot access – may start petitioning in HI, UT and NM.
Expecting $10,000 donation; unsure when next payroll will be met.
Brent said he had informed staff that they will have no comp time for or after convention. Jason pointed out that our employee handbook says we give staff this time, plus Brent and staff have been working extra hours for the move. It became clear that there had been a lack of clarity in communications in an attempt to try to cut costs. Discussion on need for clear lines of communication.
Budd, Holly proposed we do offer staff comp time for extra work involving the national meeting.
AGREED
b. FUNDRAISING MANAGER – Tamar
Tamar sent a report to the SC list. She is thinking of ways to get new prospect names; looking for similar organizations, asks for ideas. Online fundraising appeal on June 26 – “500 days until mid-term elections” (Jason’s suggestion). She is also thinking of ideas for now NC can be involved in fundraising; possibly a formal proposal to the NC for fundraising based on state delegation sizes.
II. TREASURER’S REPORT – Jody
a. Report – as of Friday, $2.2K in general account; $7.2 earmarked for national meeting through the end of May. Brent and Tamar were paid for end of May in early June, as we were not able to meet payroll for the end of May. Accounts receivable $50K. $350 charge back (denied credit card). The total for moving is not yet in. Yellow Pages for 1/2 year in directory and 1 year online at $280. We have not been in the directory for a year. Tamar advised this was really not useful, SC decided not to include a listing in Yellow Pages. Jody said she would send a list of what the $10K donation could cover for input and approval by the SC.
Brent noted the cost of the move was $842; Brent said he would contribute tips. Paid $342 out of pocket, because SC authorized $500 for the move. Jill proposed Brent be re-imbursed for the out of pocket costs.
AGREED.
III. VOTING QUEUE – Holly
a. Loan proposal – in voting phase, has reached quorum and will pass. Budd expressed concern that we will not get the loan we need. we are up to about $5000. The loan authorizes $25,000. Asked people to consider people who may be able to offer funds for the loan.
b. #393 – Amended Rules & Procedures of the NC – in discussion phase; status of recent updates?
1- AGREED to extend discussion for another week.
2 – Current language revision (v. 4.5.4, sent to SC on Thursday). Still to be worked out this coming week: sunset clause (involving committee mission statements) will be decided later; straw poll Results will determine whether that is needed; idea of delegation submitting proposals on behalf of state party, question of language,still being worked out.
AGREED to put up current version with the understanding that items still under discussion will be worked out this coming week.
3 – Straw Poll for NC preferences for thresholds for various types of decisions. Question of whether 3/5 threshold would be a possible option; that capacity may be available in the intermediate future. Jill asked that someone on the SC speak with Susan Dridi to be clear that this is volunteer work, and get some idea of a timeline. Sanda explained that this project was begun as a project of GPCA IT people, and when finished would be offered to GPUS and any standing committee that wanted a voting page mechanism. It was clearly understood that the work was being done on a volunteer basis.
AGREED, with Sanda standing aside to go with options of 50%+1 and 2/3.
c. Approval of Bill Kreml (ILGP) for Finance Committee.
APPROVED; Jason abstained, because he had not seen the email pertaining to this. 2 weeks, discussion, 1 week vote. Floor Manager: Budd
IV. MISC. UPDATES
a. Forum Managers – Holly
b. Directory – Holly
c. UFPJ dues – We paid $100 ca. 4 years ago. AGREED we need to pay our own bills first.
d. Calls for ANM facilitators, SC nominations to be sent or re-sent – Holly
e. Legal Info – Phil. No updates.
V. ANM
a. Schedules – proposed single-payer “event” during Friday “plenary” mid-afternoon.
b. Other plans for plenary times
c. Speakers – see messages from Hillary Kane: suggestions include Jesse Johnson, Mike Gravel,
David Cobb (fundraising pitch), Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente;
requests for time from George Martin; Sanda Everrette on behalf of California activist who has been very effective. Jason suggested we need more information about Mike Gravel. Brent would like to see plenary time spent on messaging going into 2010, recommends Rosa Clemente to speak to this.
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION 9:45 p.m.- 10:28 p.m.
Personnel
VII. DATABASE
SC AGREED to instruct Brent to move database from CivicCRM to Salsa/DiA. Tamar will be assigned to move the data; Brian would be responsible for data entry; Tamar for fundraising development.
6/14/09
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
NEXT CALL: Sunday, June 28, 2009; 8:00 p.m. EDT