GPUS Steering Comm Minutes – May 11, 2014
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND
a) Facilitator – Jody Grage
b) Roll Call – Starlene Rankin, Budd Dickinson, Jesse Townley, Tamar Yager, Jeff Turner, Karen Young, Darryl! Moch, Kate Culver, Charles Ostdiek
c) Agenda revisions – none
II. Old Business
a) Proposal for forum transition (See ADDENDUM 1 below)
The SC agreed that the 60-day countdown will begin after floor managers and Forum Admins have been determined. Delegates can get individual emails from thread to which they have subscribed. There will be notice when a new thread is started.
Approved by consensus. To voting queue Monday 19 May, Darryl! will be floor manager. Budd and Starlene will resolve formatting issues.
b) GNC meeting agenda – (TY)
Tamar needs input to develop draft agenda which will be based on last year’s agenda.
Work is proceeding on the 30-year celebration.
There was a request for including courteous communications within GNC,as well as schedule of future plans and proposals and review of strategic plan and goals.
c) Rebranding — (KY)
SC members expressed approval of the process and the resulting ideas.
The sunflower and eagle were generally not regarded as our top options.
There was discussion of including more blue as the color of labor.
#5 with the square on point is seen as versatile and functional, with support for possible inclusion of elements from #1 sunflower.
Consensus to request further work on #5 – the square on point.
III. Standing Business
a) Treasurer’s Report (JT) – The financial report has had an error for the last 10 weeks since the RedSun bill for $6200 was incorrectly mailed. There is now $3400 in general fund, after Red Sun payment. The office co-tenancy is still under discussion.
b) Fundraising Report (TY) – David Sacks will finish the next fundraising letter tonight. It will drop to start providing income in June. The last email appeal is at the end of its effectiveness. The Global Greens effort raised several thousand dollars.
c) VOTING QUEUE – (BD)
In the queue: ID 741 — SC candidate eligibility (voting 5/19-5/25, 2014)
Received for the queue: Mission statement proposal from TN
Contact information will be added. Floor manager – Charles, 4 week discussion.
SC received a request from CA to discuss the Mission Statement at ANM from CA, including a proposal from HI/BRPP. No findings were sent to justify delaying putting the TN proposal into the queue. It was emphasized that input has been possible and encouraged throughout the process of developing the mission statement proposal and that friendly amendments may be offered to the proposal sponsors including pulling the proposal. The SC came to consensus that Jesse will send a message to GPCA with the SC decision.
d) Liaison Reports Discussion
See Wiggio for reports.
Kate requests time for FL discussion on next call.
IV. New Business
a) FinCom is preparing a bylaw amendment to make the Secretary and Treasurer non-voting offices and increase the number of regular SC members from 7 to 9. The SC will be asked to sponsor the proposal.
b )Next meeting — Memorial Day weekend. It was decided to have it on Monday, the 26th.
V. Executive Session: Personnel Item (no decisions made)
ADDENDUM 1
National Committee Forum Transition Proposal
TYPE OF PROPOSAL, EXPECTED APPROVAL THRESHOLD: Non-bylaws-altering;
simple majority threshold. This change does not require amending our bylaws, because the word “forum” is already being used interchangeably with “listserv”in the rules. See the relevant bylaws below.
REQUESTED PROPOSAL DECISION-MAKING TIMELINE:
Discussion: May 19 – June 1, 2104
Voting: June 2-8, 2014
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The current USENET-format email lists do not serve the party’s need as well as a forum system would. We have heard from many delegates that the high volume is difficult for them to deal with, and too often, they simply stop reading the listservs altogether. While there are other avenues we may pursue in the future to further improve the communication and engagement within the National Committee, we feel moving to a forum in a bulletin board format provides some immediate benefits.
Business (like discussion and voting on proposals) of the NC would happen on the National Committee Discussion Forum. Our NC Board has different Forums
(Dark Green Header Background). Within the Forums are Threads (Blue). One of the Forums is called GPUS Business and the first Thread in that Forum is titled Formal Proposals. That is where the NC will discuss proposals currently under deliberation and access the history of previous proposal
The benefits of using the forum include:
– Easier Access to All Posts On A Topic.
Currently someone who wants to read multiple posts on a given topic has to either read every post as it comes along, or search through long lists of emails to find the posts or login to the read the list archives. Even then, people use different subject lines to refer to the same topic, and there is no way on the listserv to aggregate these messages.
With the forum, there will be one thread per topic, and everyone will post their comments to that thread. It can be sorted by date or sender. Floor Managers will move posts to the proper thread, if they have gone astray.
– Easier Access to Various Topics
Threads will be set up both for “standing” topics (example, 2016) and for “temporary” topics (example, “Good Airfares to ANM in St. Paul”). It is possible to set up “sub threads” within a given topic, which further organizes them (for example, “open debates” within “2016.” )
You will be able to see at a glance which topics are active.
– Easier Winnowing.
Within a given topic, you can easily scroll through, see who has sent messages and skim the content. You can stop to read only the ones that you want to read.
PROPOSAL: The new National Delegates’ Forum will replace the NC’s old USENET-format e-mail lists when all the following steps have been completed.
1. All NC Delegates and Alternates enrolled in forum. Email David Doonan for assistance atwbmgr@gp.org <mailto:wbmgr@gp.org>
2. A Tutorial is offered to learn how to use the Forum effectively (include in new delegate materials). Go to: Green Party National Committee Bulletin Board / Making a GPUS-NC Bulletin Board a Reality / Downloadable PDF Tutorial
URL:https://secure.gpus.org/secure/intranet/forum-mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=45
3. Guidelines and rules/etiquette for the Forum will be posted. Our current Forum Managers will continue to perform their duties for the forum. Our existing policies still apply and we will be adding recommendations for behavior on the forum.
4. Forum Admins will be designated to assist any NC members having problems using the forum. Floor Managers will be designated to help set up and manage the threads.
5. There will be a 60 day transition period where emails to the listserv will be cross-posted to the forum.
IMPLEMENTATION / TIMELINE / RESOURCES
Sixty days after this proposal passes, the listservs will become inactive. Users may choose to have email notification of any forum posts sent to them.
REFERENCES
ARTICLE IX: GPUS NATIONAL COMMITTEE LISTSERVE PROTOCOLS AND POLICIES
DEFINITIONS
List / Listserv / Forum – These terms are used interchangeably to refer to a group of people (members) who can send emails to a common email address and have those emails disseminated to the other people who are in the group.
“Forum Managers” are responsible for making sure the NC listserv subscribers (now) and the Forum members (soon) are abiding by the Posting Guidelines (ARTICLE IX: III) and dealing with consequences. We can have 3 Forum Managers with 1 alternate.
“Admins” can provide technical assistance and sort out problems of that nature.
“Floor Managers” move messages and re-design threads, unless it’s per request of whoever posted the original message in a thread.
—
Budd Dickinson
Secretary