GPUS SC Conference Call
Sunday, April 18 2009
8:00 p.m. EST
Co-chairs:
Farheen Hakeem, Craig Thorsen, Jason Nabewaniec, Sanda Everrette, Mike Feinstein, David Strand
Secretary: Holly Hart
Treasurer: Jody Grage
Staff: Brian Bittner
Guest: Marnie Glickman, Co-chair, Platform Committee
Facilitator: Farheen
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I. STAFF REPORTS
a. OFFICE MANAGER – Brian
Sent report Friday afternoon. We are at 11 paid registrations and 3 paid lodging requests for the ANM; make sure to emphasize this to our states and NC, to get people to register as soon as possible.
!NOTE: registration rates for the ANM will increase by $25 on May 1st, and we will not be able to guarantee housing requests in the dorm after that date.
c. Gale Group/Green Pages
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II. TREASURER’S REPORT – Jody
$6.2k General Account Income
$0.7k General Account Balance
$2.0k Reserve for ANM
$1.8k Reserve for IT
$0.1k Reserve for IC
$15.4k Accounts Payable in April
Paid: Rent, mid-month salaries, collection charges
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III. VOTING QUEUE – Holly
a. brief review, if needed; forum managers, etc
VOTING
#445 – *GPUS Bylaws Amendment: Name, Purpose,
Applicability*<http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=445>
*#446 – SC Co-chair Election to Fill Vacancy*
DISCUSSION
NOTE: both of these were sent to the voting queue in violation of the usual time frame. Although the SC has the option to expedite proposals to the voting queue, no specific decision was actually made by the SC here.
*#447 – **GPUS Bylaws Amendment: International
Representation*<http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=447>
#448 – *International Committee Mission
Statement*<http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=448>
b. SC: GPUS SC Bylaws Amendment
Threshold: 2/3
2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
Floor Manager: Mike
Agreed to send to the voting queue to go out tomorrow (4/19/10), instead of waiting the usual week.
Holly asked that the vote total and results be sent by the sponsors; she will add this to these minutes as an addendum.
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IV. ANM Discussion
A draft schedule was sent out this afternoon. SC reviewed, some suggestions for slight revisions were made.
Marnie Glickman, Platform Committee Co-chair, joined the call to discuss possibilities for scheduling platform discussion.
Mike asked to put a draft up for a vote. Others (Jason, Holly, Craig, Sanda) weren’t clear on why this was needed. Sanda mentioned it would be in the minutes. Jody asked, ‘Who reads those?” Suggested that the draft agenda be posted, noting that this is the draft under discussion by the SC. Mike said he would find a co-sponsor and put this to an online vote.
For those just dying to know what this was, see the Addendum #4.
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V. PROPOSAL – Practice for seeking legal opinions and advice – Craig Craig stated his concern that the legal counsel not be inundated with numerous requests from SC members.
Mike stated that Holly had had private communications with Andy Finko. Holly explained that she had contacted Andy with a question she had been appointed to ask by the SC; and another instance in which Mike and Jody had contacted Andy Finko, he response and cc’d her, and Holly had asked if the thread should go to the entire SC.
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From Craig: “From time to time, the Steering Committee has the opportunity to seek a legal opinion and/or advice from pro-bono attorneys to help perform its responsibilites under GPUS Bylaws and Rules & Procedures. There may be occasions where the party also seeks paid advice.
“Since attorneys that provide these service do so on behalf of the entire Steering Committee, and not any individual Steering Committee member or group of Steering Committee members, to ensure that there is agreement within the Steering Committee whether an opinion and/or advice should be sought, what questions need to be asked and what background information should be provided, there needs to be a Steering Committee process for deciding these questions before a request is made.
“Once an opinion and/or advice is rendered, it should be reported to the Steering Committee in a manner agreed to by the Steering Committee, in almost all cases one where the information is shared with all Steering Committee members.”
PROPOSAL: That it shall be a standard practice of the Steering Committe, that when seeking a legal opinion and/or advice in performance of its responsibilites under GPUS Bylaws and Rules & Procedures, that the Steering Committee shall first approve a proposal to do so, that includes what information is requested and what background information be provided. When the opinion and/or advice is rendered, it shall be shared with the entire Steering Committee, unless in the extreme case that there is legal reason not to do so.
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ADD: Request from Hugh Esco regarding work on GPUS voting page
Hugh asked to have some IT people observe his work, then people to help test. Mike objected and felt Hugh should move forward right away, and the SC could find the help as things proceed. As we get more SC candidates, this will put hugh in a politically compromised position. Holly explained this is a matter of “voting integrity” and protocol, and would have been assumed to have been part of the process. Jason agreed. Holly suggested asking Susan Dridi, Cameron Spitzer and Phil Huckelberry, Dave Doonan, Jason. Craig asked if the initial voting page went through these hoops. Holly explained it had. Sanda pointed out this was a concern on Hugh’s part to make sure his integrity wouldn’t be called into question, reasonable. Craig also suggested Jonathan Lundell.
PROPOSAL – to ask a few more IT people to serve as oversight committee. If Hugh wants to start right away, he may. AGREED, Consensus
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VI. PORTFOLIOS
Media Committee – Mike: they are hoping to find a way for Starlene Rankin
to be at the ANM; she would need some financial aid.
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VII. PROPOSAL – GPUS Committees and Web Posting Protocol
AGREED with some amendments. Mike will post online, SC will take this up online this week. Needed means of quick removal in case of abuse or mis-use. Need to simply stipulate that the web manager can determine what skills are needed.
http://www.gp.org/wiki/index.php/Steering_Committee_Conf_Call_Agenda_04_18_10_Decision_Item:_GPUS_Committees_and_Web_Posting_Protocol
Proposal: That the SC adopt the following Protocol as an internal policy of the SC: Article IV. Web Posting Protocol
4-1 GPUS Committees
GPUS committee co-chairs or other(s) designated by each committee, shall be able to update their committee web pages, under the following conditions:
4-1.1 A general template is established for committee web pages, such that the committee members and officers shall appear visible at a minimum to National Committee members and links to the committee’s Rules, Policies and Procedures and other such relevant rules and procedural documents be included.
4-1.2 Have any person designated by their committee to update their committee’s web pages demonstrate their basic competency to the GPUS Webmaster in using ftp, .html and/or CMS where needed, before being given posting access to their committee portion of the gp.org site.
4-1.3 Retain quality control oversight by the GPUS webmaster and oversight of factual accuracy of the content by the Steering Committee Web Content Team.
NEXT CALL: Sunday, May 2, 2010; 8:00 p.m. EDT
4/18/10
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
ADDENDA ITEMS TO FOLLOW –