Participants:
Co-chairs: Jason Nabewaniec, Craig Thorsen, Jill Bussiere, Phil Huckelberry, Sanda Everrette, Budd Dickinson
Secretary: Holly Hart
Treasurer: Jody Grage
Staff: Brent McMillan, Tamar Yager
Cliff Thornton is not able to be on tonight’s call.
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.]
AGENDA
a. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – Brent
Increase of 5 candidates for the week, currently at 86 for the year. 11 Greens in partisan race last week; several coming up in a few more states.
Fundraising – Brent is expecting two large checks (between $10-25K; and $1-5K). Brent is talking to another couple potential donors.
John Battista has provided 4 different essays on single-payer health insurance, Brent would like to have material for the website.
b. FUNDRAISING MANAGER – Tamar
A direct mail appeal will go out no later than 3/16. Tamar is working to get email addresses from California list. She has continued to learn more about DiA software, attending more of their webinars.. Empower is still calling their economic justice list. These are all new donors so this is good. Next, they will get two CA lists. Computer or database issues has had problems running reports, a duplicates utility won’t run and computer crashes.
c. New Office Search
Current choice between a location nearby for ca. $3000.mo.; or, a third-floor a little farther away for $800/mo., green-colored building, diverse neighborhood w/ several coffee houses and a grocery store nearby.
Staff like the area and venue. Brent and staff will continue to look around, but so far, it seems this location is very promising. A lease application has been sent, and Brent and Jody are preparing the paperwork. Brent will bring a formal proposal to the SC, once that is clear. SC agreed Brent should continue to pursue this.
Jody is getting past records on organizations. Brent is looking into Skype for phone uses. It’s good for some types of things, but not others, and not a good substitute for regular phone service. Emily is looking into Vonage possibilities.
d. Personnel – Brent and Emily have agreed on revised job description for operations director. This has been forwarded to the SC for approval. There was some discussion about accrual of personal days over a period of more than a year.
Proposal to approve job description and contract of operations director. APPROVED, with Craig abstaining, as he hasn’t had a chance to read it, yet.
II. TREASURER’S REPORT
Jody sent out a final cash flow report for February.
For March we have $1600 in the account; $2700 owed to Red Sun printers.
There will be a deposit this coming week, and credit card income can be entered immediately if needed. $37K in Accounts Payable for March, which doesn’t include Red Sun bill that we’ll get for next mailing, about $6000.
Jason asked about our ability to cover any deposit or other up-front costs for new location. Brent said that he is expecting a large donation very shortly.
III. VOTING QUEUE – Holly
CURRENTLY VOTING
1 – AnmCom – 2009 national meeting
Has reached quorum and will pass.
CURRENTLY UNDER DISCUSSION
2 – EcoAction – paper on water policy
3 – GSCC & GHCC membership
SUBMITTED
1) GPCO – proposal for SC elections to be held online.
Discussion – Sanda stated that she believes this (online vote) should be done on the day of the SC election, not before the meeting. Jason said he believes this proposal needs to adjust the operating rules at the same time it adjusts the bylaws. Phil believes this is not necessary, since bylaws trump rules, and there is no rule specifying this has to be done here. Holly said that the SC was generally expected to ensure that proposals are consistent and address any needed changes, before sending something to the voting queue. Phil stated that he thought this was technically unnecessary, and the proposal could go to the queue, as is.
Jill suggested going ahead with the proposal, but asking GPCO to clarify or address the rules.
APPROVED sending this to the queue; Sanda, Jason and Holly standing, aside.
2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
2/3 threshold
Floor Manager: Craig
Craig will inform them of potential operating rules that would be affected and ask for clarification.
2) GPCA – Statement confirming opposition to the death penalty. Holly noted that the proposal simply states what we’ve already clearly taken a position on and states or asks nothing else; and raised a concern about material in the background. Jason agreed, and asked what would happen if this failed – would it reverse our position against the death penalty.
Phil stated he believes these reservations aren’t covered by anything in the rules, so it should go forward. Sanda asked if clarification could be requested.
APPROVED; Holly standing aside. 2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
50% threshold
Floor Manager: Jason
3) GPCA – proposal regarding International Committee. This is a lengthy proposal that just came in this afternoon. There has not been time for the SC to read it. Normally, this would be taken up on the next call.
Sanda requested that this be done, but that if approved, the proposal would be put on the voting queue the next day (Monday) instead of the Monday following that (the usual timeline). Several were reluctant to approve anything before reading the proposal.
Jill noted that the BRPP is writing P&P’s for the IC and hopes the IC will get a chance to see them. She also mentioned that the IC is working on a statement on Gaza, and shutting it down (the gist of the above proposal) would put a halt to that work. There was discussion of why BRPP is writing P&P’s for IC and other work when they were tasked by the SC with re-working their own internal work processes before anything else. Craig stated that he had believed BRPP could do more than one thing at once; Holly, Phil and Budd disagreed, understood that BRPP had been tasked with doing nothing else before their own rules. Concerns were also raised about the ability of single individuals to cause a committee’s work to come to a halt.
IV. Old Business
a. Forum Managers – Holly
A few informal advisories have been sent out during the past month. At this time, we need to replace all Forum Managers. We have two volunteers. SC will find at least one more volunteer (ideally, two), approve online and send to the voting queue for an approval vote next Monday. If a volunteer is not forthcoming, SC will find one or two volunteers and bring up on the next conference call, two weeks from tonight.
b. Positon papers
Holly suggested a process for approving “white papers”: vetted by SC working group for harmony with platform, then sent to GNC for approval. 2/3 threshold recommended, to ensure wide buy-in, not for policy (which would not be changing), but for contents of the paper. Papers and material on single payer health insurance and energy are being discussed or in the works. Jill recommended the working group (Jill, Budd, Craig, Holly) hold a conference call.
V. NATIONAL MEETING
There has been interest in including workshops, skills-building or informational sections into or as plenary sessions(sample agenda was sent a few weeks ago)
-Interest in forum or panel on economics; possibly one or two more issues
-Interest in “in house” greens as speakers
3/8/09
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
NEXT CALL: Sunday, March 22, 2009