8:00 p.m. EDT
Participants:
Co-chairs: Craig Thorsen, Jill Bussiere, Jason Nabewaniec, Budd Dickinson, Phil Huckelberry, Sanda Everrett
Secretary: Holly Hart
Treasurer: Jody Grage
Staff: Brent McMillan, Tamar Yager, Emily Citkowski
Facilitator: Alison Duncan (DRC)
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 I. STAFF REPORTS
a. Brent – political director
Removed 5 legislative candidates from Florida from elections database. GP-FLA filed a lawsuit against one of them, concerned they are Republican Party moles.
Friday night, Brent was the keynote speaker addressing OSCE. They have sent observers for this Tuesday’s election. Brent got a list of all election observers in US.
Brent plans to work all night on election night. He and Scott McLarty have several media interviews scheduled.
b. Brent – fundraising, major donors
Brent is continuing to follow up on contacts earlier identified.
c. Emily – operations
New donor database is online. We have filed two FEC reports with it. It’s a major improvement over what we have been using, but they are still working on some technical issues, optimizing ability to run Drupal; David Doonan is working on this. Emily has been working with Dean Myerson on donor reports.
d. Emily – online fundraising
$18,000+ online in September. $15,000+ of that was online fundraising income, the rest were transactions from other programs processed online. $1000 online donation from a new donor.
$1000 online donation from a new donor. Merchandise: McKinney gear is nearly sold out. Last month’s income was $5200. Working on a holiday store to go live November 15th. focused on promoting items we have in the office.
Join fundraising effort with GPCA, listshare. Despite the fact that we asked for email addresses included in the voter registration lists, both in writing and on phone conversations, they did not include that. We are able to use the mailing addresses and phone #’s, but can’t do email blasts. Mike Feinstein is working on getting the email addresses, which was part of the original agreement.
e. Tamar – fundraising, direct mail, phone banking
Tamar sent some statistics regarding Empower. Returns are what they promised, or more. She will send out another update, soon. Scott McLarty is writing the next re-solicitation letter, to go out after Thanksgiving. She is also looking into a letter to contacts in database who have not donated.
II. TREASURER’S REPORT – Jody
$10.2K Accounts payable $4.7K,to pay accountant, health insurance, October rent, Green Pages layout, web hosting, phone bill; and $10k to Palmer Hilton due on the 1st of November. We need Jody suggested paying urgent bills, and sending $5 to Palmer and telling them the rest will be coming in a week. Option is to pay Palmer the $10K and hold off on the other items. SC agreed to pay necessary bills, including rent, phone, health insurance and Green Pages layout. Tamar urged payment of $2.6K to Red Sun Press, asap, so next mailing right after Thanksgiving can go out. Budd noted the critical aspect of this situation and asked other SC member for suggestions as to what can be done.
III. VOTING QUEUE update – Holly
BRPP fiscal policy proposal – request for online review and approval. Several SC members (Budd, Jody, Phil) requested this wait until the Fin and FundCom have had a chance to review it, as they will have to work with it. Sanda reported that BRPP members had said they feel this should go to the voting queue and be adopted before the budget, because the policy should strengthen the credibility of the budget. Jason reported that some members of FinCom had already reviewed the document and disagreed with some parts, but BRPP wanted to send the proposal as is and leave the door open for FinCom to request amendments during the discussion phase. However, since we got a very long proposal well beyond our (100-word) format just a few hours before the call, he felt it was appropriate to wait.
SC AGREED, with Sanda standing aside, to address this proposal online and also bring it up on the next call.
IV. 1/2-time office manager/director assistant
Jody presented a job description for an office assistant, and noted that Emily will be sending a job description, as well. Jody asked the SC to review these this week and look into moving forward with it, soon. Emily felt that a parallel job description didn’t make sense; the job description put forth is basically the one we used when we hired last year. Emily would like to go through personnel subcommittee, has some suggestions for adding some responsibilities that aren’t listed now; address some ambiguity in he way it’s written, clean up language. Jody agreed a parallel job description wasn’t useful and that Emily should have input. Personnel subcommittee and Emily will work online to work out the job description and send to SC for final approval online, then begin to look for internal candidates.
V. Green Pages – possible ProQuest agreement (see forwarded message) Tamar confirmed that the company is reputable. They would make reprints of issues for distribution to libraries and schools, and we would get royalties. APPROVED.
VI. Face-to-Face Meeting
MLK weekend, January 2009 will work. Homestays are being worked out. Funds for plane fare have been budgeted; we are responsible for food. Jill contacted a facilitator who has experience at strategic planning; he is considering facilitating the meeting. Jill asked that the SC and staff form a small committee to work out how to go about, process. Brent, Jill and Jason will work on this.
VII. PORTFOLIOS
A few brief reports from Budd, Cliff and Jill. Members of International Committee are going to Quebec for meeting hosted by the Boell Foundation, will be meting with Greens, as well.
VIII. Proposed 2009 Budget – as needed
The budget is not yet ready to go to the SC, but the draft has been forwarded. Will include fundraising plan and budget narrative. Jason has some comments he will send online.
IX. Executive Session Personnel Matter 9:48 – 10:03 p.m
NEXT CALL: Sunday, November 16, 2008; 8:00 p.m. ET