8:00 p.m. EDT
Participants:
Holly Hart, Jim Coplen, Emily Citkowski, Budd Dickinson, Jody Grage, Katey Culver, Rebecca Rotzler, Liz Arnone, Steve KramerFacilitator: Katey
Timekeeper: Budd
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.]
I. STAFF REPORTS
a. OPERATIONS – Emily
Intern Update: The office has an intern lined up for January. Emily will be looking for more.
IT Update: Jane Hunter, Steve Kramer and Emily have been in discussion about IT needs and an IT committee. Jane Hunter called to discuss setting up a web-based telephone service. Emily hopes to discuss this with her in person soon.
Online Fundraising: The beginning of this month was pretty strong; the website got a lot of hits because of the elections and news. This has fallen off, but should be a pretty strong month. The online bookstore debuts tomorrow, along with a merchandise holiday campaign. An email blast will be sent out next week. Emily is working with Richard Scott on an appeal from Gail McLaughlin, new mayor of Richmond, CA.
Emily reviewed a proposal to contract with Chris Uzall, Palm Beach County, CA, to transfer our database in Access to MYSYQYL, and put this on a secure online server. Short term benefits include: an open source database program more people will be able to use; having this online will make it more accessible; this will cut down on office work, duplicates. Down the road, this should also make it easier for states to access information.
Emily is working with Steve and Echo on the details. She asked for an SC decision on whether to proceed with this, within the next day or two.
Chris is asking for $800, half up front. The estimated time to set up is two weeks. Echo. who referred him, thinks there may be options for funding outside of current GP fundraising. Steve will discuss and review security issues. We need to hear from Echo about funding options.
— SC agreed to review a written proposal and come to a decision online by Wednesday evening.
2) TREASURER’S REPORT/FINANCES – Jody
A difference in the way income in recorded in the office and on the bank statement caused the beginning balance in November to be less than expected but did not cause a shortage of funds to cover checks. Jody is figuring out how to avoid this problem. Jody reported that she plans to pay the essential bills and the balance of the second quarter state sharing in November.
Review of 2007 Budget and Introduction. Approved to go to Voting Queue this week.
3) VOTING QUEUE
11/19/06ADOPTED
NoneVOTING
#248 – FinCom/MerchCom: Establishment of the Outreach Committee and approval of the Committee PPs
Voting through 1/19/06 – will likely pass if it reaches quorum
Jody// 50%DISCUSSION
#250 – SC: National Committee Certification of 2006 Steering Committee Election
Discussion through 11/26/06
Voting period: 11/27/06 – 12/3/06
Budd// 50%
—
– SC has agreed to minor correction and corrected formatting.
– Question on whether to shorten discussion period. Since it’s already been announced, it’s not pressing, and we’re entering a holiday period, SC agreed to leave it as is.
#251 – SC: Proposal to Amend the Steering Committee PPs
Discussion through 11/26/06
Voting period: 11/27/06 – 12/3/06
Jim// 50%CANCELLED; AMENDED and Re-received, 11/19/06
#249 – AC: Bylaws Clarification: Affiliation Complaints Against GP-US
Cancelled, 11/13/06
1 week discussion, 1 week voting period
Budd// no longer 2/3 – 50%, IRV
—
AC has re-worked the proposal and sent this back to the voting queue, to accommodate IRV and NOTA. This will be put on this week’s voting queue.
RECEIVED for VOTING QUEUE
received, 11/16/06 – SC, FinCom: 2007 Budget
2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
Floor manager: Grage// 50%Added: CCC Elections – Secretary will send out a call for nominations this Tuesday, November 21.
4) Forum Managers Update – Holly
Request to approve Gregg Jocoy (South Carolina) as forum manager. AGREED
One person is still considering whether to volunteer as FM alternate.
Holly will follow up with the potential alternate. Will forward Gregg Jocoy’s name to the voting queue for NC approval; if the alternate responds and is interested, her name will be added to the same proposal.
5) PORTFOLIO REPORTS A. POLICY – Budd
International – Budd is now on their listserv; committee is active
Platform – not much activity right now
EcoAction – no action
GPAX – a lot of traffic. Emily asked if they are discussing UFPJ’s rally planned for January 27th; she would like to know if a lot of Greens will be coming to DC. Budd will check the list.
Legal Team – Budd spoke with Steve Kramer and met w/ David Cobb.
David worked for the GP pro bono, except for big projects (FEC filing, when he charged $50/hour. He suggested a team would do well, as several areas we needed to be covered: ballot access; debate inclusion; state bylaws and election code; contract review (leases and personnel matters); names and trademarks.
Katey will discuss with Steve whom to contact and how to organize.
Steve noted that we need to think seriously about a legal budget for 2008. We will likely have legal challenges and will need to have legal help.
B. ELECTORAL – Jim
Jim has arranged a joint conference call for tomorrow night w/ PCSC, BAC and CCC, to discuss coordinating efforts going into 2007-2008.
Officeholder Network – hasn’t heard from them for awhile, but will be following up with Brent McMillan to get a report. Steve reported there is some activity there.
C. INTERNAL – Katey
AC
Legal (general)
Personnel – Budd (co-chair) reported that this has been pretty inactive.
DAC
BRPP
Katey reported that she is working on a simple form for committees to use to report on their work to the NC.
C.1. INTERNAL 1.0 I Steve
AnmCOM
IT (tech)
DRC
Legal – Steve has worked on putting together a legal team to cover some areas. He will send more of a report later in the week.
D. EXTERNAL – Rebecca – fell off the call
Media
MerchCom
Green Pages
E. FINANCE – Liz – topic has been covered under operations and treasurer’s report and budget discussion.
FinCom
FunCom
F. OUTREACH – Echo – was not on the call
Merchandise
Outreach
Campus Greens
DivCom
G. Misc – Secretary
i. Manuals (delegate, secretary)
Budd said that he feels the delegate manual needs some work; Holly reported that the Welcome Message has been updated, and plans to go through the manual, weed out old stuff and update. Katey said that she had been on Communications Committee and feels she has a connection to this and would like to be involved. Holly will go through the manual and run updates past Katey and Budd.
ii. Committee run-down on webpage is out of date. SC agreed to drop Communications Committee; add DAC; clarify that the CredCom goes into operation only once every four years. Question of whether to list the GSCC, which is legally a separate entity. Holly will contact them to find out whether they should be listed.
News circulator – working again to see if we can get it back online.
6) Liz asked about the possibility of adding a blog to the GP website for people to learn about the G, especially heading into the 2008 campaign period. There was a question of whether this would need to be moderated full-time and how that would be arrange. It was noted that there are several Green bloggers linked to the GP website that might be made more prominent. Emily an Liz may discuss this further with Jane Hunter and IT people in the near future.
7) LPFM (low power fm radio)
discussion of Prometheus project, suggested making information available to states in case they have the opportunity to utilize this.
NEXT CALL: Sunday, December 3, 2006, 8:00 p.m. EST
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS