SC Call Notes — October 15, 2004
Participants:
Marc Sanson, Gray Newman, Jo Chamberlain, Jake Schneider, Gwen Wages, Maya O’Connor, Jody Haug, Greg Gerritt
Staff – Brent McMillan, Kara Mullen, Emily Citkowski
Guests – Lynne Serpe (Cobb Campaign) Patrick Greenspan, James Bell, Jay Cookson (Spellbind Design) (All on for limited time to discuss their topic)
Facilitator Gwen Wages Time Maya O’Connor Notes greg gerritt
Abbreviations used:
AFT = American Federation of Teachers
AC = Accreditation Committee
ANM, ANMC = Annual National Meeting Committee
BRPP = Bylaws, Rules, Policies and Procedures Committee
BC = Black Caucus
CC = Coordinating Committee
CCC = Coordinated Campaign Committee
CG SC = Campus Greens Steering Committee
DC = Diversity Committee
FC = Fundraising Committee
FEC = Federal Election Commission
GP = Green Party
GW = George Washington University
IC = International Committee
ICA = Institute for Cultural Affairs
LC = Lavender Caucus
LG = Lavender Greens
PEC = Presidential Exploratory Committee
PCSC = Presidential Campaign Support Committee
SC = Steering Committee
[Brackets denote editor’s suggested corrections. Some punctuation corrections done with no content change. -ed.]
Published Agenda
Draft Agenda #2
5 min – facilitator, timer, note taker (Greg)
15 min – Cobb/LaMarche campaign as available (Marc)
20 min – FINANCE Portfolio(Jake, Marc, Kara): Finance, FundCom
Kara – Morning After design first
15 min – staff reports
Brent – contact FEC re: ntl party status if ballot line optional, etc.
Emily – future focus
2 min – Voting Queue
5 min – Camejo report from retreat
20 min – Position paper on Nader/Camejo including open letter; NJ proposal
10 min – 3 working groups including portfolio placement
Portfolio reports:
7 min – ELECTORAL (Gray, Jo): CCC, Office Holder Network, PCSC, Legal Team
7 min – POLICY (Greg, Gwen): Platform, Peace, Intnl, DC, Strategic Plan
Letter re Israel?
7 min – OUTREACH (Peggy): Media, Green Pages, Merchandise, Speakers Bureau
Green Pages resignation
7 min – INTERNAL (Maya): Personnel, Dispute Resolution; (Greg): BRPP
7 min – INTERNAL (Jody): Accreditation (with Maya), ComCom, Event Planning
*****
Lynne Serpe (Cobb/LaMarche campaign manager) opens with report on Cobb/LaMarche campaign 18 days to go. Discussed what people are thinking about, with no real definitive answers, how our work will be effected based on Nov 2 results. Bush, Kerry, uncertainty???
Campaign would like an opportunity to debrief with the SC. Possibly February?? As it may be hard to schedule before that. Campaign is willing to share now all of the maxxed out donors who can not give any more to campaign, but could give to party. Kara and Dean are coordinating. It was noted that post election we might be able to bring in some donations from celebrities.
Ended discussion with Lynne to talk to Morning After ad campaign folks from Spellbind Patrick James, Jay. They presented a design for ad campaign., SC has been sworn to secrecy by Kara, but everyone liked it and thinks it is a design we can use for a long time. It will be revealed soon. Uses humor very nicely. Positive message.
Full page can be done in color or black and white. Suggested first venue is Western (west of the Mississippi) edition of NY Times, Also can be run in magazines like Nation, Progressive, etc. Can be tied into Green House Parties.
Key issue is money to make it happen, about $9000 has been raised for it so far.
Spellbind folks leave, Lynne returns
Discussion of whether or not Cobb campaign would take a position on the resolution and letter to Nader/Camejo. Lynne reported that campaign discussed this and decided to continue to stay out of internal Green party affairs, campaigns can not take that task on. Some SC members were hoping that the campaign would speak out. Lynne noted that they would be very circumspect if asked by the media about it, and silent if not asked. Other SC members agreed that that might be the best strategy. Note later on SC agreed to send letter to Nader/Camejo, and only to Nader/Camejo, with simply the words of the Resolution with an introductory sentence stating that this is a resolution passed by the CC.
Discussion about resolution focused on how it might effect all of our local candidates. Some thought it might hurt them, others figured it would have little effect, no one thought it would really help much and with SC/WI/DE be willing to let it go with a letter to the candidates, it was a pretty easy decision even while noting that we were expressly going against the will of a CC vote, and trying to use our judgment as to what would be best. Figured we can not win either way, so lets do what seems best. If we followed the will of the CC vote, we would get slammed and create divisiveness that way as well.
Further analysis gave us the perspective of three groups of greens, ABB, Nader, Party/Cobb. What works best to bring them together Nov 3 and beyond?
Lynne leaves call.
Finances/ Finance portfolio Jake starts: Finances not great, monthly sustainers at $8200 a month or so. All are hoping it picks up Nov 3, all we can do is plan for the various eventualities, various people are working on this. Also looking to bring in a new fiscal policy.
Kara reported on phone calling for money and her efforts to bring more Greens into that work. Also efforts to collect on unpaid pledges so far this year.
Discussion on the responsibilities of states to give GPUS their lists to send to once a year. There have been efforts to write that into the rules for the party, but so far it is in just as a suggestion. Should this change?? Should this be written into new Fiscal policy??
Staff Reports
Political Director Brent McMillan. Had a chat with FEC about how much interest the FEC has in internal party dynamics, found out they lean strongly to staying out of internal party affairs.
Voting Queue:
Nothing in queue, nothing under discussion, nothing being voted on. Maya present Dispute Resolution Committee rules for formal adoption by the CC. She had questions about the process for formally submitting them, which was then explained, and SC agreed to put it into the voting queue with a 2 week discussion period to be followed by a vote. Jody will floor manage.
Staff all leave call.
Report from SC to CC on meeting with Camejo. A note from seven SC members has been circulated. Two SC members would not sign on to it wanted to revise it, after a while the seven who signed off got tired of waiting so they sent it out. Peggy and Jo then revised that note slightly and offered to send that out as a replacement for the previous report. Gray formally proposed doing so. After some discussion the vote to send it out as the official report was 6 in favor, one opposed (greg) and one abstention (jody), so it will be sent out.
NJ proposal Discussion and decision to just send the letter with the resolution to Nader and Camejo seems to render this moot. We shall ask a NJ delegate if they agree, and if they do not, I guess we shall all hear about it.
We did note that the CC members were going to do what they wish with the resolution, but the SC would not working with the media committee to get anything out.
We did discuss asking Jack Uhrich to publicly state to the CC that SC had sent a note to SC letting us know that SC had noted to the SC that they could live with that. Jody also was producing something for the CC to see from the SC.
Electoral Portfolio Gray, Jo CCC seems pretty quiet. It is also understaffed. We need a General Counsel and a stronger legal team. Need a job description for General Counsel. Keep getting counsel on the agenda. Office holders network is quiescent, with only 4 people responding to a recent press release.
Policy Portfolio Greg, Gwen IC is working up a full response to frequent questions on Israel/Palestine. at some point we should have it to put on the website.
Where to put the 3 proposed working groups.
1 Strategic Planning: Policy
2. Convention planning for 2008 including rules. PCSC is in Electoral
3. Joint committee AC/BRPP on accreditation /affiliation split between various people involved in internal portfolio
Green pages needs a new editor. Need to talk to Green Pages committee. and then get moving on helping find a new editor Greg will follow up with Green pages team.
Back to discussion of DRC rules. Will go directly to voting page. Jody will floor manage.
Internal portfolio Jody, Maya AC is finally meeting and getting organized. Will deal with Women¹s Caucus over the next few weeks. Also creating a complaint form so there will be a standardized way to file complaints.
Finance committee is developing fiscal policy and hopes to have budget on the docket right after Election day. Brpp is looking at rules and bylaws, but pretty low key until the election. ANMC will reconvene after election day. Needs to move on asking for proposals for 2005 meeting.
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green