SC Minutes — July 24, 2003
Participants:
Co Chairs Jo Chamberlin, Marnie Glickman, Badilli Jones, Bern Manski, Anita Rios
Treasurer Jake Schneider
Secretary Greg Gerritt
Alternate Alan Kobrin
Staff Dean Myerson, Jack Uhrich
Call Functions:
Facilitator Marnie
Time Keeper Jake
Note takers Greg, Dean
Abbreviations used:
AC = Accreditation 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
SC = Steering Committee
[Brackets denote editor’s suggested corrections. Some punctuation corrections done with no content change. -ed.]
Published Agenda
1. Intros, Minutes, Meeting Process, etc. (5 minutes)
OLD BUSINESS
2. Financial Fundraising Report (10 minutes)
a. Reports – 5 – Jake, Jo
b. SC Fundraising – 5 – Jack
c. *** celebrity outreach 5 Jack
3. Committee & Liaison Reports/Action (20 minutes)
a. Annual National Meeting Committee – 5 – Ben
b. Communications Committee – 5 – Greg
c. Personnel Committee – 5 – Anita
d. Others – 5
4. Pending/in-progress votes (10 minutes)
a. Caucus Submissions to Platform Resolution – Badili – 1
b. Credit Card Policy – Jake – 2
c. Others – 7
6. Office Move & Policy – Jo – (10)
7. Personnel – (20)
a. Policy – (10) – Anita
b. Operations Director (10) – Ben
8. 2003 National Meeting Follow-up – (20) – Dean & Jake
a. Minutes – 5
b. Finances – 10
c. Other – 5
NEW BUSINESS
9. Strategic Planning Process – 10 – Ben
10. SC Retreat Scheduling – 5 – Jo
11. SC Bylaws – 5 – Greg & Ben
12. FTAA & Florida – 5 – Ben
New Business additions from Marnie
1. 2003 revised budget (5 minutes)
* I propose the revised income and expense projections should be broken down by month.
2. Financial management proposal (5 minutes)
* Weekly pledge report (Name, date of pledge, amount of pledge, date of first phone f/u, date of second f/u, date of third f/u)
* Weekly income report by fundraising tool (Fundraising tools: Events, mail, web, merchandise, Jack’s phone calls, other phone calls)
* Bimonthly report of projected expenditures for the upcoming two week period (by budget item)
* Bimonthly report of projected income for the upcoming two week period (by fundraising tool)
12. EXECUTIVE SESSION (if needed) – 20 minutes
Check in, Agenda Review
OLD BUSINESS
Financial
Jake- Have approx. $29,987 in Sun trust and a deposit going in of about $1800.
Still negotiating and analyzing Hotel Bill
Fundraising Committee/Fundraising
Jo- Jack is following up with Nader team for Major Donor list, we normally pay $.10 per name and expect that to continue. Not sure how large the list is, so total cost unknown.
Next mailings:
United Farm Workers 20,000
Fresno County, CA 1700
Florida quantity unknown
Mother Jones 5,000 alternative pitch
will be mailed by Aug 15th
Jack will continue to follow up with fundraisng workshop participants from the DC meeting and continue to seek lists from State Parties and candidates.
Marnie asked for a review of Fundraising committee membership requirements, which will be referred to Fun Com to discuss.
SC Fundraising
Jack- Phonathon calls need to be finished. Discussed specifics of some large donors and the effect of being in the race in 2004 will have on some major donors. Discussed how SC can help with major donors and who might go to meetings.
Anita pointed out that what we do in 2004 will be decided by the Party as a whole, that it is not under anyone’s control, and that we may need to explain this to people. Then we live with the results.
All SC members will be given a list of people to call each month and people to try to establish relationships with. Size of list depends upon the specific SC member.
Ben talked to Scott McClarty about doing some PR about what it will take to get Green Nomination and the steps involved.
Committee & Liaison Reports
Convention 2004
Ben- Committeee needs reconstituting. Ben is meeting with Milwaukeee hotels this week and looking for guidance about what to try to lock in for rooms. He presented a very preliminary propopsal. No one had very strong particular numbers to offer. The number of delegates should be a guideline, though that is not set yet. Ben is currently focusing on room numbers, costs, and meeting spaces.
Lynne Serpe has offered to join the committee and a call for volunteers will go out soon.
Internal Communications (ICC)
Greg- Committee is getting constituted, chose cochairs, Greg Gerritt and Susan Dridi, began delegating out list management, and starting on various projects.
Dean noted that there are Technical things to be done for 2004 and that we need to follow up with Kendra Markle of technical aspects. Greg noted and noted that some of this is underway.
Voting Page- Suggestion that each committee have a voting page for internal committee votes. Will send suggestion to ICC.
Discussion of how different members reacted to different things at last meeting. There are various interpretations of previous discussion about how to delegate to committees and what would go where. All agreed to move forward in positive fashion.
Agreed to post to list everyone’s phone number so we can talk more. (This was done on Friday AM)
Personnel Committee
Anita- Committee needs reconstituting and to be gotten up to speed. There are issues of generating policies and then specific oversight of people. Committee currently needs to focus on policies as SC is taking the lead currently on hiring new Operations Director. Greg agreed to help and will discuss this further with Anita.
Jo noted there is a software packet with personnel policies that we should look at.
Diversity Committee
Anita- Lots of people joined the group in DC so it will take some time to reconstitute and elect co-chairs, probably about 1 month to complete election. There is also discussion of having a Rainbow Greens meeting in TX this fall including all sorts of caucuses and potential caucuses, and it will discuss 2004 and platform issues.
Campus Greens
no report, Discussion.
Jack is doing fundraising workshops. We discussed who should represent SC at CG conference in August, but no conclusions. Jo seems to be only one who can go. We shall have to decide soon, via email. (Marnie in noting she can not make it in an email the next day suggested that we have Jack represent us as he will already be there)
Pending/In-progress votes
Role of Caucuses in the Platform process seems to need a little more work and then be put into the hopper.
Badilli will check with Marc and Holly and hopes to have it ready by Mid August.
Jack and Anita sign off the call.
Credit card policy
Jake- Sun Trust turned us down for a credit card, not sure why, excuse was phony. Policy is being debated by Finance Committee and almost ready to be circulated.
Jo- Finance Committee will review budget and send out a revised budget for approval soon.
Marnie requested that the budget document include data on how it varies from currrent budget and how actual income and expenditures are differing from projected budgets. Discussion that while this information is ultimately available, current systems do not track it systematically in this format.
Ben noted that we need to find floor managers for various proposals and to schedule them.
Greg noted that it would be good to set up a proper calendar/spread sheet on the voting page so that everyone could see where we are. Greg and Marnie will follow up. (Note, Voting Page leader Charlie Green sent out a note about Voting page issues and reported on correction work underway. It seems that maybe the calendar should wait until the upgrades are debugged, and that a wait of a week or two is not a big deal.)
Office Move
Jake noted that lease negotiations have been conducted and that he thinks we are ready to sign off if one or two things get approval. SC consensed on letting Jake sign lease and write checks when he deems us ready. There are still a few minor things to tie up in old office, but they seem to be getting worked out.
Discussed contracting with Anne Goeke to manage the move. (follow up the next day noted that Anne is willing to work on this). Jo noted that there may be some furniture needs in the new office, and that it would be good to buy things that fit into office decor rather than bring in whatever we can scrounge.
We also discussed need for internal procedures for office and that insurance needs updating.
Dean will follow up on what else we need for the move, such as volunteer labor and trucks, and report back.
(10 PM)
We have already had 4 applications for job of Operations director. We hear others will also apply. Application deadline is Aug 15. Then we shall start reading applications, and SC will decide who to interview. Anne will hopefully be in the office at that time (Dean on vacation Aug 15) and copy and distribute resumes to appropriate SC people. Greg and Anita will read, maybe others. Would like to schedule interviews for late August. All agreed that an acknowledgement letter should be sent to applicants. (Dean sent around an appropriate letter on Friday and it is going out to applicants). Agreed that reading resumes will be a screen, with only people who seem appropriate called in for interviews. Marnie will join Anita and Greg in discussions about this process.
2003 meeting follow up
Dean- minutes were posted to SC, and after no objections to CC . There is 2 weeks for CC to review them, and then there will be a call for approval.
Financial report was given earlier.
Greg asked about Travel reimbursement policy, was referred to website. Dean will respond to a letter from Sola Sarmiento about how the vote counting was done.
New Business
Strategic Planning
Ben- SC needs to focus on strategic planning and help get a plan done. There has been circulated a plan by Anne Goeke, Kevin Zaum (is that name right?), and Linda Schade. There was also a discussion of a proposal by Starlene Rankin to bring in professional facilitators to help us plan.
Greg expressed reservations about the effectiveness of such a process and whether or not it saved us more time than it took. Other SC members had some similar concerns, and concerns about how to include the entire party in such a planning process. Marnie suggested the CCC model on planning might be a good one for us. Jake noted how the 2002 plan was mostly still sitting on the shelf, and the importance of only planning what we can actually do.
Ben, Badilli, Alan K will follow up by talking to Linda, Anne, Kevin, Starlene about strategic planning.
SC retreat
Do we want to do one in August or September, do we combine it with an Open House for new office? Some suggested weekends of Sept 19 or 26. Greg expressed reservations, saying maybe wait until we are more formed in our work and staff is on board and somewhat oriented. Marnie was concerned about central location to save costs, Jake was also of the mind that waiting a bit would not be a bad thing. We shall discuss on line October availability. Location it seems DC might be best.
SC rules
Greg and Ben will start working on this, including some very early drafts circulating about Executive Session rules as well as other rules. (Note that BRPP sent along some ideas for internal SC rules. Greg replied to all concerned that SC would accept this responsibility in the same way all committees are charged with coming up with their own rules)
FTAA in Miami this November
Alan is already working on this from the Miami end and will be our liason with efforts. There are discussions of Green events during the weekend of demos, rallies, symposia, etc. Things are still in flux and will take much work to coordinate.
Proposed new budgeting/financial reports
They were discussed. In principle it was agreed that these would be a good thing. There were issues with implementation as the info is not currently kept in this format. There was no consensus to actually implement this format, and when a vote was taken, 4 SC members Abstained. The general sense of the SC was that we wanted the Fundraising and Finance Committees to look at the suggestions in Marnie’s proposal and report back to us about how best to update our reporting system. We shall return to this issue.
Executive Session. There were no issues referred to executive session, and therefore no executive session took place.
Check out.
Ben explained checkout process.
Greg had questions about the minutes process. Who needs to see what, when are they sent to CC, etc. (Dean followed up with an email explanation the next day, but Greg still has lots of questions, both around acceptance of short versions for posting and melding the notes of two note takers, and should we just post short versions or do we need to post long and short versions. Further discussion is needed)
Badilli expressed regrets for not making it to DC meeting and reported that he should be able to be fully involved in the future now that job situation is getting straightened out.
All others expressed that they felt call was productive and close to on time.
Adjourn 11:10 PM
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green