GPUS-SC Conference Call
8 August 2005
Participants:
Jody, Gwen, Brent, Marc, Rebecca, Jake, Holly, Steve
Guests: Jo Chamberlain, former SC co-chair – 8:30p; Allan Kaufman, John Rensenbrink, for the International Committee – 8:45p
Facilitator: Jody
Timekeeper: Steve
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. Jo Chamberlain reported on her work as SC co-chair involving outreach to Muslim Community.
She has been actively involved in outreach primarily with the American Muslim Association (AMA) in coalition with the CA Civil Rights Alliance civilrightsforall.net, a coalition of 20-30 religious, civic and non-profit organizations working to repeal the USA Patriot act. Activities involve press releases, conferences and assemblies of various kinds. AMA president, Dr Saeed, is involved with research. Her understanding from attending meetings nationally and in CA is that the Muslim community is very open to registering with the Green Party where possible, and voting for Green candidates. They have no great feelings toward the Republicans, a lack of trust for the Democrats. A large minority (30-40% ?) estimated of the 7-10 million US Muslims may be leaning Green where they have options to register Green and/or voting for Green candidates. GPCA will be running a Muslim candidate in 2006, probably against Sen. Diane Feinstein.
Jo has attended national meetings as SC co-chair to speak to large conventions (40,000 in Chicago last year), then in Florida during the presidential campaign. Throughout the campaign, Dr. Saeed and a large number of their leadership tried hard to prevent endorsement of Kerry. There was a lot of difficulty within the group over this. Kerry staff was there; they had booths. Jo advises that Green Party needs booths, presence at their conventions, and we are welcome to do do so; she would like to see the GP do this in the future.
II. Mr Minto, president of the National Workers’ Party in Pakistan, recently visited the US.
The GPUS SC sent a letter of felicitation and Jo attended a meeting in Newark, NJ where there were staff members from Pete Stark’s office, and state senators, representatives from political parties and civic groups present; Jo and Peter Camejo were given the lead presentation. They were asked to put together a resolution, now changed to a Memorandum of Understanding, which states the GPUS and NWP share certain values. It was planned to present this in Tulsa. Julia Willebrand, co-chair of the International Committee asked them not to do so, because the IC wanted to coordinate with Green Party of Pakistan. Jo asks whether IC has gone forward with contacting GP of Pakistan yet, or not and says Dr. Saeed has called several times to ask about it. He has invited Jo and/or other GP leaders to Pakistan to an upcoming NWP meeting. Jo recommended sending an SC co-chair. Her work in outreach as SC co-chair with Muslim Community moved into a situation of international interaction – the question now is how the SC wants so interact with the IC on this. She would like to see SC continue that outreach and will be available for assistance, as needed. She has told Dr. Saeed that another liaison would be appointed.
Questions/Discussion
The relationship to the Green Party of Pakistan?
Jo wasn’t sure whether the IC has contacted the GP of Pakistan concerning the MoU; governments in these countries involve more than two parties, so it is possible parties would be able to work in coalition, we could possible help facilitate this.
The expectations of the AMA as far as a timetable, and a concern about the issue of child labor.
Jo said communications with the AMA need to proceed as soon as possible; a delay may be interpreted as a lack of interest; they need to know we’re working on process.
Child labor issue?
Jo said this was something Dr Saeed specifically brought up. There is no one in Pakistan [presumably in these political parties] who supports child labor; however, this is a country where it remains necessary for all family members to work just to put food on the table. The intention is eventually to not have people working who should be in school, but at this point in time, it’s necessary just to provide food. Mr. Minto talked about a policy for school age children for a 6-hr work, 4-hr school day; to bridge poverty and development.
Concerns
Alan Kaufman, IC co-chair, noted that the IC received no information about the MoU, who was negotiating it, or the organization(s) involved; the IC is the diplomatic arm of the GP. There has never been any MoU issued between GPUS and any international party, Green or otherwise, so the IC has some concerns about this. Does it makes sense to have a MoU for this, especially given as the GPUS has never done that even with another Green Party? What would be the standard? Would it be the responsibility of the IC to develop and propose to SC?
Question of what ties GPUS has with the GP-Pakistan?
Could we make them aware of MoU, get input and feedback? Recommendation that this be discussed in the IC, there should be a process before closure.
Suggestion to move on this, that SC appoint new liaison to AMA as Muslim outreach, and have the IC follow up on this issue with the AMA and GP of Pakistan. Muslim outreach and MoU are two separate items.
IC should start discussing the MoU, GPUS SC should appoint a liaison to the AMA, talk with each other, exchange information.
ACTION
GWEN – PROPOSAL, based on her and John’s suggestions:
— The IC, especially the co-chairs, contact Dr. Saeed and keep in contact with AMA
— keep in contact with Jo regarding outreach to the Muslim community
— the IC will discuss the MoU and come up with a proposal concerning use of such; eventually, it will go too the NC to decide whether use is ever appropriate
— the IC will get in touch with the Green Party of Pakistan about this issue
APPROVED by Consensus
APPROVED by Consensus – that Steve Kramer will serve as SC Muslim outreach liaison; Alan Kaufman (also chair of the national Rebuilding Alliance) will also be in contact with AMA as representative from the IC.
III. STAFF REPORTS
1) Lease options on D.C. office. Discussion about how long to renew the lease. Concerns about having to switch office space during a presidential election season. Other space on the floor is occupied by Wilderness Society; it is unknown at this time what their plans are concerning their space.
PROPOSAL – to change the budget to cover the monthly rent increase, and stay where we are. Possibly include a line item in the budget.
Jake – this will be a proposal [to] the NC, and will cover the whole term of the lease. We need to do that before the lease is up. Steve notes the longer term we have, the less cost per year. Suggestion of trying to get a 42-month lease to avoid election season, and of having a Plan B if needed.
RECOMMENDATION – Kale and Emily will pursue talks with landlord. Go for a couple months less than 5 years to avoid election season.
Suggestion to look to a site in MD or nearby area. Noted that rules are that if the office moves from DC, all states must be notified, more may want to make a bid.
RECOMMEND broadening discusson to NC and FinCom, not as agenda item, but a question in need of input. Can we afford it? Afford more? Are we going to need more space, more staff in 4-5 years?
2) Brent – CCC report
Current issue: finding 5 new members; will continue to take names ’til 9/1; SC will be ready to move forward with appointing 5 new members to CCC.
CCC is starting to look at which campaigns to apply resources to for fall elections; only a few have applied, 5 or 6 more applicants at least are expected. CCC has notified FinCom co-chairs that they have a budget in the works.
Question of whether it is advisable that CCC plays an advisory role on selection if there are more than 5 candidates? Brent said CCC does not want to take a hand in the selection.
3) Jake:
I will be asking the SC on it’s conference call Monday night to transfer $14971 from the Sovereign Bank account to the Suntrust Bank account to do the payables on this treasurer’s report of approximately $18000 which will leave 2 months of expenditures in the reserve account.
APPROVAL by Consensus
Funds from the convention are still coming in. So are bills.
IV. SC co-chair vote
Discussion noted that the issue was predicated on whether the votes had been counted. Results tell us Tom Sevigny was elected. SC must notify the NC and follow to the rules to the letter.
Question of whether or not Tom resigned. Would Budd have obtained threshold if Tom had withdrawn, or if Tom was elected then resigned? Yes on the first question, No on the second.
Agreed we need the e-mails from Phil Huckelberry and Jonathon Lundell explaining the situation send this to the NC with a message stating we agree with their analysis.
Question of whether we could keep election schedule we have now on track. However, we don’t have that option: either Tom is elected or Tom withdrew; if he resigns, then we have to start the clock over again. If he withdrew, then Budd is elected.
Marc – agree with Steve on timetable; would be nice to keep the same timetable, but we don’t want an illegitimate election or process in eyes of anyone on NC. Tom is elected; if he resigns, it won’t be a tragedy if we don’t have the fourth co-chair in DC.
DECISION
Steve – need to note that the election went through.
ACTION – Secretary will notify the NC of the real election results. Election team (Phil Huckelberry and Jonathon Lundell) will be asked to send an explanation information as needed.
APPROVAL for both items by Consensus
V . Voting Queue (Holly) -3 items coming up
DECISION – SC is now holding calls Monday nights, but decided to stick to the current timetable: Secretary will send note of upcoming proposals in the voting queue during the week following a call. The formal discussion period will start, as usual, on the following Sunday, with notices assigning a voting queue number and announcing discussion and voting periods being sent per the usual timeline.
1 – Nat’l Meeting Mintues – – need formal NC approval
2 – Proposal coming from MI – endorse WI’s call for “Get Out Now” initiative
3 – Proposal coming from WI – proportional voting mandated for presidential nominating convention
VI. Web update (Holly) – brief news of current web work;
– question of seeking legal advice on copyright issues; Emily’s father is the resource for this
– compilation of what we have, who owns it, who runs it; maybe first time this info is all in one place
– new “service” page: Organizing Tools and Resources, developed by Deirdre Helfferich
http://www.gp.org/organize/
Question – who should maintain this and who has responsibility for content?
Suggestion that GPUS form an IT committee; long overdue Need to come up with separate identities for Communications Committee and It, per committee members’ wishes.
Code Weavers exist because CommCom wasn’t interested in things like software development, etc. Web team came about because no one else wanted to deal with content – informal web team (includes reps from Media, Platform and more) deals with content. IT team that Emily is working on starting will put forth a proposal for a new IT Committee [IT-Com??] – developing architecture and structure of web site, local parties, pay-on-line, and functionalities; they are not interested in content.
ACTION
Steve will come up with proposal for IT infrastructure for GPUS, run by codeweavers and Emily; Holly will continue with web content team.
VII. September 24th Unity Statement (Rebecca, Jody)
UFPJ has called for a march on Washington on September 24rth. ANSWER has made another call and sent out a “unity” statement. G-PAX has endorsed the statement. Rebecca asks for directions from SC in terms of what we feel GP position should be on this involvement and whether GPUS as a whole should sign on to the statement.
Questions about GP relationship with these organizations, positions on occupation of Palestine.
Concern expressed that if we buy into this, does it mean we withdraw from UFPJ? Rebecca said no; it means we’re not taking sides, more or less accepting the fact that both groups have a common interest.
General interest in looking closer at the issues behind the UFPJ/ANSWER conflict and not to change GPUS relation with UFPJ unless there is a compelling reason. Concern expressed that, in taking this action, we would be committing ourselves to support for actions that GPUS does not actually support?
ACTION – Tabled, to be on agenda for next SC conference call in two weeks.
VII. F2F meeting in September (Jody)
Question of SC taking part in the March on Washington that weekend
Discussion of SC members’ schedules, options on taking part in the march worked around SC meeting, priorities for meeting, whether to meet a different weekend or try to schedule so members could take part in the march, and the possibility that we might not have a full SC.
Funding – there is a budget item for some expenditures for SC adminsitrative purposes due to unforeseen costs and for administrative purposes without prior approval of NC.
Jody asked Brent to come up with schedule of events, and see if SC could organize F2F around this?
TABLED – will figure out more online and on next call.
IX. SPWG
Met on Sunday via conference call to discuss next steps. Marc and Brent are working on a draft to propose ongoing committee work. Basic discussion is on polishing up the Tulsa report, corrections, files to go out to the state parties, corrupted data retrieval, material left out, spreadsheets made available which will help people digest data; developing regional analyses, contacting states that weren’t present in Tulsa; basic .pdf of written report, spreadsheet and power point presentation readied so this could be presented to state parties and locals; committee members could go to meeting to present this, as well.
The Strategic Plan was a 3 step process. Only Step 1 has been completed. Proposal is to enable committee to continue to work, to move into strategic and organization planning. They anticipate more politicization than occurred with the original survey, and want to show work being done through due process. There is not fujll consensus about carrying out the breakdown of the next steps. They may break down into steps in the proposal brought back to the NC to be voted on to make sure ideas are vetted before moving forward; stages would be built on prevous stages, and would need proper support: for instance, a vision statement, mission statement, basic SWOT analysis, may need to go back and do more in order to complete the original 3-step process and make the full depth of the data available. They may want to re-populate the committee, which is now down to a core of about 5 active members. They would like the full 10-member committee, plus advisors.
How can they re-populate the committee? People have balked when looking at workload….
There have some questions on when he results of the survey will be made public? [NOTE: read the above and volunteer to help out.]
X. Portfolio reports –
FINANCE (Jake, Marc): FinCom, FunCom
Jake: working on 2006 budget starting with working group;
Marc – FunCom had first meeting since Tulsa. Marc agreed to temporarily serve as co-chair; in exchange, committee will do aggressive outreach; Rebecca Weber agreed tentatively to co-chair; they are putting together list of projects for 2006, starting to move on fundraising plan.
ELECTORAL (Steve): CCC, Office Holders Network, PCSC, Legal Team
Steve – CCC – some discussion concerning whether Steve would continue with this portfolio, whether this would be seen as too much involvement by his state (since one other MD member was elected to CCC); no news on ON; PCSC.
Legal team – still needing legal counsel for GPUS, not yet gotten update, Emily is pursuing this. Brent will have Steve subscribed to ON listserv.
Jody -mild nagging: need input about portfolio reorganization, weigh in how split it up.
POLICY (Gwen): Platform, Peace, Intnl, DC – no news
OUTREACH (?): Media, Green Pages, Merchandise, Campus Greens – no news
INTERNAL (Jody): Personnel, Dispute Resolution, BRPP, Accreditation, ComCom, Event Planning
Jody – AC has made contact with Montana, which may be accredited soon; CommCom may be revising itself; the need for listserv moderation seems to be spiraling upward; BRPP is in process of electing co-chairs; Personnel has at least 3 people; event planning in shakedown phase, nothing new known on DRC
XI. Black Caucus
ACTION SC special conference call will be scheduled for August 16 on this single issue, for informational purposes.
There have been questions on what happened to funds allocated to the BC for the Black Tour of America in 2002?
Nothing was ever spent . Any more questions can be referred to the Treasurer.
XII. Tulsa reports from committees/events
Holly has forwarded to SC all reports that have come in so far. A few more are in the works.
ACTION – Holly will send to the SC a list of those who’ve sent in reports and those who haven’t, as well as an updated set of reports, as they are trickling in.
XIV. Portfolio Reorganization
Some thoughts, a few tweaks, but not major reorganization
PROPOSAL – that SC consens on portfolio by the end of the week, and make wishes as to what portfolio members want by the end of the following week. Changes will be taken up on the next call.
XV. Prioritizing leftover agenda items – TABLED
NEXT CALLS –
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 9 p.m. EDT
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 9 p.m. EDT
Holly will put out a schedule for SC conference calls through the end of the year Any call landing on the third Monday of a month will start at 8 p.m. ET – other calls being at 9 p.m. ET.
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS
8/15/05
Minimally edited and HTML formatted by Charlie Green