GPUS Steering Committee Minutes
Sunday, January 22, 2017 – 8:00 p.m. ET
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND
a) Facilitator: Frank Young
b) To listen to call: 712-451-0019, access code 926334, ref #19 (75 min.)
c) Roll Call: Chris Blankenhorn, , Sanda Everette, Jan Martell, Andrea Merida, Tamar Yager, Bahram Zandi (joined late). Not present: Brian Bittner, Darlene Elias (traveling), Darryl! Moch. Observing: Starlene Rankin, David Geller.
d) Agenda revisions: Green Rainbow Party request to pull proposals in discussion was added to Voting Queue agenda item.
II. NEW BUSINESS
None
III. STANDING BUSINESS
a) Treasurer’s Report, including update on the Treasurer – Darryl! and Brian both absent from the call, so no report was made.
b) Fundraising Report – Tamar is waiting for end-of-year info to be complete before making report. There’s an e-blast and a letter in planning stages. She said that Fundcom was having trouble getting Greenline done, it isn’t really a Fundcom job, would be better for Outreach Committee. There has been at least one volunteer on the Media list to work on it, so they should get vetted by their state parties for Outreach and help populate that committee, which hasn’t been busy lately. Darlene is liaison. Andrea asked for an update on the campaign database transfer; Starlene said that Koz is getting it FEC compliant & Mike Dennis will clean it up with tags. Should be ready soon.
c) Personnel WG Report – Tamar. SC approved an online proposal to hire Adrian Boutureira for the Political Organizer position with a 90-day probation period.
VOTING QUEUE
In the queue:
856 – 2017 Budget
857 – Confirmation of Ahmed El Touny as Global Greens delegate
858 – Confirmation of John Rensenbrink as Global Greens delegate
859 – Confirmation of Bahram Zandi as Global Greens delegate
860 – Confirmation of Julie Saporito-Acuna as Global Greens alternate
861 – Confirmation of Vivek Ananthan as Global Greens alternate
David Gerry of GRP of MA requested the SC pull props 857-861, as it had come to their attention that the IC had accepted for membership 2 Greens from MA who had not been vetted by the state party. After discussion SC members decided that the objections were technical rather than substantive, and could be resolved without interfering with the elections. Andrea proposed that we encourage the IC, through our liaison (Sanda), to get appointment verification for the 5 delegates in the queue, and to ask Maggie Zhou to withdraw from the committee pending future reappointment by her state party – approved by consensus.
Received for the queue:
CA proposal for Electoral Reform Committee – this proposal was submitted after the 6-day deadline, but SC members had no objection to considering it for the queue. There were no findings, so it will proceed to the NC. Sanda will be Floor Manager.
IV. OLD BUSINESS
a) Approval of retreat agenda – Tamar. The draft agenda was sent as a Google doc with an invitation to post comments online.
b) Decision to join North Carolina ballot access lawsuit – Jan. This had been introduced in the last meeting, and further documentation had been requested. Members were satisfied that GPUS could participate without financial obligations, and so it was approved. Further arrangements of details can be handled by the Ballot Access Committee.
V. EXECUTIVE SESSION
None
Before closing, Sanda asked whether we should set a vacancy election for Treasurer, as Brian has not communicated in well over a month. Members decided to proceed formally — send a certified letter first, set elections later. In the mean time Fincom can cover the Treasurer duties – they are requested to provide a detailed checklist of activities and who will be handling what, to be taken up on Monday’s call.
Jan Martell
Secretary