GPUS Steering Committee Minutes, 12 November 2017
SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS:
1. New Business: Confirmation of endorsement of and planning for 19 November Unity March for Puerto Rico in DC; Discussion of draft letter to AFL-CIO and other unions inviting them to discuss collaboration on electoral reform;
Discussion of location on gp.org for candidate statements/press releases
2. Standing Business: Treasurer’s Report, Fundraising Report, Personnel Working Group discussion
3. Voting Queue: For the Queue: Proposal for GPUS to join the United Nations Antiwar Coalition (UNAC); Presenter: GPAX; Floor Manager: Gloria Mattera; 1/2 threshold, Discussion 11/20/17-12/10/17; Voting 12/11/17-12/17/17; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GLHdK2lUCPkud5Si9ApICpb7R_XwyN-p/view?usp=sharing
4. Old Business: Progressive Independent Party report,, Review of pending agenda items
5. Executive Session: Decisions: Personnel Working Group will consist of staff supervisors and those doing HR functions (Hillary at this time); Gloria and Hillary will handle negotiations with the union with recommendations taken back to staff and SC
The full minutes are available at http://gpus.org/committees/steering/minutes/november-12-2017/
The call recording is available at 712-451-0309, 926334#, reference 10
Jody Grage, Secretary
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GPUS Steering Committee Minutes, 12 November 2017
MINUTES:
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min.
a) Facilitator: Charles Sherrouse
b) Roll call – Hillary Kane, Jody Grage, Gloria Mattera, Darlene Elias, Mike Dennis, Darryl! Moch, Chris Blankenhorn; Absent – George Martin, Andrea Merida
Observers – Starlene Rankin OR, David Gerry MA, Tamar Yager VA,
c) Agenda revision suggestions – Add under Treasurer’s Report: FunCom (Fundraising Committee budget request from Mike; Add to New Business – Discussion of location on gp.org for candidate statements/press releases; Add to Old Business – People’s Independent Party report – Darryl! and Gloria
II. NEW BUSINESS – 10 min
a) Endorsement of 19 November Unity March for Puerto Rico in DC – Darlene
Endorsement confirmed; focus on repealing the Jones Act; buses being organized for Greens and others – 7-10k expected; donations coming in to meet logistic needs; consensus to approve $200 (budget line to be determined) to assure Green speaker spot; request for media this coming week, Darlene will write text and work on Facebook page; targeted eblast to areas getting bus pickups; Darlene will research getting 25-30 GP shirts and banners; Jody will send GPUS official communication requesting GP speaker in a central part of the agenda
b) Letter to AFL-CIO and other unions inviting conversation with GPUS on electoral reform – Mike
Draft document being crafted, consensus to proceed
c) Discussion of location on gp.org for candidate statements/press releases – Gloria
Consider a disclaimer such as: These are statement and press releases from local candidates and do not necessarily represent positions of GPUS; perhaps on the Newsroom page; reposting is an explicit endorsement; may need improved vetting process; discussion to continue online
III. STANDING BUSINESS – 35 min.
a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane, 20 min.
Bank accounts – savings – $74,397.33, basic checking $27,529.01, checking for merch, etc. $42,432.85 – total $144,359.19
Treasurer’s Report to the GNC – income side still needed to complete; expenses Sep $20k up in Oct to $40k because of health care and salary adjustment, Ballot Access Committee expenditures, and several reimbursements
Budget requests: FunCom – Mike – up to $16k in 4 budget lines for direct mail, fundraising almost always at least breaks even – consensus; text of proposal:
PROPOSAL: Allow FunCom to spend up to the remaining amount for lines 30-32 (all direct mail/direct mail postage related), which have $16,019 remaining for 2017, on year-end direct mails.
Background for SC before the call: We have a year-end direct mail with George’s name on it ready to go with free tote bag offer for donors of $100+ or sustainers of $10+ monthly.
After this is sent, we will see the remaining amount and consider sending to state lists that we have been given (New York, Delaware, etc). Possible small test of registered Greens in one of those states (likely NY) to see how the return is on people who are neither on GPUS nor state list.
Direct mails have already returned over $1 in profit for every $1 spent. However, we do not yet have the numbers for the most recent mailings signed by Jill & by myself, we’ve at least broken even. There is no history to suggest otherwise for year-end mailings.
Also, all mailings will have a link to gp.org/survey where we will collect what issues people are interested in, how they want to volunteer, if they want to join a caucus, pledge a donation, or become a sustainer. Therefore, we will also hopefully be harvesting data that is useful not only for fundraising segmentation in the future (target people with topics of interest to them), also gathering phone/email contact information for people on voter lists which then would go back to states because of list-sharing agreements, but also for volunteering and caucus efforts. These selections import directly into our Nationbuilder database.
Annual National Meeting final report – done by 31 December
b) Fundraising report – Starlene Rankin, 5 min.
Donations from Eblasts are picking up – October $4097, November so far: $3205; eblasts since last call – $2008, $2397, $802 with total new sustainers – 43 giving $588 per month – total first time donors 120; Ballot Access eblast $1487 – two more before end of year; direct mail donations entered so far- Oct 17 $2173, Nov 1 $5553 – new Direct Mail going out this week – appreciation theme with tote bag for monthly donation; phone banking about ready – new volunteers using CallHub; lists received for DE, IL, OR and coming from NY, GA, MA, ME, MO, IA; ordering voter registration lists – have NY, FL, OR; working on new FB ad with new sticker for incentive to click – 15 design volunteers have offered ideas and actual designs; switched to PayPal to stop spam donations – Tamar and David Doonan meeting with MB expert; Viggo Mortensen donated $2500 on line
c) Personnel Working Group update – Darryl!, 5 min.
Conference call will be scheduled soon, decision during Executive Session that membership will be limited to staff supervisors and SC members performing Human Relations functions with committees for hiring and interviewing formed as the need arises
IV. VOTING QUEUE – Jody – 5 min.
In the queue: None
Received for the queue:
Proposal for GPUS to join the United Nations Antiwar Coalition (UNAC); Presenter: GPAX; Floor Manager: Gloria; 1/2 threshold, Discussion 11/20/17-12/10/17; Voting 12/11/17-12/17/17;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GLHdK2lUCPkud5Si9ApICpb7R_XwyN-p/view?usp=sharing
V. OLD BUSINESS – 15 min
a) Progressive Independence Party report – Darryl! and Gloria – Araquel Bloss of PIP on conference call with original people from the strategy session, Gloria represented GP; Araquel willing to work with GP, Justice Party, Left Elect and SA going forward but Bernie people will not be included; pushing for groups to fold into PIP which GP not planning to do; Movement to Build an independent Peoples Party is distancing itself from Dems and Bernie; in person meeting in DC 28 November to get better acquainted may happen
b) ETC Final Report – Committee – 5 min – no update
c) List of pending agenda items – very brief updates as necessary – 10 min
1. Staff equipment purchase protocol recommendation from FinCom – FinCom has not yet considered
2. Strategic planning scheduling – George leading process, no update
3. Speakers Bureau – Chris/Darryl! – no update
4. Election database Phase II and III update – Hillary – quarterly installments are $1093.75, next one due soon, project to be finished by 31 December
5. Voting page maintenance/Tech issues update – Chris – Hugh sent another bill that has been been paid
Recording ended at 9:34 pm Eastern
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Roll call: Hillary, Gloria, Darryl!, Chris, Darlene, Jody, Mike, Andrea (9:45); absent – George
Decisions:
A. Personnel Working Group will consist of staff supervisors and those doing HR functions (Hillary at this time)
B. Gloria and Hillary will handle negotiations with the union with recommendations taken back to staff and SC
Executive Session ended 11:40 pm Eastern
TOTAL TIME: 3 hours 40 minutes
Jody Grage, Secretary