GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 11 February 2018
SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS:
GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 11 February 2018
1. Standing Business: Treasurer’s Report, Fundraising Report, Liaison Reports
2. New Business: SC involvement in state party issues
3. Voting Queue – https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/login
Received for the Queue:
Coordinated Campaign Committee Election: Presenter: Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC); Floor Manager – TBD; Ranked Choice Vote; Secret Ballot Revealed at Close of Polls; Discussion – 2 weeks, Voting – 1 week
In the Queue:
2018 GPUS Annual Budget; Presenter: SC; Floor Manager Gloria; 1/2+1 threshold; discussion Voting 12 – 18 February
4. Old Business: Review of pending agenda items
5. Executive Session: 2018 Budget – Staffing discussions update, etc.
The full minutes are available at http//gpus.org/committees/steering/minutes/february-11-2018/
The call recording is available at 712-451-0309, 926334#, reference 15
Jody Grage, Secretary
GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 11 February 2018
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min.
a) Facilitator: Frank Young
b) Roll call: Jody Grage, Darryl! Moch, Hillary Kane, Gloria Mattera, Chris Blankenhorn, Mike Dennis, Darlene Elias, Andrea Merida (6 pm)
Observers: Kirit Mookerjee VA, Starlene Rankin OR, Tamar Yager VA
c) Agenda revision suggestions – none
II. NEW BUSINESS – 10 min
SC involvement in state party issues – Gloria – 10 min
Need for clarity since there are personal connections and contacts as well as connections through state officers; SC is an administrative rather than a leadership body; discussed need proposal to the NC to clarify SC authority and responsibility in relationships with states/caucuses which will allow us to be more effective; when SC member(s) engage with states should do so within the SC role with notification to SC of request and within guidelines for involvement and with a report back; considerations -: How political is it? About what is advise being sought? etc.: could use tracking system; agenda item for virtual retreat
III. STANDING BUSINESS – 40 min.
a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane, 10 min.
Treasurer’s Reports to the GNC – completed through November, Hillary will get them on the website for NC review
Account balances: reserve $74,430.46, basic checking $21,987.56, checking for income $15,028.80, total $111,446.82 – down from $112k last call; $6300 in Paypal
$18k for 2017 ANM owed and paid by Stein 2016 campaign – last SC voted to put into operating reserves – which aim for 3 month reserve or $60k currently – funds still in regular checking and reserve is at recommended level; suggestion for proposal to NC on whether or not to move $18k to reserves
Discussion about rolling over unspent caucus money in 2017 budget to reserve funds – Jody will call Jeff and review SC minutes to clarify and seek documentation since not allowed by Fiscal Policy – Jeff doesn’t remember any agreement and only reference in SC minutes is from 6 Nov 2016: Consensus items – Requests for caucus budgets were reduced to $1K per caucus, as Fiscal Policy requires caucuses to do much of their own fundraising; Hillary will be working on determining what funds have come in for reserves for
committees and caucuses in the last several months
b) Fundraising report – Mike Dennis – 5 min.
Recent eblast results: Trump eblast (Feb 10): $1,198.30, Iceland/Equal Pay + Red vs. Green button
test (Feb 7): Less than $200 total so not a good test; SOTU resend (Feb 3): $1238.00 Notable that
re-send got more than original, SOTU (Jan 29): $431.20
Ongoing FundComm projects:
–FundComm continues to recruit volunteers to help with committee operations. 3 new volunteer writers onboarded this month. One has written 2 eblasts already and the others are working on them right now. We also have a data entry volunteer and several volunteers will be hand-addressing donor thank you notes.
–Major Donor Outreach Plan is being written that includes a Call Script. Gathering data from NB on Major donors. Alison Baldree from the FundCom will train our callers.
–Putting final touches on new FB ad campaign with “Go Green in 2018” sticker.to gather more email addresses from our 160k Facebook followers and encourage them to become small donors with a reward.
–Creating a “How to Fundraise” Toolkit for states, locals, and caucuses.
— Onboarding new Green voters from NationBuilder from states that did list swap with national.
–Still putting Green vote files obtained from state Secretary of State offices into Nationbuilder and doing an email append to increase our email reach.—Will be implementing “CaringCents” in the coming months, a program successfully used by the Stein/Baraka campaign in the final month. Allows donors to opt-in to rounding up to the nearest dollar anytime they use their card to make a purchase.
—Working on next direct mail for March.
–Early planning of ANM Fundraising Event – finally found a good venue that is accessible, can give a cash bar, has lighting and sound, etc.
c) Liaison reports – 20 min.
Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC) – Gloria Mattera – doing its work including
webinars, election proposal received for queue – need vetting for a few more candidates – discussion of vetting process in general; need bios assembled for proposal – discussion of use of lengthy application material or request for shorter bios
Diversity – Darlene – Excellent anti oppression training in Philadelphia December 2017, with train the trainer model; NJ and CT interested in having trainings soon, hope to have in MA; question about rolling over unspent 2017 budgeted funds to 2018; concerns that 2018 budget cuts may limit diverse participation at ANM
Green Pages – Chris – recently finished an issue so lull in activity
Presidential Campaign Support Committee (PCSC) – Chris – not much activity at this time, still need debrief from 2016
Platform – Darryl! – working on revisions, formatting, etc. which may cause delays: IL needs info on status of its planks
Dispute Resolution – Darryl! – committee functions on demand, currently uptick in membership and in requests; both parties must be willing to participate which is often problematic; looking at forming Truth and Reconciliation Commission perhaps under Black Caucus
Media – Darryl! – continuing its work
FinCom – Darryl! – very active and productive
IV. VOTING QUEUE (https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/login) – Jody – 5 min.
Received for the queue:
Coordinated Campaign Committee Election: Presenter: Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC); Floor Manager – Andrea; Ranked Choice Vote; Secret Ballot Revealed at Close of Polls; Discussion – 2 weeks, Voting – 1 week
Background: The Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC) is a standing committee of the GPUS that cooperates with state and local chapters in the support of federal, state, and local Green Party electoral campaigns through a variety of different programs and support functions.
The Coordinated Campaign Committee is composed of 10 voting members drawn from affiliated state parties. CCC members are selected annually by the members of the National Committee, and may be members of that committee or of an affiliated state party; no state shall have in excess of one member on the CCC. Vacancies on the CCC are filled by the Steering Committee. The members of the CCC annually elect up to three co-chairs from among its members.
There are 7 positions open at this time: seats for 4 women and 3 men. Candidates must be nominated in writing by their state parties and accept their nomination by the end of the nomination period. No write-ins are allowed.
Candidate Information: Available soon
In the queue:
2018 GPUS Annual Budget; Presenter: SC; Floor Manager Gloria; 1/2+1 threshold; Voting 12 – 18 February
V. OLD BUSINESS – 45 min
Review pending agenda items – very brief updates as available – 10 min
1. Staff computer purchase protocol recommendation from FinCom – Hillary
2. SC Strategic planning virtual retreat – 24 & 25 March – Gloria, Darryl!
Will have more information after this coming week
3. Election database Phase II and III update – Hillary
Mike said to expect more complete report from Kendra but it has not been received; was to have been completed by end of 2017
4. Voting page maintenance/Tech issues update – Chris
No objections raised to request for use by a state
5. ETC Final Report – Darryl!
Close to completion and may have been sent the last few days
End recording of call 9:30 Eastern
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION – 30 min.
Roll call: Jody, Darryl!, Hillary, Gloria, Chris, Mike, Darlene, Andrea
Chris – facilitator
2018 Budget – Staffing discussions update, etc.
No decisions made
Call ended at 11 pm Eastern
TOTAL TIME: 3 hours
Jody Grage, Secretary