GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 23 September 2018
SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS:
1. New Business: CCC recommendation for $5000 from IT budget for Phase III of the Elections Database approved; Outreach Committee request for $300 for 250 pennants for Women’s March approved; Merchandise Committee request for $1025 for buttons for caucuses approved
2. Standing Business: Treasurer’s Report (Treasurer’s Reports to the GNC available at https://gpus.org/treasurers-reports/); Fundraising Report; Fundraising Consultant update
3. Voting Queue – https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/login
In the queue: Platform Amendments – Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Agriculture and Climate Change, Progressive Global Wealth Tax, Ethical treatment of Animals in Sports, Education, HIV-AIDS, 2017 Platform Amendments: Climate Change and the Green New Deal, Ecological Wisdom and Population
Received for the queue: Proposals will go into the queue on 12 November – consensus; 2018 Platform Amendments – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Civil Rights and Equal Rights; Fukushima-Daiichi -Seven Years Later Response with Open Letters
Online SC Proposals approved since last call and sent to the NC: None
4. Old Business: Strategic Planning meeting, ETC Report, Freshdesk, ANM summary, letter from SC to Green Uprising, Accreditation Committee voting method and member rights of voting proposal failed
5. Executive Session: None
The full minutes are available at http://gpus.org/committees/steering/minutes/September-23-2018/
The call recording is available at 712-451-0309, 926334#, reference 31 and https://gpus.org/steering-committee-recordings/
Jody Grage, Secretary
GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 23 September 2018
AGENDA:
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min
a) Facilitator: Sid Smith
b) Roll call – Joy Davis, Hillary Kane, Jody Grage, Violet Rose Zitola, Margaret Flowers, Andrea Merida, Anita Rios, Tony Ndege; Absent Gloria Mattera
Observers – Tamar Yager VA, Starlene Rankin OR/Staff
c) Agenda revision suggestions – New Business: $300 for 250 Green Party pennants for the Women’s March
II. NEW BUSINESS – 10 min
a} CCC recommendation for $5000 from IT budget for Phase III of the Elections Database
The database is a critical component of our ability to track, archive and research Green elections, not only for Greens but for political science scholarship, historians and other research. Further, the capability to track, archive and provide data on Green elections and officeholders an important measure of the Green Party’s effectiveness and credibility as a political party.
IT budgeted for $5k budgeted, will increase functionality and appearance, will enable state liaisons to log in and update information leading to increased analysis possibilities – consensus to approve with Andrea standing aside
Hillary read the report on the Ohio Campaign School, request to make the materials produced available for other states, request for improved description of campaign schools in the future
b) Outreach Committee funding request – $300 for 250 pennants for Women’s March – Tony – Will encourage donations to offset expense from Line 126 Supplies budget of $750 of which $115 has been spent – consensus to authorize
c) Merchandise Committee funding request – Anita Buttons for caucuses – $1025 including possibly some shipping charges for small orders, $0 in Merchandise budget because of fulfillment house system but have already reached $6000 income budgeted for MerchCom in 2018 – consensus to approve
III. STANDING BUSINESS – 20 min
a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane – 10 min.
Treasurer’s Reports to the GNC available at https://gpus.org/treasurers-reports/
In all accounts $96019.32; Savings/Reserves $96,018.32; Checking #1 $15,421.92; Checking #2
$958.71; plus PayPal: $5637.79; holding steady with reserves at needed amount; revenue on track
at 67% of budgeted income and percentage of year, expenses also on track
Merchandise Committee funding request – Anita
buttons for caucuses – $1025 including possibly some shipping charges for small orders, $0 in Merchandise budget because of fulfillment house but have already reached $6000 income budgeted for MerchCom in 2018 – consensus to approve request
b) Fundraising report – Gloria – 5 min.
August Income: $15,530, September Income to Date: Sept 1-23: $7,240.96
October Direct Mail letter is in the works. Sutton helped with the copy and recommended lists to pull. To be mailed to a random sample of 5000 registered voters in CA plus other donors totaling about 10,000 addresses; increased cost with increased returns expected; 2nd this year with 4 budgeted.
RoundUps on CC: 22 donors; GreenCents Twitter: 21 donors
Eblasts: Sustainer: $78 (7 new sustainers = $936 per year)
Eblast Topics: Sustainers, Sept GreenLine, Rapid Response
OnBoarding new Signups continues
Fundraising Consultant update – Hillary, Gloria – see above
IV. VOTING QUEUE – Jody – 5 min.
(https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/login)
In the queue:
Platform Amendments – Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Agriculture and Climate Change, Progressive Global Wealth Tax, Ethical treatment of Animals in Sports, Education, HIV/Aids, Climate Change and the Green New Deal, Ecological Wisdom and Population
Received for the queue: Proposals will go into the queue on 12 November – consensus; 2018 Platform Amendments – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity – Floor Manager Anita, Civil Rights and Equal Rights – Floor Manager Joy; Fukushima-Daiichi -Seven Years Later Response with Open Letters – Floor Manager Joy
Online SC Proposals approved since last call and sent to the NC: None
V. OLD BUSINESS – 40 min.
a) Strategic Planning meeting – Gloria and Margaret – will talk again on 28 September, then will send info to SC for online discussion leading to proposal for next call, possibility of DC meeting noted
b) ETC Report – ETC has collected nearly all the ballot key reports, call scheduled 29 September; after all ballots have been added to the vote results page NC member will have a week to confirm their ballots after which the report will be completed; final report may be ready for the next SC call
c) Freshdesk – Andrea – no update, would like to pass this off to someone; Violet is helping with some of the workload
d) ANM summary update – Margaret – Tamar says should be completed by the next call
e) Letter from SC to Green Uprising – Margaret, Gloria, Violet – Margaret contacted Teresa Amato who recommended getting responses from two FEC people, Oliver Hall recommended as lawyer by Margaret and Hillary, Margaret will make those calls and formulate the questions to get to SC
f) Accreditation Committee voting method and member rights of voting – Andrea
Margaret – proposal sent right before call with two main issues – co-chairs restricting voting rights with one vote or fractional vote per state and not allowing members who joined recently to vote; AC bylaws define active members and one vote per state, GPUS bylaws Article III Section 3 call for one vote per member; Violet – there is no consensus on conflicting interpretations of the relevance of the two bylaws; Margaret’s amended proposal – as per GPUS bylaws all members of committee can participate immediately upon joining & committee directed not to take any action until their bylaws are update in consultation with BRPP to align internal voting methods to that of other committees; consensus could not be reached; Vote: Anita NO Andrea YES, Joy abstain, Margaret YES, Tony YES, Violet NO, Hillary NO, Jody NO – proposal does not pass
For future agenda: Tech – voting page/ETC and misc. maintenance
Call ended at 10:40 pm Eastern time.
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION – none
TOTAL TIME: 2 hours 40 minutes
Jody Grage, Secretary