GPUS SC Strategic Planning #3 Minutes – 6 February 2019
The call recording is available at https://gpus.org/steering-committee-recordings/
AGENDA:
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min
a) Facilitator: Sid Smith
b) Roll call – Hillary Kane, Jody Grage, Justin Beth, Margaret Flowers, Violet Zitola, Tony Ndege, Gloria Mattera, Andrea Merida; Absent – Anita Rios
Observers – Holly Hart IA, Tamar Yager VA
c) Agenda revision suggestions – Gloria – Mission Statement discussion – accepted; Andrea – Executive Session requested – referred to SC call 10 February
Agenda:
1. Mission Statement/Vision Statement/Strategy – Gloria, Margaret, Andrea, Justin
See post sent just before call with survey to circulate for one month; Justin’s input on statement of purpose, mission statement, vision statement not included; suggestion to open up comments to all Greens or at least NC, concern about length of survey; much material is already written and approved by the NC – in the platform call to action and preamble, etc. – need more concise form; suggest subcommittee for draft; Justin will resend specific definitions of statement of purpose, mission statement, and vision statement; SC agenda item – proposal to approve process and survey contents from the subcommittee – consensus
2. Complete review of committees – continuing alphabetically from last strategy call
Credentials Committee – no liaison yet – becoming active for PNC
Dispute Resolution – Anita – not on call – can only act when asked by both parties in a dispute – need to revisit to make committee more able to handle disputes in the party; committee is active; Anite – from 10 Feb SC call: call soon. pending issue being processed, trying to figure out how to proceed when not all parties willing
Diversity Committee – Anita – not on call – bring people of oppressed communities into party; quorum at 15% of membership allows decision by non-diverse members; no definition of eligibility for membership; members need to be verified and list brought up to date; could work more with caucuses; could provide resources to state parties on anti-oppression training and barriers to diverse participation at state level; include in liaison report on next SC call; Anita – from 10 Feb SC call: DivCom had a call and will schedule calls at more convenient time; Andrea – roster includes members with expired terms and former liaison, quorum and voting depend on accurate membership,. low quorum of five enables members not from oppressed groups to win the vote; Anita – original rules stipulated percentage of members who could be from non-oppressed groups, bylaws do need work; reappointments need to be made; members were vetted two years ago, elections should follow membership and bylaws update; Andrea – questions if DivCom needed now that we have caucuses
EcoAction – Gloria – issue committee – revising white paper on Green New Deal relative to climate change; some members have a lot of technical expertise; can be resouce for candidates; question of how much can GPUS rely on issue committee
Finance – Anita – not on call – Hillary: members doing internal audit; somewhat functional, stepped up when we had no treasurer, now relying more on Hillary; 5-7 of 9 members on each call, only Tamar and Darryl do much work, otherwise advise and ideas; now meeting monthly with more email communication in between; because so much funding is for staff. budgeting process has been more driven by the SC – with some push back from FinCom members; could do treasurers network for local and state parties and campaigns; do need to have a bench of treasurers available at all levels – quarterly treasurer call suggested
Fundraising – Gloria – much help from Hillary on fundraising consultant, etc.: new members on board; need for writers limited if not able to pay; need more contact and information sharing with states and about state issues and campaigns; have spreadsheets to do more metrics and progress being made in using them; creating case for support – developing brochure – based on strategic plan and what we want to accomplish knowing what costs will be – working with fundraising consultant; membership “rebuilding” and regular calls resuming
Green Pages – Anita – not on call
International Committee – Andrea – Media needs information from IC, IC’s expedited timeline of one week can be too slow; listserv has largely only shared articles; working on Venezuela – product of good collaboration within the committee – will come to the SC as proposed GPUS position; GPUS has spent a lot of money on international conferences with little produced and little or no advocacy of GPUS positions; committee could be used to energize rank and file; Fukushima project needs lists of international GPs and other organization to forward letter and attachments – suggest connecting them to Carl Romanelli PA and EcoAction; skewed toward more affluent; need to share best strategies from GPs around the world
Media Committee – Gloria – both co-chairs have resigned so elections needed, also need to appoint admin person, Chris will work on DoGooder petitions but will not write them; metrics from Ann Link and David Doonan available; need to catalog members skills and interests; social media also needs point person and plan; need to follow up on what we send and collect what written about the Green Party; need to cultivate those who contact us; need Media Strategic Plan and media based on GPUS Strategic Plan; suggest fewer press releases and more articles both print and online; suggest co-chair for traditional media and co-chair for social media; writing from other committees can be used for traditional and social media; suggest hiring a writer for both fundraising and media; could have group of people on and not on the committee available for content; members need activating and can be liaisons to and from their states/caucuses; need catalogue of talking points
Merchandise – Justin – call Monday night, data will come from survey just issued, keeping some metrics; discussed strengths and weakness – what is making money and what isn’t; moderately active; free merch results in many donations and brings in money – need to develop more lit; one t-shirt selling especially well; advantages to items without sizes – tote bags, mugs, etc.; suggest put together kits for campaigns and tabling; suggest print on demand t-shirts; Be Seen Being Green – including celebrities
Outreach – Tony – recently rebuilding; suggest Organizing 101, position papers, etc.; need outreach to states/caucuses; working on HR1 DoGooder project; need second co-chair, need subgroups to attract new members, need working groups for specific tasks; could have basic materials that states could use; need to investigate One Nation with NationBuilder with states contributing with GPUS; could provide website support for states – WordPress multi-site – free – would need Web Committee; committee could be entry point for new Greens – softer approach with more personal relationships – hub for activist activities by Greens, spread knowledge of local Green activities; Tony – from 10 Feb SC call: suggest collaboration with other committees and need for website committee or group, perhaps design group also
Remaining Committees – For future agenda.
General comments on committees during reports above:
Discussion of alliances with groups that are not electoral entities; suggestion for organizer parties with kits, programs, etc. across the nation for outreach and onboarding of new members; need to track what committee provides, committee goals and how they are achieved, and how outputs contribution toward GPUS goals;issue committees could have state liaisons, draft legislation, etc; DoGooder campaign could be used by more committees; could use state committee with liaison for every committee to build synergy
2. Review list of tasks, which will be listed in a Google Doc, and prioritize them, decide who will take which tasks on. – For future agenda
3. Create a timeline. – For future agenda
4. Discuss how this strategy will be carried out as the composition of the Steering Committee changes. – For future agenda
TOTAL TIME: 3 hours
Jody Grage, Secretary