GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 14 April 2019
SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS
1. New Business:
Guidelines: Bullying, institutionalized racism, conflicts of interest, impartiality for presidential candidates
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
Received for the queue: Amend Accreditation Committee Policies & Procedures; Minimum Age for Steering Committee Membership; Amend R&P Article 10 – Recognition of Declared Candidates for the Green Party Nomination for President; Amend PNC rules to prohibit registrants of non-Green parties as delegates;
In the queue: None
Online SC Proposals approved since last call and sent to the NC: Ordering Thank You Cards – consensus to approve 29 March
4. Old Business: Response to FVPA letter, 2019 Annual National Meeting, Tech update, Strategic
Planning Meeting. FreshDesk update. Letter from EU, Policy on Committee authoriuty
5. Executive Session: Personnel
The full agenda is available at http://gpus.org/sc-agenda-2019-04-14/
The call recording will be available at 712-451-0309, 926334#, reference 1 and
https://gpus.org/steering-committee-recordings/
Jody Grage, Secretary
GPUS Steering Committee Minutes – 14 April 2019 – draft
AGENDA:
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min
a) Facilitator: Sid Smith
b) Roll call: Anita Rios, Andrea Merida, Justin Beth, Margaret Flowers, Tony Ndege, Violet Rose Zitola, Jody Grage, Hillary Kane; absent – Gloria Mattera
Observers: Dario Hunter LAV, Starlene LAV, Tamar NWC, Holly Hart IA, John Andrews MA
c} Agenda revision suggestions – none
II. NEW BUSINESS – 15 min
a) Guidelines: Bullying, institutionalized racism, conflicts of interest, impartiality for PNC candidates – Jody
Violet – post sent from Darryl! Moch on behalf of the Black Caucus to several SC members and others – seem to be promoting one potential candidate to the exclusion of others giving the appearance of presumptive nominee, limiting debate, and stifling diversity.
Margaret – what are the issues and who is working on it, PCSC has been discussing best practices
Anita – letter from BC also addresses concerns of direct and covert racism at all levels – feelings of isolation, disrespect, marginalized on state committees even for those in leadership roles and in campaigns, perhaps collaboration between DIV and DR and anti-oppression/mediation training offered to states needed
Andrea – state parties not GPUS business, need clarification of topic(s)
Hillary – patterns of conduct such as structural racism should be dealt with by GPUS, issues are both overlapping and separate
Violet – need to focus on dynamics as basis for decision making. fairness is essential in presidential process
Margaret – Robin DiAngelo not available for ANM, candidate recognition process being amended, some candidates have expertise and should be allowed to present on those topics
Andrea – states need to have their guidelines to insure impartiality
Tony – need specific objective complaints to continue discussion
Anita – bullying separate issue, need access for all candidates in all forums – statement calling for equal access for all candidates signed by all but Howie was posted, 3 parts needing differing solutions
Violet – this recording illustrates the problems, looking for concrete example – names of specific candidate and advocated for – not impartial – concrete example
Andrea – no concrete example given, advocating for other candidates also shows partiality
Margaret – letter from some presidential candidate was not available to all candidates or the SC; PCSC putting forth guidelines, work being done to inform states
Anita – need to address on later calls with more specific information and resolutions
Justin – these issues exist at many levels in GPUS and need to be addressed, candidates letter was posted on Facebook
Violet – Andrea acknowledged not being impartial and said would recuse herself when appropriate
Andrea – all SC should have seen all the information, need transparency
Hillary – SC needs to create feeling of impartiality
III. STANDING BUSINESS – 40 min
a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane – 5 min.
Treasurer’s Reports to the GNC available at https://gpus.org/treasurers-reports/
All accounts $125,000.30, Operating Reserves/Reserve Funds $110,013.75, Checking $14,986.55; plus Paypal $304.34;Reserve fund that includes ANM payments has grown, checking account also has grown somewhat
MerchCom funding request – $1110 for t-shirts from Line 41 – consensus
Green Pages funding request – $1500 from Line 67 – will do editor search when funds approved – consensus
b) Fundraising report – Gloria – 5 min.
sent – direct mail well, eblast also did well
Income March $21,290.55 (without ANM), April 1 – 13: $6196.44 (without ANM)
Donations from website April 1 -13: $160.44 (2 Sustainers @ $15), YTD: Jan 1 – April 13: $2134.52
Donations from checks (not from Direct Mail Letter) YTD: $1,135.00
2019 ANM: $12,861.50
February 2019 Direct Mail Letter; Income: $10,028 (2/22 – 4/13). Cost: $4933.58, Sent to: 3998
Eblasts: Lobby Days (4/9) $1361.Green Women (3/30): $505
GreenCents (March): $335.27
Fundraising Consultant update – Hillary, Gloria
Need to build our lists – recommend three-part plan – $1k Facebook ad leading to petition followed by turnkey operation with immediate contact on days 1, 3, and 5 and how to do with NationBuilder; questions if Jill’s list has been used to the max and if too old; larger lists should support the additional database cost; lists newly cleaned – spent $850 and saved $2k off annual bill;
Andrea – need programs to warm up lists and measure engagement; need more frequent eblasts and perhaps use MailChimp; need to add quality engagement not just names; suggest spending on social media consultants to help with process and engagement;
Hillary – good feedback; topic for strategic planning workshop;
c) Liaison – Tech liaison discussion, reports – 30 min
BAC – Violet – Cora staying on as co-chair, elections soon for second co-chair , ballot access in 20 states and hoping for 30 before end of year, Margaret – Jill Stein’s PAC can give up to $15k to GPUS which could be used for ballot access
MERCH – Justion – merch order above
BMRC – Justin – reviewing talking points
GPAGES – Anita – call held – new members and new energy, good ideas have come forward
DIVERSITY – Anita – call in March – elections, cleaning up membership list, core groups but no officers yet
FIN and DR -Anita – meetings later this week
IC – Andrea – worked on response to letter from EU, co-chair election soon – two candidates, observer loophole – monitor, needs SC input
ATC – Andrea – working with Mike Feinstein on database completion.
BRRP – Andrea – proposal that if registered in another party cannot be PNC delegates
Tech liaison – Violet – next agenda
IV. VOTING QUEUE – Jody – 10 min
https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/login
In the queue: None
In the queue: Amend Accreditation Committee Policies & Procedures – Discussion 22 April – 5 May, Floor Manager Andrea; Minimum Age for Steering Committee Membership – Discussion 22 April – 5 May, Floor Manager Gloria; Amend R&P Article 10 – Recognition of Declared Candidates for the Green Party Nomination for President – Discussion 22 April – 12 May, Floor Manager Justin; Amend PNC rules to prohibit registrants of non-Green parties as delegates – Discussion 22 April – 5 May, Floor Manager Margaret
Violet – AC committee rules – committee structure – 1st sentence: up to three members from each of the various state; John Andrew – replacing entire Article 10; internal standing rules will cover handling applications; AC P&Ps – quorum calls – notes may not be intended to be in there – check with Rosy
Online SC Proposals approved since last call and sent to the NC: Ordering Thank You Cards – consensus to approve 29 March
V. OLD BUSINESS – 80 min
a) Potential response to FVPA letter regarding Venezuela trip update – Andrea – 10 min – no update
b) 2019 Annual National Meeting – Margaret – 15 min
SC task list update – Violet, Gloria, Justin, Tony – 70 workshop applications to be pared and combined by workshop subcommittee – link available, Robin DiAngelo not available for keynote speaker – suggestions welcome, perhaps big name for one evening – perhaps Jimmy Dore
plenary agenda update – more work to do, Jill Stein should have prominent role, PCSC doing forum – perhaps Jill could facilitate; develop Green talking points, 2020 strategy discussion
travel reservations – have Hillary do soon
c) Tech updates – Violet – 10 min – next agenda
d) Strategic Planning Meetings – Margaret and Gloria – 15 min
#5 agenda development –
Survey – Andrea – looking for consensus – will resend with 48 hour deadline for online approval
Scheduling of #5 – Justin – difficult to get everyone present, no date set yet, 7 available on the 18th, will send out another week of choices
e) Freshdesk update – Justin – 10 min
has talked with some people doing work now – media okay; Starlene doing donations questions, volunteer and sustainer requests and forwarding to committee; Doonan doing general inquiries; Tamar doing merchandise; spam and junk mail solutions will be rolled out before too long; 7000 unresolved tickets; need filters and identification of trends and some canned scripts; Andrea will send her thoughts from when she had this task; need to price changes with increased volume and additional of addresses
f) Letter from EU – update from Violet, Gloria, Tony. Anita, Justin – 10 min
Anita – letter drafted and posted to the SC, send to Global Greens and all Green groups copied in the letter we received; send letter to NC as notification and sent to EU Tuesday – Anita yes, Andrea no, Justin yes, Margaret no, Tony no, Violet yes, Jody yes, Hillary yes – proposal passes
g) Committee actions and statements within their mission statement – 10 min –
to date: suggested that GPUS public statements go through Media Committee and letters go through the SC; next agenda or strategic planning workshop
VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION – none
TOTAL TIME: 2 hours 40 min
Jody Grage, Secretary