August 11, 2019

Green Party of the United States Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

Date: Sunday August 11, 2019
Time: 8:00 PM EDT
Call Recording
Phone: 712 451-0309
Access Code: 926334#
Reference: 7 or * (star)
Online: https://gpus.org/steering-committee-recordings/

I. Call Setup & Background
a. Facilitator: Holly Hart
b. Roll Call
Co-chairs: Justin Beth, Kristin Combs, Trahern Crews (joined later), Margaret Flowers, Gloria Mattera, Tony Ndege, Anita Rios (joined later)
Secretary: David Gerry
Treasurer: Hillary Kane
Observers: Jody Grage (WA), Starlene Rankin (LC), Tamar Yager (NWC), Violet Rose Zitola (LC)
c. Agenda Revision Suggestions, None

II. New Member Orientation
a. Introductions

Justin: Has been on the SC since Dec. is from Maine and looks forward to working with the new committee after a fun and successful ANM.

Kristin: Joined the party in 2013 and is excited to be on the SC.

Trahern: He is a member of the Black Caucus, BLM Minnesota, Chair of the Minnesota Green Party, and chair of the Green Party of the United States Reparations working group.

Margaret: Day job co-chair popularresistance.org, MD delegate to the NC and Baltimore liaison to the MD Coordinating Council.

Gloria: Is from New York City and has been a candidate for elected office 4 times.

Tony: Is from North Carolina and has been Green since 2014. He is an activist and was involved in BLM and Occupy movement, worked for the Stein campaign and is current co-chair of North Carolina Green Party since 2016.

David: Lives in Boston and registered Green in 2002 and became active in 2010. The Green Party is his day job and spends the evenings wiht his husband and cat.

Hillary: Has been active since 2001 and has served in most roles of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Greens and has been a campaign manager and treasurer but not a candidate.

b. Steering Committee 101 Calls are every second and fourth Sundays of the month at 8:00 PM ET.

Co-chairs not secretary or treasurer are committee liaisons. Duties are defined in GPUS documents. Liaisons are expected to follow the activities of the committee, assist co-chairs if needed to help keep the committee on track. Report back to the SC and NC.

Floor managers are assigned alphabetically when proposals are entered onto the queue. They are to coordinate with sponsores during discussion period regarding amendments and inform the secretary of changes.

Steering Committee has to approve all expenditures even those listed in the budget. The SC doesn’t approve caucus exspendatures.

SC members are expected to check the mailing list every couple of days for activity.

There are 2 staff members Starlene Rankin and David Doonan. The Staff is unionized and David Doonan is the shop steward. Staff reports weekly on work performed and meet with Gloria and Hillary twice a month. Starlene works with fundraising, assists with e-mail blasts, forwards communications from office e-mail account and phone calls. David is webmaster and maintains the website and mailing lists. Any requests for work to the staff are to go through Gloria and Hillary.

There is a GPUS Google folder. There are two subfolders one only for the SC and the other for everything else. It is encouraged to create new documents in the Google Drive under the appropriate folder instead of sharing links to outside documents.

Discussion of creating a possible handbook for new SC members.

c. Media Committee 101 (Holly) [5 minutes]

Press releases have to be approved by 3 members of the SC and the Platform Committee generally within 48 hours of notice. All members of the SC are subscribed to the media mailing list.

III. Standing Business

a. Secretary’s Report (David)

A notice has been sent to all state parties that will be effected by the new apportionment. The changes will take place on Monday September 23. The PCSC has also been inform about the changes. No votes should take place during that week.

Two announcements have been sent out to the votes and affairs lists and to all state parties about nominations for the PNC Credentials Committee. Nominations close Friday August 23. There are 15 seats available and currently only one nominee.

b. Treasurer’s Report (Hillary)
Treasurer’s reports are located at https://gpus.org/treasurers-reports/
Operating Reserves & Restricted Funds $106,708.13
Checking $60,255.08
total balance of $166,968.21
Paypal: $1,093.13

c. Liaison Reports (co-chairs; discussion)

ANMC (Margaret): Will meet Wed. Aug. 14 for ANM debreifing

Platform (Margaret): PlatCom is accepting platform ammendments for 2020.

BAC (Tony): There were 3 presentation at the ANM. Discussion of a national ballot access campaign with 20,000 volunteers and costs of $200,000. Updated ballot access map (https://gpus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Green-Party-Ballot-Access-2020.svg).

Call hub training and an e-mail will be sent out next week to activate volunteers for a call hub in each stat for a call hub in each statee. $1000 for ballot access coordinater in Maryland with MD contributing $3000.

GPax (Tony): Working on materials of talking points about peace for presidential candidates. Discussions of teach-ins to get more youth involved. A statement on Yemen. Sept. 20-23Peoples Mobilization to Stop the US War Machine. Election for co-chair. Next meeting will be on the 20th.

Merch (Justin): Received notice from Green Pages that there may be an upcoming issue available.

BMRC (Justin): Working on talking points for presidential candidates.

IV. Voting Queue [10 minutes]
https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/index

a. Floor manager duties and asignment; explanation of findings
Floor manager duties and assignments were discussed earlier.
Findings are listed in the GPUS Policies and Procedures 6-5 Steering Committee Review (https://gpus.org/rules-procedures/#06)

b. In the Queue

1. 967: Selection of Site for 2020 Presidential Nominating Convention ANM [discussion] (Tony)

2. 968: Become a participating organization in the Peoples Mobilization to Stop the US War Machine [voting] (Gloria)

3. 969: Amendment to GPUS Rules Procedures Article I, Accreditation [discussion] (Anita)

c. Received for the Queue

1. Re: [SC] Resolution: Endorse H.R.2407: “Promoting the Human Rights of Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Occupation Act” (GPCA, YC)
No findings. Proposal will enter the queue Monday August 19.

2. Confirmation of Darlene Elias to the FPVA (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

3. Confirmation of Ahmed Eltouny to the FPVA (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

4. Confirmation of Bahram Zandi to the FPVA (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

5. Confirmation of Romi Elnagar as Delegate to the GGN (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

6. Confirmation of John Rensenbrink as Delegate to the GGN (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

7. Confirmation of Sanda Everett as Alternate to the GGN (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

8. Confirmation of Austin Bashor as Alternate to the GGN (IC) Proposal will enter the voting queue Monday August 19.

V. Old Business

a. Hiring Committee (Gloria, Hillary; report) There are 3 candidates for the next round of interviews to be scheduled in the next two weeks.

b. Formation of a working group on party resources for candidates – (Justin; report)

Justin and Margaret will contact the various committees who can contribute resources to presidential candidates and establish a meeting time.

VI. New Business

a. Protecting our Members (Anita; descussion)

Over the years there have been incidences where members have felt unsafe at Green Party meetings. Discussion will be to explore possibilities in changes to communications, procedures and other avenues to prevent future incidences. This was moved to the executive session.

Time: 2 hours
END Call RECORDING

VII. Executive Session [60 minutes]
Present: Justin Beth, Kristin Combs, Trahern Crews, Margaret Flowers, Gloria Mattera, Anita Rios, Tony Ndege, David Gerry, Hillary Kane

Facilitator: David Gerry
Notes Taker: Kristin Combs

1. Protecting our Members
Discussion only no decisions made.
2. Hiring for Communications Manager

Consensus Decision: Proceed with moving three candidates to the final round. Hold interviews over the next two weeks. All SC members are invited to join the interview calls. Hold executive session on 8/25/19 to discuss finalists.

Items for Future Agendas

ANM Final Report
Strategic Plan
SC/Staff Retreat

Total time: 3 hours