Steering Committee Meeting – MINUTES
Sunday, February 22 2026
8:00 pm EDT
I Setup and Background – 10 min
Facilitator: Allan Hunter
Steering Committee Roll Call:
- Arshia Papari (co-chair) – reported absence
- Cassandra Lems(co-chair) – present
- Craig Cayetano (co-chair) – present
- Charles Ostdiek(co-chair) – present
- Justin Paglino (co-chair) – reported absence
- Tamar Yager (co-chair) – present
- Wissam Charafeddine (co-chair) – reported absence
- Holly Hart (secretary) – present
- Mark Elbourno (treasurer) – present
Observers are asked to remain muted and refrain from using the chat function. If someone wishes to speak to an agenda item, please send a request to secretary@gp.org.
OBSERVERS: Mike Feinstein, CA Elections Database; Ajay Ray, CA, Elections Database; Starlene Rankin, WA; Margaret Elisabeth, WA
Establish Quorum (9 current members, quorum is 5)
ANNOUNCEMENTS, if any – please consider how much time will be needed for these items
ITEMS marked FYI are included for informational purposes, unless discussion is requested.
Approve Agenda (changes require majority, new items require ⅔ approval) – 5 min, if needed.
- REQUEST to ADD (Charles): Charles has 3 budget amendments to consider. Take up under Finance Committee report or Voting Page APPROVED, Consensus to add to the agenda. Items have already been agreed to during the past week.
- Treasurer Report (Mark) (skipped and taken up later in the call)
- Mark provided account balances and gave a report on reports filed with the FEC for the past several months. Needs to work out how to combine accounts, transfer funds from savings to checking. Has not yet received the debit card.
We have 3 checking accounts. The first one has $17,797.52
The second one has $22,766.32.
TOTAL = $88,771.27
Interest income is $2.26
Current PayPal balance is $4,822.39
- Income report (Tamar)
Here is the link to the Income Report. Here are some notes:
The budget amount is from 2025. When the budget passes, I’ll do a report with the budget numbers. We will be down even more if I use the 2026 budget numbers. Really, for now, focus on the highlighted columns. I did not update the reserve report yet but I did include the numbers.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-UybB7GOsvSOfARdjElEWnNrteRIdii1/edit?gid=1295672715#gid=1295672715
III. New/Current Business
1 Online Decisions, FYI’s – (Holly)
National Black Caucus request for Zoom Webinar Feature for Two Webinars
Feb 21 & 26
Cost = $89 for 1 month
2/17/2026
YES = Tamar, Craig, Cassandra, Holly, Charles
Charles noted that an SC decision is not needed, as the Caucus has their own
Funds they can request to use.
Tamar stated that this is for the party, more may want to make use of it during the
time it’s available
- FYI – Add to Minutes, 2/22/2026
48/48 Online Decision: 2026-2-08 Website Modernization Plan Request & Results
YES = Wissam, Arshia
NO = Cassandra Tamar, Charles, Holly
– NOT APPROVED
2/16/2026
APPROVED, by Consensus
- Elections Database, MIke Feinstein, Ajay Ray
Item was moved to follow other business. Mike Feinstein presented a report and overview of the elections database, provided documents. Ajay Ray explained the technical work and functionality he was working on.
Mike will be sending a proposal to reactivate the Green Officeholders Network
A second proposal will address the concern that most state parties don’t have a website that shows their candidates and officeholders. Database agents, Coordinated Campaign Committee and Ballot Access Committee members spend time tracking down this information. MIke will work with the CCC, to set up a basic set of reporting expectations – not binding toward state party affiliation, but to ensure someone compiles this information and sends it to GPUS.
1 – Ballot Access Status, every two years: what are the requirements; what are their plans; expectations of support
2 – Candidates: publish a list of current and past candidates and officeholders on their websites (ideally with links to their websites); report candidates to GPUS (CCC, GCCC and database). Track Green officeholders (if they leave, if someone joins the party while in office, etc.).
3 – Links to information on how to run for office in that state.
- Standing Business/Old Business
None
- Reports
[NOTE to SC: Liaisons should start contacting committees per the “calendar” suggested by Justin. The calendar is included as a second sheet in the Liaisons spreadsheet, linked below
Co-chairs have reviewed and selected committees they want to serve as liaisons. The following list of Co-chairs and committees can also be updated, as needed. Holly and Justin are following up; Holly set up a calendar or add to Liaison assignment spreadsheet. Plan to start this now.]
- Guest Committee(s) : TBA
- Staff (Tamar) – Staff report: eBlast with Stein Constant Contact list brought in nearly $3000, including a sustainer. Rose will be working on the direct mail next. Tamar will be working on work plans with David Doonan and Athen Alma.
- Secretary (Holly) - Renewed and will put out a call for another Delegates 101; Committees 101. WIll send sign-up for SC for Basecamp tutorials (can be one or more persons, depending on schedules, will see if someone has a Doodle poll account to use – or just go with plain messages. Work on voting page fixes and updates has begun. Craig noted recent discussion on how to post voting page proposals on Basecamp; there has been disagreement over whether to use the Calendar feature or Proposals message board. Craig likes the calendar; this may have limitations on how delegates can comment and discuss proposals. One possibility may be posting on both the Calendar and a dedicated message board.
- Craig: Media, Merch, PCSC, Outreach –
Media: Social media w/ Facebook and Instagram outreach is growing; nothing much new on X. Media is waiting to onboard the newly hired digital media coordinator. The committee plans to put together recommendations for committees and caucuses on formatting for social media. Would like to see more committees and caucuses host more webinars. The Black Caucus webinar last night brought in donations that more than covered the monthly cost.
Mark has drafted a contract for Fundraiser. Craig and Gloria are working out an adjusted job description to reflect recent updates in terms, and will send that to Mark.
Merchandise is working on promotion for Black History Month.
Trying to reboot Outreach.
- Cassandra: ANMCom, FundCom, Credentials , DRC
- Wissam: IC, Green Pages, GPAX , BRPP –
- Arshia: CCC, Platform
- Tamar: Diversity, Staff Supervisor –
- Charles: FinCom, Animal Rights, GCCC, BMRC, BAC, EcoACtion -
Charles will drop BAC and EcoAction, as he has more than enough with the other committees and Finance. He has updated the Liaison Spreadsheet accordingly.
VII. Voting Queue – (Holly) (Item VII A; everything else is FYI)
- Received for the Voting Queue 5-10 min
TABLED – Proposal to Expand the Mandate of the National-Level Dispute Resolution Committee
Discussion
# 1278 – Petition Drive urging Congress to Impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
Discussion through 3/1/2026
Voting period: 3/2 to 3/8/2026
Threshold: 50%+1
Floor Manager: Wissam Charafeddine
# 1279 – Election to Fill Vacancies on the Green Congressional Campaign Committee
Discussion through 3/1/2026
Voting period: 3/2 to 3/8/2026
Ranked Choice Vote
Floor Manager: Holly Hart
# 1282 – 2025 Coordinated Campaign Committee Election – Men and NonBinary Persons
Discussion through 3/1/2026
Voting period: 3/2 to 3/8/2026
Ranked Choice Vote
Floor Manager: Holly Hart
# 1283 – 2025 Coordinated Campaign Committee Election – Women
Discussion through 3/1/2026
Voting period: 3/2 to 3/8/2026
Ranked Choice Vote
Floor Manager: Holly Hart
# 1284 – 2026 GPUS Budget
Discussion through 3/08/2026
Voting period: 3/9 to 3/15/2026
50% + 1
Floor Manager: Charles Ostdiek
Charles presented four administrative amendments. No increase is required, they clarify background information. All have been agreed upon over the past week.
APPROVED, Consensus See ADDENDUM A
Holly reported that there has been a request for use of the webinar feature on a Zoom account for the following month, and two more coming. The recommendation has been to pay for 1 month subscriptions, as needed. Craig noted that if two webinars per month are scheduled, it would pay off to add the webinar feature into a Zoom account. Tamar stated she had pushed for the $89/mo, and if it’s used, go with an annual subscription; it’s in the budget. Athena is setting up registration links, going through NationBuilder.
The Coordinate Campaign Committee’s groups.io can be covered in their reserve account/restricted funds. That account comes up for renewal March 8th for $220.
Voting – None
Completed
None
TOTAL TIME – 2 hours, 30 minutes
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ADDENDUM A
the precise expected administrative budget amendments:
the budget amendments are to approve reductions of expense line amounts with a corresponding improvement for the bottom line. and, in one case, an increase in an actual expense amount for 2025, with no change to the 2026 budget tiered columns or bottom line for 2026.
they are:
- 1) signupgenius ($107.89) + zapier ($324.24) = $423.13
– reduction of software (less than $500/yr) line expense
– these expenses are cancelled or to be cancelled.
– reduce line 55 columns H – J by $423.13 from budgeted $1,700 to new total of $1,267.87.
- 2) groups .io
– delete references.
– if this is to be used by ccc, then it will come from their restricted funds rather than gpus operations.
- 3) nationbuilder
– reduce expense on line 56 cols H – J by $1,596.81 to the new actual expense of $7,559
– ($1,596.81 less than the $9,156 budgeted)
- 4) fundraiser – contractor – increase of actual pay for 2025 – a $2,005 pmt to a contractor was not correctly included on this line because of being mislabeled by a fec report typo. this will not affect the 2026 columns. – increase line 21 col G by $2005.
consequence to these changes, the bottom line 72 for all 3 tiers will improve to:
tier 1: $1,771
tier 2: $9,667
tier 3: $19,551
this is now GPUS 2026 Budget v2:
the budget proposal 1284
https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=1284