Steering Committee Meeting – MINUTES
Sunday, June 8, 2025
8:00 pm EDT
- Setup and Background –
Facilitators: Tamar Yager, Cassandra Lems
Steering Committee Roll Call:
- Craig Cayetano (co-chair) – present
- Cassandra Lems(co-chair) – present
- Darryl! Moch (co-chair) - present
- Alfred Molison (co-chair) – present
- Joseph Naham (co-chair) – present
- Charles Ostdiek(co-chair) – present
- Justin Paglino (co-chair) – present
- Holly Hart (secretary) – present
- Bob Stuller (treasurer) - reported absence
- Jason Call (incoming treasurer) – reported absence
Tamar Yager may provide information on the Income Report (Item II)
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: Tamer Yager (VA(), Kalia Fitzgerald (NC), Rick Lass (NM), Samantha Hull (CO), Maureen Doyle (MA), Starlene Rankin (WA), Haryaksha Baba Knauer (LC)
Establish Quorum (9 current members, quorum is 5)
Approve Agenda (changes require majority, new items require ⅔ approval)
Charles asked that the Financial Reports moved back; will take this up when Jason is able to get on the call. APPROVED
Charles asked that Item 3 under New Business be moved to Liaison reports under Finance, APPROVED
FYI means a mention of the agenda item for the record, discussion not requested.
- Treasurer’s Report – No report.
Balances may be sent online. Neither Jason nor Bob were on the call.
Transition to new treasurer – Holly sent an updated letter for the bank for the current account signatories (Jason, Darryl!, Charles)
III. New/Current Business
FYI: NC Forums on June 4 and 29, 8 pm EDT. SC members will facilitate small groups in discussion resulting from results of a survey, with results of discussion to be presented at the ANM. Darryl!, Joseph, Justin, Craig, Holly, Aly Schimidt (ANMCom). The first session included two breakout rooms, seemed to go well.
- Online Decisions (Holly), FYI for the record
- 48/48 – Call to sign on/endorse Unified Call for to Confront Famine in Gaza – May 20 – May 25, APPROVED; Proposed, Holly; Seconded, several. Signed on May 29th
- FunCom Request for up to $250 for Pride Month mailer, APPROVED May 31, Consensus
- 48/48 – Samantha Hull Request to Address GCCC Procedural Violations and Conduct May 31 – June 4. Commentary requested to be shared with SC from MA Delegate Maureen Doyle. The Steering Committee agreed by Consensus that Samantha be reinstated to the GCCC. Proposed, Darryl!; seconded, Cassandra, The decision is based on the fact that members of that committee are elected by the National Committee, so for a removal, a recall vote of the National Committee would have to take place. SC will instruct the staff to add her back on to all GCCC lists. Inform the committee of the erroneous process that was not legitimate and that they are to receive her back on the committee with full standing, and inform her and her state party of this action. We should also invite all the members of the GCCC to engage in a Dispute Resolution Committee process to assist them in working together. Note, however, the committee has the right to recall its treasure,r so they should decide if they want to reinstate her as treasurer or not; that is their prerogative. Darryl! is happy to craft the language and initiate the DRC process.
- Question of violation of GPUS Donors BIll of Rights. See inquiry shared
with SC. Moved to Fincom liaison report.
- Standing Business/Old Business
- How can the NC effectively engage or participate in actions? (Justin, Holly)
National Single Payer Health – Day of Action (Justin)
Justin has signed their endorsement page. They have sent us some promotional materials. Justin sent materials and information to the NC. There are some activities or participants planned in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Outreach Committee has expressed interest in helping be involved. Holly called into the NSPH Zoom meeting on May 14th, at least two other Greens are involved, and are encouraged to send news, photos, videos and reports to the national GP for promotion. National Day of Action Toolkit, Songs and Chants! https://nationalsinglepayer.com/national-day-of-action/ and send us an email at nationalsinglepayer@gmail.com
Also sent a call from United for Peace and justice for young activists to get involved. A little positive feedback, but did it go farther? Received a couple photos and indications of more, but was there more coordinated or focused outreach for “coverage?” Good for state parties, also for national.
Craig reported that several state parties did events: MO, CA, WA, PA, shared on party’s instagram’s account. Outreach and Media collaboration. One example from New Jersey – https://gpnj.org/press-release/medicare-for-all-rally-this-friday-may-30th/
- Reports
Co-chairs, please review liaison spreadsheet and edit, as needed
- Guest Committee(s): Invited: Ballot Access, Annual National Meeting
Rick Lass (BAC) provided a written report, as well. BAC Report The committee meets 1st Mondays of month. They had 10 or 11 people at the last meeting. You’re all welcome to send someone anytime; you can get the zoom link from Rick Lass or Holly. They also have a zoom reserved on the 3rd Wednesday of every month, and that’s for different working groups to make use of. Their legislative and policy working group has used it quite a bit this month in June. BAC will give two presentations at the ANM.
GIni Lester will give a presentation, Rick Lass a report. BAC would like more SC engagement in helping encourage participation. BAC also expresses a concern about budget and asked if they could coordinate with Fundraising for ballot-access-specific fundraising. They’re glad to see signs of growth, and that’s particularly Hariaksha, and Marjorie from Nevada, who’ve been doing the work to try to get State parties to nominate or appoint new members.
Tamar Yager reported for the Annual National Meeting Committee. the Annual National Meeting Committee does everything from A to Z that has to do with the annual national meeting, which is our once a year meeting for discussing strategy, have workshops. We have a fundraiser. There are some other events. This year. It’s going to be a candidate event for Thursday night’s opening.
There is going to be an intern, a panel on immigration on Friday night, and we’ve already gotten several folks to participate in that as a panel. Saturday, we’ll have a keynote which is going to be Miko Peled.. There’ll be other workshops and plenary sessions. Ron Pacone has agreed to help us with our fundraiser, and there’ll be a film screening with that of one of his films. Sunday afternoon is going to be the state of the party, and some committee reports from PCSC, BAC and some of the other committees that have actual reports, not necessarily issue committees.
Allll need to sign up for the meeting if you want to attend. We hope you’ll pay for it, but there is a waiver option. We also are going to be talking about the next meeting. We have one location that has applied and sent a proposal in. Their venue ‘s Chicago, and we’re working on crafting that with them. We’re going to be talking about that versus a virtual meeting at the annual meeting.
And and just so you know everything from selecting workshops to any of the logistics happens on that committee, and we we need a lot of help on some things. That you don’t even have to be on the committee – If there’s some tech stuff that you can help with like room hosts – we need room hosts for Zoom Rooms – that’s a simple something,
- Staff (Justin) – Staff meeting was held last week. Working with a Discord messaging platform for Staff, Justin would like to set up one for state party officers. Payroll issue with Bank, will get it straightened out on Monday.
- Secretary (Holly) – Collect/compile policies relating to access, bylaws/rules to ensure there is a set available that is up to date; goal to finalize list cleanup and committee google folder/co-chair routine in the next couple weeks. Contacting committee co-chairs coming soon to a committee near you – Election Tabulation Committee call coming soon; next steps toward addressing voting page noted issues.
- Craig: Media, Merch, PCSC, Outreach –
MerchCom has set up a Slack channel for communication, reached out for members with special skills in merchandise and design. Working eliminating merchandise that is not selling; looking at low budget things like decals, stickers that sell. Outreach interested in meeting with Media, possible collaboration.
- Cassandra: ANMCom, ETC, FundCom, Credentials – FundCom is busy, several fundraising emails sent out, doing well.
Charles brought up a fundraising effort involving the Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts and a question from the Fundraiser about the state sharing program long ago. Tamar and Darryl! reported that the program became difficult to manage with dealing with very small amounts of money. It was not bringing in much, also required state parties to be FEC-registered PACs. At times, GPUS used state money to pay bills, leading to some states’ feeling they were being shorted (they received their funds, but not in the time expected).
Darryl! proposed that Georgia Davenport be authorized to work with state parties and a possible pilot program for joint fundraising with state parties and GPUS. Craig raised a concern that it might not be available to all state parties. Charles noted that this is only a reporting item, more information is being sought before anything more is proposed.
- Joseph: IC, CCC, GPAX, Green Pages – no reports
- Alfred: AC – no reports.
- Darryl!: no reports from Platform. DRC issue is spilling over, may or may not be something the DRC can address.
- Charles: BMRC, FinCom, Animal Rights - BMRC does monthly reports, always working on something. No report from Animal Rights. GPAX is working on another statement. Finance is addressing the controversy about the GCCC’s overhead and question of violating the Donors BIll of Rights. Charles noted that the Donors Bill of Rights related to the GPUS. GPUS fiscal policy applies to GPUS donors, but the Green Congressional Campaign Committee is a separate legal entity to which the GPUS Donors’ Bill of Rights does not apply. GPUS fiscal policy also explicitly specifies two additional kinds of separate legal entities to which GPUS fiscal policy does not apply.
GCCC does not have a general fiscal policy.
Charles recommends they adopt such going forward. Any state party, the GCCC or the SC can make a proposal to revise GCCC bylaws and committee rules. Charles will act as liaison to take this up with the GCCC.
- Justin: BAC, EcoAction ; Staff Supervisor – no reports
- Voting Queue – (Holly) – no current activity
- Received for the Queue – None
- In the Queue — None
Discussion
Voting
Completed
VII. Old Business – None
Recommendation to send general invitation and invitations to SC candidates for the next call. It was noted that they should already be asking to observe. People should be aware of what is involved. Send suggestions, Holly will send out a message for the next call with the general schedule to the NC list.
VIII. Executive Session 9:45 pm – 11:02 PM
- Staff Union Contract – Joseph sent out the near final copy of the staff union contract draft. With a few items clarified, Justin will take the contract for review and union representative David Doonan for review.
- Fundraiser Pay/Compensation Update
The Steering Committee agreed to amend the contract to extend the term to the end of the year, and offer an hourly pay rate. The SC had agreed on a proposed pay schedule, but after the call and more review/discussion, it became clear there may need to be some details changed or worked out.
TOTAL TIME – 3 hours, 2 minutes
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NEXT MEETING: June 22, 2025