MINUTES – Green Party US – Steering Committee Meeting
Date: March 10, 2024
Time: 8:00 pm ET
Due to the number of requests for discussion items, the Steering Committee agreed to change the order of the agenda, routine items were addressed first, with more time allocated for discussion items.
AGENDA
Observers are asked to remain muted and refrain from using the chat function. If someone wishes to speak to an agenda item, please respond to secretary@gp.orgor this address, above.
I. Setup and Background – 10 min.
A. Facilitator: Kristin Bedont-Combs
B. Steering Committee Roll Call:
1. Craig Cayetano (co-chair) – present
2. Margaret Elisabeth (co-chair) –
3. Darryl! Moch (co-chair) – present
4. Alfred Molison (co-chair) –
5. Joseph Naham (co-chair) – joined at the start of the Treasurer’s report and budget discussion
6. Tony Ndege (co-chair) – joined during budget discussion
7. Tamar Yager (co-chair) – present
8. Holly Hart (secretary) – present
9. Bob Stuller (treasurer) – present
Observers: Starlene Rankin, WA; Douglas Marsh, MI; Scott Laugenour, MI, CCC; Maureen Doyle, MA; Gregg Jocoy, SC, Media; Ann Link, NY, Media; Gloria Mattera, NY, Media; Mike Feinstein, CA; Charles Ostdiek, NE, FinCom
Observers (remain muted and refrain from using the chat feature):
Establish Quorum (9 current members, quorum is 5)
Approve Agenda (changes require majority, new items require ⅔)
II. Standing Business –
A. Recap of Listserv Decisions (Holly) –
1. 48/48 – Endorse Call to Action for communities to organize March 2 Hands Off Rafah! https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org/about
2/23/2024 – Proposal: Holly; Second: Joseph
Proposal passed. Endorsement was signed, information sent to Media and National Committee.
2. 48/48 – Endorse rally for Palestine planned for March 15 in New York City. Proposal: Holly; Seconded: Joseph and Craig
Decision timeline concludes Sunday night (3/10/2024), with more approvals coming from SC members, almost certainly will pass. The secretary will have the GPUS logo sent to organizers to use in their promotional material.
III. Reports
Staff Report (Tamar, Tony)
Tamar and Athena continue to work on ANM/PNC Registration
ANM – Tamar reported that the committee is in the process of coming up with ideas for convention roles (speakers, co-chairs, election judges, etc). ANM will send recommendations back to the SC.
The rest of the committee liaison and secretary reports were pushed to the following call in the interests of time.
IV. Voting Queue (Holly
A. RECEIVED for the QUEUE
1. National Committee Approval of Delegates and Alternated to the Sao Paolo Forum (four separate proposals) – no findings
Floor manager: Holly
2 weeks discussion 1 week vote
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1k8u7ccvXBWXJ8qrCN9TJTRWqdN3ayH6l
B. IN the QUEUE
Discussion
1. #1178 2024 Budget
Sponsors: GPUS Steering Committee, Finance Committee
Floor Manager: Tamar Yager
Threshold: 50%+1
Discussion through March 11, 2024
Voting period: Mach 11 – 24, 2024
NOTE: Requests for a week’s extension, possibility of amendments to be submitted – AGREED
2. #1180 – Candidate Issues Guidance
Sponsors: Coordinated Campaign Committee
Timeline: 3 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
Floor Manager: Joseph Naham
Ranked Choice Vote
Discussion through March 24, 2024
Voting
1. #1177 – Committee Leadership Resilience
Sponsors: Green Party of Washington
Timeline: 2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote
Floor Manager: Joseph Naham
Threshold: 50%+1
Discussion through March 3, 2024
Voting period: March 4 – 10, 2024g
C, COMPLETED
1. #1175 – Special Election To Fill Open Seats for Green Senatorial Campaign Committee
Jesse Davis and Brian Frisbee were elected.
2. #1176 – Place Green Party of Oklahoma on Temporary inactive Status
Adopted
V. Treasurer’s Report (Tamar and Bob)
PayPal: $2,978.84
Signal Credit Union:
General: $9611.54
• after paying Nationbuilder our annual fee of $8127.44)
• $680 in pending mobile deposits from last week’s mail.
Merchant: $3901.25
Savings: $119,855.80
Bob reported the dollar amounts in the accounts, He stated his rationale for not supporting a budget with a built-in deficit. There was a question around the projected 20% increase in funds for the year. Donations are down everywhere, the pandemic economy is still in effect, GPUS has lost some sustaining donors. A couple working committees are bringing in funds for their own use. “It’s better to be poor than corrupt.”
Tamar reported that numbers are estimated, since the previous set of records was inaccurate.
Discussion:
Tamar: There is around $13,500 in disposable income. After payroll, we will be using reserves.
Bob: We do have payments coming in; don’t’ have a lot of money, but have some
Bob: Two amendments have been suggested, involving reductions in Outreach and International Committee funds. He does not support zeroing out International Committee’s allocation. Hasn’t heard from Outreach.
Charles: Support allocating funds from some to pay for contract hires for Media PN: reallocate funds from Outreach, there has been no activity there, allocate funds to Media or FundCom for contract hire. The SC can approve it. Disagree with Bob re: IC, doesn’t think we have funds for overseas travel.
Tamar: Agree with zeroing out IC. Considers anything not revenue-generating discretionary at this point. Agree that Media does help generate funds. Also, we can re-visit this if income does come in: budget low for committees, then hope we can add more funds.
Craig: Question on voting an alternate budget, how does it work? Tamar: It’s the SC’s budget, the SC can approve amendments to put out.
Joseph: Supports keeping the IC budget allocation.
Darryl!: Some can afford travel, others cannot but might be good representatives; must be careful not to create a situation where IC is represented only by those who can afford expenses.
Tony: Budget was made assuming that the PNC, including the fundraiser, would generate net zero revenue, believes that is low expectation. How can we generate some revenue? He would give Outreach a little money, otherwise there is no incentive to start meeting again. Example of like funding New Orleans group that put together a protest. Compromise with $500 for Outreach. Agree with Joseph and Darryl! regarding IC travel. Tamar: NC has already approved a separate budget, zero sum, but it may generate revenue, just no set expectations. Tony: estimate that we may fundraising a certain amount.
Tamar; PNC budget does not include fundraising; it’s already included in recorded income, just not in the PNC budget – it’s in the regular budget.
Holly: More major/draconian re-allocation suggestions. Committees who have fundraised, continue to raise their own. SC should be conscripted to fundraising. More allocation, including possible reserve funds, for PNC Media, as this will pay off long term. Note that Louisiana Greens were not in communication for a time. Outreach can provide free downloads, which a lot of people are already using.
Charles: PNC funds: had included links to virtual and other PNC, had intended to include the link in the budget proposal. Could SC agree to add that link? Charles will send to secretary to add.
Tony: FinCom meetings determined they would take $20,000 from the bequest; question about how that money has been allocated. Allocate some to Media for $3-4000.
Bob: Moved $15,000 from savings into budget, feels that was reasonable. No foul play, just poor record-keeping in past allocations. Last year’s budget had built-in deficit, exceed by something like $20,000. Not much left in bequest.
Charles: Bequest money is nearly gone. About $26K in savings, $14-15K already allocated, about $13,000 in reserves (used for caucuses, some reserves). We also cannot spend diversity/solidarity funds, that is for scholarships for PNC attendance.
Tamar: There is no bequest money left.
There is a proposed amendment from Gloria Mattera Media Co-chair.
Gloria Mattera (Media Co-chair): asked several times how amendments were to be submitted? Proposal? Suggest SC meet with FundCom.
Darryl!: Recommended SCtake this discussion online if answering questions and adjusting numbers about line items. We need proposals in writing, sent in to the list and the SC should respond this week. The treasurer can adjust the numbers. We will be hearing more feedback, possible additional adjustments.
DECISION/ACTION: The SC will take up the proposed media amendment. The SC will call for further budget amendments to be submitted by a specific date, will review them online and make amendments to the budget proposal accordingly.
VI. New Business –
A. Review of received communication from Green Senatorial Campaign Committee re: proposal for name change. Two members will be available to answer questions, if there are any. See Addendum A
Mike Feinstein was asked to report: GSCC is updating their rules to enact a name change to reflect their work as a committee for both US Senate and Congress. The committee is finishing up their proposal, will send it to the SC with a request that it be approved in a 48/48 vote fir any findings, or to expedite placement of proposal in the voting queue. Rationale is that the committee would like to update their FEC filing and begin fundraising.
B. Discussion – The “Uncommitted” and what that may mean – Craig
Craig requested that the Media Committee co-chairs be on the call for this topic.
Craig has been dealing with this topic, mostly involving media. Some Democratic primaries are showing a movement for people to vote Uncommitted as a protest. Would like to work with the SC and Media to figure out a way to pull these people to the Green Party.
Gloria Mattera (Media Co-chair) reported that the goal for Uncommitted votes greatly exceeded projections. Should we think of this as something to look into after the primary season, after the PNC, or soon (as it’s just happening)? What’s the message? A couple? What do we want to be putting out? What are a couple goals?
Holly: This will play out differently in various states, but each state party can work out a strategy. Can promote the Green platform, down ticket candidates as a way to expand our footprint
Joseph: A large percentage of those votes were responding to international issues. Utilize the International Committee.
Gregg Jocoy (Media Co-chair): Reiterate co-chair’s points. We are a small group of committed people. Not working as a naturally-functioning web should, we need infrastructure.
Craig: Willing to work with whoever has the time to work on this. We can do this on a shoestring budget. We should not just stay mute.
Darryl!: Need to look beyond Democrats, recruit from both major parties, and look to the independents who have not been voting, unregistered.
DECISION: Craig will take the lead on pulling together team interested in working on strategy/ies reaching out to the Uncommitted voter (and those not voting?).
TOTAL TIME – 1 hr. 55 min.
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ADDENDUM A
Dear Steering Committee members,
The Green Congressional Campaign Committee (GCCC) is nearly finished with its proposal to the NC, that would establish the GCCC’s Mission Statement and Rules — including clarifying committee officer roles (especially that of the Treasurer, who must file legal reporting documents), and formally merging the Green Senatorial Campaign Committee and House of Representative Campaign Committees, the latter that has never been officially done, as right now only separate rules for these two separate committees officially exist under GPUS Bylaws and GPUS Rules and Procedures.
Mike Feinstein has been helping us provide language that is consistent with other GPUS committee governing rules documents, and that follows the format mandated for such documents as provided by in proposal #393 (gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=393), passed by the NC in 2009 to guide such texts.
We still have a little bit more research to do to finalize the text, which is why we did not submit a finished proposal by yesterday’s deadline for inclusion in Sunday’s SC agenda. Instead, we expect to finish our text during the weekend and vote on it internally within the GSCC on Monday night.
There is an urgency around submitting this proposal to the NC, because approval of it is necessary for the GSCC to set up its bank account, publish its website and donation page, and start supporting Green Congressional Candidates. In order meet this urgency, what we are suggesting and requesting is the following:
1) That Mike Feinstein and myself are given up to ten minutes (we may not need all of it) on Sunday night’s agenda to briefly present on our work and answer any questions you may have, including why we believe that once you receive the proposal, you will most likely consider it to be in compliance with GPUS Rules and Procedures Section 6-5.1 (https://gpus.org/rules-procedures/#06-05), so that it would not require sending the proposal back to the sponsors with findings under 6-5.4 on how it would need to be revised in order to be in compliance.
2) Once you receive our completed text on Tuesday, if no Steering Committee member submits findings regarding non-compliance with 6-5.1, then we ask that in order to meet the urgency to get this proposal to the NC without having to wait until your next meeting on March 24, that you take an on-line vote to approve findings under 6-3.2 (https://gpus.org/rules-procedures/#06-03) to expedite placement onto the voting page starting on Monday, March 18.
6-3.2(b) Declare an expedited placement into the voting queue earlier than the next regular starting date if by a 2/3 vote it approves findings that this would allow the GPUS to meet deadlines it would otherwise not meet or be of other substantial benefit to the GPUS.
We suggest the following draft text for such findings:
As the 2024 campaign season is already underway, and
As the Green Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Green House of Representatives Campaign Committee have been mostly inactive for many years, in part by a lack of sufficient volunteers to populate two committees, and
As the need to consolidate these two committees into one has become apparent in order to create a single, more effective committee, and
As elections have already been held to populate the new single committee, but the new single committee does not actually have formal rules approved by the National Committee under which it can formally operate, and
As specific tasks for the committee require passage by the National Committee of formal rules for the new single committee, tasks such as establishing its bank account, publishing its website and donation page, and fully supporting Green Congressional Candidates,
Therefore it would be of substantial benefit to the GPUS to place the GSCC proposal before the National Committee at the next regular starting date for proposal, which would be Monday, March 18.
Thank you!
Starlene Rankin
GSCC