Steering Committee Meeting – MINUTES
Sunday, May 17, 2026
8:00 pm EDT
I Setup and Background
Facilitator: Allan Hunter
Steering Committee Roll Call:
1. Arshia Papari (co-chair) – present
2. Cassandra Lems(co-chair) – present
3. Craig Cayetano (co-chair) – present
4. Charles Ostdiek (co-chair) – present
5. Kalia Fitzgerald (co-chair) – present
6. Tamar Yager (co-chair) – present
7. Wissam Charafeddine (co-chair) – present-
8. Holly Hart (secretary) – 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: Ann Link, NY; Matthew Hutchinson, MO, Aly Schmidt, TX; Anna Ordoubadi, NC
Establish Quorum (8 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:
No: Craig, Holly, Cassandra, Kalia, Charles – time concerns, take up online
Abstain: Tamar
Arshia: Yes
NOT ADDED will be taken up online
2.. Arshia: CAIR endorsement against Butch ware and Arshia Papari, and effective response
Arshioa: Yes
Cassandra: No, 48/48
Craig: executive session
Kalia; executive session
Holly: executive session
WIll take up in EXECUTIVE SESSION
3. Arshia: Staff reviews and position reviews
Cassandra: No, time
Craig: No
Charles:Abstain
Klia: Yes
Tamar: No
Wissam:
Arshia: Yes
Holly: Abstain
NOT ADDED
4. Charles: BAC request for funds for WIGP; APPROVED, take up during Treasurer’s Report
EXECUTIVE SESSION 8:20 pm – 8:55 pm ET
NCGP Co-chair Anna Lee Ordoubadi responded to the Steering Committee’s request for a statement from the Green Party of North Carolina regarding the issues involving the departure of two of their candidates. The party received allegations which they reviewed and found to be credible. They will put out a statement. They are not assigning guilt. They want to protect individuals’ safety and the party. She and others have received hundreds of hostile messages both publicly and to personal email accounts.
II. Treasurer Report (Tamar; Charles)
1. Reports, as available, Charles is receiving forwarding treasurer email and serving as acting treasurer. He is seeking access to Paypal
ACCOUNT BALANCES
Operations Checking = $30,369.44
Second checking = Merchant service $19,684.57
Savings = $88,777,76 / a lot is restricted, some available to pay bills
Paypal. Balance = $7,756.03
Chares stated they are working to put reserves in a separate savings account.
Tamar and Craig asked if bills have been paid for Merchandise. Charles is unsure.
Tamar noted that having approximately $55,000 approx is not good.lAt least $10,000 is ANM money.
Charles stated that there are funds to pay current bills, and he is working on determining what amount in the savings account is in reserves. We are not dipping into reserves at this time. He gave a “heavily qualified” estimate of funds to sustain operations for about two months.
2,Request from Ballot Access Committee for Wisconsin Green party campaign. Charles reported that he is following up with the request to see what they have in reserves. There has been disagreement over how much they have – several hundred or several thousand. WIGP is asking for $1.000, with one week left in which they can use the money.
Tamar noted that her report has $916 in reserves for BAC. Craig asked if returning funds from Sean Dougherty campaign can be used for the WIGP campaign., and if we can ask that $1000 of those funds go to BAC for WIGP. There was also a suggestion that funds awarded to the Indiana Green Party could be returned. Charles objected to waiting on any returned funds at this time, noting that Wisconsin has only one week left to accomplish this work. The other options suggested would take too much time to pursue and would be reliant upon decisions from those other parties who control those funds.
Charles requested that BAC be sent the $986 currently in their reserved funds. PROPOSAL that the SC allot $84 from GPUS discretionary funds to make up the balance of the request,
APPROVED, by Consensus
III. New/Current Business
1. Online Decisions, FYI’s – None
2. FYI Events, book review by Laura Wells
-
Darryl! Moch – DC, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Metropolitan DC Chapter Candidate Forum
-
Laura Wells – , third party access town hall;, Stu Strumwasser – video and book available, book review by Laura Wells
2. Orientation (Holly, SC)
Welcome Kalia as new SC Co-chair. Reviewed basic Steering Committee Co-chair tasks and policies: committee liaisons; media protocol; conflict of interest and participation policy; executive session policy; voting page proposal floor manager; timeline for meeting agendas, review,minutes
3. Request to endorse Declaration of Independence
Review of endorsement process for time-sensitive requests
Arshia – 48/48; Cassandra – in favor of taking up now
AGREED to take up online
IV. Standing Business/Old Business
1.Follow-up with “inactive” state parties. (Holly) 10 minutes
Wrote again to the Accreditation Committee; no response. Attempted to contact GP of Louisiana and GP of West Virginia. No responses. Contacted and spoke with members of GP of Montana; they are fine with moving to “inactive” status, and are aware that this means the will not be counted for quorum on NC voting page proposals, their members may participate in national working committees if they wish, and they may reactivate by notifying the secretary of their wish to do so,.
Request that proposals for GPLA, GPWV (WVMT) and GPMT be submitted to send to the NC for a vote.
APPROVED, by Consensus. Holly will send proposals to SC and Accreditation to go to the Voting Queue..
V. Reports – 30 min
[NOTE to SC: Liaisons should start contacting committees per the “calendar.” – 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. There is also a calendar to set up a reporting schedule.]
[Please update the Liaisons spreadsheet, as needed.]
1. Guest Committee(s) : None, due to time. Charles will invite EcoAction to the next meeting
2. Staff (Tamar) – to discuss goals and objectives, but did not have time; looking over, apply a rubric, will continue working and refining.
Arshia asked that his initial February 8th proposal be listed continually under old business.
Final pieces for staff contract have been sent by Holly to staff
Charles asked whether the digital media contractor has been onboarded yet. Craig reported that the contract has been re-sent. Craig,and Media Co-chair Gloria Mattera are waiting on confirmation from the hire.
3. Secretary (Holly) - Renewed Delegates 101 today drew a small group with more interested; will have one or more in the near future; Committees 101. WIll send sign-up for SC for Basecamp tutorials; Voting page work update; – update to make access from a smart phone more accessible, update for ranked choice voting results reports ,and more. ETC update: due to domain forwarding issue, all the ballot keys went into the Secretary account spam folder, except a few which went into a personal spam folder; all should have been retrieved by the ETC and work should be progressing. A call for the standard election ETC will go out soon although this may be rendered moot depending on the nature of the voting page update; also a call for ANM plenary facilitators.
Craig said that the Green Party of New Jersey would like a Basecamp set-up. Advised to write to the secretary who will help set up or pass on to the tech support gro\up.
4. Craig: Media, Merch, PCSC, Outreach
Media – passed 42,000 Instagram followers, FB just under 165,000, Twitter/x hs not gone away; Upscroll (no thanks to Google and Meta) is not gaining a lot of interest and GP has only 88 followers (will stay on the platform, but not gaining traction), Threads for sharing and cross-posting- 4822 followers, automatic crosspost. “Collab, collab, collab” – boost candidates’ exposure. GPUS collaborates with every caucus with Instagram, Jill Stein & Butch Ware, but caucuses are not accepting collaborations.
5. Cassandra: ANMCom, FundCom, Credentials , DRC
ANM is looking to find a new keynote speaker; tech issues, how to accommodate virtual presenters and attendees; held a session for some of the workshop presenters. FundCom – 500 more JiIl Stein list land mail pieces have gone out. Next March will be time for a call for CredCom. DRC met at the end of April to discuss Wissam’s proposal about overhauling the DRC.
6. Wissam: IC, Green Pages, GPAX , BRPP, BMRC – no reports
7. Arshia: CCC, Platform
CCC is meeting
Holly noted for Platform – 6 submissions from AZ, and some housekeeping proposals
Craig raised the Question of CCC Twitter/X account and tweets in support of Democratic Party candidates. He asked Arshia to get control of the account and stop it from being misused.
8. Tamar: Diversity
Diversity is working on solidarity fund awards for the ANM, will put out a second call for applicants. ANM income currently is about $11,000, some registration, meals and lodging, some solidarity. Kalia reported that filmmaker Abby Martin has responded positively.
9. Charles: FinCom, Animal Rights
Animal Rights Committee’s Craig Seeman gave a detailed report last meeting. Charles is no longer BAC, GPAX and EcoAction liaison. Working on treasurer transition, FEC reports and getting needed access to accounts; the main concerns now are payroll, which seems to be working, and FEC reporting.
BAC, EcoACction - ??
VII. Voting Queue – (Holly)
Received for the Voting Queue
None
Discussion
# 1294 – Budget Amendment for Party Sustainability
Discussion through 5/17/2026
Voting period: 5/18-5/24/2026
Approval Threshold: Majority
Floor Manager: Charles
# 1295 Green Party Advocacy for Reparations to Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza
Discussion through 5/21/2026
Voting period: 5/22-28, 2026
Approval Threshold: Majority
Floor Manager: Wissam
Voting
# 1293 – Approval of Darryl Moch to Finance Committee
Voting through 5/17/2026
Approval Threshold: Majority
Floor Manager: Charles
Completed
# 1290 – Budget Proposal to Amend GPUS 2026 Budget – ADOPTED
# 1292 – 2026 Special Election – Steering Committee Co-chair
#1296 – Election of Elections Tabulation Committee – ETC – for 2026 Special Election
Executive Session – 10 min (sic);
Moved to the start of the call. Pertaining to any legal concerns regarding a complaint from former treasurer
NC will put out a statement regarding the departure of recent candidates.
IX. Not in Executive Session, as it was determined that the nature of this issue did not amount to anything pertaining to a legal or confidential candidate matter.
Arshia reported that the Council of American & Islamic Relations is similar to the NAACP. In Texas, they engage with CAIR ACtion heavily in terms of elections and policy and legislative work.
CAIR did not endorse Butch Ware in CA; instead, they endorsed Tom Steier who does not share our pro-Palestine position. In Arshia’s race in TX, they endorsed someone else; no idea why. Arshia was in UT-Austin protest arrested with 130+ people. Arshia offered to have a meeting with CAIR and the SC, and said they were amenable to a meeting some time in the coming week,.
Kalia noted that in NC, CAIR does not seem to endorse GP-values candidates, no shock, and a badge of honor not to be endorsed by CAIR. Craig reported they have worked numerous years with CAIR in NJ. A lot are Democrats and are trying to push on the policy and making headway with getting bills in the state legislature. They have Categories of different levels – oppose, joint endorsement, preferred status, endorse. In 2024, they endorsed all presidential candidates on the left. They endorsed all the Greens in NJ, because they know their voice was not enough to rattle the cage enough; their endorsement doesn’t mean anything. It’s up to each candidate in each state to go after the support they see fit. Craig advises candidates seek a preferred status or joint endorsement.
TOTAL TIME – 2 hrs ,20 min