September 10, 2017

GPUS Steering Committee Minutes 
September 10, 2017

SUMMARY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO STATES AND LOCAL CHAPTERS

  1. Peace Action Committee: Review process for proposed rules on next call
  2. Committee Liaisons assignments: Accreditation (AC) – Gloria (temporary); Animal Rights (ARC) – George; Annual National Meeting (ANM) – Darlene; Ballot Access (BAC) – Chris; Bylaws, Rules, Policies and Procedures (BRPP) – Andrea; Coordinated Campaign- Gloria; Dispute Resolution (DRC)- Darryl!; Diversity (DivCom) – Darlene; Eco-Action – George; Finance (FinCom) – Darryl!; Fundraising (FundCom) – Mike; Green Pages Editorial Board – Chris; International (IC)- George; Media – Gloria; Merchandise MerchCom) – Chris; Outreach – George; Platform (PlatCom) – Darlene; Presidential Campaign Support(PCSC) – Chris
  3. In voting queue for voting: Adopting Approval Voting for Internal Elections – TX – closes 9/17/17
    No new proposals received for the voting queue4. Old Business: for next agenda: ETC Final Report; Annual National Meeting Final Report; Voting page maintenance progress report; Staff Recommendations to the SC – Components and Prioritizing

The full minutes are available at:
http://gpus.org/committees/steering/minutes/september-10-2017/
The call recording is available at 712-451-0309, #926334, reference #5


Jody Grage, Secretary


I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND – 15 min.

a) Facilitator: Charles Sherrouse

b) Roll Call – Jody Grage, Hillary Kane (on for 1.5 hours), Andrea Merida, Chris Blankenhorn, Mike Dennis, Darlene Elias, Darryl! Moch, George Martin (George is having difficulty reading and requests phone communication)

Absent: Gloria Mattera

Observers – David Gerry MA, Starlene Rankin OR, Tamar Yager VA , Anika Ofori LA

d) Agenda revisions
1. Lavender  and Youth caucus expenditures – Mike – consensus to add with Jody standing aside
2. Ad for People’s Congress of Resistance at Howard U in DC Statehood Journal – Darryl! – consensus to add with Jody standing aside
3. Elections database payment of $500 – Hillary – consensus to add

II. NEW BUSINESS – 40 min

a) Application to reactivate the Peace Action Committee – Jody, 5 min – proposed Rules at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gJXkqbQiywmBNEkEafxvv9p6gqDL9WNr6yTQpoA2rMA/edit
Jody will send description of rule changes and info on rules for handling committee rule changes, as well as information available on whether GPAX officially disbanded for next agenda – consensus

b) CCC: expenditures of $3,000 for candidate campaigns – Hillary, 10 min.
Request $2500 – $500 for each of 5 candidates – consensus

c) Election database – Chris
Request for $8,750 for next phase – front end; $5k already paid for back end work;
all at once or in two parts; not budgeted expense – need to determine funding source; need to discuss necessity and efficacy of this project – for next agenda

d) Outreach – Darlene – 15 min

1. GPLA – $850 for state convention venue plus $350 for workshop including published manual at retail
price; one-time approval for workshop only or for event as a whole suggested; venue expense seems
high; proposal to provide $300 toward event to be used as LA decides – consensus; Outreach encouraged to develop a budget plan with a vetting process

2. Movement School for Revolutionaries – Outreach approved $1500 of $3500 request Jackson, MS,
Oct 21; co-facilitators David Cobb, Mel Figueroa, Jerome Scott, Bruce Dixon; Kali Akuno may also present
a session; inviting Greens from MS, LA, AR, TN, AL, GA and the panhandle of FL

Opportune time for building Green Party in area; generic agenda provided – need to know extent of area involvement in specific agenda for this event; need further information as basis for funding; need to report back on accomplishments from funding; Darryl! will get gather information for a decision in a week – 24 hours to send in questions, after answered 48 discussion and 48 hours of voting – consensus

3. People’s Congress of Resistance – Darryl! – 10 min
GPUS/DC Statehood Greens to split $350 design cost for ad in event program, Darryl! will research funding source – consensus

4. Lavender Caucus – Mike
Request approval from Lavender Caucus $1000 budget of $150 for Zoom conference call program and $350 for share of Youth Caucus Basecamp 3; Request approval from Youth Caucus budget of $1000 of $200 BlueJeans Video Conferencing – consensus; Jody will consult with Hillary about caucus expenditures procedures

d) Accreditation Committee governance issues – Andrea – 10 min
Listing of Andrea’s issues; Gloria will be SC liaison to AC at least temporarily while GP of Colorado matter being processed and will consider Andrea’s main point; Andrea unsubscribing herself from the AC list

III. STANDING BUSINESS – 40 min.

a) Treasurer’s report – Hillary Kane, 10 min.

Darryl! working with Hillary to resolve problems using debit card; balance in total accounts $1,665,355.40 ; – reserve account $74,383.68 including caucuses and staff salaries for 3 months; business checking $66,453.27; merchandise $24,518.45

b) Fundraising report – Tamar Yager/Starlene Rankin, 5 min.

2 letters to printer this week – 7700 from Jill – 100 are more major donors – hand addressed and stamped, asking for SC and Jill follow up; regular donor mailing to 6,000 – Mike Dennis wrote; $2500 donation from Viggo Mortensen – Jody volunteered to follow up; ANM money from Stein campaign – profit to go to operating reserves

c) Personnel Working Group report – Darryl!, 5 min. – No update

d) Committee Liaisons – assignments due by 15 September – Jody, 20 min.
Request from the Accreditation Committee for a liaison change
ARC – Gloria
AC – Gloria temporarily
ANM – Darlene
EcoAction – George
Outreach – George
PlatCom – Daryl!

IV. VOTING QUEUE – Jody – 5 min.

In the queue:

a) Adopting Approval Voting for Internal Elections – TX – voting 9/11/17-9/17/17; Floor Manager Received for the queue: None

V. OLD BUSINESS –40 min.

a) ETC Final Report – Committee – 5 min. – on next agenda

b) Annual National Meeting – Tamar Yager – 10 min.
Portland has sent in a request for 2018; final financial report requested

c) Voting page maintenance/Tech issues progress report – Chris – 5 min.
Hugh is finalizing reminder system for RCV voting; ranking/grouping of backlog items being done

d) Enhancing our communications and meeting capacities – Darryl! – on next agenda
Mike is developing a document to assist this process

e) Strategic planning and February retreat – Darryl! – on next agenda
Jody will key in information retrieved

f) Staff Recommendations to the SC: Components and Prioritization – Mike/Gloria – 15 min.
Gloria and Darryl! still working on this and request extra time on future call

g) Speakers Bureau: brief update of progress and decisions to date – Darryl! – 5 min.

Darryl! talked with Cynthia and Scott; online searchable database needed as basis for speaker requests to GPUS office; Mike asks that spreadsheet be shared with SC; political vetting process needed – Scott and Adrian; Cynthia is collecting and gathering data including from Ann Link and managing process after speakers are vetted – will put selected speaker for event in touch with Scott/Adrian; staff asked to prepare update on the working of the program in one week from 18 September for SC review – consensus

VI. EXECUTIVE SESSION

TOTAL TIME: 3hr 40 min

Jody Grage, Secretary