Steering Committee Meeting – DRAFT MINUTES
Sunday September 14, 2025
8:00 pm EDT
I Setup and Background
Facilitator: Tamar Yager, Cassandra Lems
Steering Committee Roll Call:
1. Arshia Papari (co-chair) –
2. Cassandra Lems(co-chair) – present
3. Craig Cayetano (co-chair) – present, dined during discussion of New Business
4. Charles Ostdiek(co-chair) – will join late; joined during Liaison Report
5. Justin Paglino (co-chair) – present
6. Tamar Yager (co-chair) – present
7. Wissam Charafeddine (co-chair) – present
8. Holly Hart (secretary) – present
9. Bob Stuller (transition treasurer) – reported absence
10. Mark Elbourno (incoming treasurer) –
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.
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) – 5-10 min, if needed
II. Treasurer Report – none for this meeting
Tamar is doing income reports from June, July & August
III. New/Current Business –
1. Online Decisions – FYI (Holly)
1. Request from Mark to endorse and publicize Lifeline for Palestine and related Webinars
APPROVED, 24/48 hour endorsement. Voting Yes: Arshia, Mark, Wissam, Charles, Craig, Justin; Voting to Support related non-military activity and the webinars: Cassandra, Holly; Abstain: Tamar
2. Request from Arshia to endorse and help publicize the Sumud Flotilla. Information TBA; general support, need more information. 24/48, Consensus
A press release is nearly fona;ozed to go out early this week.
2. Payment to Constant Contact for Stein campaign contacts (Justin)
We can import names from the Stein campaign’s list into the GPUS NationBuilder in small batches. Signing up for Stein campaign is considered “implied consent, but there was a question about the ethics of automatically adding one list to another without buy-in. Constant Contact list has expired. GPUS would either need to start paying Constant Contact at $14/mo, or import the list into NationBuilder. NationBuilder costs depend on good email addresses, not number of names..
Tamar proposed that we approve payment to Constant Contact for a month, and seek further information on options for using the list. AGREED, by CONSENSUS.
3. Clarification of YES bank account and domain, how to transfer caucus funds. (Tamar, Mark, Charles)
YES now has their own bank account. They have moved their website from GPUS to their own server. They are still using the GPUS NationBuilder for donations. Charles has not yet followed up with Cassiday Moriarity on the YES separation issue.
IV. Standing Business/Old Business
1. Reminder, follow-up: Open Media and Good Party Request for Party Chairs’ responses. There is no set timeline, but sooner rather than later is probably better
Reminder, this is a nice opportunity.
ACTION ITEM: Holly will send this out again and SC will all work on this online.
V. Reports (Overall)
Co-chairs should review and select committees they want to serve as liaisons. The following list of Co-chairs and committees will be updated. Holly and Justin are following up; Holly to set up calendar or add to Liaison assignment spreadsheet.
Co-chairs, please review liaison spreadsheet and edit, as needed
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2gpFv7aivHl29B5Dx-6hixVsA5QUY9I1c6wpz0f2Ko/edit?gid=1854246226#gid=1854246226
1. Guest Committee(s) : Request from Cassiday Moriarity to speak to the SC – Cassidy was not able to be on this meeting and requested to be on the next. SC agreed to include this on the next call agenda.
2.. Staff (Justin)
Staff discussed the problem of some gp.otg email forwarding addresses not consistently forwarding. One possible work-around is using Google workspace for the forwarding addresses.. This would incur some cost, but not great.
3. Secretary (Holly) - Ongoing work: General “Housekeeping” Information, list saudit & clean-up/Requests: Delegates 101; NEW: Committee Co-chairs Basics. Following with Committee one-on-ones, to the degree possible. Policies on security, storage and access. To follow up: Monthly/Quarterly Delegates Meeting to discuss party-building;; Committee reporting; Guide for Google Drive, addition of easy-to-access NC rules & procedure & information (req. from Esmée Silverman). Holly and Justin are following up; Holly to set up a calendar or add to Liaison assignment spreadsheet.
4. Craig: Media, Merch, PCSC, Outreach
Media is working on some additional branding for social media use.
There was a question about activity on Outreach;. There is none at this time.
5. Cassandra: ANMCom, FundCom, Credentials , DRC –
ANM has the “luxury” of a lot of time to plan for the 2026 ANM, currently speaking with the university host about activities showing support of Palestine & free speech; possibilities fo give out masks, hand sanitizer.
FundCom continues to put out fundraising materials.
6. Wissam: IC, Green Pages, GPAX, BRPP
Wissam brought Lifeline for Palestine to the attention of GPAX, and they will prioritize it with a webinar next week, to include Mark Elbourno and Jill Stein; contacting other groups to activate them to help publicize the effort
Also attended the IC meeting. He would like to work toward re-integration with Global Greens. Some members are also working on this. Wissam is also working on having the IC send messages to international Green Parties to support the Lifeline for Palestine.
Hopes to see BRPP begin meeting again and take on some needed projects and updates. There is a arenewed intention to re-start production of Green Pages.
7. Arshia: CCC, Platform
8. Tamar: Diversity, Staff Supervisor – no report
9. Charles: FinCom, Animal Rights, GCCC BMRC – no reports -
10. Justin: Staff Supervisor ETC – Member finished report, to be stored online and vote on by the NC to certify the election.
Liaison needed for EcoAction, Justin is on their email list and can report they are doing well.
VII. Voting Queue – (Holly) Two of the three proposals from GPMI were returned to the state party with requests for clarification and instructions on what would be needed to re-submit should they wish to do so.
Wissam withdrew #1265 with the plan to use a different approach. He is calling for several members from various areas of the Green Party. SC should appoint 3 people. Holly expressed interest. Tamar recommended that David Doonan be included. Wissam will send out a call to the National Committee for those who may be interested.
Received for the Queue
A. Proposal to Approve Cassiday Moriarty for Finance Committee
Needs floor manager; threshold and timeline standard
Will go to the voting queue the following Monday, September 2
2 weeks discussion, 1 week vote.
Floor Manager: Wissam
D. Coalition Engagement Protocol – need final copy for Google drive or take up on the next call
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OTY2pIr3hBMHXuwivaDf4pPS15YkStfg6Tz5mmcOO94/edit?tab=t.0
Cassandra stated she would like to table it until she can read all of it. Proposals are much shorter than this. Wissam explained this was a proposal that has been sent in earlier regarding coalition criteria. Craig noted in regard to this proposal that Sawant’s organization had funds for “boots on the streets” for support for the Stein campaign, we need the Outreach Committee to be working in this capacity.
Cassandra asked if this affects our bylaws and rules in any way. Wissam stated this is an additional procedure, not sure what body of documents it would go into.
FINDING: Tabled until it can be determined what rules/bylaws would be affected and determine where to place this policy. Wissam will review rules & procedures and recommend where this could be added, whether as a new section or whether it relates something already there.
2. In the Queue —
Discussion
Withdrawn A. #1265 – Proposal to Establish a Youth Accessibility & Procedure Reform Working Group – see above
Voting – None
Completed – None
TOTAL TIME – 1 hr 30 min