May 31. 2015

GPUS Steering Committee Meeting Minutes – May 31, 2015

I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND

a) Facilitator – David Doonan
b) Roll Call – Audrey Clement, Jeff Turner, Budd Dickinson, Tamar Yager, Charles Ostdiek, Jesse Townley, Darryl! Moch
Absent – Karen Young
Observers – Jody Grage, Starlene Rankin, John Andrews
c) Agenda revisions – Discussion about second CPD lawsuit in executive session with John Andrews at end of meeting.

II. OLD BUSINESS

a) ANM GNC meeting: Darryl! and Karen conferred.

Saturday plenary session will discuss the BAC Plan and the national issue strategy.
Sunday plenary session will use results from the previous session to rate top issues and goals which will be used to do outreach, engage communities and build voting base.
National Strategy Working Group will be formed with volunteers who then will join committees to further that work.
Jill and Green Shadow Cabinet will be asked to join a conversation to work on legislative proposals with the Strategy Working Group. On Friday there will be state and committee reports and candidate statements. After a discussion of election of facilitators, Budd offered to do research on the rules.
Consensus to go forward with the plan developed by Darryl! and Karen above.

III. STANDING BUSINESS

a) Treasurer’s Report – Jeff T.
Report sent shows mail income through last Monday and online through Wednesday. Paid bills include the Macalester balance, rent and insurance. NationBuilder website development invoice for balance of $1800 will be due soon.

b) Fundraising Report
The mailing to 3500 dropped on Wednesday and income is expected soon. 6000 going out within a week (3000 current and 3000 former donors). The eblast from a week ago brought in about $2000. Another eblast will be going out this week. A reporting system is being developed to track eblast results. FundCom is looking for volunteer phone bankers.

c) Finance Items for decision:
Proposal for up to $1000 sponsored by Tamar and Karen to hire a NationBuilder consultant to clean out the duplicates in the database and teach us best practices for keeping the NationBuilder data clean. Consensus with Audrey abstaining. There was agreement that Jeff and David could join in the training.
Starlene and Lea will get business cards through Brian Bittner as office supplies.
Merchandise – Approximately $1000 to order rise/resist/revolt t-shirts was approved. There was consensus to buy up to $1000 of bumper stickers and buttons as the money is available; perhaps with the new logo.

d) VOTING QUEUE

In the queue:

782 – Conflict of Interest (COI) statement for the GPUS from FinCom.Vote 6/1-7.
783 – PCSC proposal to update Article X of GPUS rules. Vote 6/8-14.
784 – Election to Fill SC Co-chair Vacancy. Vote 6/1-7.

Received for the Queue:

PROPOSAL TO RESTORE NC VOTES EMAIL LIST (from North Carolina GP with cosponsor by NWC and Maine GP) Floor manager – Charles Ostdiek. 3 weeks discussion.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

a) Statement/official position on Bernie Sanders run for POTUS. Defer to later call.

b) Commission on Presidential Debates puts up Public Comments Invitation – Proposed wording from Audrey. Approval to begin 3 to 14 day approval process with comments for friendly amendments requested from the GNC including SC members. It was also
suggestion that Greens be encouraged to comment perhaps through development of an elevator speech on the issue.

V. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Discussion of the new CPD lawsuit from “Level the Playing Field”- began at 9:49 pm ET. Ended at 10:23. Present: Tamar, Audrey, Budd, Charles, Jeff and John Andrews. Consensus to have Karen, Audrey, and Charles work with john to review details and report back by next sc meeting.

VI. NEXT CALL – June 14

Budd Dickinson

Secretary