Meeting Minutes GP-US Finance Committee April 17, 2006

Those in Attendance: Emily Citkowski (DC), Brent McMillan (DC), Marc
Sanson (IL), Jake Schneider (WI), Jeff Turner (HI), Brent White (WA)
(invited to the call for Coor. Exp. Discussion)

Facilitator: Jake
Notetaker: Brent M.

1. Approval of notes from Apr. 3 meeting - approved.

2. Coordinated Expenditures and Donations Question -
Three congressional campaigns are bringing a relatively high level of
interest for large donors:
Michael Berg for U.S. House, DE
Aaron Dixon for U.S. Senate, WA
Sander Hicks, seeking the nomination of the GPoNY for U.S. Senate, NY

The Coordinated Congressional Campaign (GCCC) is a subcommittee of the
Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC). Brent White is the lead for this
subcommittee. Brent is willing (pending the approval of the CCC
Co-chairs) to be the liaison for the CCC to Fin Com.

Brent M. presented the history of this issue thus far, how we got to
this point. Do we form Senate and House committees in order to
facilitate the acceptance of larger donations to the Party?

Brent W. expressed his support for forming these committees as soon as
possible. He was asked if they would be subject to the will of the
National Committee. Brent W. indicated that the National Committee would
have the final word over these committees.

Jeff T. asked if these committees would have separate books/accounts?
Brent W. responded, yes.

These committees would be legally separate from GP-US. They would have
separate officers, etc.

Marc S. asked about the lack of flexibility in GP-US Fiscal Policy?

Brent W. responded that without a change we will be able to do some of
what we want to do through state committees, but not much. 

Jody made a proposal that Brent & Brent begin to prepare information
about how this would function. What changes would there have to be in
policy? Document the events that would have to take place, keeping in
mind that this would ultimately need to be presented to the National
Committee. The mechanics of what would happen need to be spelled out,
including the relationship that these committees would have to our
current structure. How are the Dems and Repubs currently doing this?

Emily stated that she was confused at this point and doesn't understand
what the role of the NC would be in this whole thing. What will be the
relationship between the National, House, and Senate Committees?
Hypothetically, What would their relationship be to Green Pages? They do
a lot of coverage of candidates, would they be subsidized by these new
committees?

Brent W.: Because of the Supreme Court ruling on McConnell vs FEC the
answer is yes.

Jeff: The formation of these committees is a matter of not if but when.

Jake: I would like to see a workplan, a series of steps, aiming for a
proposal to the NC.

Action steps: This will remain as a standing item on the Fin Com Agenda.
Brent White is invited to attend these meetings on a regular basis.
Brent & Brent will prepare a first draft of a proposal for the next
call. Brent M. is empowered to contact the FEC as necessary on this
issue.

3. 2006 Budget Update - Marc: Asked about ANMC Budget, proposed basic
tier system for registration for the conference. The sentiment of Fin
Com is for the ANMC is to make the decision on this and forward it's
conclusion to Fin Com for approval.

4. Donor Bill of Rights Question - There has been a request for the
donation total from a particular state for each year of a five year
period. Jake doesn't want staff spending gobs of time on generating
financial data. 

Action step: Emily will contact David S. about designing a query for
being able to get the information on how much the donors from an
individual state contribute to the national party in a specific year.