DRAFT Coordinating Committee minutes, June 13, 2016

Coordinating Committee members present (12): Victoria Ashley, Marla Bernstein, Eric Brooks, Trini Castaneda, Maxine Daniel, Sanda Everette, Mike Feinstein, Mike Goldbeck, Tarik Kanaana, Tim Laidman, Mimi Newton, Alex Shantz

Coordinating Committee members not-present (1): Jessica Montiel

Invited Guests (Greens): Doug Barnett, GPCA Treasurer

Quorum at 7:34 with ten (10) present: Victoria Ashley, Marla Bernstein, Trini Castaneda, Maxine Daniel, Sanda Everette, Mike Goldbeck, Tarik Kanaana, Tim Laidman, Mimi Newton, Alex Shantz

Feinstein joined at 7:58
Brooks joined at 8:03

2) Roles

Facilitator: Alex Shantz
Minutes taker: Sanda Everette til 7:58, Mike Feinstein thereafter
Time keeper: Maxine Daniel
Vibes Watcher: Tim Laidman

3) Approval of agenda

Proposal (Goldbeck): Amend agenda to change order between #7 and #5

Victoria Ashley - yes
Marla Bernstein - no
Eric Brooks - not present
Trini Castaneda - no
Maxine Daniel - yes
Sanda Everette - no
Mike Feinstein - not present
Mike Goldbeck - yes
Tarik Kanaana - yes
Tim Laidman - no
Jessica Montiel - not present
Mimi Newton - yes
Alex Shantz - no

Proposal does not pass 5-5-0

4) Approval of minutes (ten minutes)

Decision: Approval of Coordinating Committee minutes, May 13, 2016 (Feinstein)

http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2016-05-13

Approved by consensus

Decision: Approval of Coordinating Committee minutes, May 2, 2016 (Feinstein)

http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2016-05-02

No action taken because of misposted link during agenda publication process

Decision: Approval of Minutes from CC retreat, January 23-24 (Feinstein)

http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2016-01-23

Approved by consensus

http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2016-01-24

Approved by consensus

5) Decision:  Revise bylaws interpretation to extend deadline to apply to be PNC delegate (Everette)

Proposal (Everette): That the Coordinating Committee approve the following Bylaws Interpretation: Based upon the late notice published to GPCA members, that the deadline be extended the deadline to apply to be a GPCA delegate to the GPUS 2016 Presidential National Convention from May 22 to June 6, and that this interpretation be affirmed by the Standing General Assembly

Approved by consensus

6) Decision: Amendment of IT-Protocol (Feinstein) (fifteen minutes)

Proposal (Feinstein): That the GPCA IT-Protocol be amended to include a new Section 4-2 Purpose (and then existing Section 4-2 and others shall be renumbered as 4-3, etc.)

4-2 Purpose

Email lists for standing committees, working groups, the GPUS Delegation and the Standing General Assembly shall be for the duties, authority and functions defined for each in the GPCA Bylaws, Rules and Procedures and Fiscal Policy.

Proposal, amended (Feinstein): That the decision to approve this language go to an on-line vote and that the discussion period shall continue through the upcoming Sunday at midnight, after which there shall be be a week for voting.

Victoria Ashley - no
Marla Bernstein - yes
Eric Brooks - no
Trini Castaneda - yes
Maxine Daniel - no
Sanda Everette - yes
Mike Feinstein - yes
Mike Goldbeck - no
Tarik Kanaana - yes
Tim Laidman - yes
Jessica Montiel - not present
Mimi Newton - no
Alex Shantz - yes

Proposal approved 7-5-0

7) Decision: Update on New Procedures for and Appointment of Moderators to SGA E-Mail List Serve as follow up to action by GPCA General Assembly on Saturday, May 14, 2016 (Daniel, Newton)

Proposal (Daniel, Newton): Maxine and Mimi propose that, to fulfill the May 2016 decision of the General Assembly, the CC act on this matter by adopting procedures for the List Serve Moderation and appoint three moderators to the List Serve to begin immediate implementation of the new List Serve procedures.  After checking-in with the proponents of the May 14 proposal, the following three Green Party SGA members have now been confirmed as willing to serve as moderators:  Richard Gomez (Fresno county), Gordon Johnson (Orange county), and Victoria Ashley (Solano county).  Unless any valid objections are raised by at least 5 days prior to our June 13th meeting, we propose that these 3 Greens be confirmed as the initial set of (3) moderators.

Maxine and Mimi also recommend the following procedures:

WHEREAS core tenets of the Green Party’s platform include the fundamental idea that the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, is critical to ensuring the effective working of democracy and that an informed electorate is critical to good government; and

WHEREAS, similarly, the Green Party of California celebrates both the idea that freedom of speech is a core value to be preserved and utilized in order to ensure the effective working of the Party and the idea that an informed Standing General Assembly (SGA) is critical to keeping the Green Party strong; and

WHEREAS the Green Party of California’s SGA List Serve was created as a means of facilitating communication for the purposes of SGA decision-making and to provide an opportunity to utilize a consensus-seeking process within the context of utilizing electronic means as opposed to only during an in-person General Assembly; and

WHEREAS the Green Party of California’s Coordinating Committee seeks to ensure that the SGA List Serve Moderators shall serve the purpose of furthering the consensus-seeking process without undertaking to stifle either the SGA delegates’ freedom of speech or a dynamic and open expression of ideas focused on the decisions to be made by the SGA; and

WHEREAS the Green Party of California’s Coordinating Committee also seeks to ensure – without resorting to censorship or other pre-approval-- that individual SGA Delegates participate on the List Serve in a respectful manner that advances the Ten Key Values, that the SGA List Serve is not abused or otherwise hijacked by any individual participants on the List Serve, and that communications through this List Serve are conducted generally in accordance with the Green Party of California’s Rules of Decorum  --

Therefore, and in keeping with maintaining these core principles of seeking consensus and the Green Party’s celebration of freedom of speech and an engaged electorate, the moderation of the SGA List Serve shall henceforth be performed in accordance with the following procedures:

(A)       Three (3) SGA List Serve Moderators shall be appointed from the SGA members by the Coordinating Committee at the June 13, 2016 General Meeting.  Each moderator shall serve as a moderator of the SGA List Serve in accordance with these procedures until he or she: (i) is no longer able to serve as a moderator; (ii) resigns as a moderator; or (iii) is replaced as a moderator by the Coordinating Committee at a duly-announced General Meeting. Whenever a moderator is appointed, the three (3) moderators shall confer by telephone or other agreed-upon means within 14 calendar days of the appointment to determine their best method(s) of communication during implementation of their joint moderation of the SGA List Serve and to develop a template for warnings that they will utilize in carrying out these procedures.

(B)       There shall be no pre-posting censorship, filtering, pre-approval, editing or other pre-posting review of SGA List Serve email messages, which all, without exception, shall be posted to the List Serve in as close to real time as technology allows.  Any moderation of SGA List Serve posts after the fact shall be conducted only in accordance with these procedures.  Initial SGA List Serve posts beginning a particular thread for discussion shall provide a reminder as to where complaints about off-topic or inappropriate posts may be directed.

(C)       Upon any specific complaint to any of the three SGA List Serve Moderators by any member of the SGA that a post is either “off-topic” or “inappropriate,” the moderators shall confer by whatever means they previously agreed upon within 72 hours of receiving the complaint and determine whether a warning to the poster of the message is warranted.  Alternatively, the moderators may determine that, rather than provide a warning, it is instead appropriate to assist the poster in clarifying more specifically how their post is in fact relevant to the SGA proposal for which the thread was begun.  If the complaint is based on a post being considered “off-topic,” the moderators shall make a determination as to whether the post is focused on the SGA List Serve topic for which the thread began.  If the complaint is based on a post being considered “inappropriate,” the moderators shall determine whether the post is in conflict with the Green Party of California E-Mail Rules of Decorum (http://www.cagreens.org/it-protocol/email-decorum).

(D)       Where consensus as to the appropriate response to a particular complaint is not reached by the moderators within a 72 hour period, the determination by two moderators that a warning is appropriate shall warrant a warning.  Where a warning is deemed appropriate by two or more moderators, one or more moderators shall provide such warning to the poster in a message that, for the sake of transparency, is copied to the SGA List Serve.  The warning shall include suggestions for other avenues the poster may take to engage with other Greens regarding the poster’s topic, including, but not necessarily limited to, providing a link to the GPCA Forum List Serve. Upon the determination by at least two moderators that a warning should be retracted, one or more of the moderators may retract such warning.  The SGA List Serve Moderators may elect to respond to those lodging complaints about the outcome of the moderators’ deliberations regarding whether to provide a warning or not, at their discretion.

(E)       Upon any member of the SGA List Serve having received three warnings in accordance with these procedures, any specific complaint to any of the three SGA List Serve Moderators by any member of the SGA regarding either an off-topic post or inappropriate post (the “trigger post”) by such individual poster may trigger consideration by the moderators regarding whether removal of the poster from the SGA List Serve is appropriate.  Where consensus is not reached by the moderators within a 72 hour period following the date of the complaint regarding the trigger post, the determination by two moderators that removal of the poster is appropriate shall warrant such removal.  Alternatively, the moderators may determine that an additional warning should be provided to the poster.  In such instances, future specific complaints regarding off-topic or inappropriate posts to the SGA List Serve shall be treated as complaints regarding trigger posts in accordance with this paragraph.

(F)        Proposals to reinstate any poster who has been removed from the SGA List Serve by the moderators may be heard and acted on by the CC, the SGA and/or the General Assembly in accordance with the internal procedures of those bodies and the GPCA by-laws.

(G)       Nothing in these procedures shall be construed to prohibit any one moderator taking immediate action to block spam email.  Nor shall these procedures be construed to prohibit the transmission of a personal message from a moderator to someone whose message is under consideration for being deemed off-topic or inappropriate.  Nor shall these procedures be construed to prohibit an emergency shutdown of the List Serve if the number of messages exceeds 50 in a 24-hour period and two moderators agree that the content of the messages does not warrant such traffic.

Implementation/Timeline/Resources:

Maxine and Mimi propose immediate implementation of these procedures, and the immediate appointment of Richard Gomez (Fresno county), Gordon Johnson (Orange county), and Victoria Ashley (Solano county) as SGA List Serve Moderators, during the June 13, 2016 CC meeting.  We also propose immediate referral of the decision of the Coordinating Committee on this matter to the Standing Committee for Information Technology to assume responsibility for maintaining the SGA List Serve in accordance with the procedures adopted by the Coordinating Committee.  We do not anticipate that resources will be necessary to implement this proposal.References: General Assembly minutes of May 14, 2016.

Proposal, amended (Daniel, Newton): Amend proposal to set up a temporary sub-committee of Eric Brooks, Maxine Daniel, Sanda Everette, Mike Feinstein, Michael Goldbeck, Mimi Newton and Alex Shantz to review the draft proposed text, and return to the Coordinating Committee with an updated text

Approved by consensus

The remaining items were not heard because of time constraints, except #13 was heard to give an opportunity for outgoing Coordinating Committee members Maxine Daniel and Tim Laidman to say their goodbyes and to thank them.

8) Decision: Establish a State Bills Sub-Committee of the Coordinating Committee (Feinstein)

Background: GPCA Bylaws governing the Coordinating Committee give the Coordinating Committee the ability to establish Sub-Committees.

8-1.12 Establish Sub-Committees of the Coordinating Committee as necessary to accomplish these and other tasks of the Coordinating Committee as defined in these Bylaws.

GPCA Bylaws governing the Coordinating Committee also state that the Coordinating Committee may 8-1.9 Make statements in the name of the Party.  This bylaw has always been interpreted to enable the Coordinating Committee to endorse legislation on behalf of the GPCA, assuming the legislation is consistent with the GPCA Platform and Ten Key Values.

There are many bills in the California state legislature that a Green Party position would be relevant and valuable, including bills around electoral reform that would enable the GPCA to be more electorally viable. However the GPCA rarely takes positions on bills in the California state legislature, because of a lack of personnel dedicated to the task.

Proposal:  That the Coordinating Committee establish a State Bills Sub-Committee, with the duties and responsibilities to research bills and recommend GPCA position on bills where a GPCA position would be valuable to advance green issues and the GPCA (more text to come on duties and responsibilities)

9) Appointments: Media Committee (fifteen minutes)

The following individuals have applied for appointment in keeping with GPCA Internal Procedures

Alex Shantz
Laura Wells
Michael Goldbeck
Eric Brooks

10) Appointments: Bylaws Committee

The following individuals have applied for appointment in keeping with GPCA Internal Procedures

Tim Laidman
Victoria Ashley
Mimi Newton
Michael Goldbeck
Laura Wells

11) Discussion: Regaining GPCA members after California primary/Update on  draft email from IT Committee (Laidman, Feinstein)

12) Discussion: Summer CC Retreat (Feinstein)

13) Discussion: Thank you to outgoing Coordinating Committee members