Draft FY 2014-2015 Budget - Work Plans and Annual Reports

Bylaws Committee
Clearinghouse Committee
Coordinating Committee
Finance Committee
Media Committee
Platform Committee
Campaigns & Candidates Working Group 
Green Issues Working Group 
Grassroots Organizing Working Group 

Bylaws Committee FY2013-2014 Annual Report and FY2014-2015 Work Plan

FY2013-2014 Annual Report -  Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2012-2013 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.
 
No report submitted yet
 
FY2013-2014 Work Plan:  Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
No work plan submitted yet
 

Clearinghouse Committee FY2013-2014 Annual Report and FY 2014-2015 Work Plan

FY2012-2013 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.
 
No report submitted yet
 
FY2013-2014 Work Plan -  Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
No work plan submitted yet
 

Coordinating Committee FY2013-2014 Annual Report and FY 2014-2015 Work Plan

FY2012-2013 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.
 
The CC did not have a work plan for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year.
 
FY2013-2014 Work Plan - Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
The Coordinating Committee expects to hold monthly teleconference meetings, plan and organize one or two General Assemblies, one Gathering, and supervise the Standing General Assembly; and work to recruit volunteers to revitalize Standing Committees and Working Groups. The proposed budget for the 2014 to 2015 Fiscal Year generally reflects the requests from the previous Fiscal Year, with some minor amendments.  
 

Finance Committee FY2012-2013 Annual Report and FY 2013-2014 Work Plan

FY2013-2014 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.
 
The budget as approved at the Napa General Assembly was for a balanced budget. We did not hire a fundraiser and the consensus on the Finance Committee was/is that the position remains unfilled until we have the money, a qualified candidate and enough volunteers to fill our committees.  We did no prospect mailings, they were eliminated. 
 
During the 2013-2014 fiscal year the Finance Committee committed to do Fundraising and Outreach with assistance from many greens who consented to help. The Finance Committee co-sponsored outreach at the Solano Stroll held in Albany, CA in September 2013. This was a collaboration of the Contra Costa and Alameda County Greens and supporters.
 
Only a few volunteers have come forward. Volunteers are key to do targeted calling, follow-ups from events. In the efforts to ensure the financial health of the party, we need to increase our list of donors and sustainers.and to solicit large donations. 
 
There will be two (2) re-solicitation mailings run by the Finance Committee this fiscal year.  We did a mailing near the end of the last fiscal year using a data base of 1719 which continued to bring in a good deal of money in this fiscal year. We expanded the base to 2389 for the first mailing of the current fiscal year, mailed the first week of December. The mailing was very successful. The second mailing is planned for May or June and I hope we can mail to about 2500 people.
 
We thank the IT Committee for the installation of a sustainer button on our donate page. This will help those who want to give on a monthly basis and it will also help the Finance Committee project some future revenue in the short term.
 
The search is on for a field organizer. The Finance Committee is developing a plan to make this position self-supporting by raising $15,000.00 as an integral part of the registration drive.
 
We are in a much better cash position now than we were at the time of the June GA. We had $27K at the start of the fiscal year and now have over $40K. The reasons for our improved financial picture are several:
 
o We have kept expenses in line with income.
o The fundraising letters have been very successful.
o We have another fundraising letter scheduled before the next GA.
o GPUS has paid us the money owed us (over $2,000) for revenue sharing.
o We discovered that a separate PayPal account was receiving money donated through our website.
 
Beginning of FY balances  June 2013  
Federal checking 9,487.94
State checking 17,431.31
Provident account 100.00
Total beginning cash 27,019.25
 
Balances now                   Feb 2014
Federal checking              10,603.94
State checking                 16,819.47
Provident account                 100.00
Total Bank accounts         27,523.41
PayPal account                13,574.77
Total cash now                 41,098.18
 
We have maintained our budget and done well on resolicitation mailings, but haven't had any significant increases in donations from other sources. We did discover in late January, that we had a PayPal account where donations made through the website were being deposited. This increased the funds we had by about $13,500. We have not yet determined what reporting we will need to do to FPPC for these funds. 
 
A main emphasis in our fundraising is to increase our sustainer base. To implement these plans we need fully staffed GROW and Finance Committees. The Finance Committee is also looking to establish a fundraising sub-committee. All of this is possible if we all try to recruit some of our members to come on board.  
 
FY2013-2014 Work Plan - Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
We need a fundraiser but in looking carefully at the overall needs of the party, we are not putting forward a proposal to fund one during this fiscal year. We feel it is important to keep the party on sound financial footing. The Finance Committee will delay advertising and outreach to identify qualified candidates for the fundraiser position until some prior conditions are met: we have the money to fund the position, enough volunteers to fill our committees, working groups and a functioning Fundraising committee and a plan to find a qualified candidate. We are leaving the job description in section 5 on file, so that we can move quickly without delay if an opportunity is available when the conditions are met.
 
We have developed a mailing list for resolicitation mailings so we can continue regular fundraising mailings twice in the next fiscal year. We will attempt to grow that list slowly by targeting new potential donors but will again not be doing any prospect mailings which are too expensive, do not pay for themselves and do not grow our list very quickly.
 
We have done well with our mailing program but we need to expand to the other types of fundraising we had in the previous budget but could not undertake with out volunteers to do the work. We will put an urgent emphasis on building a base of volunteers to form the fundraising committee starting in the time remaining in the 2013-14 fiscal year and continuing in the next FY 2014-15. With volunteers we can reach out to increase our sustainers and online donations, ask potential donors for large donations, have house parties and special fundraising events.
Our projections of income count on volunteers to come forward to do the work until such time (if ever) that we can afford to hire a fundraiser. The assumptions are similar to the last budget. If we do not get sufficient volunteers we will need to keep expenses in line with reduced income. If we do get volunteers we will be able to grow the organization effectively.
Our basic overhead expenses remain the same for mailing costs, permits, PO box, FPPC filing software, treasurer’s stipend, bank charges and processing fees.
 
Our projected income is about $40,000 and our expenses are about $10,000, which leaves about $30,000 to cover the costs of opperation for the rest of the organization.
 

Information Technology Committee FY2013-2014 Annual Report and Work Plan: 

FY2013-2014 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.
 
- Contracted with independent contractor Godmoma's Forge (www. godmomasforge. com, Thomas Leavitt) to host www.cagreens.org; worked with him when service issues arose ($660 budgeted – ¾ paid, last quarterly payment will be made in April, we will switch to a new host); we are still working to establish separate backup capability and a development environment where work can be done as part of the new hosting in the next fiscal year.
 
- Created email lists as needed by GPCA committees, working groups and county organizations.
 
- Provided access to county parties on cagreens.org to update their sites, where they are hosted on cagreens.org.
 
- Provided technical support for the Standing General Assembly voting page.
 
- Expand the types of content types in the GPCA's Drupal CMS to provide greater flexibility and function - still in planning.
 
- Develop capability to implement the security and access provisions in the GPCA Information Technology Protocol (http://www.cagreens.org/it-protocol), including to create a plan for segmenting cagreens.org to allow counties, committees, working groups to post to their own sections, but not the rest of the site. – This is still in progress.
 
- Gain admin access to wiki.cagreens.org and begin process of providing for its use by GPCA committees, working groups and county organizations – This is still in progress.
 
- Contract on an as-needed basis to provide technical consulting/ services that can not be performed by the Information Technology  Committee ($500) No paid consulting has been used yet, but we may need these funds in the final quarter to cover additional costs of switching server hosting with more services provided.
 
- Contracted with NationBuilder ($2211.60) and provide technical support  for GPCA use of NationBuilder, which the GPCA uses as a voter  registration (and other contact) data base, for mass email blasts, to  take registrations at events, to sell merchandise and other such  functions). Added a sustainer option on the donation page.
 
The budget for FY2013-14 is:
Budget Item Budget Actual Expected to be spent
Server hosting $   660 $  495 Switching hosts rate will increase
Consulting $   500 $     0 maybe used to cover hosting increase
Nation Builder $ 2,212 $     0 payment due in February
Total $3,372
 
FY2013-2014 Work Plan - Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
We will be changing hosting of our servers from Thomas Leavitt dba God Mamma Forge to Pantheon by the end of this fiscal year.
 
- Contract with Pantheon to host www.cagreens.org; work with Pantheon when service issues arise ($1,200 per year) Pantheon provides backup capability, source code control and development and test environments where development work can be done.
 
- Create email lists as needed by GPCA committees, working groups and county organizations.
 
- Provide access to county parties on cagreens.org to update their sites, where they are hosted on cagreens.org
 
- Provide technical support for the Standing General Assembly voting page
 
- Expand the types of content types in the GPCA's Drupal CMS to provide greater flexibility and function
 
- Develop capability to implement the security and access provisions in the GPCA Information Technology Protocol (http://www.cagreens.org/it-protocol), including to create a plan for segmenting cagreens.org to allow counties, committees, working groups to post to their own sections, but not the rest of the site.
 
- Gain admin access to wiki.cagreens.org and begin process of providing for its use by GPCA committees, working groups and county organizations
 
- Contract on an as-needed basis to provide technical consulting/ services that can not be performed by the Information Technology  Committee ($500)
 
- Contract with NationBuilder ($2211.60) and provide technical support  for GPCA use of NationBuilder, which the GPCA uses as a voter  registration (and other contact) data base, for mass email blasts, to  take registrations at events, to sell merchandise and other such  functions)
 
When paid staff are part of a work plan and budget proposals, for each position also submit (a) a detailed project description; (b) a  proposed job description (including activities, preferred  qualifications and compensation description); and (c) a description of   the job application process.
 
Not applicable, no staffing planned.
 
A calendar for at least one year -- including the Fiscal Year --  that summarizes the activities and events described in the work plan and deadlines involved in the planning and organization process for  those activities and events (dates may be approximate, as applicable).
 
IT Committee will meet on the third Monday of the month by teleconference. This may change since we found it was on a Monday holiday in January, February and March.

 

Media Committee FY2013-2014 Work Plan: 

 

FY2013-2014 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2013-2014 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.

 

 

Research, write, solicit, edit and distribute press releases, advisories, op-eds, letters, articles, social networking sites, blog posts and press kits for media outlets in California. DONE
Promote Green blogs. DONE though could do more
Post thoughts on the news of the day/week/month on the cagreens.org home page. Use a Twitter and Facebook account for the Green Party of California for microblogging. DONE
Build relationships with editors and reporters through phone and personal contact with our spokespeople, media committee members, press secretary and local media contacts BEGUN
Organize press conferences and media events as needed DONE
Provide resources, training and support to local GP media contacts and candidates; this may include advising local Green candidates about media relations by phone and/or in person; participating in candidate training workshops; providing media lists to candidates and local Green Party chapters DONE to limited degree
Maintain effective Media Committee organization; conduct quarterly (at least) conference calls; post press releases and articles on the web site at cagreens.org. DONE
Produce a monthly newsletter to our subscribers not done
Recruit and develop spokespeople for GPCA working on it
Increase relationship with GPUS Media subcommittee to produce Live stream shows on the greenpartyus channel (with a goal of having our own channel within a couple of years)  Purchase mobile hot spot ($100), renting time as needed ($100), camera and microphone ($300) to create shows at a beginning level. Produce 3-6 shows this year. Begun, GPCA Media Coco helped with a variety of GPCA productions after purchasing camera and microphone.
Purchase a Skype Premium Account http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/prices/premium/ to enable video conferencing, screen sharing, etc., to enhance productivity.  Account could be shared with other committees but is limited to be located with one person, suggesting the Media CC liaison so that it is also available to the CC. ($60) not done
 
From the 2013-2014 budget 
• Purchased equipment for Livestreaming $300
• Did not purchase, and will include in new budget Skype Premium $60
• Did not purchase Mobile Hotspot, opening accounts on an as needed basis $200- no plan to purchase, but rather CC agreed to pay for any overage on personal hotspot usage for GA meetings.
Did not purchase advertising on Facebook to direct people to our Facebook pages and website on an as needed basis around specific events; will put in 2013-2014 budget
•Press Secretary $3600:  Did not hire until 11/1/2013.  Spent $600 for November and December, no pay for January, expect to pay $175 for February, expect to pay $1200 for the four months for the balance of the fiscal year.

 

FY2013-2014 Work Plan - Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 
Research, write, solicit, edit and distribute press releases, advisories, op-eds, letters, articles, social networking sites, blog posts and press kits for media outlets in California.
press releases will usually be written or edited  by the GPCA Press Secretary or members of the Media Committee
draft releases may also be submitted to the Media Committee by any registered Green; such a release will then be subjected to our Committee's editing and/or approval process: press releases require 2 persons to approve the release before dissemination. Current authorized approvers are the committee members: Mike Feinstein, Sanda Everette, Pamela Spevak, Victoria Ashley, Shamako Noble, and Tim Williams as well as any GPCA spokesperson, which currently is only Mike Feinstein.  Laura Wells may return as spokesperson when she is no longer a candidate and if Mike becomes a candidate, he will no longer be a spokesperson.  We have been attempting to recruit additional spokespersons.
any registered Green may seek the advice of the Media Committee on where to place an op-ed/article written about any given issue; these are not subject to approval unless the op-ed/article claims to explicitly speak for the GPCA
press releases submitted by Media Committee members shall be posted to our Committee's list serve for editing/approval
press releases submitted by registered Greens not active in the Media Committee shall be submitted to a Media Committee Co-Coordinator and/or Press Secretary
the Media Committee may also solicit press releases/op-eds/articles by requesting that a Green "issue expert", official, or candidate write a draft
distribution of press releases via fax and/or email; this duty will typically be performed by our Press Secretary, but media committee members and local GP media contacts are welcome to assist with distribution and add contacts to our distribution list.
Promote Green blogs.
Post thoughts on the news of the day/week/month on the cagreens.org home page. Use a Twitter and Facebook account for the Green Party of California for microblogging.
Build relationships with editors and reporters through phone and personal contact with our spokespeople, media committee members, press secretary and local media contacts
Organize press conferences and media events as needed
Provide resources, training and support to local GP media contacts and candidates; this may include advising local Green candidates about media relations by phone and/or in person; participating in candidate training workshops; providing media lists to candidates and local Green Party chapters 
Maintain effective Media Committee organization; conduct quarterly (at least) conference calls; post press releases and articles on the web site at cagreens.org. 
Produce a monthly newsletter to our subscribers
Recruit and develop spokespeople for GPCA
Increase relationship with GPUS Media subcommittee to produce Live stream shows on the greenpartyus channel (with a goal of having our own channel within a couple of years)  Produce 3-6 shows this year.
Purchase a Skype Premium Account http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/prices/premium/ to enable video conferencing, screen sharing, etc., to enhance productivity.  Account could be shared with other committees but is limited to be located with one person, suggesting the Media CC liaison so that it is also available to the CC. ($60)
 

Platform Committee 2012-2013 Annual Report and 2013-2014 Work Plan

FY2012-2013 Annual Report - Summarize your work plan and budget for the 2012-2013 Fiscal Year and what parts of your work plan were accomplished or expect to be accomplished and budget items that were used or are expected to be used by the end of the Fiscal Year.  For current FY work plan and budget items that will not be accomplished and spent by the end of the FY, provide a brief explanation for each.

 

The Co-Co posted this for discussion at A 2012 General Assembly but because of GPCA budget issues there was no time to discuss it at the Platform Committee meeting.  The proposed changes had been posted before and were posted after the General Assembly meeting. There were no comments.
The Co-Co has5 suggestions (3 repeated from the 2012-2013 workplan apart from the item 3 where a phrase was added at the end for clarification purposes): 
1. Delete 9-12.1(f) because the webmaster(s) should archive all versions of the platform over time rather than the Platform Co-Co. The Co-Co should archive the Platform changes that came about during the Co-Co’s term and ensure the changes appear on the website.
2.  Assist the California delegation in proposing changes to the national platform by reviewing their proposed changes before submission to GPUS.  This has been standard procedure in previous years except for the 2012 election year.
3.  Add to 9-12.2:  Platform Committee members may also be nominated to the Coordinating Committee by the Co-Co after a positive vote for Platform Committee membership at a Platform Committee meeting at a General Assembly, the candidates showing the same eligibility and responses as proposed in 9-12.2.
4.  new 9-12.1(d) Work co-operatively with the Campaigns and Candidates Working Group and the General Assembly in formulating positions on statewide ballot measures.
5.  new 9-12.1(e) Work co-operatively with the Media Committee and GPCA spokespeople on press releases and other public statements that reference the Platform.
It is not clear if the Coordinating Committee discussed any of the above suggestions 1-3 in 2013.
A.    Platform Committee Composition/Terms
The current GPCA Platform Committee is (year at the start of the 2-year term is in parentheses):
Shamako Noble (Co-Co) (2014)—Platform Liaison to the CC
Shane Que  Hee (Co-Co) (2011)
Peggy Koteen (2012)
Joel Sarch (2013) 
B .    Platform Planks Passed Since March 2011
The following platform planks were approved by GPCA General   Assemblies from March 2013:
Proportional Representation (revision)
Fracking  (new)        
Planks in Process:    
TransPacific Partnership  (submitted to SGA)
Indigenous Rape (submitted to SGA)
Military Uses of Weather Engineering (Submitted to the Napa GA as Military Uses of Outer Space and of Weather but not discussed because of lack of time and subsequently changed in title and content that reduced it to a Consent Calendar item
 
C.    Other Co-Co Activities
1.  Platform Committee meeting handouts at each General Assembly attended by the Co-Co.  
2.  Responded to list serve requests, and ensured only relevant posts were circulated from the non-subscribed, and with no spam.
 
D.    Revenue
This is under the Clearing House budget since it handles sales of full Platforms and Platform Summaries
At last count in November 2012, the Clearinghouse reserves held  235  copies of the 2008 GPCA Platform Summary , and 931 copies of the 2010 Platform Summary Addendum.  This indicated that 310 copies of the Platform Summary were sold during  2012-2013.  The Jan 2014 numbers for the Platform Summary were as follows:  228 copies of the 2008 Platform Summary, and 851 copies of the 2010 Platform Summary addendum, reflecting respective sales of  7 and 80 copies during 2013.   Starlene Rankin was in charge of these materials up until the Napa GA and she left for Oregon soon after.  Currently, Clearinghouse has no office, and Finance under Tim Laidman has custody of Clearinghouse materials. 
The 2010 Platform Summary Addendum costs $1; both the 2008 Platform Summary and the 2010 Platform Summary Addendum together cost $3;  10 of the latter combination costs $20.
Some 258 copies of full 2002 platforms, 258 copies of the 2005 addendum to the full platform and 158 copies of the 2006 platform summaries disappeared in 2012, and did not surface in 2013.  

 

FY2013-2014 Work Plan - Describe the activities and events that are expected to be accomplished in the upcoming Fiscal Year.  For each item requiring GPCA funding, provide the funding request and explain how the funding request was calculated.
 Platform Planks to be Submitted
Revision of GPCA platform planks as needed. 
        2.    New planks as these arise, for example, from Green Issues, GROW, or other GPCA Committees.
        3.    Revision and passage of proposed platform planks not passed by the GA or SGA.
        4.    Revision of Health  Care platform plank to update the advent and significance  of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
        5.   .Revision of Water Planning (whether to include fluoridation has not been decided at the time of writing)
 
B.  Other Anticipated Activities
Revision of the election brochure for any 2014 elections. This will not require funding.  
Participation in any Strategy Retreat.   There have been no meetings of the Co-Cos by telephone in 2012-2013.  There has been very little communication with the Coordinating Committee since there was no apparent CC Liaison, but that situation was resolved early in 2014 when the Co-Co was notified of the CC action.
Production of brochures on platform topics.  The creative effort will not require funding.    Starlene Rankin of Clearinghouse had taken this on but she has left California.
Participation in any prioritization of 2014 election issues
Respond to Platform list serve requests.  The listserve now has 26 subscribers, an increase of 8 over 2012.
Increase Platform Committee membership and participation 
Recruit a new Platform Co-Co.  He has been 10 years on the job and that is enough.
Update the Platform Summary for any state election.
Modify the goals of the Platform Committee in light of SGA existence and function, and to include formal review of proposed GPUS platform changes by the California delegation.
Press the GPCA webmaster to post archives of Platform Committee meetings since 2004 that have all been submitted to the webmaster plus platforms and platform summary archives since 1998 to the present, these being archived on the old GPCA website.