Agenda and Minutes - March 6th, 2017
Approved April 3rd
Coordinating Committee Minutes March 6, 2017 ------------------------------------------ 1) Roll Call Coordinating Committee members present (15): Victoria Ashley June Brashares Eric Brooks Trinidad Castaneda Susan Chunco Mike Feinstein Tarik Kanaana Liz Kroboth Ann Menasche Mike Murphy Mimi Newton Lynne Sandoval Laura Wells Karinna Zarate Stephen Zollman. Coordinating Committee members not-present (6): Marla Bernstein Sanda Everette (joined late) Mike Goldbeck Bert Heuer Matt Leslie Ajay Rai Note: Bert e-mail messages to the CC indicating his inability to attend in advance of the meeting and indicating that Ajay was in India due to a family tragedy Quorum at 7:37 pm with fifteen (15) members present: Victoria Ashley June Brashares Eric Brooks Trinidad Castaneda Susan Chunco Mike Feinstein Tarik Kanaana Liz Kroboth Ann Menasche Mike Murphy Mimi Newton Lynne Sandoval Laura Wells Karinna Zarate Stephen Zollman. Note: Sanda joined the call at 7:56 pm, as noted below. ------------------------------------------ 2) Roles Facilitator: June Brashares Minutes taker: Mimi Newton Time keeper: Eric Brooks Vibes Watcher: Susan Chunco Approved by consensus. Eric asked for clarification regarding times for items where time was not listed on the agenda - June asked Eric to let people know when they reached one minute for their comments and after 2 minutes, remind folks that others on the stack should be given a chance to talk. ------------------------------------------ 3) Approval of Agenda Eric notes there are two item 6s. June suggests we keep them in the order listed in the draft agenda. Liz recommends postponing her item 10, "Decision: Modification to CC Procedures for Agenda Proposals,€ and indicates that she may request it be re-agendized later. Mike F. requests to add an agenda item about the GA Agenda, which he says is "massively incomplete." June suggests we make the GA Agenda the third late item to be added to the Agenda. Each of the late agenda items will be considered one at a time. Laura says we can take Item 13, Discussion: Recommended Bylaws Amendments, off the agenda, since it doesn"t need CC review. Friendly amendments to remove Items 10 and 13 and otherwise approve the Agenda (with two item 6s and without the late items 09, 12 and Mike F."s GA Agenda Item, each of which is addressed below). No Outstanding Questions or Concerns Approved by consensus. Three late items will be considered, 09, 12, and the GA Agenda Item, to be taken up one at a time: Adding Late item #09 to the Agenda: Decision: Nomination for GPCA Treasurer (2017-2019) for confirmation at the March 11-12, 2017 General Assembly (15 minutes); Proposal: Nomination and recommendation of Ruscal Cayangyang for the 2017-2019 Treasurer's term for confirmation at the March 2017 Kern General Assembly; Sponsor: Victoria Ashley (Finance). No questions or concerns. Added by consensus. Adding Late Item #12 to the Agenda: Decision: Authorize a fundraising announcement on the state website's front page; Proposal: The CC authorize a fundraising page with an announcement on the GPCA website to gather funds for attendees with financial hardships Sponsor: Eric Brooks. Eric asks to add this to after the Committee and Working Group Reports. A friendly amendment to make this a discussion item and not a decision item is proposed and accepted. Mike F. notes that Committees and Working Groups may post to websites and send emails. Web pages seeking donations can be put on the website. No action by the CC to authorize these activities is needed. No questions or concerns. Added by consensus. Adding Late Item re: GA Agenda Decision Item (Mike F.) Suggests new number 10 to add to the Agenda. No questions or concerns Added by consensus. Question: Eric notes that most of the items don"t have times associated with them. Do we want to include times for items? June - suggests we try to do things in 5 minutes but check in on time as we go. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ 4) Decision: Approval of Feb 6th minutes, Proposal: Approve the minutes for the Feb 6th meeting as recorded by Mimi Newton Sponsor: Bert Heuer (June introduced the item in Bert"s absence.) Reference: http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2017-02-06 Mike F. emailed his outstanding concerns to the list tonight and is willing to stand aside. (Message from Mike Feinstein to the CC at 6:33 pm on March 6, 2017, entitled "My outstanding concern for the August and February minutes€: My outstanding concern as a condition of my standing aside "Ann Menasche was not elected to the GPCA Coordinating Committee because write-in voting is not provided for in GPCA bylaws, nor has it ever been used nor counted in the GPCA"s history for at-large Coordinating Committee seats http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-4_Elections; and because advocates for seating Ann Menasche failed to propose a bylaws interpretation under Article 13 of GPCA Bylaws that would have allowed this, which is the only procedure under party rules for which such write-in votes could be allowed http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Article_13-3_Bylaws_Interpretation.") No other questions or outstanding concerns. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ 5) Decision: Approval of August minutes Proposal: Approve the minutes for the August 8th (2016) CC meeting as taken by Mimi Newton Sponsor: Mimi Newton Background and Purpose: Last month we agreed to, once again, table debate over the August minutes. Perhaps we can close this item out. The reference contains the minutes as reconstructed by Mimi Newton and that were originally debated in December 2016. Reference: http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/minutes/2016-08-08 Mike F. - somebody over-wrote the draft notes that Mike had on the web. Asks if Mimi did something. No. June thinks maybe Bert over-wrote them and didn"t realize what he was doing. Mike didn"t keep them anywhere else, so reconstructing the minutes that he was trying to record is no longer possible. [Sanda Everette joined the call at 7:56 pm.] Mike F. reiterated his outstanding concern with respect to Ann Menasche being considered a CC member (see Item (4), above, with respect to "Message from Mike Feinstein to the CC at 6:33 pm on March 6, 2017, entitled €˜My outstanding concern for the August and February minutes"€). However, Mike F. is willing to stand aside. Mimi had recreated these minutes from her notes, although she had not been designated the Notetaker for the August meeting, so they are not great. (!) June also had cryptic notes but doesn"t know where they went, so June will abstain from approving these minutes. No other outstanding questions or concerns. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ First Item #6) Report: Ranked Choice Election of SGA Email List Administrators Sponsor: Bert Heuer Reference: Information Technology Protocol section 4-5 (http://cagreens.org/it-protocol#email-lists) Detail: Per the Information Technology Protocol (4-5.8), the following 5 people were choice ranked in an election open for two weeks and closed Feb 26th @ 2359. Election results collected by Jared Laiti and tabulated by Bert Heuer (using the open source pSTV software). The results are ranked as follows: List Administrators: Maxine Daniel, Alameda County Richard Gomes, Fresno County John-Marc Chadonia, San Francisco County Alternate List Administrators: Mike Goldbeck, San Diego County Victoria Ashley, Solano County Bert had asked, through the text in the agenda: "Can we assume the next step will be to have IT adjust the permissions on the SGA list serv?" Bert also reported in his email message to the CC of Monday, March 6, 2017 at 5:54 pm (in which Bert also indicated he would be unable to attend the March 6, 2017 CC meeting), the following: "The agenda contains pretty much everything there is to say about the matter. I notice I forgot to mention that there were fourteen (14) total ballots cast and collected by Jared Laiti. Again, please acknowledge the item for the minutes; no need to discuss it further.€ Mike F.: In January, somebody posted things to the SGA Email List that were off topic and Mike F. just let them go; he hopes the new administrators won"t do that. June: In terms of adjusting the IT Permissions, how is that to be done? Are the Administrators just supposed to use their personal email to communicate with each other and the SGA Email List or is there is a system? Mike F.: The current administrators are himself and Tim Laidman and they could just make these new people the administrators. How do you deal with people who are violating the protocols? This is the opportunity to put people onto "read only€ status if they continue to violate the Green Party of California"s protocols. No action taken, except . . . At 8:51 pm, Mike F. confirmed in an email to Mimi, as Notetaker, that he had added the list administrators, as reported above, as SGA Email List Moderators, per the vote of the CC and the Information Technology Protocol (4-5.8). ------------------------------------------ Second Item #6) Report: Progress on Gathering Nominations for Empty CC Seat (0 minutes) Detail: Per bylaws 8-4.5, the CC co-coordinators will use the inform list to publish a Notice of Vacancy to announce an open (female) seat to replace Adia Williams (who resigned as of October 3, 2016). Further, they will issue a Call for Candidate Submissions and gather nominations. This has not been done as of the publishing of this draft agenda. Should that change in the intervening week, this agenda item will be modified. Sponsor: Bert Heuer Reference: http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-4_Elections Note: Bert reported the following in his email message to the CC of Monday, March 6, 2017 at 5:54 pm: "One of my items was to report my progress on an announcement for Adia Williams replacement. I have sent a draft announcement to the CC list for everyone's perusal. Please acknowledge the item for the minutes but there is no pressing need to discuss it further. Any feedback on the announcement should be sent to me directly." No action taken. ------------------------------------------ 7) Decision: Appointment to Platform Committee (5 minutes) Proposal: Appoint Steve Breedlove (Butte County) to the Platform Committee Sponsor: Laura Wells (GROW) Background and Purpose: The Platform Committee has 3 members and has room for 5 more. Steve Breedlove has submitted an application that demonstrates a very good fit between his experience and qualifications and the needs of the Platform Committee. Steve Breedlove is now Standing General Assembly appointee from Butte County. Implementation/Timeline/Resources: See Addendum A. References: http://cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_9-12_Platform_Committee There was a discussion about the proposal: Laura supports approval of this appointment by the CC. Eric - Question: What kind of interaction have folks had with Steve? Laura - Erik R. and Steve are in the same County and Steve had sent Erik R. some reminders about dotting his I"s and crossing his T"s, so he seems like a good candidate for Platform. She has interacted with him since approximately August of 2016. Sanda - was he appointed to the SGA by his County? Mike F. - thinks there are only 2 Platform Committee members - Shane and Doug Laura - thought Tarik was on the Committee too. Tarik - indicates he was voted in as Platform Liaison by the CC at our December 2016 meeting. There are no other outstanding questions or concerns. Approved by Consensus. ------------------------------------------ 8) Decision: Certify Yolo County Proposal: Certify Yolo county party Sponsor: Laura Wells Background and Purpose: Yolo has held the appropriate meetings with petitions of 21 persons (which is quorum based on the number of party registrants). They have submitted paperwork (an email from Laura Wells to the CC on Monday, February 20, 2017 at 10:22 pm included the relevant information and is included below in these Minutes as Addendum H, after the Committee and Working Group Reports. The attachments to Laura"s email message are not included here.). They legitimately elected a five-member council and they have met the intent of the bylaws. Let's certify them. Reference: Email titled "Agenda Item CC meeting 3/6/17: Decision item: Certification of Yolo County Council" containing the various documents needed. (N.B. See Addendum H to these Minutes for the text of Laura"s email message as well.) Mike F. - has no objection to the application except that the Report regarding the proposal was not included with the Agenda. Mike F. will, however, stand aside with that concern. No other outstanding questions or concerns. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ 9) (a late item) Decision: Nomination for GPCA Treasurer (2017-2019) for confirmation at the March 11-12, 2017 General Assembly (15 minutes) Proposal: Nomination and recommendation of Ruscal Cayangyang for the 2017-2019 Treasurer's term for confirmation at the March 2017 Kern General Assembly. Sponsor: Victoria Ashley (Finance) Background and Purpose: Under GPCA Bylaws, the Coordinating Committee nominates for Treasurer and the General Assembly affirms the nomination. The term of the current GPCA Treasurer, Doug Barnett, will end in June 2017. GPCA Assistant Treasurer, Ruscal Cayangyang, has indicated his willingness to serve as GPCA Treasurer. This proposal is for the Coordinating Committee to nominate Ruscal Cayangyang for the FY2017-2019 term of Treasurer, and recommend his confirmation to the March 2017 Kern County General Assembly. References: http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_4-6_Treasurer Mike F.: One comment he has is that there needs to be a brief biography for Ruscal in the GA Agenda, if he is to be affirmed at the March 2017 GA. There may have been one included in the Agenda for the June 2016 GA when the General Assembly appointed Ruscal as Assistant Treasurer. Mike F. is also concerned that, because, as one of our few elected Greens in the State, and as a rising star in our party, and given the fact that Ruscal is a public official, the role of GPCA Treasurer may take time away from his duties and opportunities that may come his way as an elected Green. Mike F. would have liked to have seen Sanda"s sister to be the one to take over this role from Doug instead. June - Would like to give appreciation to Doug for his work where Doug could be asst. treasurer - don €˜t want to 2nd guess Ruscal similar to how we didn"t want to 2nd guess Some people noted that the information that Gloria Bram is Sanda"s sister is news to the CC. Eric - agrees with Mike F. that we don"t want to burn Ruscal out and maybe that was the reason Doug had difficulties, because he was taking on too much. Sanda - The way we used to do it, the Treasurer is usually appointed at the Budget meeting - usually that"s the first GA of the year and it didn"t work out that way. Gloria tried to meet with Ruscal about who should do what role. It was unfortunate that the Finance Committee didn"t want to take advantage of a retired accountant. but now there will be another opening so maybe they will. Doug had said he would be personally responsible for fines and Sanda is wondering if Ruscal understands that part of being Treasurer. Mike F. has outstanding concerns - Personally, he supports Ruscal, and is reluctant to question his decision about allocation of his personal time but Mike remains concerned that these responsibilities will detract from the time Ruscal can focus on being an office holder. Mike still thinks we should have taken the opportunity to appoint a 70-year old retired accountant (Gloria) instead. June - Doug"s term wouldn"t end until end of June, so Ruscal"s term wouldn"t start until July 1. Mike. F.- The By-Laws say that we make this decision at the spring budget meeting. Wants to reserve his right to add a concern that this violates the GPCA By-Laws. Tarik - The GPCA By-Laws say that the Treasurer is supposed to be nominated by the CC at the first GA of the odd numbered years every 2 years. That will be the upcoming GA in Kern County. Mike F. stands corrected. Eric - if Doug decides that he wants to wrap it up early, do we have issues about letting Ruscal take over early Mike F. - The CC can appoint a replacement to fill out the term after Treasurer resigns. No other questions or concerns. Approved by Consensus. ------------------------------------------ Numberless Item) (a late item): Decision: Changes to the General Assembly Agenda Tarik provided an update. The GA Organizing Committee asked for volunteers to be Facilitators. They needed 4 sets of 2 gender-balanced facilitators. For Saturday, they are planning to have June Brashares and Greg Jan facilitate in the morning and Laura Wells and Shane Que Hee facilitate in the afternoon. On Sunday, they are planning to have Sanda Everette and Bert Heuer facilitate in the morning and Cassidy Sheperd and Steven Zollman facilitate in the afternoon. Eric Brooks has agreed to be Time Keeper and Mimi Newton has agreed to be Note Taker. June - where is the most recent agenda? Tarik - the last version the CC approved is posted at: http://cagreens.org/ga/2017-03/agenda; once these revisions are made a new agenda could be posted. A brief biography for Ruscal could also be added to the item about the Treasurer. Mike F. - other things are still missing from the agenda, including any text about a Black Lives Platform or any of the other proposed platform planks. Also, the items that are scheduled for decision at 9:00 am on a Sunday morning may need be to moved to when we are more likely to have a quorum. And, for the item about the Next GA, is there a proposal? Mike also has concerns about the Electoral Reform Working Group Item, but will save them for the discussion of the next item. Eric - point of information - we are changing the Platform Item on the GA Agenda from a decision item to a discussion item. Tarik indicates that he approached Mike F., Sanda, and the IT Committee to get information about the GA up on the web with no response, which is why those links are not there. While these are good suggestions, Tarik can"t make the decision himself, and will need to contact Shane and Peggy. Eric - is there text and we just don"t have the links? Tarik - yes - and he has sent them to this CC list at least once. June - could Tarik resend that email to the CC? Mike F. - indicates that as of last fall he had withdrawn from that kind of role - if Bert wants to fiddle with the web page great - the best way to communicate with practically everybody who is coming to the GA is to post information to the GPCA Forum - Mike recommends that the GA Committee send four separate posts, (i.e., the three platform proposals and the black lives matter proposal), even though this approach doesn"t meet the letter of the by-laws, it shouldn"t matter because none of the work organizing the March GA has complied with the By-Laws, so that could work. Liz - Has a question about sharing the link to the Black Lives Movement Platform Proposal. She is not on the INFORM Group. Mike F. - That platform includes a lot of graphics. June - Asks about whether each of these platform items will be a decision item at the March GA in Kern. Mike F. - one of the three platform items is one he wrote - he doesn"t think it"s appropriate for a 9:00 am session and recommends we ask Shane to take input and then bring it back for the June GA. Tarik - would you take it off the agenda? Mike F. - No. Just make it a discussion item and bring it back for a decision at the June GA. Eric - Is Mike referring to just the 3 platform items? Mike F. -Yes. The Black Lives Movement item has been out there for a while so there is no need to change that one. Electoral Reform Working Group item should be changed to a Discussion item. Mike F. - proposed dates for the next GA need to be on the agenda so that people can have some input into time and place of next GA. Tarik - nobody has come forward to say that they would do it. All along the plan was to have it be Ventura but he hasn"t heard anything from Ventura. Laura - it would be great in the Northern part of the state in June and southern areas in the fall/winter. Mike F. - thinks the CC needs to be prepared for an online budget approval in case the GA in June doesn"t get pulled off. If we don"t plan much earlier, the timing gets away from us. Regarding the substance of the ERWG Discussion Item on the Draft GA Agenda: Mike F. - regarding the ERWG - RCV proportional representation this would apply to Multi-seat districts but not RCV for a single seat. Maine RCV would be contrary to our platform. He is concerned that the background material might not be clear. He would be happier if this item included the text re: RCV multi-seat etc. and feels that this info needs to be presented CLEARLY to the members. Ann - ERWG did have a discussion about this - The Working Group wants to move forward on RCV in such a way that would facilitate a later shift to proportional representation. The consensus of the Working Group was that this was one way forward and not contrary to the platform - the GA should include a discussion so that we can get people"s reactions. Eric - also on the ERWG - strongly agrees with Mike that we need to make it clear to the delegates what the platform says - and get a sense of what people want to do - and thinks we will probably need an SGA vote to ratify where people are going. The main reason he got into the party was for proportional representation but it is a heavy lift so he agrees with Ann too. Clarity is important. Mike Murphy - Fairvote is tracking this effort on a national level and is looking to get RCV passed in Charter Cities - estimate they will need 30 million signatures to get it passed as well as the effort to implement redistricting reforms to end gerrymandering. He will send something to the CC about this issue. Mike F. - The CC"s role is not to get into a discussion about it - just make sure it is appropriately reflected on the draft GA Agenda - Mike requests that the revised agenda include links to proportional representation and electoral reform that provides more about the specifics. Mike will forward the links to the CC list and let the GA Planning Committee deal with it. June - ERWG will include links with the item for discussion. On the item about Candidates for the November Elections - we are hoping to have a session for the candidates from around the State to give them a moment to share what it"s like. Request that we change the title of that item to "Current Candidates and Past Candidates.€ No outstanding concerns or questions. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ 10) Decision: Modification to CC Procedures for Agenda Proposals THIS ITEM WAS SKIPPED PER THE REVISED, APPROVED AGENDA. Proposal: Modify the Coordinating Committee Internal Procedures such that proposals may be submitted as late 7 days ahead of a given Coordinating Committee meeting. Accordingly, the deadline for a Co-Coordinator to post a draft agenda would be adjusted to 72 hours before that meeting. The Co-Coordinator would then post a revised draft as late as 24 hours before the meeting, if needed. Sponsor: Liz Kroboth Background and Purpose: The current deadline of submitting items 14 days before a CC meeting is excessively long and problematic, given that there is only a month between meetings. It is especially problematic when there is an online vote following a previous meeting because it is nearly impossible to get those results back before the two-week deadline, and we may want to add an item to the agenda depending on those results. Current deadlines for submitting items / drafting agendas as listed in the CC Internal Procedures are as follows: -CC members submit items 14 days in advance -Co-Co sends draft agenda 7 days in advance -Co-Co sends revised agenda 72 hours in advance Reference: Coordinating Committee Internal Procedures Section 3-3.2 and 3-3.5: http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating/procedures ------------------------------------------ 11) Decision: IT to make voter lists available Proposal: That the Coordinating Committee will request that the IT Committee, or other person able to fulfill the request, will provide the newly certified or reactivated counties a list of Greens in the county that were sent the invitation to their Green Party organizing meetings. The list of Greens would include as much data as is available, including contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses and street addresses. The counties certified in 2016 or 2017, or currently in process, include: Butte, Kern, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus, and Yolo. Sponsor: Laura Wells (GROW) Background and Purpose: Many of these counties have requested this data both during the process of planning their Green Party county organizing meetings, and after they were certified. The contact information will help the organizers follow up, both to encourage attendance at meetings, and participation in the Green Party on an ongoing basis. Reference: http://cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_6-6_Appointment_to_Vacancies_in_Counties_in_which_no_County_Council_members_were_elected_in_the_primary_election There are more counties that want more information about what Nation Builder can provide. A 21-day notice went out to Greens from the State and County Council Greens would like to see who these people are so they can reach out and follow up and get more people to come to their meetings. Mike F. - we can make the best of a bad situation. Nationbuilder was very late on getting us updated data because they no longer have the staff support. There are 12 people who rotate on our account instead of one dedicated staff member. There are a number of issues that arise under this set up. The lists we are getting are missing significant numbers of - Mike has worked with some of these counties who worked to get county registrar lists and ended up with massive duplicates. And, he spent hours with San Bernardino and Riverside, but couldn"t pare the duplicates down - Both Tim and Mike posted numerous requests asking the County Councils to send the lists that the Counties do have to Tim and Mike so they could merge them and get best quality lists - a couple of counties took them up on that - Ajai can go into the database and produce the most updated list that they have but what will come out is an inaccurate list with multiple duplications. Suffice to say that the data is in poor quality - Mike has talked with Nationbuilder for years about better de-duping, to no avail. 100s of 100s of duplications - not good to use them long term. Laura - The newer County Council members would like to see the lists even if they have duplicates. In some cases they have been able to get lists from Registrars. Santa Clara and Fresno would like the information and there may be others as well - let them know what the problems are. Still isn"t clear how something was sent out to people in these counties - is that not available? June - For recently activated counties - she would be curious about who is on those lists - now that folks have activated their counties, they can get the best list - a historical list is ok - but right now folks should focus on getting the best list from the County registrars. But the registrars won"t give out the list until the County is certified active. Mike F. - he stopped doing this work for the entire state Laura - to what email should a certified county council ask about how they got a 21-day notice? Mike F. - It-help@cagreens No outstanding questions or concerns. Approved by consensus. ------------------------------------------ 13) Discussion: Recommended Bylaws Amendments THIS ITEM WAS SKIPPED PER THE REVISED, APPROVED AGENDA. Proposal: That the Coordinating Committee include the following proposed Bylaw amendment in the next round of Standing General Assembly online-voting. The amendment was approved by the Bylaws Committee in its February 19 meeting. Sponsor: Laura Wells Background and Purpose: The process of re-activating "recognized" counties (i.e. counties that were active in the past and had created bylaws) became more difficult after the bylaws section was amended in 2013. One stated purpose of the 2013 changes was to "dis-incentivize€ counties from appointing County Council members rather than electing them through the primary election process. While that goal was not achieved (only 3 of roughly 20 active counties used the primary election process in 2016), the process of re-activating counties that had become inactive became much more difficult. This amendment changes the process back to what it was before. ------------------------------------------ 14) Discussion: Treasurers Report, Committee and Working Group Reports Detail: ERWG and CCWG submitted reports this month. Bert sent out an (internal) email to IT requesting that the committee set up a meeting - however Ajai was out of the country attending to a family emergency. Sponsor: none References: See Addenda B, C, D, E, F, and G to these Minutes. Mike F. - there was a National Elections data base until 2007 or 2008 - when the national party stiffed the state parties. Kendra took all the old data and put it in a new one. The National Committee in late fall got some money and new database - what is relevant for us here is that there will be a submission webpage where any Green running can report and make it easier for County Parties and candidates to self-report. CFSC - The CC appointed Karinna and Laura. The Finance committee never appointed their two people. Laura tried to get meetings and happenings and checks cut and then candidates had to submit more information. And then, by time they went back to candidates, the candidates had already closed their campaign accounts. So that wasn"t helpful. They want to support the Green candidates in LA who are running tomorrow - but the By-Laws say that they need 3 people to get a quorum. Karina did have trouble getting through her email approving candidates. There has been a new round of requests within the last week June can forward them to Sanda and Bert and then the checks can get issued and sent to the candidates, who are running in June. The Committee hopes to get an expanded budget - terms are up at the end of June. Laura - The Committees and Working Groups who did not submit Reports to the CC in advance of the meeting included: IT, Clearing House, Platform, Green Issues and Fundraising. Mike F asked about candidates in LA"s April election: · Jessica Salans (City Council candidate, District 13) · Kenneth Mejia (34th Congressional District candidate) · Tyler Morrison (City Council candidate, South Gate) and · Adriana Cabrera (City Council candidate, District 9). Jessica Salans may make it to the run off in the LA race - and may seek $100. Kenneth Maheala and Adriana Ccabrera also may be asking for money. June - we still need reports from IT, Clearing House, Platform, Green Issues, and Fundraising Eric - Fundraising is not active yet - hopes to jump start it at the GA. There is no report to make. And, Eric does not yet have an email list and does not know the process for getting one. How do you set your working group or committee on a list - Ask Bert? Clearinghouse? Who is the liaison? Mike Feinstein. There has been no meeting, no merchandise and no budget proposal. Mike asks whether incoming emails are being covered? What about direct telephone calls? Mike says that he posted some time ago for Kendra to set up Laura and thought she had. The CC voted on Nov. 2 for Laura to work with Kendra. GA sessions - we have scheduled break-out sessions for all the Committees and Working Groups except Green issues. Is there anyone who could function for that group - Matt Leslie volunteered to be the liaison - but we are not sure who else is on that list. No action taken. ------------------------------------------ 15) Discussion: Authorize a fundraising announcement on the state website's front page. Proposal: The CC authorize a fundraising page with an announcement on the GPCA website to gather funds for attendees with financial hardships Sponsor: Eric Brooks Background and Purpose: Can we set something up to help out with Bakersfield expenses? Perhaps something in the spirit of a "Temporary Petra Kelly Fund"? Maybe a GoFundMe page? Something. That is, a number of years ago (maybe 10 or so), the state party had a "Petra Kelly Fund" whereby Greens from around the state could donate to it (usually with their registration payment) to help out other Greens who needed help with state meeting costs. Usually the amount available per applicant covered the cost of registration, or perhaps occasionally a bit more. A brief discussion ensued, but no action was taken and the meeting was concluded at 9:30 pm. ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum A ================================ ===================================================================== Coordinators, I am volunteering for the Green Party of California Platform Committee because I believe I have the background it needs. I hold very dear the Ten Key Values, social and economic justice, land and financial stewardship and the principles Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares. My experience is varied. I grew up in the Gold Country and my time in the mountains has continued to shape who I am. I went to Cal State Chico to get a History degree but I never immersed myself in the culture of higher earnings. I graduated in 2007 with the economy in free fall. As a last resort, I joined the US Air Force as an air traffic controller, but also studied its bureaucracy, regulatory structures and culture. Meanwhile I received an MA in International Relations€”Peacekeeping, writing a thesis on the need for critical economic and political perspectives in discourses on global environmental issues. This deepened my understanding of a breadth of knowledge on nearly every subject. I have since settled in Chico, work in air traffic control, and spend my time between the Butte County Council where I led the drafting of our bylaws, a project to purchase a downtown historic theater for preservation as a public art space, my spouse and two girls and my garden where I"m learning regenerative horticulture and making my family more resilient to the economic and social convulsions of late capitalism. My political consciousness is broad and core to my character. I was born into politics watching the Palestinian houses being razed and the Second Intifada. I was baptized when I spent three months working for a Common Ground Collective in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, learning first-hand structural poverty of urban people of color and the Cajuns, experiencing the brutality of the city jail for being out after dark and witnessing the oil industry"s power to destroy. I was married to my politics when I camped and rallied in Occupy K Street, D.C. At that time I was exploring critical theory in graduate school, and read a book from the camp"s free library that introduced me to peak oil and the study of civilizations and the political and social cycles they exhibit. I was reborn into a new way of understanding social change when I, with the steely discipline of a serviceman, was led to a police van at the White House during the sit-in that launched the Keystone XL pipeline into the national dialogue. I believe would be an asset to the Platform Committee, given my knowledge and experience. I believe a rural voice, with an understanding of conservative culture and millennials, but also with a background and passion for radical politics, would offer a broader range of views to discussion. I truly believe a people-powered politics isn"t only possible, it is absolutely essential to confront the systemic and rapidly accelerating social, economic and ecological crises. Thank you, Steve Breedlove 1580 East Ave. Chico, CA 95926 srbreedlove@gmail.com (preferred contact) 530.210.9352 ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum B ================================ ===================================================================== The ERWG met on January 24, 2017 form 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 pm. In attendance were five members (Ann Menasche, June Brashure, Eric Brooks, Gary Cook and Mike Murphy) and one guest who has been working on electoral reform statewide, Kevin Sabo. We reached consensus that we wanted to move forward in exploring with fellow Greens and with outside forces (Berners, Libertarians, other election reform advocates) the possibility of placing a ballot initiative for electoral reform in 2018 (or as soon thereafter as possible). We further agreed that the priorities for such a ballot initiative should be repealing top two and establishing ranked choice voting statewide in all elections. We also agreed that we wanted counties and municipalities to have the option of establishing proportional representation in their local areas should they desire, and to be sure that the initiative would not be a barrier to being able to move forward on proportional representation in the state legislature at a later date. We also had a discussion and were generally favorable toward the possibility of including open primaries in the initiative to appeal to Berners and NPP folks, though the suggestion was made that we include language protecting smaller parties like ourselves. We reached consensus not to move to a vote at the coming GA in March but instead have a brainstorming session on electoral reform and the idea of a ballot initiative as outlined above to get a sense of the opinions of our fellow Greens. This will help guide us in our discussions with outside forces. The plan would be to be able to bring a more detailed proposal to the GA at a later date for a vote. (Ann Menasche) ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum C ================================ ===================================================================== Meeting notes from CCWG Meeting February 19th, 2017 7:30pm Attendees: Pamela Spevack (Alameda County) -- CCWG Co-Co Rich Stone (San Francisco) -- CCWG Co-Co Richard Gomez (Fresno) June Brashares (Sonoma County) Agenda: 1. CCWG Sessions at GA 2. Budget 3. CCWG members 4. CFSC 5. Next Meeting Next CCWG meeting will be on Sunday, March 26th (4th Sunday) at 7:30pm. Call is to be scheduled to be from 7:30pm-9pm. ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum D ================================ ===================================================================== Minutes of February 27, 2017 Media Committee Conference Call 6:30pm: Members Present ( ): - Trini, Sanda, Laura, Mike G., Victoria, Mike F. Members Absent ( ): - Alex, Eric Brooks Roles: Facilitator: Trini Minutes: Laura Time Keeper: Vibes: Victoria Approval of Agenda: - Add Agenda Item 07. Mike Feinstein - Approved by consensus 04: Decision Item - Revise Media Committee Internal Procedures - Approved in a 4 to 2 vote. 05: Decision Item - Appoint Additional Spokespersons - Tabled to the GA 06: Decision Item - Press Release - Moved to online approval pending an updated draft 07: Discussion Item - Twitter - didn't discuss it in time ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum E ================================ ===================================================================== GROW - Grassroots Organizing Working Group Report from February 28, 2017 teleconference * Met via teleconference, Tuesday, 2/28/17, 7:30pm * Attendees: Gary Cook (Riverside), facilitator Laura Wells (Alameda), CC Liaison, note-taker Fernando Serrano (Tulare), time-keeper Brian Good (Santa Clara), vibes-watcher Lee McKusick (San Mateo) Shane Que Hee (Los Angeles) * Agenda included: - General Assembly attendance (all except Gary will attend); youth participation in the GA - Platform items to submit: none at this time - Green Party serving as a "big tent€ for organizing issues - Coordinate county outreach via websites, facebook, twitter - Gather lists of county council members and regular meeting times - Specific project about atmospheric CO2 reduction * Next meeting: 4th Tuesday, 3/28/17, 7:30 pm, 712-770-4700 Code 626116# ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum F ================================ ===================================================================== Report From: The GPCA By-Laws Committee To: The GPCA Coordinating Committee Date: March 4, 2017 Submitted By: Mimi Newton, Co-Co By-Laws Committee Date of the last By-Laws Committee Meeting: Sunday, February 19, 2017 - 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Attendees: Vic Ashley Mike Goldbeck Mimi Newton Laura Wells Date of the next By-Laws Committee Meeting: Sunday, March 19, 2017 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Any significant actions the Committee is taking: Mike Goldbeck announced his resignation from the By-Laws Committee as of 2/19/17. ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum G ================================ ===================================================================== Finance Committee Teleconference Report Thursday February 23rd, 2017, 8 - 9 pm Present Victoria Ashley - Liaison, Co-co Doug Barnett Treasurer, Ex-officio Marla Bernstein Ruscal Cayangyang - Assistant Treasurer Maxine Daniel - Co-co Tim Laidman Bob Marsh Absent: Kendra Gonzales Frank Lambert * GPCA Federal balance is currently around $800; State balance is $20,048 ($169 personal check contribution since Jan 1st) * Account signatories: Sanda is a signer on the smaller account, Doug and Marla and Tim are signatories on the larger account. * Long discussion with Tim on the process of creating and sending the fundraising letter, creating the budget, and expectations around that effort. * Next Meeting: Thursday March 23rd at 8 pm ===================================================================== ========================= Addendum H ================================ ===================================================================== Please add certification of Yolo County to the agenda as a decision item for our CC meeting on 3/6/17. See email below and attached documents. (Laura Wells) The following Green Party members were elected as County Councillors: Sarah (Sadie) Fulton - chair Adam Siegel - secretary Deatra Cohen - communications officer Walter England - student officer Elizabeth (Betsy) Allen - campaigns officer -------------------------------------- From: Sadie Fulton Subject: Certifying documents Date: February 20, 2017 at 9:11:29 PM PST To: Laura Wells Cc: Adam Siegel, Dee See, Walter England, Elizabeth Allen Hi Laura, I believe we've done it :) Please find attached the following: - 4 pages worth of signed petitions. There are 22 signatures, 21 when you take into account that one person signed twice by mistake. This is squeaking it, but less so when you realize that we got these people by knocking on doors of houses where we knew registered greens lived. I'm confident that there are at least 18 valid signatures on there. You will also find attached the typed out names and addresses of the signatories. I personally screened them all; they are all on my registration list (dated October 2016) except for three whom I know to have changed registration towards us after the General Election. - The minutes from our inaugural meeting, including the names of the five elected councilors. - The new bylaws. Also for awareness, here are the individuals elected for GA & SGA: GA: Adam Siegel and Sarah (Sadie) Fulton were nominated as delegates. Deatra Cohen will be attending as an observer. SGA: Sarah (Sadie) Fulton and Deatra Cohen will serve the remainder of the 2016-2017 term. We agreed to elect later for the 2017-2018 term, as this would give our new chapter a chance to get a feel for the function and role of being an SGA delegate before committing to the process for a longer term. I trust this covers all that was needed? Many thanks, Sadie
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