{news} minutes Aug 2004 SCC meeting,part 2 of 4

[edubrule]

C.  OLD BUSINESS

1. Bylaws segment "4-1 Chapters".  Passed out for discussion at June SCC meeting (Appendix 2).  The SCC turned its attention to bylaws segment 4-1 ("Chapters").  It was realized at tonight's meeting that, per the bylaws, changes to bylaws must be proposed by a chapter.  (The relevant section of the bylaws is in Appendix 3.)    Tom said that he will ask the Northwest chapter if they'd like to propose bylaws segment 4-1;  Andy said that he will ask the New London chapter if they'd like to propose the same segment.

 

2. Bylaws segment "4-2 State Central Committee".  Passed out for discussion at July SCC meeting (Appendix 4).  The SCC did not consider, at tonight's meeting, bylaws segment 4-2 ("State Central Committee").  It was realized that this bylaws change proposal had not been proposed by a chapter.

 

3. Budget (Appendix 5)

(a) Budget item relating to unreimbursed expenditures made by Chris Reilly.  One line of the proposed budget is payment of $900 to Chris Reilly.  Chris distributed a handout (available from the Secretary) showing amounts he spent from his personal funds which were never reimbursed.  The budget entry says "this is partial re-payment;  balance to be repaid in future budget years".

     The handout begins with a check for $800, paid by Chris to the landlord of the Hartford office on 4/1/03 for April and May rent.  It includes 5 other rent checks paid to the landlord of the Hartford office ranging from $150 to $500.  The sum of the rent checks is $2650.

     The handout also includes 10 checks, ranging from $6.29 to $370, for envelopes, postage, and printing;  these ten checks sum to $855.82.  Finally, the handout includes one check for $35 for domain registration renewal for the CTGP website.  The sum of the rent checks, envelopes/postage/printing checks, and domain name check is $3,540.82, and Chris is requesting reimbursement from the CTGP of this amount.  The last check on the handout was written 3/12/04.

     Chris explained how these unreimbursed expenses had come about.  He said that the November 2000 SCC meeting had decided that the state Party should pay half the office rent and utilities; he was one of two people at this meeting to vote against this decision.  He was Party treasurer for several years and had gotten in the habit of paying the rent.

     Bruce Crowder became treasurer as a result of the February 2003 internal elections.  There were problems transitioning from the former treasurer (Chris Nelson) to Bruce.  Among these problems were "problems with the accounts" and an inability of Bruce to write checks because he hadn't gotten the Party's checkbook.  Bruce, Chris continued, asked Chris to pay the rent.

     Chris described how for several years he did the bulk of the work in getting the annual CTGP fundraising letters out.  These letters had cost, each year, about $2000 in printing, postage, and related expenses.  Greens had donated, as a result of these mailings, about $8000 each of these years, for a net gain to the Party of about $6000 each year.  During the period May to September 2003, the SCC repeatedly affirmed that it wanted a fundraising letter to go out, as in previous years.  Chris continued to pay the office rent out of his personal funds, expecting that he would be reimbursed from the proceeds of the fundraising letter.  The fundraising letter finally went out in September 2003;  the handout includes, as noted above, expenditures Chris made for envelopes/postage/printing for this mailing.  [Note from the secretary:  it appears, from the dates on the handout, that Chris also spent money for envelopes/postage/printing for the mailing associated with the March 2004 internal elections.]

     Chris said that he stopped paying the rent when proceeds from the fundraising letter came in to the Party.

     Lynah asked if the Executive Committee during this time (co-chairs Tom Sevigny, Justine McCabe, and Mike DeRosa;  Bruce as treasurer;  Ed DuBrule as secretary) had known of these facts.  Tom said that Bruce never informed that Executive Committee of this situation.  Justine said that she hadn't known of this situation.

     Elizabeth Horton Sheff pointed out that Chris said that Bruce had asked Chris to pay the rent.  Elizabeth believes that expenditures authorized by a treasurer are legally binding on a Party.  Chris said he agreed with the latter statement;  the state Party is therefore responsible for reimbursing him.  Justine pointed out that the SCC had agreed to pay only half the office rent and half the office utilities--how does that affect this situation?  Chris pointed out that the Hartford chapter should have gotten 30% of the proceeds from the fundraising letter.

     Justine said that it would be desirable for Bruce Crowder to come to an SCC meeting to explain what happened.  Chris pointed out that Bruce used to report chapter balances to the SCC, including the large negative Hartford chapter balance which related to this situation.

     Lindsay and Jean asked why Bruce hadn't reimbursed Chris from the proceeds of the September 2003 fundraising letter.  Ed DuBrule pointed out that the proceeds of that fundraising letter were much smaller than previous fundraising letters.  (Ed attributed this, in part, to Chris not being involved in many of the details of getting the letter out in 2003--others Greens merged chapters' mailing lists and made the arrangements for postage and printing, details that in the past Chris had handled.)  (Ed and Chris spoke of many bags of bad-address envelopes returned from that mailing;  per the mailing plan selected with the post office, each of these bad-address envelopes required the Party to pay a 92 cents fee to the post office.)

     Chris agreed with Ed that over time the quality of our mailing lists have deteriorated.  Ed said that the Executive Committee, at its August 2004 meeting, had spoken of a desire to get the 2004 fundraising letter out the third week in September.  He wondered if that was a realistic goal, in view of the deterioration in quality of the mailing lists.

     Tom noted that last month the SCC passed a set of financial policies for the CTGP and that the SCC at tonight's meeting was discussing a budget.  The CTGP has never had such financial policies before, nor a budget;  these deficiencies may have allowed the situation of Chris' unreimbursed expenditures to arise.

     Elizabeth Horton Sheff said that in her opinion Chris should be reimbursed, for both legal reasons and because he acted with the best interests of the CTGP in mind.  She hoped that the issue of whether or not to reimburse Chris would not become reduced down to the legal issue of whether Bruce had approved each check written by Chris from his personal funds.  Elizabeth Brancato said that it is the opinion of the Executive Committee that this is a true debt owed to Chris.  Elizabeth also said that Bob, our current treasurer, has done excellent work;  he should be protected from any legal issues arising from the failure of the CTGP to reimburse Chris.

 

(b) Budget items related to Hartford office.    Attendees raised points pro and con about continued CTGP funding of part of the rent/utilities of the office:

--having an office gives visibility to the Party

--how much is the office used?  how much is it used by groups/committees other than the Hartford chapter?

--funding an office consumes funds that could be used to build the Party

--should we fundraise more, or cut expenses?

--Ed DuBrule said that Mike DeRosa contacted multiple insurance agents and determined that the Party couldn't get liability insurance (covering injuries at meetings and events, etc.) without an office

--has the Hartford chapter paid its half?

 

(c) Budget items related to internal elections.  Attendees asked whether $1500 for postage/printing for the internal elections was too much.  Could much of the information be put online?  Could notification of the meeting be done via newspaper notices (perhaps free notices)?  Jean, however, said that it's important to send a mailing to all Party members once a year.

 

D.  PROPOSALS

1.  Proposal from Hamden chapter on creation of IT (information technology) committee (Appendix 6)--not considered for lack of time.  Will be "Old Business" on September SCC agenda (old business is discussed before new business).

2.  Proposal from Hamden chapter on creation of voters' rights working group (Appendix 7)--not considered for lack of time.  Will be "Old Business" on September SCC agenda.

3.  Proposal from Executive Committee on placing an advertisement (banner ad or text link) for E/The Environmental Magazine on the CTGP website.  This proposal was withdrawn by Executive Committee;  the treasurer called the Connecticut elections enforcement commission and determined that the proposal would be illegal.  Money received from E/The Environment magazine would be considered a contribution and the CTGP cannot receive contributions from a business  entity (which the magazine is). 

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Appendix 1.  Draft fundraising plan.  [Post to fundraising committee listserve 7/19/04 by Bob Eaton.]
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