{news} minutes of March 2005 SCC meeting-part 1 of 2
edubrule
edubrule at sbcglobal.net
Sun Apr 24 23:02:05 EDT 2005
Minutes of March 29, 2005 SCC meeting
Judd Hall, Wesleyan University, 7-9:30pm
Attendees:
1. Central Connecticut chapter: Vic Lancia, Vincent Maruffi
2. Fairfield chapter: David Bedell, John Amarilios
3. Hamden chapter: Aaron Gustafson, Kelly McCarthy(NV), Joel Dubin,
4. Hartford chapter: Ed DuBrule(NV), Mike DeRosa, Barbara Barry DeRosa, Rob Pandolfo, Albert Marceau
5. New Haven chapter: Charlie Pillsbury (facilitator)
6. New London chapter: Andy Derr
7. Northeast chapter: Jean de Smet
8. Northwest chapter: Elizabeth Brancato (voting for Women's Caucus only), Judy Herkimer, Kim Herkimer
9. Shoreline chapter: Lindsay Mathews, David Adams
10. Western chapter: Justine McCabe, Brooks Kelley
11. Tolland chapter: Tim McKee
These minutes report the approval of the New Britain chapter. Once his chapter was approved, Miguel Nieves became a voting representative--he voted at tonight's meeting.
NV=non-voting.
Tim served as timekeeper, Judy as stacker, and Lindsay as vibes watcher.
Preliminaries: The groundrules were adopted by consensus. The agenda was approved with the addition of three proposals from the Executive Committee and the addition of a proposal from the internal elections committee. The proposal from the New London chapter (that the CT Green Party not spend any money received from the Cramer estate until the State Central Committee has passed an annual budget) was withdrawn, since the money in the will of Margaret Cramer will not be received by the CT Green Party (see treasurer's report). The minutes of the November 2004, January 4, January 25, and February SCC meetings were approved by consensus. Discussions related to including or not including the report/proposal from the Office Committee in tonight's agenda are reported under the Office Committee proposal.
Treasurer's report (read by Aaron):
"3/280/05. Over the last month we had receipts of $440.27 and expenses of $458.67. Currently we have a balance of $1,583.26.
"Receipts:
Monthly contributions (2 months worth) $370.00
Other individual contributions 25.00
Greater Hartford Green Party PAC 45.27
----------
Total $440.27
"Expenditures:
Office in Hartford Rent (minus half of utilities) -$201.21
Office in Hartford phone - 50.82
Office in Hartford electric - 38.52
Reimbursements - 74.24
Credit car processing - 35.52
Toll free number - 3.94
American Mailing - 54.42
-----------
Total -$458.67
"Last month I mentioned that the Green Party of Connecticut was listed as the beneficiary of a will. It turns out that we are not the actual beneficiary of the will. I called the attorney last week to ask if the money could go to the Green Party of the United States instead of the Green Party of Connecticut (since we cannot receive money from an estate). When the attorney looked at the will he read that it was to go to the 'national green party'. He apologized to me, that he had not looked into it more carefully before. Although we are not the beneficiary, I think that what benefits the Green Party of the United States also benefits us.
"These are the current chapter balances:
Central: $ 701.99
Fairfield: 1,141.80
Hamden: 57.00
Hartford: -1,644.02
New Haven: 1,077.53
New London: 156.67
North East: 155.10
North West: 2,110.38
Shoreline: 15.00
Southeast: 213.56
Tolland: 132.35
West Hartford: 135.00
Western: 276.50
"Our obligated balance is $4,528.86 (this total includes being reimbursed for negative chapter balances)
"As always please consider being involved in the Fundraising and Budget Committees.
"For more information on the CT Green Party Finances you can call me at 860 379-0632, email me at green at spazmo.com, or look at this webpage:
http://www.kirajoy.com/CTGP/CTGP_Treasurer.html
"Bob Eaton
"CT Green Party Treasurer"
Barbara asked if the national Green Party could give Connecticut money from the will. She wondered if Tim and Tom could work with national on this. Do we have a right to any portion of it?
GUEST SLOT--Miguel Angel Nieves, planning to run for mayor of New Britain as a Green. He was born in Puerto Rico, came to Hartford as a 9-year old, has a Hartford High diploma and a degree in business admininistration from the Morse School of Business. He has lived in New Britain since 1996. He helped establish the store in Westfarms Mall where he is employed. He worked in many political campaigns including those of state senator Donald DeFronzo and Nancy Johnson. He passed out invitations to his announcement of candidacy (April 29, 8pm, Puerto Rican Society of New Britain, 152 High St.)
NEW BUSINESS ITEM--approval of New Britain chapter. Miguel reported that there have been 4 chapter meetings with at least 5 people attending each meeting in New Britain. [Secretary's note: at least two past SCC meetings have considered a requirement for chapter approval to be 3 chapter meetings with 5 people in attendance at each.] The following points were discussed:
*Miguel said that he is a registered Green.
*The bylaws sections which define a CTGP member and which give the requirements for chapter membership were read aloud (Appendix 1).
*It was asked if at those who attended the New Britain meetings were members per the bylaws definition. Ed asked if we considered this question when we approved the Shoreline and Hamden chapters. Jean stated that the SCC "did not know the people [who attended meetings] when we approved the college chapters".
*It was asked if sufficient work has been done to build a New Britain chapter. It was pointed out that Miguel has not previously attended SCC meetings. He did attend a state Green party strategy meeting in January and has worked with the Hartford chapter. Should Miguel be asked to further build the chapter, to attend the April SCC meeting, and should the SCC consider approving the chapter at the May SCC meeting?
*Miguel's April 29 announcement of candidacy will occur before the May SCC meeting.
*It was asked whether if the New Britain chapter is approved tonight would Miguel be able to vote at tonight's meeting. Vincent said he recalled that in a parallel situation in the past the attendee voted at the meeting after the chapter was approved.
*It was stated that if tonight's meeting doesn't approve the New Britain chapter, the Hartford chapter could approve Miguel's running as a Green for mayor of New Britain.
Because of the above questions and concerns, the question of approving the New Britain chapter tonight was brought to a vote.
SCC DECISION: we approved the New Britain chapter as a CTGP chapter by a vote. 18 voted to approve the chapter tonight, 2 voted against this, and 2 abstained.
OLD BUSINESS AND PROPOSALS
1. Proposal from Office Committee. Due to its length, this report/proposal is not included in these minutes. It was posted on the News listserve March 17. For a copy of this document in Microsoft Word, you may contact Ed (secretary) at edubrule at sbcglobal.net or 860-523-4016. Several issues were discussed:
**The March 12 meeting of the office committee did not occur. Should submission of a final report be deferred until such a meeting occurs?
**Are we tonight to decide on accepting the report, and/or to decide among Options A, B, and C in the report?
OPTION A. Keep CTGP funding of office as is (CTGP paying only 50% of rent & utilities + all taxes & insurance costs
= approx. $5,500/year = approx. 90% of all CTGP cash funds);
Budget & need for office/use will be re-evaluated every 6 months.
OPTION B. Decrease CTGP funding of office to 25% (CTGP paying only 25% of rent, utilities, taxes & office insurance policy
= approx. $2,500/year = approx.40% of all CTGP cash funds; 25% is based on liberal estimate of use of office space by CTGP & represents a more balanced distribution of funding);
Budget & need for office/use will be re-evaluated every 6 months.
OPTION C. Cease CTGP funding of office (CTGP would not be responsible for any portion of rent, utilities, taxes or office insurance costs
= 0% of all CTGP cash funds;
we would purchase individual liability event policies for CTGP
needs);
Budget & need for office/use will be re-evaluated every 6 months.
**Should we ignore Options A, B, and C and instead let members of tonight's SCC meeting propose voting options?
It was decided to keep the office report agenda item on tonight's agenda (keep it on agenda--8 votes; omit it from the agenda--5 votes; abstain--2). Mike passed out a handout "Little known facts about the Hartford office" (copies available from Ed). Albert passed out a handout "A Summary of the Progressive Movie Night Held at the Conn. Green Party Office in Hartford, Conn." (copies available from Ed). Mike said that he had submitted the information in his handout to Kelly. Barbara said that the office committee report only looks at one year of the history of the office; she had hoped to get agreement at the March 12 meeting to include facts from previous years in the report. Kelly said that much of the information in Mike's handout is included in the report. She said that despite the failure to have a second meeting of the committee on March 12, information could have been submitted to her via e-mail or phone calls; she said that no one on the committee made an effort to reschedule the meeting and no one submitted other voting options besides options A, B, and C. Tim said that alternative ideas were brought forward but Kelly did not recognize them as such. Mike said that one purpose of forming the office committee was to come up with creative solutions to the problem of the office; he said that hasn't been a chance to come up with such creative solutions--now we are left with divisive options. Tim spoke of fundraising plans for the office ("progressive movie nights" twice a month, speaker from Common Cause). Kelly said that Tim hadn't informed her of these plans.
Kelly noted that the contents of the office committee report were largely the same as the first version of the report presented to the February SCC meeting; additions include the section on insurance written by Justine and the voting options (A, B, and C). Kelly proposed that we not consider the voting options above tonight. She said that the report is a proposal and calls for a vote, and proposed that we carry out such a vote tonight.
The facilitator said that it appeared that the committee is at a total impasse. He said that he did not see that the office committee report contained a proposal. He suggested that a chapter, the Executive Committee, or another committee could submit a proposal to be considered by the SCC. He said that the agenda time allocated to the office committee had been reached or exceeded. Kelly suggested that we let proposals come from the SCC tonight. By vote it was decided to add ten minutes more agenda time to discussion of the office issue (yes add time--13 votes, no--8, abstain--0). Tim said that he could provide details of fundraising plans for the office to the office committee, including what percentage of the funds raised would go to the state Party. Kelly recommended that people make use of the office committee report, saying it contains information that isn't widely known. Vic said that an effective, viable Green Party needs an office; the very existence of an office serves as a symbol of the fact that we're a viable party and helps fundraising. Justine spoke of the large negative chapter balance of the Hartford chapter. She said that the Connecticut Green Party now can't afford to support an office. She said that her research indicates that there is no need to have an office to have insurance for the Connecticut Green Party.
David Adams asked that a proposal be considered by tonight's meeting: that the state Party cease funding the Hartford office. Justine, too, asked that we consider this proposal tonight. The facilitator suggested that such a proposal be brought to the April SCC meeting, since we have exceeded the ten minutes added time. Mike said that proposals can't be added in the middle of an SCC meeting; proposals must be brought to the membership. Charlie asked if we should vote on whether to have a vote. Kim said that we should take a vote on the office issue. Charlie said that the New Haven chapter hasn't voted on the question of funding the office. Miguel said that the New Britain chapter, as a new chapter, could use more time to consider the issue. David Bedell said that the Fairfield chapter would like more time to consider the issue. Kelly suggested that chapters (rather than the office committee) come up with voting options to be considered by the SCC. David Adams said that he anticipates that he (apparently meaning the Shoreline chapter) will submit a proposal that the CTGP terminate funding of the office.
2. Proposal on Green Party of Connecticut Northwest Chapter account balance (Appendix 2). Judy presented the proposal, which is not a proposal in the sense that the SCC needs to vote on it or approve it; it is submitted as a courtesy to the treasurer and the SCC. A friendly amendment (from the Shoreline chapter) has been added to the proposal since it was submitted for printing in the agenda: "That the tabling kit that is available to each chapter be as flexible as possible so that the chapters can choose from a 'menu' of available items." Barbara asked if chapters could donate items for the tabling kits (this would decrease costs); for example the Hartford chapter has Green Party banners.
3. Proposal on fundraising mailing--additional funds (Appendix 3).
SCC decision: expenditure of up to $200 authorized to settle the mailing bureau account.
4. Proposal on approval of delegates to national committees (Appendix 4). Elizabeth presented the proposal. It was written after
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