{news} FW: minutes of 5-31-05 SCC meeting of CTGP, no quorum

Sun Oct 30 01:17:29 EST 2005

MINUTES FROM 5-31-05 SCC MEETING, approved

 PORTLAND LIBRARY, PORTLAND CT

Complied by Barbara Barry DeRosa

1.	Arron Gustafson, co-chair, Hamden; Mike DeRosa, co-chair, Hartford;
Barbara Barry DeRosa, Secretary, Hartford; Ed DeBrule, West Hartford;  Andy
Derr, New London;  Judy Herkimer, Treasurer, Northwest; Kim Herkimer,
Northwest; Ralph Ferrucci, New Haven; Karen Norton, Tolland; Tim McKee,
Tolland.  Allan Brison, New Haven.

2.	Tom Sevigny had to cancel being facilitator at the last minute.
Arron Gustafson acted as facilitator for this meeting.

3.	Ground Rules accepted.

4.	Fall Gathering (peace demo) endorsement added to agenda (by request
of Justine McCabe).

5.	Agenda accepted with addition.

6.	No quorum was available at this meeting.  Normal acceptance of
reports/minutes could not transpire because of a lack of a quorum (copies of
minutes distributed and sent out to list server).

7.	Treasurer’s Report(Judy H) Over the last month we have received
$603.78.  Expenditures were $335.88.  Balance in our account of
$1,557.71(that can be used for state and chapter expenses).

Bank expenses for credit card deductions also.   See full report for further
information on expenditures and funds received. 

      Question to Treasurer: Who has the 800 #? Answer: Tom Sevigny

            Statement by Arron: “When we locked in funds, we made it
possible for chapters to forgive the    

      Debt (give back to the state there balances).  You can talk about it
with your chapter if you

      Would like to do this.”

      Question: Are you officially the Treaurer? Yes, I got the paperwork
from the state.

8          Guest Speaker:  Ralph Morelli, True Vote CT.  Professor of
computer science at Trinity College.

Subject: Speech on Bill 55 (Voter Verified Paper Trail Bill)

Announcement: Mike D says that SB 1233 (bill that allows permanent ballot
access for Minor Parties has passed all committees). 

Points from Ralph Morelli Talk:

a.      The reason we are trying to pass bill 55 is because of the Help
America Vote Act(HAVA),

b.      HAVA requires that all voting machines be auditable and accessible
to those with disabilities. Old Mechanical machines must go.

c.       CT Secretary of State (SOS) has determined that all new machines
that are bought must be DRE (Direct Recording Electronic voting machine-i.e
computer based machines).  SOS wants to buy 1 for each voting district in
CT(using the federal money allocated under HAVA $33Million)

d.      Controversy is over how the paper audit takes place with these
machines.  Either a audit 

      coming out of the machines(Black Box-no voter verified paper trail) or
one coming out of the    

      machine plus a paper trail verified by  voter under a glass.(ie. Voter
Verified Paper Trail).

e.      Using VVPT eliminates mistakes, computer clichés, fraud, or other
tempering with votes.

f.        Senate bill 55 requires a VVPT.

g.      Senate bill 55 also requires a random manual audit of one machine in
every legislative district(approx 154 in CT-about 10%). Paper ballot is
official ballot under Senate Bill 55.

h.      Status: Passed house and senate unanimously .  Gov Rell has promised
to sign bill.

i.        True Vote CT(and VOTER) disagree very much with SOS because she
supports only DRE

j.        TVCT & VOTER want the legal option(under HAVA) to have optical
scanning devices that include bubble paper ballots(similar to SAT sheets).
SOS has not given any reason for her support of DRE.  (some say she supports
Senator Dodd’s opposition to optical scanners and VVPT) . DRE are expensive,
they break down easily, up keep cost is high, and after the SOS     buys one
machine for each voting district it will be up to the towns to buy the rest
of these.  Also they are slower to vote on (more machines)  DRE=
$42Million(to replace all machines);

Optical Scanner approach=$24 Million(to replace all machines); Mix and match
approach=$?.  HAVA has given CT $33 Million federal funds.  FL eliminated
DRE machines

Because of problems(someone in audience suggested that we buy FL old DRE
machines).

k.      Some disability groups have opposed VVPT bill, “we finally came to
the conclusion that people like Jim Dixon (leader of a American Association
of Persons with Disabilities) who has received over a million dollars from
Diebold and other electronic voting machine companies , are opposed to VVPT
and Optical Scan voting and say they will sue states that put it into
action. (Aside: recently SOS included Mr. Dixon along with others opposed to
VVPT on a “workshop” on HAVA and voting).  Behind the scenes “under the
radar of media”. 

l.        RFP (request for proposal) for VVPT is also problematic with SOS.
Bias of SOS on Optical Scan.  We need help to fight against SOS biases and
mixed messages.  We need new RFP so we can look at all the options and make
an informed decision.  “This debate is all driven by private large
corporations, all of whom are owned by very well connected high up
Republican operatives, and right wingers too.”  The EAS is an agency of
federal government that is going to be making recommendations about voting
equipment is also stacked with these same right wing people opposed to VVPT.
Open source transparent software is not going to be considered. We don’t
think that the lever machines will be legal in 2006, therefore since you
need more of them (since they take longer to vote on) there may be long
lines in 2006.  Also training voters and voting officials may be an issue.
“We want to take on the RFP issue right now, we need pressure on the SOS to
change this right now”.  We need the help of your organization to make this
happen.  WEB SITE:  www.truevotect.org <http://www.truevotect.org/>  ;
Another one is : www.verifiedvoting.org <http://www.verifiedvoting.org/> .

9. Aaron Makes Revised Presentation On Re-Structuring of  Green Party of CT:

MAJOR FOCUS: Attainable Goals, Increased Benefits, Increasing Membership,
Increasing Fund Raising, Increasing Voter Base.   Discussed in EC at last
meeting.  The following is a work in progress that will be refined and
presented as they become available:

Green Party of CT Restructuring Plan & 2005/2006 Goals

Working Draft; prepared by Kelly McCarthy & Aaron Gustafson, Co-chairs

 MEDIA COMMITTEE (MC): Aaron Gustafson, Co-chair

Implement press release dissemination system

            Explore alternative media outlets

            Letters to the editor/op-ed team

            Develop & maintain newsletter, email lists, listservs, websites
and blogs

            Work w/ ELC on candidate/campaign support 

            Work w/ LC on legislation support 

LEGISLATION COMMITTEE (LC): Mike DeRosa, Co-chair 

          Research three issues for candidates @ each level:
local/state/federal

            Develop CTGP platform & position papers for candidates

            Educational campaign for 2005/06: IRV 

            Research & support referendums

            Work w/ MC on current legislation activity

            Work w/ ELC on platform development

ELECTIONS COMMITTEE (ELC): Kelly McCarthy, Co-chair

Identify good races & groom candidates to achieve electoral goals

Electoral Goals 2005: 10 Local candidates 
Electoral Goals 2006: 1 Statewide candidate; 5 State candidates (State
Senate or Rep.); 2 U.S. Rep candidates;

Candidate for Secretary of the State

Keep track of deadlines for petitions and paperwork

Develop sliding scale funding formula for endorsed candidates

Research endorsements

Organize candidate workshops

Publish a state-wide resource directory for candidates by 2006 

            Work w/ LC on platform development

            Work w/ MC on candidate/campaign activities

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE (FC): Judy Herkimer, Treasurer 

Implement fundraising plan 

Research & produce merchandising (according to budget)

Provide tabling kits for all chapters

Implement endorsement funding for all candidates on sliding scale

Work w/ ELC, LC, MC on fundraising activities & monitor goals

INTERNAL COMMITTEE (IC): Barbara Barry DeRosa, Secretary

       Overhaul & maintain bylaws

Develop & implement budget (w/ Treasurer & FC) 

Organize yearly internal elections

Create & maintain approved proposal reference book for EC (include proposal
& date, divided into procedural, endorsements, financial & other)

Maintain SCC Reps’ voting record

Monitor registration goals w/ FC, ELC, LC, MC (increase Greens by 10%=250
people by end of 2006)

             “Streamlining for Productivity”

Guidelines for Member Involvement

Each individual should:

1. Assess personal strengths & interests

2. Estimate your weekly availability & time commitments

3. Choose the one Committee (Media/Legislation/Elections/
Fundraising/Internal) that suites you best

4. Commit to focusing on that Committee’s tasks & goals

5. If your availability changes, inform your Committee as soon as possible,
so that your duties may be reassigned.   

NOTE: Other Diagrams(and other visuals) that were part of Arron’s
presentation will be included when they can be obtained.  Upgrade of the
above plan is in the works.  Ultimately these will be put into proposal form
for the Green Party of CT to consider or may be just guidelines for the EC
for 2005.  

Question: What about the chapters? How do they fit into this plan?

Aaron:  We haven’t talk about the chapters a lot.  I think we need having
greater involvement in having chapters to be involved on the state level
with each other.  Also a resource directory, so chapters would know what
other chapter had in resources that they could share. This isn’t the
solution it is the road back to a solution. 

Barbara: This plan will help help to meet the needs of the chapters.  The
officers will be liaison through the committees to build chapters resources
and build chapters.

Question: I would like to see the internal process on the graphic. It is
clean and simple. My concern is the action plan that already exists.  It was
passed by SCC. I would like to see these either accepted or rejected, or
brought together.

Aaron: I did look at the Action Plan and incorporated the Action Plan into
this.  There is a lot of overlap between the Action Plan and this
Re-organization plan.  I think it is good that we keep talking about this.
Is this a direction or does if have to be formally accepted by SCC?  This
should not stop us from doing the stuff that we have being doing in the SCC
meetings.   Just to let you know the co-chairs are going to be focusing in
these areas and we would like you to be involved in those areas.

Mike : The only thing that it not here is how we evaluate whether this is
working for us.  Is it producing what we need.  We need to have some way
that we can have some feedback after a period of time so that we can change
what we are doing.

Aaron:  This is a quick bandage that can give us some focus.

Mike: Get’s us to the next stage.

10.  Justine’s concerns:  E-mail from Justine Mc Cabe: “ I attended the CT
United For Peace meeting on 5/15/05.  Coalition members are seeking
endorsements from their groups for an initative spearheaded by US Labor
against the war to gather all the anti-war protestors for one huge
demonstration in the fall and to support a state wide bring the National
Guard home initiative over the summer”   Should be brought forward on next
month agenda.  Justine feels that we need to discuss this at the SCC because
it is involvement rather than endorsement.  Endorsements can be done through
the EC.

11. Short discussion about the need for more effective dissemination of
events and projects done by the Green Party of CT and its chapters.  

12. Short report of Election Committee.  Judy: The election committee never
came forward with the final results.   Ed: I sent them out to EC members
with the ballot by ballot results.   Aaron said if they were sent to him he
would post them on the web site.  The fact that IRV was used in the GPCT
election will also be put on the web site according to Aaron.

Next  SCC Meeting: June 28, 2005, 7PM.  Government Center, 3rd Floor, 2750
Dixwell Ave. Hamden, CT.

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