{news} Minutes from the 11-28-06 SCC Green Party of CT Meeting

[B Barry]

Minutes from the  11-28-06 SCC CTGP Meeting    

Place: Portland  Senior  Center,  7  Waverly Avenue, Portland,  CT (a block
east of Portland Public Library)

Phone: 860-342-6760      Time: 7PM to 9PM

Voting attendees: Fairfield: Paul Bassler, David Bedell, Janet Cory, Richard
Duffee, Patricia Kane; Greater Harford: Barbara Barry, Secretary of CTGP,
Michael DeRosa, Co-chairperson of CTGP; Cliff Thornton;  New Haven: Allan
Brison, Caleb Kleppner, Jerry Martin;  New London: Andy Derr; Northeast:
Jean DeSmet Co-chairperson of CTGP; Amy Vas Nunes.
Non-voting: Christopher Reilly, Treasure of CTGP. 

 
Facilitator: Andy Derr.

 

A.	Preliminaries: 

1.       Introductions of attendees; identification of voting and non-voting
representatives and chapters;

adoption of ground rules: timekeeper: Caleb Klepper

2.       Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda, additions: closing of the
Greater Hartford Chapters office at

418  A New Britain Avenue, Hartford, CT;  and deletions: reports: #2 and
National Security Agency update. 

3.       Approval of 8-29-06, 9-26-06 and 10-31-06 SCC minutes. 

4.       9-11-06, 10-17-06 and 11-20-06 EC meetings were received.
Consensus: SCC will no longer approve

EC minutes but will receive them. 

5.       (3 minutes):  Treasurer’s report by Christopher Reilly: net income:
minus $723.94 due to need to pay for:

     Toll-free phone, candidate contribution and postcards use around 11-06
election.

 

      B. Reports:

1.       Discussion  about CTGP campaigns: 

MD: suggest excel spreadsheet of towns in which candidates got votes; he got
media coverage about

how the current Secretary of State, Susan Bysiewicz would not debate; no
essential coverage about 

how she signed a contract to buy Diebolt voting machines but stated
otherwise.  CTGP did better than the Working Families Party where they did
not cross endorse.

AVN: How much money was spent to get the vote out after the petitioning was
done?

CR:  $13,000 for one candidate, Cliff Thornton for Governor. No other
candidate got money.

JdS:  we cannot run a campaign without money; also need more training,
evaluate for better

strategies; how we can build our CTGP base; we tend to grow our base with
issues, not campaigns.

CK: need to focus on local candidates not state candidates.

AD: need 20 candidates for state representatives/senators and town offices
for 2008/2009.

PK:  need appropriate candidates.

BB:  as a political party, we need to promote issues and run candidates for
all offices including

major state and national offices.  Otherwise, we will be viewed as only a
local, minority party and will be further discounted as a political force to
be reckoned with.

CK:  the Green Party in Maine lost their only state GP legislator. If we can
not win state races then 

we should only do local races.

PK: need to review by-laws.

CT: I wanted to run to get the CTGP name out there. CTN covered the
candidates sometimes twice

a week. Some print media did not provide the desired coverage. 

DB:  we may need placeholders to keep our ballot lines available; need
volunteers to hand out postcards;  writing letters to the editor is
effective.

JdS: we did the right strategy to run a full state-wide slate. We are
building a party. We also need to 

talk 1:1 at fairs and going door to door.   People are dissatisfied with
politics.

 

2.       Deleted: U.S. Green Party report by CTGP representatives: Tim McKee
and Charlie Pillsbury:

 

3.       Chapter reports:

     Northeast: JdS: still doing the TV show and the 3rd Thursday of the
month events.

     New Haven: CK: New Have did pay to fund the public finance board for
the municipal area. Caleb is       on that board.

     Fairfield:  DB: we have the video of our meeting with Diane Farrell.

                      PK:  we need a tighter definition of what is a CTGP
member; we tried to recruit members on the streets of Stamford by carrying
balloons. 

     Greater Hartford: MD: the chapter is closing it’s office at 418A New
Britain Avenue in Hartford as of 11-30-06 after using it for 62months.  We
are still  committed to our concerns.

     New London: AD: still doing our TV show; doing monthly movies with
Peace and Justice and 

 our weekly vigil for peace. 

 

4.       Issues for CTGP legislative agenda for 12-06: 

MD: we have an agreement from CT Senate Pro Tem, Donald Williams, that he
will meet with CTGP about our concern/issues: re-structuring energy laws due
to scheduled increased costs of from 38 to 55% as of 1-1-07 ; changing the
2005 Campaign Finance Reform law; universal health care for CT; drug reform,
Patriot’s Act as it pertains to CT law enforcement and CT residents, living
wage; divestment of CT State funds in various funds; IRV voting; automatic
counts of votes.   The more Greens at meetings the better.

PK: also: eminent domain, uniform marital laws; marital property reforms;
IVR voting equipment. 

CK: CTGP represents 30-40% of all voters.

AVN: gay marriage; divestment of investments in places such as Danfur,
tobacco products, nuclear 

weapons &/or energy; “dirty” energy; review CT’s dependence of the
military-inductrial complex.

RD: impeachment resolutions in towns.

PB: ballot access for minor parties.

CT: if minor parties get ballot access, then must get into all debates.

BB: we could sponsor our own debates.

JdS. Don Williams has stated that CT should censor anything perceived as
“negative” campaigning.

   People who want to join the Legislative Committee:

PB: IRV, ballot access for 3rd parties; debate access.

CK: IRV, voting machine compatibility; ballot access.

JdS: universal health care.

MD: campaign finance reform; electric rates.

PK: eminent domain; marital property law reform.

CT: all issues.

AVN: divestment, tobacco, environment, defense.

 

5. Chapter study groups about political issues of concern.

JM: need CTGP platform so we can go into these coalitions to maximize our
influence or effect change.

 

6. Green Days: MD: We can have Green Days e.g. monthly at the legislature
and throughout the year with news releases.

 

7. CTGP website needs volunteers to write about 10 Key Values on the
website; moderators are:

Christopher Reilly and David Bedell.   Need new moderator for the listservs.

AB: to be a moderator, one must be a Green and all contacts must be relayed
to the EC.

 

8. V.O.T.E.R. update: ACLU lawsuit regarding 2005 CT “campaign finance
reform” law. The ACLU wants to turn the lawsuit over to the Hartford Law
firm of Day, Berry and Howard. However, the State of

CT would not grant an exemption stating that this law firm has worked for
the state in the past. ACLU states this action by the state to not grant an
exemption is atypical of past state actions.   ACLU is still planning a
12-18-06 hearing.

 

   9. Articles for and deadline for “CT Green Times” newspaper. Eric DeVos
has 

   purchased a printing press that can print: full sized newspaper or books
or

   magazines. He is willing to print the newspaper for us with him incurring
the

   cost of the paper and the ink. Present goal if for a 4 page newspaper
with the

   theme that the 11-06 election was a historic moment for the CTGP because
it

   successfully petitioned to get all state-wide candidates on the ballot
and we

   ran candidates for these offices.  Anyone interested in working on the
newspaper

   can come to a meeting on 12-3-06. Time and place, to be determined.
Additional

   articles are likely to be: our legislative agenda; chapter meeting
schedules and   

   contacts; pictures of the state-wide candidates from the recent
campaigns.

 

   9A: deleted: National Security agency response to CTGP freedom of
information

request.

 

10.    The New Haven Chapter request: JM: we need bylaws, a definition of
quorum; a definition of 

 who can be a CTGP member.

 a) We would like an update on the plan to change state party rules to allow
for a more workable quorum requirement.   I believe that the definition of
what an active chapter is has also been a part of this planning.

 b) A rule change that would clarify the grounds under which a duly
nominated candidate can be asked by the party to withdraw.

 c) Plans for making on-line contributions available on the CTGP web site
similar to the method used by the Thornton campaign.

Patricia Kane Proposal: we need to form a bylaws committee. The committee
group can define these things for the 4-07 CTGP. We need a draft from the
committee for the next SCC meeting (either on 12-26-06 or if deferred until
1-07), then (chapters can) comment at the 2-07 (SCC meeting) so any bylaws
can be presented at the 4-07 CTGP convention.  I’d be willing to get the
group going.

   Vote: Yes: 11,   No: 1,  Abstain: 1.

 

11.  Consensus:   next SCC meeting to be moved from 12-26-06 to 1-9-07.
Place: to be determined.

 


-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.12/655 - Release Date: 1/28/2007
1:12 PM
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20070128/e8f5f2c9/attachment.html>