{news} Approved minutes of the 7-29-08 SCC CTGP meeting from 7pm to 9pm

Wed Oct 1 23:59:52 EDT 2008

Approved minutes of the 7-29-08 SCC CTGP meeting from 7pm to 9pm.   Quorum
was met. 

Site: Portland Senior Center, 7 Waverley Avenue, Portland, CT   06480   P:
860-342-6760

Attendees by chapter: Central: Beth Angel; Fairfield: David Bedell, Richard
Duffee, Hector Lopez; Greater Hartford: Martha Kelly, co-chairpersons of
CTGP: Steve Fournier and Mike DeRosa, Barbara Barry, Secretary of CTGP,
Christopher Reilly, Treasurer of CTGP; New London: Ronna Stuller; Tolland:
Tim McKee.     

Clifton Thornton of Glastonbury, CT: National Co-chairperson of GPUS.
Facilitator:  Tim McKee

A.      Preliminaries:

1.       Introductions of voting/non-voting attendees; chapters; quorum was
met; timekeeper; ground rules.

2.       Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda, deletion of Fairfield
proposal to allow chapters to respond at 8-26-08 SCC meeting; additions:
GPUS Ballot Access subcommittee; Impeachment Peach Party; CPTV; CT State
Constitutional Convention; additional CTGP delegates at the GPUS 7-10-08
Presidential Convention.

3.       Review of the minutes of 6-24-08 SCC meeting which were approved by
consensus.

4.      Review and acceptance of the 7-22-08 EC meeting.

5.      Treasurer’s report from Christopher Reilly: $2004.51.

B.   Reports:

1. Reports about GPUS and the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention in
Chicago, IL from:  CTGP representative: Timothy L. McKee (delegate): overall
consensus from attendees was that there were good workshops. GPUS is
considering for the next GPUS meeting in July 2009, having more workshops to
address how to build the Green Party.  Cliff Thornton, GPUS co-chairperson
(delegate): paying for proxy votes at the 7-10-08 Convention was withdrawn.
The entire national platform was voted down. There seemed to be a lack of
media coverage. The GPUS set a historic precedent by nominating women for
both president and vice-president. And the presidential candidate is an
Afro-American woman and the vice-presidential candidate is a Latino woman. 

National Committee Members: a) Steve Fournier (delegate): IL Green Party is
considered to be a major political party in the state. b) Richard Z. Duffee
(delegate): the GPUS rules, developed by the GPUS officers, were an
improvement over the 2004 rules. However, the rules were such that the vast
majority of the chapters found they had to vote against the GPUS Platform
due to limited to no ways to amend the platform from the floor of the
convention and remain true to their state Green Party. There had been an all
day conference which allowed amendments to the platform leading up to the
day of the convention. Two (2) positions were not accepted: Palestine and
changing the rules to address platform concerns. I presented a workshop
which was well attended and which received positive feedback.    c) S.
Michael DeRosa (delegate): I presented a workshop on the military-industrial
media which was well received. The Ballot Access committee has established a
Litigation subcommittee to address some of the legal requirements when state
Green Parties try to petition for ballot access and finance laws. E.G. the
New Jersey legislature has to vote on a campaign finance law which is/or
almost is, identical to Connecticut’s 2005 Campaign Finance (de)Form.  The
ACLU will also be working with the NJ Green Party to fight this campaign
legislation. The VT Green Party received $250 to assist their efforts to get
the GPUS candidate on their ballot.  Also under consideration: Green Party
to call for a national Day to Submit Litigation regarding: ballot access and
finance laws.

       Barbara Barry: after the 6-24-08 SCC cut off for the vetting and
selection of delegates to the GPUS 7-10-08 Convention. I received a 6-25-08
email from Justine McCabe requesting that she and Mazin Qumsiyeh, also be
delegates.  The 5 CTGP officers were unable to physically meet due to prior
commitments and the July 4th holiday. So a 7-7-08 conference evening call
was held and the consensus of the 5 officers was to allow these 2 people to
also be delegates.  The following were other CTGP delegates who attending
the convention: Allan Brison and Mazin Qumsiyeh. It is unclear if Justin
McCabe attended or not.

2.  Current count and final push for the collection of CTGP petition
signatures for the GPUS Presidential Candidate: Cynthia McKinney.  David
Bedell: 177 pages of petitions were handed in to the Secretary of State. 974
were known to be valid. Some of Middletown’s petitions had a 60% rejection
rate.  Tim: Cynthia McKinney can also be a write in candidate. For this to
be considered valid by the registers of voters and the Secretary of State,
the CTGP needs to notify the Secretary of State that she is a “serious”
candidate.   Christopher Reilly: CTGP has received no money from GPUS for
any campaigns.      

3.  a) CTGP literature for CTGP candidates, chapters and public libraries;
outreach items desired by candidates and chapters: e.g. banners, buttons,
bumper stickers. Contact people for outreach items: Phoebe Godfrey, Mike
DeRosa and Barbara Barry. b)  The New Britain Public Library is seeking
information from all candidates for their users. Literature may be sent to
their mailing address: 20 High Street, New Britain, CT  06061, P:
860-224-3155.

4.  Fundraising for CTGP: a) Mike: suggest that the CTGP have fundraising
dinners about once a month in various chapters and/or regions. These dinners
can be tied to specific candidates. Use of speakers  may also entice people
to attend. Can have raffles at these fundraising events.   b) An Impeachment
Peach Party at 6:30pm on Thursday, 8-21-08 at 74 Tremont Street in Hartford,
residence of Steve Fournier. Fundraising with peaches for the impeachment of
Cheney/Bush. c) Ronna Stuller: CTGP needs a budget.

5.  Steven Fournier, endorsed 1st Congressional District CTGP candidate;
needs help getting petition signatures.

6.   G. Scott Deshefy, endorsed 2nd Congressional District CTGP candidate:
seems to have acquired his required petition signatures. But this has not
been validated by the Secretary of State’s office.

7.  Any endorsed candidate for the 3rd Congressional District line: Mike:
Ralph Ferrucci has expressed an interest.

8.  Richard Duffee, 4th Congressional District CTGP candidate; I believe I
have sufficient petition signatures.

9. Harold Burbank, potential Green Party of CT candidate for 5th
Congressional District. BB:Need the date/place/time/minutes/agenda/political
party affiliation of attendees at the nominating Convention for Harold
Burbank.

10.   ACLU lawsuit update: SMD: it is anticipated that the judge will
present his written report after the election.

11.  Updates about CT Green Times newspaper and CTGP website: SMD: need
articles for both.

12.   Other Chapter reports: RS:  we had a nominating convention for Kenric
Hanson to be our candidate for the 39th District in CT.  Also, the New
London Chapter has started the process for developing a town committee. 

13. BB: Connecticut Public Television sent me a 7-25-08 email in which they
are seeking interns for CPTV to work on a short work series about youth and
the 2008 presidential election. You staffers need to be 18-24 years of age.
Contact: CPTV .   David Bedell may know of someone who might be interested
and will convey this information to him. 

14. CT State Constitutional Convention: TMc: this is something that is being
developed by the Family Institute, Reform

Party and some Republicans.  I suggest it can also be used to promote more
progressive issues at this convention.  SF: no known conditions which would
not support this convention. Consensus: Tim McKee may represent CTGP.

15.  Place for next SCC meeting to be 7pm 8-26-08.  Date, place and time of
next EC meeting in 8-08: to be determined.

Green Party Key Values: non-violence, respect for diversity, grassroots
democracy, social justice and equal opportunity, ecological wisdom,
decentralization, community-based economics and economic justice, future
focus and sustainability, personal and global responsibility, feminism and
gender equality

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