Approved minutes of the 7PM 12-30-08 SCC CTGP meeting: quorum met.

Location: Portland Senior Center, 7 Waverly Avenue, Portland, CT 06480

Attendees per chapter:
Fairfield: Paul Bassler and Richard Duffee;
Greater Hartford:
co-chairpersons: Steve Fournier and S. Michael DeRosa; Treasurer: Christopher Reilly; Secretary: Barbara Barry;
New Haven: Patricia Kane and Jerry Martin;
New London: Ronna Stuller;
Tolland: Tim McKee= facilitator.

A. Preliminaries:

1. Introductions of voting/non-voting attendees; chapters; quorum was met; no timekeeper; ground rules.

2. Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda; deletion=# C 8 due to time restraint; two additions: report from Steve Fournier; listserv money.

3. Review and approval of minutes of the 11-11-08 SCC meeting.

4. Review and acceptance of the 12-16-08 EC meeting minutes.

5. Treasurer’s report from Christopher Reilly: balance through today: $1583.

B. Proposal: The 12-30-08 SCC attendees agreed by consensus (5 for; 1 against and 1 abstention) to made the below changes underlined in black italics. They were deemed not to be substantive changes so they would not need to return to chapters for approval.

1. The following proposal by Fairfield Chapters was approved, without changes, by consensus to be sent to Chapters for feedback at the 11-11-08 SCC. Consensus to the 11-11-08 SCC meeting proposed by Jerry Martin.:

PROPOSAL from Fairfield County chapter

CONTACT: David Bedell, 12 Ardsley Rd, Stamford, CT 06906, 203-581-3193, dbedellgreen(at)hotmail.com SUBJECT: Definition of party membership.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: At its February 2008 meeting, the Fairfield chapter adopted a somewhat stricter definition of membership than that in the state bylaws. New Haven has also adopted a stricter definition. The purpose of this proposal is to make party membership contingent on a simple written declaration, just like membership in the major parties, instead of the current definition, which includes vague criteria such as what constitutes a volunteer activity or what is a "coalition partner." This proposal also addresses the contingency of losing minor party status, which happened in some towns during 2004-2006. Further comments can be read at HYPERLINK http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldCountyGreens/message/839

PROPOSAL: In the CT Green Party bylaws (HYPERLINK http://www.ctgreens.org/bylaws.shtml ), the section under "Individual Membership" shall be revised to read:

If the Green Party has minor party status in a town, then: A person enrolled on their town voter list as a Green Party member is a member of the Green Party for all purposes.

If the Green Party does not have minor party status in a town, then a person may become a member of the Green Party under the following conditions:

1. The person must be an unaffiliated voter and must not have been registered with any other party affiliation during the past ninety (90) days.

2. The person shall fill out and sign a CT Voter Registration Form declaring enrollment in the Green Party and submit this to an officer of the local or state Green Party.

3. Upon submission of such declaration, the person's membership in the Green Party will be effective after ten business days.

A person not yet old enough to vote under state law may become a member of the Green Party under the following conditions:

1. The person will turn 18 and be eligible to vote before the next General Election Day.

2. The person has applied to vote by filling out and signing a Voter Registration Form with declaration of enrollment in the Green Party and submitted this to their town hall or to an officer of the local or state Green Party.

3. If the voter registration form is submitted to a local or state Green Party officer, membership in the Green Party will be effective after ten business days.

Party members shall receive announcements of State Party general meetings, and shall be entitled to vote when attending State Party general meetings. CTGP town committees may disallow members after questioning or vetting.

DELETE: When an active Member of a Chapter, the member shall be entitled to vote at all general meetings of the Chapter. No member, however, shall be entitled to vote in more than one Chapter. Chapters may institute their own requirements for membership different from those for State Party membership.

Not approved by consensus, proposal from Barbara Barry and S. Michael DeRosa: member definition must include that people agree with Green Party’s 10 Key Values.

C. Reports:

1. (10 minutes): GPUS Presidential Candidate: Cynthia McKinney: write-in issues at polling places; Secretary of State apparently has not counted write-in votes from at least the following cities/towns: New Haven, Manchester, Wethersfield. Steve Fournier, co-chairperson of CTGP, wrote to the Secretary of State and to the state chapter of the League of Women Voters about this situation.

SF: I wrote to Michael Kozik, Esquire of the Elections Office of the Secretary of State. His response to my 12-6-08 letter was that the various statues covering the stated concerns expired on 11-7-08, 11-12-08 and 11-18-08. Steve noted that the Secretary of State, Susan Bysiewicz has a right to request a review of any regulations. But she did not after Steve’s letter. Nor did she respond to Tim McKee’s earlier letter to her which fell within one of the statutory periods. Consensus: write-in candidates should be encouraged; better write-in instructions should be provided to the voters and to poll monitors e.g.: a) poll monitors should be better educated that they are allowed to provide to voters upon request, the names of write-in candidates; b) pens with thinner marking need to be provided to voters so the markings are not so thick and be larger than the provided write-in bubble; c) perhaps voters could be allowed to use stickers to apply to the write-in bubble; d) and independent audit of the Secretary of States audit of the 11-4-08 election was that it was a sham. Reason: very narrow selection of which candidates at a limited number of polling places would be audited. That is not all votes for all candidates would be audited at 5% of the polling places. In one polling place, the error rate was 50% for one candidate. e) these recommendations will be presented by CTGP representatives to the legislative election committee on 1-10-09, sometime between 10am and noon. CTGP members especially 11-4-08 CTGP candidates are invited to join the following people who have agreed to meet with the elections committee: Steve Fournier, S. Michael DeRosa and Tim McKee.

Tim McKee is to scan the letter from Michael Kozik, Esq. for the CTGP website. Currently for a write-in candidate to be counted: a) the candidate must notify the election office that they are a “serious” candidate; b) the voter must write-in the candidates name within the provided box and c) the voter must fill the additional bubble which indicates this is a write in vote d) currently, provisional votes are not counted by registrars of voters or the secretary of state..

2. GPUS reports from: CTGP representatives: Tim McKee: will advise the GPUS website that Steve Fournier is a GPUS representative from CT. Tim will also send emails to CTGP GPUS representatives, that they need to provide monthly reports to CTGP SCC either in person or via email. National Committee Members: neither Steve Fournier nor Richard Duffee had anything to report. S. Michael DeRosa of the GPUS Ballot Access Committee:

a) the litigation subcommittee of the GPUS Ballot Access Committee is currently reviewing ballot access rules and regulations especially in the states of past problems. The litigation subcommittee consists of the co-chairpersons of the Green Parties of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and CT (S. Michael DeRosa). b) goal of the litigation subcommittee: to have every state involved in ballot access litigation. c) we need transparency regarding the incoming and outgoing monies in the GPUS treasury. We currently have a GPUS debt of $34,000 mostly due to the Chicago Presidential Convention, about $2000 for national ballot access and other expenditures. A recent proposal in support of transparency, failed because it did not garner 2/3 support from the GPUS National Committee.

Question: Are GPUS committee members on committees for life? Answer: that is left to the individual members if they want to stay for life or members may be withdrawn by state chapters. Question: Who pays for the travel expenses of committee members e.g. international committee members? Answer: People who are on the international committee tend to be people who have the willingness and time to travel and the willingness to pay for their own travel expenses. Typically, the GPUS does not provide any reimbursement to the international committee members. Question: Will the GPUS in the future, be more willing to provide some money for GPUS travel? Answer: No known plan to do so due to limited funds.

Absent: Cliff Thornton, co-chairperson of GPUS and Charlie Pillsbury, CTGP representative to GPUS.

3. CTGP literature: Consensus: agreed to allow $50 for SMD to print literature and it will be provided to website. The following will independently print literature for their chapters: Jerry Martin of New Haven and Ronna Stuller of New London (100 copies).

4. Fundraising for CTGP: EC proposes that a fundraising dinner be held on Sunday, 1-18-09 at a Hartford location. Dinner theme will be our response to continuing the work for human and civil rights in 2009 which was a primary concern of the late Rev. Martin Luther King. Other activities at this dinner: trivia quiz and door prizes.

5. Chapter mailing list and state mailing list: a) SMD: each congressional district is encouraged to contact each registrar of voters in their district for the list of registered Green Party voters. b) RS: the CTGP should consider acquiring, yearly, the state-wide list of registered Green Party voters. c) CR: CTGP should consider not using the old lists of CTGP members.

6. ACLU lawsuit update. SMD: a) The ACLU wants to meet with myself and the 11-4-08 CTGP candidates on 1-10-08. b) the judge has determined that the provision about the lobbyists and their immediate family members is constitutional. c) the State of CT continues to advise the judge that they are compiling campaign finance information from the 11-4-08 election; d) the State of CT had indicated that they believe candidates will give campaign money back to the State of CT. e) the State of CT has about 20 lawyers working on this lawsuit inclusive of the Brennan Center for Justice.

7. CTGP potential goals for 2009: development of CTGP Legislative Agenda for 2009; e.g. Fight the Hike and repeal of real ID; universal health care; election reforms; hearing meetings to go to; information about meetings;

concerns about the 20-30% tuition increase at state universities and colleges.

8. deferred due to time: Website: Steve Fournier, co-chairperson, to update and maintain database on website inclusive of information which prior candidates needed to provide organizations during campaigns; candidate position papers.

9. Green Party of CT Road Show. First Road Show to be in Willimantic, Wednesday at 7pm on 1-28-09: Speakers: Jean deSmet, 1st selectperson of Willimantic and G. Scott Deshefy. Voter Registration forms may be provided. All are encouraged to attend. Other Road Shows will follow at other site throughout the state.

10. Chapter reports:

11. Any additions a) consensus: $50 is to be sent to the Portland Senior Center due to their generosity in allowing the CTGP to use their facility; b) consensus: $50 for continued use of the listserv c) place and date of the CTGP Annual Meeting: to be determined.

12. 1-27-09, Tuesday SCC meeting at Portland Senior Center. Date, place and time of 1-09 EC meeting to be determined.