Approved minutes from the 7PM 5-27-08 SCC CTGP meeting Quorum was met.
Location: Portland Senior Center, 7 Waverley Avenue, Portland, CT 06480 Phone: 860-342-6760
Facilitator: Tim McKee.
Voting Attendees by Chapter:
Central: Vic Lancia
Fairfield: David Bedell and Richard Duffee;
Greater Hartford: Barbara Barry, Secretary of CTGP; Co-chairpersons: Steve Fournier and S. Michael DeRosa, Treasurer: Christopher Reilly;
New Haven: Jerry Martin;
Northeast: Co-chairperson: Phoebe Godfrey. Scott Deshefy;
Tolland: Tim McKee.
Non-voting attendee: Tina Shirshac of Northeast.
A. Preliminaries:
1. Introductions of voting/non-voting attendees; chapters; quorum was met; timekeeper=V. Lancia; ground rules.
2. Approval of tonight’s proposed agenda, no deletions or additions.
3. Approval of minutes of 3-25-08 SCC meeting with the inclusion of written comments by Jerry Martin.
4. Acceptance of the minutes of the 5-19-08 EC meeting.
5. Treasurer’s report from Christopher Reilly: balance as of 5-31-08: $1626.97
Consensus: authorization of $40 to Vic Lancia for printing of about 500 CTGP pamphlets to assist with petitioning.
B. 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.ctgreenparty.org/documents/20-documents/217-bylaws.html ), 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 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.
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.
Consensus regarding all the above provisions: approval.
BAB: Email from New London chapter which reminds this SCC body to have the above provisions returned to the chapters so chapters may vote on this proposal on 6-24-08 SCC meeting.
C. Reports:
1. GPUS reports from: a) Tim McKee, CTGP representative, GPUS platform is being developed; might be hard for the GPUS to get on ballot in GA. b) Cliff Thornton, GPUS Co-chairperson and Charlie Pillsbury, GPUS representative were both absent;
c) National Committee Members: S. M. DeRosa of GPUS Ballot Access Committee: of the $10,000 allotted for petitioning across the US, $2000 has been allotted for WV; and $1000 was used by HI to get on the ballot. Phil Huckleberry, Co-chair of this Ballot Access Committee has indicated that no further money will be available in the future. He also did not call any more meetings. Committee members called the last meeting on 5-26-08. At the 7-10-08 GPUS Convention some workshops may have to be combined or only allotted 10minutes. Proxy votes do not represent named delegates but rather CTGP people.
Richard Duffee: CTGP is allowed 20 delegates at the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention. CTGP has previously determined that the CTGP delegates assigned to specific candidates are committed to vote for those candidates in the 1st 2 rounds of voting.
The following CTGP members have voiced a desire to be delegates at the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention:
Allan Brison, CTGP Alderman on the New Haven Board of Alderman; Mike DeRosa, Richard Duffee, Steve Fournier, Vic Lancia, Tim McKee, Charlie Pillsbury, Cliff Thornton and perhaps: Scott Deshefy and Phoebe Godfrey. (CTGP may have a total of 20 delegates at the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention.)
2. Final report about the 4-26-08 CTGP Convention from the Internal Elections Committee:
a) final count re: CTGP candidates for officers and GPUS Representatives: no change from 4-26-08 CTGP Meeting. b) final count of how CTGP members voted in the 4-26-08 CTGP Convention is as follows:
Candidates currently seeking the Green nomination:
33 - Cynthia McKinney - HYPERLINK http://www.runcynthiarun.org
3 - Kat Swift - HYPERLINK http://www.voteswift.org
2 - Jesse Johnson - HYPERLINK http://www.jesse08.org
2 - Kent Mesplay - HYPERLINK http://www.mesplay.org
A number of write-in votes were cast for others not seeking the Green nomination. While there is a delegate bloc for Nader, the others will probably be assigned to "Uncommitted" or "None of the Above" (NOTA):
6 - Ralph Nader - HYPERLINK http://www.draftnader.org
1 - Noam Chomsky
1 - Mike DeRosa
1 - Al Gore - HYPERLINK "http://www.algore.org/"http://www.algore.org
1 - Barack Obama - HYPERLINK http://www.barackobama.com (If it makes any difference, the one vote for Obama was actually written "NOTA - Obama," so might be assigned to NOTA.)
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50 – TOTAL
c) Proportionate number of votes for each presidential candidate, for each of the 20 CTGP delegates for the 7-10-08 GPUS Convention. See 1 above, under Duffee and Martin.
d) Criteria for the selection delegates and vetting of delegates to the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention from CTGP members: deferred until 6-24-08 SCC meeting.
e) Encourage chapters to bring to the 6-24-08 SCC meeting, the names of CTGP members who would be willing to be considered to be CTGP delegates at the 7-10-08 GPUS Presidential Convention. Final decision will be done by the 6-24-08 SCC membership.
f) petitioning for GPUS presidential candidate is a priority.
3. Steven Fournier, endorsed 1st Congressional District CTGP candidate; has about 120 signatures for himself. He needs help petitioning for himself and for GPUS presidential candidate.
4. Scott Deshefy, endorsed 2nd Congressional District CTGP candidate: has about 1100 signatures for himself and a lesser number for GPUS presidential candidate.
5. No endorsed candidate for the 3rd Congressional District line.
6. Richard Duffee, endorsed 4th Congressional District CTGP candidate; has about 1400 signatures for himself and about 250 for GPUS presidential candidate. Has about 25 people working for him. Fairfield Chapter is also seeking potential CTGP candidate for the U.S. Representative line acquired when Nancy Burton ran two years ago.
7. Harold Burbank, potential Green Party of CT candidate for 5th Congressional District; petitioning sheets for the petitioning candidates, campaign issues: deferred due to time.
8. Report about the 2008 CT Legislative Session: S. M. DeRosa: most bills did not get out of committees such as the energy bills proposed by Fight the Hike.
9. ACLU lawsuit update: S. M. DeRosa: awaiting the written report from the judge.
10. CT Green Times newspaper and and CT Green Times link to website: S.M. DeRosa: need articles especially from candidates.
11. No summer intern for GP of CT because he did not get the grant from his college.
12. a) Paid CTGP positions: fundraiser: deferred due to time.
b) Consensus: Generic CTGP pamphlets to be completed by Phoebe Godfrey, CTGP Co-chairperson.
13. Chapter reports. New Haven: Jerry Martin: new co-chairpersons of this chapter are: Charlie Pillsbury and myself.
Other chapter reports: deferred due to time.
14. Place for next SCC meeting on 6-24-08: to be determined. Date, place and time of next EC meeting in 6-08: to be determined.