Proposals for the Fall 2002 State Committee Meeting

Proposals for the State Committee meeting can be submitted, revised, and commented on here. Since the State Committee meeting is on September 21st, 2002, the last day by our rules to submit anything here would normally be September 7th, 2002. But since many Regional Conventions to elect State Committee members are not until after this date, we will have to suspend this rule and allow proposals to be submitted at the State Committee meeting for any State Committee members elected after September 7th, 2002.

Any two members of the State and Administrative Committees or any Green Local may submit a proposal for the State Committee to consider.

If you have proposals that are ready to post, do not hesitate as it gives people more of a chance to read it and comment on it ahead of time and possibly improve it.

Post article

Search

A Proposal to Structurally Rationalize State Committee Leadership of MGP
Friday September 20, @01:33AM by John Pepi
from the Justice Dept. dept.
This proposal is intended to eliminate the dual, fractured leadership structure of the MGP and replace it with a single entity which combines the authority/accountability of state committee membership with the specialized focus, skills and responsibilities of the Adcom positions that were filled by vote of the MGP annual convention. It creates a StateCom Executive Committee which is elected by the full state committee membership and which assumes full responsibility for the affairs of the state committee and for oversight of the tasks and activities of AdCom positions.
Read More

Proposal on offices, grassroots development, databases, and tech capital
Thursday September 19, @10:50PM by Gil Obler
from the MGP finance committee dept.
Local/regional offices, grassroots development, database development, and technical capital improvements need to be balanced with having a party headquarters and salaried staff, both for budgetary reasons and to improve the direction of the party.

Sharing the load, doing things more cheaply, decentralizing the bureaucracy, and recommitting to grassroots development over concentration of party functions are all in the interest of the party.

Having a party HQ with an alarm system and a staff person triple-entering data rather than organizing local grassroots activity by the end of the year is NOT in the best long-term interests of the party.

BTW, this is NOT a criticism of Rose. It IS a criticism of how she was used by the party.

Read More

Proposal on hiring salaried staff
Thursday September 19, @09:56PM by Gil Obler
from the MGP finance subcommittee dept.
Salaried staff should be hired only after a 3 month salary backlog and a sufficient revenue stream to sustain that backlog exists. Until then the functions that have been performed by staff should be distributed and shared among the leadership and volunteers. Even when staff is hired, it would be best for administrative functions to remain shared and for the staff to concentrate on political organizing of local, regional, and statewide infrastructure.

If contingent/prioritized budgeting passes, staff salaries and benefits should be a 50% tier 2 item.
Read More

AdCom ExOfficio Members
Thursday September 19, @03:12PM by dan corrigan
the adcom is supposed to have 12 members, but currently has only half that. this proposal would allow the adcom to appoint members in the interim to be ratified by the next subsequent state committee
Read More (1 comment)

AdCom ExOfficio Members
Thursday September 19, @03:11PM by dan corrigan
the adcom is supposed to have 12 members, but currently has only half that. this proposal would allow the adcom to appoint members in the interim to be ratified by the next subsequent state committee
Read More

Standing Meeting Rules Adjustment
Thursday September 19, @02:46PM by Daniel Melnechuk, Middlesex Delegate
The StateCom Standing Rules for meetings have a cutoff date of two weeks by which proposals to the StateCom meeting need to be posted to the website. This rule needs to be adjusted for the reality that StateCom delegates have been elected within the two weeks before the meeting. Currently we have to agree at StateCom to allow such proposals to be entered into the proposal pot. In past situations, we have done so, and it only makes sense that it should be that way.

This proposal sets some simple cutoff times and rules to allow delegates to bring sponsored proposals directly to StateCom.

This proposal also tweaks the Borda count method used to rank the proposals in the order of consideration. The reasoning is to make the counting process easier for the volunteers to do the counting.

And finally, this proposal also tweaks the wording from "author" to "sponsors" to more accurately reflect the change adopted at last meeting that two, not one, statecom or adcom members must sponsor a proposal.

Read More (3 comments)

Publishing StateCom Adopted Policy
Thursday September 19, @02:45PM by Daniel Melnechuk, Middlesex Delegate
StateCom adopts policy at StateCom meetings and from email decisionmaking process. These policies are not clearly published anywhere to refer to.

This proposal puts forth a policy on how to publish the policies for easy reference by both AdCom, StateCom, working committees, and MGP members.

Read More (1 comment)

AdCom Monthly Reports
Thursday September 19, @02:44PM by Daniel Melnechuk, Middlesex Delegate
The bylaws state that StateCom should oversee the AdCom. But it does not state how. This proposal is offered not as end all solution but as only a piece of the puzzle in providing StateCom a mechanism to know what the AdCom has done from month to month. We are supposed to get reports at regular StateCom meetings but they are on average 3 months apart and sometimes 6 months apart. Without monthly reports, how are StateCom delegates supposed to know what the AdCom is doing?

Read More (1 comment)

Clarify MGP Database Access and Use Policy
Thursday September 19, @02:43PM by Daniel Melnechuk, Middlesex Delegate
The MGP Database Access and Use Policy set some requirements for database access. The requirements are there not as a hurdle but to ensure that the database privacy is maintained and not anyone can get a copy.

The intent of section 3.B was to ensure that a candidate actually is a candidate. The wording of section 3.B sets the requirement to a certain copy of a certain form. This proposal tries to be a little more broad as to what document suffices as proof that the candidate is actually running.

Also, the area that a candidate gets records for is too restrictive. For example in the case of state representative, the area the candidate represents may cross town and city lines. And to aid in fundraising and local Green awareness, this proposal is suggesting that the candidate should be able to get records for the complete town or city that the candidate will serve any part of, plus any towns or cites that share a common border with the towns or cities the candidate will serve.

Read More (1 comment)

Hire commissioned fundraisers
Thursday September 19, @10:36AM by Gil Obler
from the MGP finance subcommittee dept.
This proposal authorizes the hiring of development consultants (commissioned fundraisers). It also specifies the commission rates.

If contingent/prioritized budget procedures pass, this item is recommended as a tier 1 item since we make a profit on it.

Read More (1 comment)

Proposal for contingent and prioritized budget procedures
Thursday September 19, @10:31AM by Gil Obler
from the MGP finance subcommittee dept.
This proposal specifies procedures for creating and reporting a budget.

It changes our procedures and policy to allow the budget to contain spending priorities and to mandate spending guidelines that relate to our actual receipts.

In contrast, previous budget procedures have been non-prioritized and fully authorized. Since the authorized spending always greatly exceeded the actual receipts, in effect, all spending was discretionary, i.e., the priorities were set by the staff and/or Administrative Committee in an adhoc manner.

Read More (4 comments)

Elect a USGP delegate to serve on the PEC
Thursday September 19, @10:22AM by Gil Obler
from the USGP delegation dept.
We need to elect one of our USGP delegation to serve on the USGP presidential exploratory committee (PEC). I suggest that after we elect female delegate and/or alternate, that one of us be chosen to be on the PEC.
Read More (1 comment)

Bylaws (USGP alternates, interim delegates, and gender balance)
Thursday September 19, @10:05AM by Gil Obler
from the USGP delegation dept.
Add language about alternates, the election of interim delegates by the State Committee, and gender balance of the delegation to the bylaws.

Except for creating a male and female alternate, this is already reflected in our policies. However, until we get this into our bylaws we are on thin ice. Some USGP delegations have already run into accreditation problems because of similar holes in their bylaws specificity.

Read More (2 comments)

Fix bylaws (GPUSA/ASGP => USGP)
Thursday September 19, @10:00AM by Gil Obler
from the USGP delegation dept.
Fix the MGP bylaws to refer to the USGP instead of the GPUSA and ASGP. This merely reflects our current policy and affiliations, but is needed to avoid creating confusion about our affiliations.
Read More (1 comment)

Alternate Delegates to the State Committee
Wednesday September 18, @08:54PM by David Agnew and Betty Zisk
from the State Committee dept.
Allow alternate delegates full privileges at face-to-face State Committee meetings if their regular delegates do not attend.
Read More (3 comments)