Proposals for 2004 Spring State Committee Meeting

Proposals for the State Committee meeting can be submitted, revised, and commented on here. The State Committee meeting is on Saturday April 10, 2004. State Committee proceedures say that the last day to submit anything here is Saturday March 27, 2004.

Any two members of the State and Administrative Committees, or any Green-Rainbow 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.

If you have the proposal already in a word processor document, please attach the document at the bottom of your post to facilitate the process of making the proposal package for the meeting.

Please read them completely so you are prepared for clarifying questions, discussion, and decisionmaking. If you have comments ahead of time, you can post a follow up here and you can contact the sponsors of the proposal.

Continuing the Struggle to Abolish Poverty
Saturday July 03, @01:43PM by Merelice & Sharron
from the Rainbow Caucus committee.
THE FIRST STATEWIDE ABOLISH POVERTY MARCH MAY BE OVER BUT POVERTY IS NOT!

It is essential that we continue to raise consciousness regarding poverty as well as to develop strategies designed to obtain our objective of abolishing poverty. In order to institutionalize this objective within the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, we ask that the State Committee take immediate action on the following three part proposal.

1. The GRP State Committee establish a permanent New Abolitionists Committee.

2. The GRP State Committee join the Fund the Dream Campaign initiated by Chuck
Turner and the District 7 Advisory Committee with he New Abolitionist
Committee will leading GRP participation in the Campaign.

3. The GRP State-Com request that the Green Party, USA sign on as a member of the Fund the Dream Campaign.

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permanent meeting place for state committee meetings
Friday May 28, @09:39AM by Jon Levy Wanda Boeke Mike Castranova
As we have been rotating state committee meeting locations around the state over the last year, there has been a noticable lack of participation from people who live on the opposite side of the state from where the meeting is taking place. This has caused us to delay starting two meetings last year due to lack of quorum. It is only a matter of time before someone crosses the state to attend a meeting that will have to be cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of quorum, and this would be a disaster. In contrast the meetings that we've held in the center of the state always start without a hitch due to attendence. Moving the meetings around the state has been a failed policy, its time it was changed.
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Letter of Support
Wednesday April 28, @06:43PM by GRP representatives
from the to be determined by GRP representatives committee.
Currently the State of massachusetts requires candidates for various offices to obtain various quantities of verified signatures to place a candidate from a given party on the ballot.
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Address Organizing Statecom in Urgent Matters section
Tuesday March 30, @02:05AM by Daniel Melnechuk
from the Procedures committee.
From Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 52: Section 1 State committees; election; organization; terms; vacancies;

The members of the state committee elected at the presidential primaries shall, within ten days after the thirtieth day next following their election, meet and organize for the purpose of choosing a secretary, treasurer, and such other officers, other than a chairman, as they may decide to elect; provided, however, that such members shall, within ten days after the November general election at which a president is elected, meet and choose a chairman. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, a chairman shall serve in his respective position until his successor has been chosen; provided, however, that in the event that a state committee requires that its chairman be a member and any such elected chairman ceases to be a member, the committee shall choose a temporary chairman who shall serve until a permanent chairman is chosen following the November election as aforesaid. Such committee may, at any time after its organization, add to its membership.

Analysis:

We should have as policy to reappoint our current secretary and treasurer for the short time they will be holding office before the state convention. I think this should be in the bylaws as section 8.10. I forgot to bring this up at the January 11th 2004 state committee meeting.

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Presidential Nominating Convention Delegate Selection
Monday March 29, @04:10PM by Rob Crowner
from the Candidate Development and Legal Committee committee.
This is a placeholder for the selection of delegates to the presidential nominating convention in June. Our delegate list must be submitted to the GPUS by May 10. We hope to have a full slate of choices for Statecom to decide on by the meeting on April 10.
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CDLC "Campaign Plan for 2004"
Saturday March 27, @03:16PM by Scott Pherson
from the CDLC committee.
placeholder for Candidate Development and Legal Committee "Campaign Plan for 2004"
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Working Committees/Orientation
Saturday March 27, @01:57AM by Daniel Melnechuk
from the Procedures committee.
Only one sponsor right now, looking for second.

The first meeting of the newly formed statecom should have an orientation about what is expected from delegates. And especially in regards to working committees.

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Urgent and Legal Matters
Saturday March 27, @01:32AM by Daniel Melnechuk
from the Procedures committee.
Our bylaws have a section that we must override again this year in regards to the state convention. As last year, we must allow each credentialed party member to represent themselves and be a voting participant at the convention.

At the same time, we must approve the "Rules" of the convention that we need to submit to the Secretary of the Commonwealth since our rules have changed. Below are the rules that are the same as last year except changed to meet our changes in bylaws and policy:
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State Committee Meeting Frequency
Saturday March 06, @06:50PM by Nashua River Green-Rainbow
This proposal is intended to address concerns regarding the current frequency of meetings of the State Committee (State Com). Because State Com only meets once per season, its meeting agendas are too full, and too much is falling to the Administrative Committee (AdCom). Since the State Com is the most representative body of our party, its responsibility is to conduct all of the business before the GRP. The level of detail passed to the AdCom is startling and is of great concern. The task of the AdCom is to handle administrative tasks, not to pass proposals, determine most GRP press announcements, endorse most events, or hire staff. That body is too small and does not have proper representation for doing those types of tasks. This is unhealthy for our party and does not follow the principles of the 10 Key values. All sub-committees should be giving reports at State Com meetings which must contain all their vetted proposals for the general body to consider. No committee should be allowed to make such major decisions on behalf of the party, including the AdCom.

The GRP is upset that our current state legislature packs all their votes into just a few days. Yet as a legislative body we are doing the exact same thing by only meeting three times a year, outside of the annual convention. We need to set this right and meet more often to accomplish the important work that we are doing. We propose that the state committee meet on a much more regular basis so that it can handle the true business of the party and not leave important decisions to the AdCom alone.

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