Proposals for 2007 Winter State Committee Meeting

Proposals for the State Committee meeting can be submitted, revised, and commented on here. The State Committee meeting is on Sunday January 21st, 2007. State Committee proceedures say that the last day to submit anything here is Sunday January 7th, 2007.

Any two members of the State and Administrative Committees or any Green Local may submit a proposal for the State Committee to consider. Proposals are to be sent to working committees for vetting at least three weeks before a StateCom meeting, and posted on the website at least two weeks before a StateCom meeting so they can be mailed to State Committee members, and so that delegates can read them online. No proposals will be accepted at the meeting, except by any StateCom delegates which are elected within 4 weeks of an upcoming scheduled StateCom meeting. If sponsors are bringing a proposal to the meeting for consideration, the sponsors are responsible for bringing enough copies of the proposals for all the delegates to have one.

Proposals should also try to follow the “Complete Proposal Guidelines” as specified in a separate document. This document contains a template that can be used as the starting point for constructing a proposal for submission.

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.

45 Minutes to Create the Mission Statement
Saturday January 20, @12:26AM by Colby Peterson on behalf of the ComCom
from the Communications and Media committee.
At the most recent Communications Committee meeting in December, the committee decided that more input from a larger body was necessary to properly devise party literature. As such, we are asking the State Committee to set aside time to develop a mission statement that will provide direction to those who are relating with the public through various means (for example, the party brochure.)

What is a mission statement?

FROM: http://www.businessplans.org/Mission.html

"The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise's purpose for existence. It should incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of the enterprise, public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and profitability."

Why did the ComCom decide that we need a mission statement? What about the 10 key values?

I am summarizing sentiment I interpret from minutes and from when I was there, but the way I (Colby Peterson) saw it is that we (the ComCom) believe that in order to better connect with through literature, we need a more succinct and less abstract set of ideas than the 10 key values. The 10KVs provide foundation for our platform, but they should continue to serve as foundations for our statements, and not the statements themselves.

A mission statement also provides direction for those who may need it. Many are asking the question, why are we here? We answer that question and disseminate that answer as a proclamation to the masses as a pitch to them to join us. That is part of what a mission statement is and what the 10KVs cannot do alone.

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3-day Party-Wide Regional Fundraising
Wednesday January 17, @10:24PM by Ron Francis, Merelice
from the Fundraising ??? committee.
This kind of group fundraising activity has been done by members of the Rainbow Caucus in Roxbury and has met with some success. People who have organized these types of events are encouraged to pool thoughts in order to mazimize success.

Rational:
We need to regularize our fundraising effort and also improve our regular contact with members. Our supporters will feel like we have a real party if they hear from a live person more often who has a passion for the party with a long-term strategic plan, that is conveyed by a human voice.

This kind of activity was organized by the Expcom (not for fundraising but to find out what people thought about statewide activities in early 2006...). The activity reconnected GRP leaders with less active members in the grassroots.
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GRP Strategy Development Proposal for 2007/2008
Monday January 08, @12:08AM by Eli Beckerman, John Andrews
from the Platform, Membership, CDLC committee.
BACKGROUND
The Green-Rainbow Party has been missing a coherent, long-term strategy for growing the party into a serious political alternative in Massachusetts. There is a need to develop a strategic action plan for 2007 and 2008 that will enable us to focus our limited resources on projects and efforts that will increase our active membership and proactively position the party to be a recognizable and essential force in the social-, economic-, and environmental-justice movements.

A coherent strategy will include agreement on the issues and tactics that will move us forward and make it possible for us to become the second party in Massachusetts, with room for self-evaluation and reassessment. A well-considered action strategy will focus the energies of the working committees, serving as the driving force in media and grassroots outreach, volunteer recruitment, candidate recruitment, coalition-building, fundraising, issue-development, etc. It will enable us to set out to grow the party – active members and registered GRP, local chapters, donors, public favorability and credibility – which are all necessary to have an impact on the things we believe are important.

SUMMARY
This proposal sets forth a set of activities that will lead to a strategic vision and action plan for 2007 and 2008. The plan will be submitted to the State Committee for revision and approval, and will then guide and focus the work of the working committees over the next year.
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GRP 2007-2008 action program with abolish poverty theme
Sunday January 07, @10:57PM by Merelice, Gary Hicks
from the Rainbow Coalition Caucus committee.
Select issues and actions for a 2007-2008 Green-Rainbow Party program that works to abolish poverty and is relevant to people's daily lives and needs.
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AdCom size change
Sunday January 07, @02:39AM by merelice, with others to come
Relevant points:

Currently, AdCom meets twice a month (once in person and once by teleconference). This is a time-consuming commitment that makes it difficult especially for the Membership, Communications, and Fundraising Directors to carry out their committee responsibilities as well as other needed Party activities.

The need for frequent AdCom meetings is partly because AdCom is entrusted with carrying out Party work between StateCom meetings and tends not to delegate its implementation. As a result, much (if not most) of AdCom time is spent on endorsements, position statements, Party strategy, and other policy-related activities that are actually StateCom responsibilities but fall to AdCom. Consequently, these activities
(1) draw time and attention away from the administrative functions that need more support to keep the party healthy,
(2) put such decisions in fewer hands than should be the case, given our Key Value of Decentralization,
(3) seriously overburden the AdCom members and/or pulls them away from participating in and building local chapters and working committees.

Local chapters and working committees most often include StateCom members. By referring policy-related party business to these groups rather than expecting AdCom to handle everything, StateCom members would have a more active hand in decisions between StateCom's own meetings.

A smaller AdCom would result in (1) enabling AdCom to focus on its administrative functions with less distraction and pressure, (2) giving the Membership, Communications, and Fundraising Directors more flexibility to carry out their critically important committee work, (3) drawing fewer members away from being active in local chapters and on working committees, and (4) giving StateCom members more say and participation in policy-related work between meetings through their local chapters and/or working committees.

Read More (2 comments)

Green Party National Candidacies for President of the U.S. in 2008 Election
Saturday January 06, @09:59PM by Elie Yarden, Jamie McLaughlin, Gary Hicks, Owen Broadhurst
from the CDLC committee.
Conversation on the presidential elections has begun in a number of state parties. A few Green Party members have already announced their candidacies, and while these are not yet 'official' their web-sites are up.
Discussion of various other matters in the National Committee (NC) is infected and confused by irrelevant intentions, whether fully or poorly formed, concerning participation in state primaries and caucuses, qualifications, desirability of having a Green candidate at all.
It can only help our cause and improve the political activity of the party, if our concerns are discussed openly and fully.
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