[Sosfbay-discuss] County Council Membership

[Wes Rolley]

Drew,

I am sorry that you did not get the point.  I should have made it more 
clear.  It was simply that one has to be willing to go to meetings and 
then to do the work or you are out.

I think that it would be an informative exercise to ask those who are no 
longer on the County Council to tell you why they dropped out.  They are 
still activist in their tendencies, just not doing it through GPSCC.  
e.g. Charlotte Casey - South Bay 
Mobilization.http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/01/18342888.php  
Maybe they can help figure out what GPSCC needs to don to make things 
more vital and retain good people.

Within GPCA, there is a general interpretation of the "meeting" 
requirement that says the membership of any group or committee has to 
physically "meet" in order to maintain membership status and voting 
priviledges.  For Working Groups, that has been interpreted that you 
must attend a GA to be able to vote within the group... a restriction 
that makes it impossible to take action at times. For example, I am a 
member, but would not be allowed to vote on anything until I have 
attended at least 2 meetings.

> 1.2 Only *active members* will vote in official county Green Party 
> functions, should a vote be required according to the Consensus 
> Process described in Article 6. Official functions shall be those at 
> which decisions are made in the name of the Party.
>
> 1.3 An active member shall be a person who has attended *2 out of the 
> last 5 meetings* of the official functions at which (s)he wishes to 
> vote. For example, a vote at a General meeting, a committee meeting, a 
> local meeting, etc.
>
In practice, that provision is ignored.  However, if 15 new people 
showed up at a meeting some time and voted a number of non 10 KV 
positions, I am sure that someone would try to invoke that provision. We 
have never had the problem, but the GP San Francisco has.

The only group that does not have such a provision at the GPCA level is 
the CC.  They have a sepcial provision written into the bylaws that 
their meetings can be by telecon.  No other committee or working group 
has such a provision.
__
My comment about looking to the core group (which I agree is not a good 
thing) is that these are the people who have demonstrated a  willingness 
to spend their time going to meetings, for whom the 45 min - 1 hr each 
way is worth it.  For myself, evan as much as I try to find the time to 
do, the Green Party is not the most important thing that I work at.  
(maybe 2nd or 3rd) and that travel time is an obstacle.  I find it more 
productive to work through electronic media to reach those whom I can.  
I would rather spend the time posting something relevant to cagreening 
or in trying to expand the effectiveness of the Eco-Action Committee, of 
which I am a member.

I had previously made a suggestion to make a representative of the SJS 
Campus Greens into a member of the CC, even ex-officio.  Maybe one of 
the reasons that we do not get more young people is that we don't go 
where the leaders may come from.  Actually now, Campus Greens no longer 
exists at SJSU and I have no idea why this happened.  Per the SJSU web site:

> **Environmental Club at SJSU* <http://www.sjsuenvclub.org> (formerly 
> Campus Greens at SJSU)
> * Contact Person: Amie Frisch
> Phone: (408) 887-2562
> Email: info at sjsuenvclub.org <mailto:info at sjsuenvclub.org>
> Box: 179 
>
> To promote environmental activities to raise awareness on campus.
>
Another suggestion that I have made in the past is to make a direct 
contact with the San Jose Branch of MAPA.  Since Nativo Lopez (National 
President) is a registered Green and member of the LA County Council, 
perhaps there is a fertile ground here for collaboration and possible 
recruitment of members.

> MAPA- San Jose
> Daniel Garza - President
> Tel: (408) 259-8733
> Email: danielgarza at mapa-ca.org <mailto:%20danielgarza at mapa-ca.org>

Here is an idea to increase diversity.  Scan the list of Registered 
Greens in SCC.  Take all of those with Hispanic family names and contact 
(telephone, mail) each one directly, inviting them to a Community  
meeeting, asking if they have the time to become more involved as we 
continue the focus on expanding health care to all who require it and 
other key issues.  If that works, repeat for Vietnamese, Muslims, etc.

If you look at the GPSCC web site, there are links to other 
organizations (I suggest removing the link Latino Business, Community, 
Culture & Education <http://www.muybueno.net/>because it is not longer 
pointing to anything Latino.  It is just infobayarea.com, a source for 
networking mixers, etc. ) 

One of those links is to Silicon Valley De-Bug 
<http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/> voice of young workers, writers, 
and artists.  I would suggest that this is another un-developed 
opportunity to make a Green Message heard.  Are there any writers / 
video developers / poets / photographers who are willing to work within 
this collective environment?  If we want the effort to stay vital, we 
have to be working on vital things within the community.  Here is a 
media outlet (print and online) that we are not using and probably 
should be.






-- 
Wes Rolley		 
17211 Quail Court	
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024

"Happiness is to be fully engaged in the activity that you believe in and, if you are very good at it, well that's a bonus." -- Henry Moore

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