[Sosfbay-discuss] FW: County Council Membership

Sat Jan 6 20:35:06 PST 2007

drew  and  wes

i thought i would add my 2 cents

i was on the county council for 2 years -  we had regular meetings at my 
house  and i attended most of the business meetings and a fair number of our 
actions and tablings

i worked on the city council races for stephanie and for tian

i coordinated a pilot fundraising campaign and a funrdraising activity for 
the county party

at the same time with other greens in mountain view i worked with mountain 
view voices for peace on many actions and participated in a few sbm actions

i enjoyed the actions and the campaigns more than the business meetings -

i don't go to business meeting anymore but find i am just as active

i have met many very dedicated, intellignet and innovative greens whom i 
admire and consider friends

we all have different interests

as i see it  there are 2 functions to be considered  1.  running the party 
mechanism  and 2. initiating and participating in actions, events etc

both are necessary

the county council should do the former  and everyone and anyone the latter

we should have a full county council of 7 who should hold regular business 
meetings (open to anyone of course)  - there are a number of members who 
regularly attend the current business meetings and already keep the function 
of the party on tract  - they should be immediately appointed to the county 
council and that council should hold regular business meetings - frequency 
and location at their discretion -- maybe quarterly or every other month or 
monthly - and important to coordinate with state meetings so delegate can be 
prepared for the plenary

then there should be action or planning or event or speaker meetings  -- 
with specific action items attended by the county council and anyone else  
-- these should be held monthly

i have seen many many greens attend a business meeting or 2 and never get 
enthused and never return

so many greens are active in all sorts of ways  - the environment, housing, 
the war, civil liberties, the death penalty, sentencing, peak oil   ete 
etc== these greens will continue to work on the issues important to them 
within or outside of the green party  -- we need to function in a way that 
alows them to garner support and action on their issues -- the monthly 
business meeting just does not cut it

feed back welcome

mike fischetti

>
>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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