[Sosfbay-discuss] Green Party Meeting, August 5, 2009

[Caroline Yacoub]

                         Green Party Meeting  August 5, 2009
 
Present:  Brian, Drew, Jim Doyle, Valerie Face, Andrea, Caroline, Merriam, Fred, Tom Donahue, Warner
 
Facilitator--Andrea
Time Keeper--Jim Doyle
Note Taker--Caroline
Vibes Watcher--Valerie
 
Intros and announcements: Caroline and Valerie had nothing
Jim--his sunflower "sprouts" are now over 5 feet tall
Drew--went to National meeting in Durham. Smriti from SJPHC wanted us to sign "Principles of Unity"
Brian--John Yoo starts teaching again in Berkeley. There will be a protest there at 3:30 on August 17.
Fred--was gone for two weeks (he was observer at National meeting). Had a lot of fun.
Warner--his sunflowers didn't do as well as Jim's. but his tomatoes are doing well.The City of San Jose election commission will include the issue of Instant Run-off Voting at their meeting next week
Merriam--told us about a Palestinian man who had been deported to Israel. A group is working to get him back.Nancy Ness wants us to support, as an organization, a Fair Elections event on August 30. Donna and Darlene will be demonstrating in Cesat Chavez Park on Monday from 5;00 TO 6:00
Tom Donahue--has been a Green for 5 years. He wants to become active (yay)., participate. He thinks we need a stronger voice to counterects the "flying monkeys" on the right.
Andrea--has been sleeping around the area. Rob Means is going out of town. She will feed his cat.
 
The Peace and justice people are giving us their color copier/printer to use! Caroline will haul it to Andrea;s Sunnyvale house on the first Wed. of September. Merriam will e-mail the board of SJ Peace and Justice that we support thier "Principles of Unity".
 
Warner--Campaigns and candidates.WG
Next Wednesday will be a conference call to get more people involved. We need to see if anybody is really interested in being a candidate. Andrea and Merriam are going to look into the Water District--go  to their meetings. Warner wants to get the word out to the lager group.He will be happy to be a facilitator. We have a DVD on campaigning. We will show it at a large meeting at Andrea's Sunnyvale house in the winter.Brian will bring a TV and DVD player. We will talk more about this at the County Council meeting on August 16th.
 
Volunteers for Labor Day Weekend--Jim Doyle
We have paid $150 for a booth. This is a 3 day event in downtown San Jose. They provide tables and chairs, we have to take the canopy. Volunteers so far are:
Caroline-transport canopy and help with set-up on Saturday,Warner, Jim Stauffer and Brian .
Sunday--Warner, Eric and Valerie
Monday--Drew, Merriam, Caroline (who will also haul the stuff away)
WE NEED MORE PEOPLE. NOBODY SHOULD HAVE TO WORK ALONE. CALL JIM DOYLE!
 
National Meeting--
Fred--noticed more African-Americans than at previous meetings. It was held at a college which is primarily African-American. One of the issues was reparations.
 
Drew--was happy they had working groups. Everyone put in their top issue, these were put together to find top three groups--Single Payer, human and civil rights (including marriage), and ecological wisdom (water, food and energy), and sustainability (Warner was on the Food subcommittee).
 
Warner--any Green member across the country can participate in any of these groups they want to. This is an effort to get Greens nationally to focus on something besides politics. The groups have no official standing, because they do not exist in the by-laws, so they can be whatever the participants want them to be.
 
Warner thought it was a good meeting.There was no official quorum, but they didn't vote on anything, anyway. Fred went to promote World Parliament--think more globally. Drew was in the non-violent communications. Trainers facilitated a dialog.
 
This GPUS meeting had a positive cash flow.
 
Jim asked if the working groups would send out reports. Warner said if major position papers come out, he will forward them.
 
 
Treasurer's Report
 We have $1984. It will go down to $1940 when Tian pays for the PO box.
The Yard Sale brought in $346.68. We sold mostly clothes, jewelry, kids' toys, and books.Monica (Caroline's neighbor) said she would help us sell things on Craig's List. We should advertize on Craig's List next time. Andrea would like to have another yard sale in November with a Holiday theme, so be looking through your decorations for things you don't use anymore.
 
We had a brief pause for cake to celebrate the success of the yard sale and thank those who helped.
 
Upcoming Tabling events
 
CA Fair elections event--August 30
Tapestry and Talent--Labor Day Weekend
Community Festival--Saturday, Sept. 19th
Willow Glen Founder's Day Parade--Sat. Sept. 26 (Tom D. will get us more details)
 
Fair Elections Act
 
Warner explained how the upcoming election will use the fair elections procedure only for the Secretary of State office. Greens support this system of public financing for all offices. This is voluntary--a candidate can accept public financing or can raise his own. A  candidate has to raise a certain amount and put it in the kitty to qualify. It won't comp[letely level the playing field, but it's better than what we have now. Chairmanships of committees in Congress are allocated on the basis of how much money thry raise.
 
We reached consensus on the California Fair Elections act. Jim Doyle will send that in.
 
A movie, "The Cove" about Japanese slaughter of dolphins will start Friday at Camera 3.
Caroline may take a vanful of folks to see it when she gets back. If you can, go see it sooner.
 
ONCE AGAIN, WE BROKE UP WITHOUT HAVING ANYONE VOLUNTEER TO DO THE AGENDA FOR THE NEXT MEETING. SOMEBODY PLEASE VOLUNTEER.
 
 
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