[Sosfbay-discuss] February 4, 2009 Green Party Meeting

[Caroline Yacoub]

In attendance: Peter, Drew, Cameron, Brian, Jim Doyle, Tian, David, Caroline, Merriam, Fred, Valerie.

Facilitator--Peter.  Time Keeper--Tian.  Note-taker--Caroline.  Vibes Watcher--Fred.

Introductions.  Agenda Changes. Added a talk by Tian, a Gathering with San Mateo, and curbing conduct of members. Deleted Roy Nordblum's tome, as he wasn't present.

Tian's talk about New Zealand politics was extremely interesting. They have many parties and a complicated voting system. Indigenous people (the Maori) must be represented and can offer legislative proposals in their own language.

Treasurer's Report  We now have $1,870, because of paying the phone bill and purchasing supplies for tabling kits. Major contributors have been Andrea, Fred, Mike, Gerry, and Drew. Major fund-raising activities were the yard sale and Junior State.

Stop Recruiting Our Kids  David Ledesma explained why he decided to disassociate the fund-raising event from the Green Party. He also reported the Palo Alto venue has fallen through, but they are working on getting a site in San Jose. It was expressed that we hope we can table at the event.

Drew, speaking for theSanta Clara Truth in Recruiting Coalition, said that if the military is given time to talk to the kids,  we should be given equal time.

CiviCRM  Cameron reported that we now have a place to store information which we can pull out in many useful ways. It is internal to our county.

Regional Gathering with San Mateo In addition to having fun activities at the Gathering, we should run the training tapes for candidates and campaign staff. We also need to elect a Regional Rep. (Warner reports that this does not need to be done at a joint meeting.) Drew is working with Ray Toby on the Gathering. They are shooting for a date in late March.

Candidates  Wes suggested we get someone on the Water Board. Peter reported that Dave Schwaderer is thinking of running for a board position of the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District. Tian said the Registrar of Voters website lists all offices, terms, and when they will come up for election. This would be very helpful to an election committee. Peter is going to South America for six months, so we need someone else to form an election committee.

Accountability  The Impeachment Coalition has become the Accountability Coalition. Brian volunteered to prepare a write-up about the Accountability Coalition.

Tabling Kits Caroline demonstrated the tabling kits and passed out copies of the Green Party press release on Oscar Grant so there would be something current in the tabling kits.

Tabling Events Jim got authorization to pay $100 for Juneteenth, which Fred, Tian, and Caroline will work. Drew is in charge. Jim also got authorization to spend $250 for the 4th of July celebration in San Jose. As this is a three day event, we will need lots of people to participate  Tian and Drew volunteered to do tabling at De Anza on February 5. 

Whistleblowers  Brian would like to make San Francisco a whistleblower refuge, where members of the Bush cabinet and others with knowledge of high crimes could go and be safe. Merriam said if there was a safe place for 9/11 whistleblowers, we could clear that up.

Earth Day Palo Alto and Sunnyvale are in the midst of a greening process. Merriam discussed the Peninsula Conservation Center, Acterra, and CEAP. We need someone to look into cities in the county that are not yet doing a program of this kind to see if the Green Party can become a cosponsor and get our name out there.
Wes' suggestion was discussed. We would like the south county Greens to do an Earth Day event, perhaps involving Pete McClosky, since he was in on the first Earth Day. Or perhaps it could be in San Mateo, since that was McClosky's constituency.
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