[Sosfbay-discuss] Building Coaltions (was Re: David Ledesma's 'Stop Recruiting Kids' event March 7th, independent of Green Party

[Drew Johnson]

Well the gist of it is that there wasn't the common understanding that
when we Greens do an event or an action we try to do in coalition. 
period.  We inherently work with other ally groups.  We don't do things in
isolation.  We don't form 'committees' that are somehow autonomous and
empowered to make any old decision that will impact the party and incurr
liability without checking back with the party, the Council, etc.

There were legitimate concerns raise by Councilors over the ambiguous
nature of  the proposal, made by whom (is the person a Party Member? Did
they have standing to make such a proposal?), what exactly was the
proposal,  would experienced Party Members coChair (gender balanced)  the
effort and the the enormous amount of time it took from our General
meeting.  Unfortunately at the December meeting we had few senior Greens
present to keep quality assurance aspects front and center and some
aspects of the meeting didn't go as smoothly as one one like.  One
unfortunate outcome was that different people ended up with different
understandings of what had been agreed to and what it would entail, how it
would be operated etc.

IMO there needs to be more educating of what it means to be a Green and
how we Greens operate.  Many things we do and the manner in which we do
them is not at all like the Grey Parties and so people approach us with
misconceptions.  If we do a better job of bringing folks up to speed with
our SOPs then there will be common expectations and harmony.


Green is Coalitional and Collective!

Drew


On Fri, January 30, 2009 08:06, Wes Rolley wrote:
> Drew,
> Beyond the particulars of this situation, the fact that he decided to
> 'dissolve' the political party affiliation needs to be explored more.
> It could be instructional for how we approach such future collaborations.
>
> Do we know the rationale?
> When GPSCC proposes such colaberation, what is it that we offer...
> volunteers? attendees?, media coverage? funding?
>
> Is there something in the way that we do things that needs to be changed?
>
> In the one case that I have been involved in, the initial public meeting
> of a citizen's group called "Restore the Delta", the Green Party
> co-sponsorship was the key ingredient that made the meeting possible...
> we party funded the venue and it was announced that the meeting was
> CoSponsored by GPCA to the great surprise of Kalmran Alavi who attended.
> Now Restore the Delta is going great guns and I am in the middle of most
> of it's decision making because I supported their work at a critical
> time.  (Funds requested from GIWG).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Drew Johnson wrote:
>> David Ledesma's 'Stop Recruiting Kids' tour event will likely come off
>> as planned on March 7th (details to come from David Ledesma) but it will
>> not be hosted by the Green Party of Santa Clara County.  David Ledesma
>> dissolved any Green Party affiliation with his committee this evening
>> and decided to do it independently of the party.
>>
>> Stop Recruiting Kids!
>>
>> Drew
>>
>
> --
> "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then
> you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente
>
> Wes Rolley
> 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
> http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024
>
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