[Sosfbay-discuss] May 6 Minutes — San Jose Peace Center

[Andrea Dorey]

Here are the minutes from the last general meeting  (May 6)   at the  
SJ Peace Center.
Andrea

_____________________________________

Minutes of the Green Party of Santa Clara County
San Jose Peace Center
May 6, 2009

Tian Harter, Facilitator
Drew Johnson, Time Keeper
Andrea Dorey, Notetaker
Fred Duperrault, Vibes Watcher

Also present:  Valerie Face, Brian Good, Warner Bloomberg, Jim  
Stauffer, Cameron Spitzer, Merriam Kathleen, and the speaker for the  
evening, Blair Bobier.

Introductions and Brief Announcements:
Fred gave out his bike buttons at the Mtn View Green Group, a new  
startup he will be attending regularly.  Drew is recovered enough  
from his surgery to attend meetings; he also announced the One Step  
meeting on May 30th at the MLK Library in SJ.  Warner told us that  
the statewide polling was successfully completed (achieved quorum).  
Merriam recommended meeting with the Viva Palestina group.  Brian  
discussed the Condi Rice interview, and her anger at the protests at  
Stanford.

Guest Speaker:
Blair Bobier, one of the founders of the Green Party of Oregon, spoke  
a few words about IRV, which exists in principle in Santa Clara  
County, but has been actually used (e.g., SF County) or is coming  
soon in several other counties.  (S Clara County has the same voting  
machines that were used in SF.)

He asked that we contact the Assembly Appropriations Committee to  
support  a new bill in Sacramento (AB 1121) that will establish an  
IRV “pilot program” for up to 10 general law jurisdictions  
(nonchartered cities) in California.

Blair also asked that we:
1)  Contact our SJ City Council member and San Jose’s Mayor Chuck  
Reed to put a charter amendment before city voters that would replace  
the city’s 2-round runoff system with IRV.
2)  Contact our S Clara County Supervisor to get the Board of Sups to  
authorize IRV elections, which were approved by the voters by means  
of Measure F in 1998.
3)  Attend the free panel discussion on IRV at MLK Jr Library on June  
11 at noon featuring many community leaders and officials and  
moderated by SJSU Prof Terry Christensen.
4)  Write a letter to the editor in support of IRV.  Arguments for  
IRV and vs 2-round elections are:
IRV saves money
IRV increases voter turnout
IRV increases voter diversity
IRV encourages more civil campaigns
IRV discourages mudslinging

Blair’s contacts are at Bobier at anewamerica.net or 415.682.4819

Treasurer’s report  to date (May 6):
Earth Day, $14.15
Earth Day, SCU, & co-mingled, $48
Spaghetti Feed (gross receipts), at door, $321; swag, $15; other,  
$90; subtotal, $426
Grand gross total, $488.15
HATS OFF TO THE WORKING CREW!!!  (This comment from Tian’s Agenda.)
Current balance in Treasury: $1,963.50 (including yet outstanding  
reimbursements)

State Party Business:
More delegates needed for the scheduled Plenary in Venice, CA during  
May 16-17.  Warner said that those provisionally designated so far  
were Drew, Tian,  and himself as Delegates; and Roy and Andrea as  
Alternates.  As more gender balance was needed, Andrea asked to be a  
Delegate.  Alternates were now to be Roy and Jim S.  Tian, a county  
council member, volunteered to report our final list by the deadline  
(May 13).

Agenda Package and Plenary issues:  (discussed by Warner and Jim S).
Elections of Secretary of State and Treasurer for the State GP
Budget
Bylaws for LA, proposals #1, #2, and #3
The leadoff proposal written & presented by Jim S.
Concerns to be dealt with by the Delegates at this General Assembly  
are several:  how we  elect people to a coordinating committee, how  
many reps, how they are assigned (local vs at large), gender balance,  
etc.
Jim also outlined the ragged history of the LA bylaws which have not  
yet been proposed, approved, and implemented in accordance/compliance  
with the state bylaws.  Jim suggested that we demand proportional  
representation or vote “no” on the LA bylaws proposal(s).
Warner reminded the Delegates to get a bundle of the “Focus’”  
newsletters, stickers, and buttons for tabling.
Also discussed was the need of Delegates to be granted a stipend to  
cover some of the cost of attending the Plenary; this has been done  
routinely in the past for those who wanted the financial help,  
although Warner preferred that this be voted on after a notice sent  
out to the general membership first.  After discussion, $75 per  
requesting Delegate/Alternate would be paid—total no more than $450.

Tabling Report:
Included Earthdays at SJSU and SCU; Berryessa AWF on May 9;  
Juneteenth weekend (Carol & Warner).
Spaghetti Feed report:  (Merriam & Tian)
A great profitable success!!  People came early to eat and stayed  
late to chat due to the enjoyable cabaret atmosphere cultivated by  
the clever committee who worked their butts off!  Let’s do it again,  
but not spaghetti next time (too hard).

New button ideas sought by Tian; several submitted to Tian.

Brian Good announced that efforts to show the film “The Loss of  
Liberty” on the public access TV station in Palo Alto (The Media  
Center) would succeed if we could get signatures from residents to  
request its showing.  Suggested signatees were Dana and Carol B.   
Brian also suggested that interest in impeachment and accountability  
is lagging lately; Merriam also said that we need someone to run  
against Zoe Lofgren.

Brian/Drew/ Mirriam commented on the Madeleine Albright protest  
planned in S Jose on June 4th.  We need people there to make our  
points against the woman who thought bombing was worth the lives of  
the children it cost.

Jim S announced that he is planning to resign sometime this year so  
the group needs to find someone to take over the job.  Drew is still  
interested.

There being no further urgent business that could not be left to next  
month, the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 PM.
Andrea Dorey, Notetaker
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