[GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council

Fri Feb 14 18:41:41 PST 2014

As to numbers 2.2 and 3, almost everyone belongs to at least two other groups. If we all try to bring people from our other groups, we ought to be able to fill the Peace Center easily.

As to number 2.1, Attaboy!

Caroline

________________________________
 From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com>
To: perrysandy at aol.com; sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org 
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council

Hi, Sandy:  

      1.  Thanks for offering to serve on the County Council. 
      Someone needs to check the rules on procedure so we can make it
      official.  

      2.  I'd be open to changing the format of our monthly
      meeting.  For example, we could start at 7 PM with a guest
      presentation or a movie followed by a discussion that would run
      until 9 PM followed by a half hour general business meeting with
      agenda organized by the County Council.  

            2.1.  However, a change like this would require
      someone taking the lead to organize this.  The obvious lead
      organizers should, I think, be people most concerned about our
      major foci.  These are currently environment and universal health
      care.  Those are important, but I'm more concerned about
      government secrecy and democracy.  Regarding the latter, I've
      recently attended regular meetings of the Santa Clara County
      Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections and the League of Women
      Voters.  I've already been able to restart stalled discussions on
      getting Instant Runoff Voting here in Santa Clara County.  

            2.2.  Is anyone interested in helping organize a
      showing of "Inequality for All"?  Just over an hour ago, I finally
      received word that we can now show "Inequality for All" on
      reasonable terms -- after having had tentative showing canceled
      twice because of misinformation about licensing.  Dream Menders
      will meet next Wednesday and discuss showing this at the Peace
      Center, presumably 2-4:30 PM on a Sunday like March 16, 23, or
      30.  Any preferences?  

      3.  Some will remember that Merriam Kathleen, Caroline
      Yacoub and others (John Thielking?) organized a Green Movie night
      at the Peace Center for 2 years.  The results from that were OK
      but not adequate to justify the level of effort required to keep
      it going.  Before we change how we manage our monthly meeting(s),
      we need to ask Caroline and others what we should do to try to
      obtain greater success.  

      Spencer 

On 2/11/2014 5:34 PM, perrysandy at aol.com wrote:

Hi Spencer, 
>
>I would be willing to serve on the County Council, but only as a last resort, after we have taken serious steps to recruit minority candidates and women. Otherwise, I am afraid our County Council will dwindle further, from three to two, two to one, etc. until we are on the verge of disappearing - just at the very time the situation for the Green Party is getting riper than ever. 
>
>I also believe we should consider a suggestion made by Drew a while ago: to grow the Green Party in small local committees as we are attempting to do with some small success at De Anza. To have the main (tedious) business of the Party handled by the County Council in a separate meeting (open to any member). To have our monthly membership meeting be an educational or organizing event geared toward new members and prospective members, with films, lectures, or actions, and broadly publicized. 
>
>With all due respect, I am tired of long discussions about whether or not we should endorse a long list of projects, while in the meantime we are growing so small that people care less and less whether we endorse their activity or not. 
>
>Sandy 
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Spencer Graves mailto:spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com
>To: GPSCC mailto:sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>Sent: Thu, Feb 6, 2014 9:03 pm
>Subject: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens'
          Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
>
>
>Hello, All: 1. COUNTY COUNCIL: Our official County Council is supposed to have 7. 
After John Thielking leaves in June, we will be down to 3 (Jim Doyle, 
Betsy and me). The duties are simple: Respond to an occasional email or 
phone call to help decide an issue that we prefer not wait for the next 
monthly meeting. Other requirements: Live in Santa Clara County and have 
been registered Green for at least a year. It's not necessary to come to 
meetings. 2. SANTA CLARA COUNTY CITIZENS' ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS: This 
Commission meets the first Tuesday of each month except on election 
days. It helps the Board of Supervisors manage the Registrar of Voters. 
They currently have a vacancy in Supervisorial District 2 
(http://www.sccgov.org/sites/bos/bnc/CABODocs/MaddyReport.html#CITIZENS%E2%80%99 ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS). ** This is a key post from which to advance instant runoff voting (IRV) 
and increasing the volume of information available to the public 
including about campaign finance. I've been attending their meetings 
since last September. If we had had 1 or 2 people actively attending 
these meetings for the past decade and pushing gently for IRV, we would 
likely have gotten it 5 years ago or so, shortly after San Francisco and 
Alameda Counties started using IRV. One of the current Commissioners is 
a Peace & Freedom party member (Dave Kadlecek), which indicates that you 
don't have to be a Democrat or a Republican to be appointed to this 
board. Two of the current board members asked me to apply. 
Unfortunately, I'm not eligible, because I do not live in Supervisorial 
District 2. This is an unpaid position. I'd be pleased to talk with anyone who might be interested either in 
serving in trying to find someone to serve in either of these capacities. Best Wishes,
Spencer _______________________________________________
sosfbay-discuss mailing list sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss      

-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web: http://www.structuremonitoring.com/   
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