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<DIV>Hi there, </DIV>
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<DIV>My responses in yellow below: </DIV>
<DIV><BR>(from Shane) Kendra:<BR><BR>If we intend to have a draft strategy plan for the March Budget General Assembly in the plenary packet</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Not my intention to have an entire draft strategy plan done by March / next Plenary. My intention is an introduction of the general idea and what we have collected from the locals so far, and what the state has addressed so far, and any combination there of. VERY premliminary!</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>, a Jan 31 deadline is reasonable since all of us (or in this case probably mostly you) need to consider and digest the replies to formulate the draft strategic plan.---not a short process. </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">I agree this is not a short process and so disagree that Jan 31 is reasonable. Please trust me when I say that getting responses from local groups in 1 month's time is just not a reality. This is ever more broad than County Polling and that took at least 3 months of needling, begging, inspiring, cojoling...over and over and over and that was a very specific request, whereas this will ignite (hopefully!) a whole lot of discussion and debate within the locals. Look how long its taking for just the few of us to agree on how to even approach this!. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV> I also deliberately chose the budget deadline because the co-cos should see beforehand any suggested innovations that are in their areas and propose a budget for them. </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Again, this is very preliminary....there is not enough time to think about applying budget lines yet. Our working groups ARE thinking about strategy and budget lines right now for 2011/2012, and that is a part of the strategic planning process, as it always has been, right? The difference in what we are attempting here is asking for direct input from the locals - which, again to reiterate is going to take some time. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">The Strategic Plan is not going to always be directly tied to funding. Some of it is going to be about volunteerism, using free technology (like facebook), internal communication, what sort of direction do we generally want to be heading, types of campaigns, and so forth. If there is something innovative that costs money and comes forward between budgets without any kind of budget line from a working group that could be applied to it, then we should have a means to address that. Our Bylaws don't address this in full at all and this is in fact one of the things that should be on the Strategic Plan!. Also, any innovations that are going to cost money should have some funding action attached. Locals can raise their own money too.</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV> I suppose the strategic plan could be slated to begin the next budget year---that is, 2012--but that is too long to wait in my opinion.<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Portions of a Strategic Plan can be applied right away, some of it not until later. Lets not think of this in terms of an end product...that doesn't really work the best. I'm learning as a non-profit Board member that usually, there is planning process like what we're attempting to do now.....an amazing document will be created...an "end product"....everyone looks at it.....debates.... maybe a final draft is adopted, then its filed away in a drawer and never looked at again. I'm hopeful we can look at this as ever evolving and constantly used. W</FONT><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">e might not want to attempt an official adoption per se...getting to THAT point could be endless. Maybe the way to look at this is as a tool, a resource, options to consider....a "roadmap"..</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR>What is your specific alternative time line? </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">All throughout 2011 and on-going. By the Spring Plenary, there could be a basic outline of what we all mostly agree on as the direction we want to head, but the details on HOW to get there should be dynamic and allow for flexibility. .</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>It sounds as if you intend to present the March General Assembly with a draft plan cold turkey---something that has much less chance of succeeding.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">No...just a basic introduction and outline of what are the most important actions that Greens are agreeing on at the local and state levels....so far. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>We need to get people in the locals and Counties thinking immediately so they can reply in a substantive manner. A month (January) should be long enough to be able to answer one question. </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">I agree on immediacy to start this process; I would like for an email to go out to County Contact no later than the end of December. Its really 3 questions. But, these are huge questions...</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">How should the GPCA move forward in 2010 / 2011?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">How should the GPCA move forward for the next 5 years?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">How should the GPCA move forward for the next 10 years?<BR><BR></FONT> </DIV><BR><FONT size=3><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,255); COLOR: rgb(255,0,255)"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Kendra Gonzales </SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,0); COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)" size=3></FONT><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(0,255,255); COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">www.vccool.org </SPAN><BR><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(0,191,96); COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">www.cagreens.org/ventura </SPAN><BR><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,0)"></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">"All the energy stored in the Earth's reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas<BR> is matched </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">by the energy from 20 days of sunshine" ---Union of Concerned Scientists</SPAN>
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