Northwest Indiana Greens

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Minutes of Northwest Indiana Greens

Mar 15, 2003 - Jesse Cohen, Recorder Photo of NWI Greens March meeting

Northwest Indiana Greens meeting
Mar 15, 2003, 2:00 PM
LaPorte Public Library - basement meeting room

Robert Bailey chaired the meeting.

Present:

13 people were present - 5 of us having attended previous meetings (Robert Bailey, Jesse Cohn, Karren Cooper, Jim Coplen, and Richard Herr), and 8 of us being new members (Ronnie Geer, James Maddox, Chris Nordstrom, Jim Plenus, Adam Powolski, Oscar Shreffler, Leslie Sterger, and Nick York).

We discovered that many of our new members had heard about us via the Post-Tribune; several of us had also been at the anti-war protest at noon at the LaPorte County Courthouse, just a couple of blocks away.

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jim Coplen announced that Tom Brown of the St. Joe Valley Greens says that he'll web-host our minutes and some other basic information. Jesse Cohn agreed to take minutes for this meeting.

2. MEMBERSHIP

For the benefit of new attendees, Karren explained that the NWI Green Party is not formally established yet, and that we are still considering whether we want to affiliate ourselves with the Indiana state Green Party (the state Green Parties, which are collectively recognized by the Federal Elections Commission as the Green Party National Committee, are the ones which are most involved in electoral activities) or the confusingly named Greens/Green Party USA (which operates more like a movement than an electoral organization), or both, or neither. Accordingly, we are not yet collecting any dues.

For information see:

Note that both of these national Green organizations subscribe to the "Ten Key Values" of the Greens

3. ISSUES

We discussed issues that we think a NWI Green organization can and should address, and suggested possible alliances with existing community organizations - for instance, local environmental groups like the Steelheaders Association (trout fishermen for conservation), Save the Dunes, and the Shirley Heinz Foundation (which buys land for preservation and restoration).

Possible local economic issues to address included corporate charters corporations can, in theory, have their license to operate challenged or revoked (see http//www.celdf.org/cdp/cdp1.asp for some very specific information on this from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund!), and some activists have suggested requiring corporations to include community and worker representatives on their boards as a condition for licensing. Someone also suggested that we should scrutinize the private uses of public money, such as the $1.2 million dollar grant from the Build Indiana fund to a professor at Purdue Cal to study oven linings for steel mills (does this money return to the community whose taxes it comes from, or does it mostly benefit the mill owners?).

Several members were interested in addressing the need for community programs that would prevent youth drug use and delinquency, getting kids involved in positive projects and encouraging parental involvement. Others pointed out that parents are working too hard to get very involved in their kids' education, and suggested that a reduction in working hours would be helpful - though, as some of us argued, that would be a more long-term project. The idea of organizing around education and family issues, however, seemed generally appealing.

4. COMMITTEES

Media

We also discussed the desirability (first raised at our last meeting) of doing "media work" - finding ways to open up communication channels and spread our ideas around the region. A Green newsletter would be nice, but they take a lot of time, energy, organization, and equipment to do well. Instead, it was suggested, we might try to use some available media to get our messages across. Last time, we had discussed creating 5-minute "carts" (taped messages) for WVLP (98.3 FM, a low-power community radio station in Valparaiso). We could write letters and guest editorials for local newspapers. We could also create leaflets or flyers fairly cheaply via copy shops. Some proposed the use of community-access cable channels (16, 98, or 46, depending on the area). Purdue Calumet, Goshen College, and other area colleges may have radio stations. There is an AM station in LaPorte which is "desperate" for voices to fill up air time; WEFM and WIMS in Michigan City also might be friendly venues for Green speakers.

Accordingly, we decided to form a Media (or "message") Committee, composed of interested members (media-savvy? talented writers and public speakers?), which will craft messages around the issues that we identify in our NWI Greens chapter meetings. These messages will be approved by the chapter before they are released. The media committee will then find appropriate venues for these messages - e.g., places to post flyers, radio programs to speak on, newspapers to write letters to the editor at, and so on., and "deliver" these messages. Jim Coplen agreed to be the first chair for the Media Committee.

Education & recruitment

We also thought it would be a good idea to have a committee to plan community events. Leslie offered to help plan and host some events like musical/picnic-style fundraisers. Rich talked about creating community forums for debate and discussion, something like what the "College of Complexes" has done in Chicago; Jesse related this to the International Socialist Organization (ISO) tactic of giving short talks on hot issues to get people interested in the organization and its wider program for change - accomplishing educational work and recruiting new members at the same time. Thus, we created the Education & Recruitment Committee, which will plan events that educate, recruit, raise funds, and bring the community together. Jesse Cohn agreed to be the first chair for the Education & Recruitment Committee.

5.OTHER DISCUSSION

We briefly discussed previous experience working with third parties (such as the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota), as well as the international character of the Greens. Leslie said that she knows members of an older LaPorte County Green organization who might be interested in joining. Karren talked about the experience of the St. Joe Valley Greens in South Bend, who recently had success in intervening on a local decision about sewer rates; as a result, businesses are paying more of their fair share of the cost of sewer service.

Rich pointed out several websites of interest (particularly on the war issue) www.nowarcollective.com, www.museletter.com, newamericancentury.org, and spaceforpeace.org.

Chris emphasized the need to identify local issues. Robert (who is running for mayor in Hobart as a Green) spoke of tax abatements and police brutality as two key issues in Hobart. Jesse suggested something like a citizen police review board as a solution. Robert said that city council does have the power to create such review boards, and urged members to get involved in city councils (many council members run unopposed; same goes for school boards).

NWI Greens are encouraged to attend city council meetings to "learn the business" and make politicians aware that their actions are being observed! We are also encouraged to bring new prospective members to the next meeting (James Maddox says that he knows many who would be interested in Michigan City . . .).

6. NEXT MEETING

Since some could not attend on April 12th (1 month away), we agreed to meet next on April 19th at 200 PM in the larger basement meeting room of LaPorte Public Library (we'll try to reserve space at a Valparaiso venue for the following meeting). Jim Coplen nominated Richard Herr to chair the next meeting, since he had now attended two meetings.

7. ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned at 4:00.

 Northwest Indiana Greens - mailto: Jim Coplen