SJVGreens Minutes
Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens
April 12, 2004, Kathleen Kaiser, recorder
Members Present: Dave Vollrath, Lance Howard, Kathleen Kaiser, Tom Brown, Jeff Sutter
Guests: Steve Sechrest, Christine Fiordalis (from the Environmental Defense Club), Judith Wroblewski
Agenda: Victoria Webb, coordinator, was absent. Dave Vollrath chaired the meeting and solicited the agenda.
Reports
Treasurer's Report: The Share Draft account has changed a little, no changes in other accounts. Lance will circulate an email report to members.
IGP Delegate Report: Dave will be unable to attend IGP meeting this weekend. The IGP CC is going to try the IU multi-media conferencing system but Dave is unsure there is a site reserved here yet. The IGP CC is in the process of polling state wide members for Green Party candidates. We have 10 delegates which will be proportionally delegated to the candidates: Peter Camejo, David Cobb, Laura Salzman, etc (approx. 8 candidates in all).
New Business:
Web-site: Tom reports that the pages are "static" in that Tom converts text given to him to HTML and puts it on the web site. He would like for chapter members to easily publish announcements, articles and other writings on our web site using nothing more than a web browser.
If Tom converts the site to a different technology, we can even invite readers to post comments on forums. Blogs (individual web pages) and collaborative documents are easy to produce with a content management system: Open a browser, type in a header, type the content and submit it with a click on a button.
The biggest problem, as Tom sees it, is that members may not take advantage of the new technology. Tom wants some assurance that members would be willing to participate.
The content management system Tom is learning is Drupal. Drupal is "open source" or "free" software. Tom may need a couple of months to set this up as the admin learning curve is as steep as user experience is easy. Tom encourages members to check out Drupal.org and former Democrat Presidental front-runner Howard Dean's Dean Space. Dean Space is built using Drupal. Here are examples of Dean Space sites.
GreenTV: 5:30 PM, Thursdays, Cable channel 3. Kathleen will be interviewing Norma Jean Neff and Becky Reimbold for show on April 22 (Earth Day). This Thursday GreenTV is airing "Health Care Action Day", a plea for universal health care coverage.
Earth Day: No one has heard from orgnizers regarding events for Earth Day. Christine noted that Sierra Club is tabling an Earth Day event on Saturday, April 25. Christine suggested contacting Hazel Stevens at the Sierra Club for contact information. Kathleen will follow up.
Meeting Day Change: Victoria Webb, our coordinator, has a work conflict on Monday evenings and a Civic Alliance meeting on Tuesday evenings. Jeff Sutter would like to attend the River Watch meeting which conflicts with our chapter meeting. So we are considering changing the SJVGreens monthly meeting. The current meeting date, time and place remains in force while we discuss the issues via email. Christine suggested that minutes be emailed to members specially if there is a meeting change. Our next meeting will be Monday, May 10, at the Library. Lance will find out if the Library's meeting room is available on Friday evenings.
Announcements
Ballot Access: Tom and Dave reviewed for our guests the state requirements for ballot access and acceptance as a political party. Christine in was very interested. She is working with John Broden re ballot access reform and appeared eager to follow up with the Indiana Coalition for Fair Election Laws (ICFEL). Judith had run for public office in Massachusetts where ballot access requirements are very different.
EDF Petition Global Stewardship Act: Christine presented information on the McCain-Lieberman Global Stewardship Act and circulated a petition. The Act seeks to 1) reduce greenhouse gase emmissions, 2) create tax incentives to industry to use clean energy, and 3) trade emmisions credits.
The Global Stewardship Act was brought to the floor of the U.S. Senate last Fall and lost by a very narrow margin. Both Indiana senators voted for the bill which is unusual. EDF is trying to keep pressure on the Senate. McCain and Lieberman plan to reintroduce bill in the Spring.
A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives with 20 co-sponsors, a surprisingly large number of sponsors for an environmental bill. EDF thinks that this is a direct result of the first meet-up. If this global warming bill can pass the Senate, it will show Washington that citizens are concerned about this issue.
Anyone can sign the Global Stewardship Act petition online at Environmental Defense.
Peter Camejo: Jeff Sutter saw Peter Camejo speak in Chicago. Camejo said that Democrats were defecting from their party in droves to vote for the Green Party candidate for mayor in San Francisco. The Green candidate nearly won.
Congressional campaign strategy: Christine suggested that Greens invite Joe Donnelly to speak to our group. Christine encouraged Greens to keep politicians aware of environmental concerns. She believes they simply don't get good information because of industry lobbyists nor are they aware of how many people are concerning about environmental issues. Christine said Donnelly reportedly expressed interest in working with Greens at the Kerry-Dean meetup. Steve confirmed the suggestion. Christine asked us to attend the Kerry meetup next Thursday 7:00 PM, April 22, at Honkers on Day Rd in Mishawaka. Donnelly is scheduled to talk to the meet-up at 8:00 PM or a little later.
Next meeting: Our next meeting is Monday, May 10, 7:00 PM, Public Library downtown.
St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN