SJVGreens Minutes

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Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens

March 8, 2007; Tom Brown, recorder

Call to Order

The SJVGreens met on March 8, 2007, at the GLBT Resource Center in Mishawaka. Karl called the meeting to order at 7:20 PM. Karl was late to the meeting due to his attendance at the South Bend Local Government Academy class.

Members Present: Karl Hardy, Lance Howard, Tom Brown.

Coordinator's Report

There was nothing new to report.

Delegates Reports

Indiana Green Party

Karl solicited ideas for political strategies for the next IGPCC meeting. Tom said it appears there are proposals within GPUS to diminish the representation of state parties which do not run sufficient candidates for public office and do not make sufficient headway in achieving statewide ballot access.

Karl is not clear on what the proposals are exactly and not sure that they are tied to state's ballot access efforts. However, regarding ballot access drives, it is clear that there is some expectation by GPUS on the part of its member state parties that an active ballot access drive is a condition of membership.

Some of the ideas that were thrown around regarding the state party's strategy session:

* The possibility of running a future SOS candidate as a write-in with the goal of getting at least one vote in all 92 counties to ensure that votes are counted and to raise the profile of the Greens througout Indiana

* Discussion on the issue of the expectation of a ballot access drive every other year (SOS and President)

* Contacting the Indiana Civil Liberties Union in order to gauge under what circumstances they would pursue a ballot access case? What is necessary precedent/proof for the ICLU to take action?

* Discussion on the implications of Home Rule and the ability (or inability) of municipalities or counties to conduct their own elections as separate and apart from the state of Indiana. This has implications for whether or not a third party/independent candidate could maintain local ballot access or if statewide access is absolutely necessary. Also, the possibility of movements for Instant Run-Off voting is dependent on the legality of any changes to how local elections are conducted.

* Discussion on opportunities for Greens to run locally for office in relatively easy and unproblematic races; an example is the South Bend first district Common Council where the Republicans appear to be failing to field a candidate for the second consecutive election. A Green could gain ballot access relatively easily and run on a "Minimum/Maximum" platform without any fear of spoiling the race. The campaign could be FUN and conducted with an acheivable goal: raising funds, membership and the profile of the Greens locally.

Other such opportunities are likely present in other areas where the Greens are organized and active.

Treasurer's Report

Lance Howard gave the bank account balances.

Media Committee Report

Progressive portal

Tom researched the hardware and software requirements to build a Drupal server. Tom will install a Drupal server on his home network so he and Karl can experiment with the web publishing system. Drupal is unique in its approach to online publishing and deserves careful study before attempting to design a production system.

GreenTV

The community currency project is holding several events which could be documented. CFED (community forum on economic development) is holding two forums. The first is on Indiana's circuit breaker law. The second, in a month, is the second annual public forum on economic development at IUSB.

GreenTV needs more online disk storage. As GTV accumulates completed digitally edited shows, the project needs long term digital storage for them. Tom is running out of space on his drives and has begun to erase original field footage to free space for new shows. Once the raw footage is gone, there is no going back to re-edit the show.

To increase production values, necessary to attract a wider audience and submit shows for wider broadcast distribution, GTV needs better cameras, more tripods,lighting gear, wireless mics and audio mixer, etc.

New SJVGreens listserv

The listserver is installed on our web site host. But, the listserv is not fully functional. Tom subscribed everyone on our old list to the new list and sent a test email. The test email failed to deliver so Tom contacted the system admin. So far, there has been no reply from the admin or any resolution to the problem.

Old Business

Election Board/Stant

The next St. Jo. Co. election board meeting is March 21, 10:00 AM at the County City Building. At the March meeting, Karl and Tom would like one or two more people to accompany them. The meeting room is small so one or two more people will seem, proportionally, like 50 and raise the tension level.

Karl and Tom went to the last meeting and confronted the board with the fact that no votes were counted for Bill Stant in the SOS race in St. Jo. Co.

Karl will ask the IGPCC to help set a goal for the final desired outcome of our contention with the election boards in St. Jo. Co. and the rest of the state.

New Business

Fund Raising Proprosal

Karl proposes that we construct a postal mailing list in addition to our email lists and issue an appeal to support GreenTV and the progressive portal projects, our two non-partisan projects. Karl will ask Kathleen if she has any of the stationery we purchased several years ago. We discussed the pros and cons of postal mailings.

We discussed using a PayPal type account to accept online donations. Karl will look into PayPal. There may be other PayPal-like companies that specialize in fundraising so Karl will see if he can find them.

Karl will report on his research so we can make a decision on the proposal.

Meeting Location

Lance proposed that we meet in South Bend, which is closer to where most of us live and where we can find a meeting room for less money or no money. Lance cited travel time, room rental fee and auto use as negatives for GLBT Center. Karl and Tom believe the benefits outpace the drawbacks and preferred to meet at the GLBT Center. Lance withdrew the proposal.

Next Meeting

The next SJVGreens meeting is Thursday, April 14, at the GLBT Resource Center, Mishawaka, IN. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm.

Adjournment

Karl adjourned the meeting at 9:00 PM.

 St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN