Sat., June 25, 2011
Morning Session: (bagels and coffee provided by Boulder Greens courtesy of local businesses. Thank you.)
1) Co-chair Art Goodtimes opened the meeting at 9 am with a blessing/recognition of ancestors/earth
2) Local host Bonnie Ballentyne gave a welcome and offered logistical information.
3) Credentialing of voting delegates and establishment of quorum.
There were 30 Greens present; all were verified as Green by Party Secretary Eric Fried, except Tim Morrisey, who had registered so recently he did not yet show up in the state database. The meeting accepted his affirmation, and voted to accept the credentials of all Green electors present. With 8 of 8 active chapters represented, and more than twice as many people as chapters, quorum was achieved per our bylaws.
Tanya Ishikawa, Michael Haughey, Hildegard Hix, Greg Marsh (Adams/Jefferson)
Tom Kelly, Bernadette Kelly, Cecilia Kelly, Ryan Jones (Arapahoe)
Bonnie Ballantyne, Susan Hall, Tom Hall, Patti Smith, Kevin Alumbaugh, Emily Eisentager, Craig Eades, Ned Burke (Greater Boulder)
Aaron Ney, Robert Kinsey, Scott Foreman, Claire Ryder (Denver)
Eric Fried, Bill Bartlett (Poudre Valley)
Charlie Green (Royal Gorge)
Art Goodtimes, John Wontrobski, (San Miguel)
Madeline Williams (Southwest)
Also in attendance but not representing a chapter were Tim Morissey, JoAnn Roberts (Greater Boulder), Victor Forsythe (Denver) and Chris Allen (Douglas County).
Marc Schuler (Denver) and Marc Sanson (Poudre Valley) arrived late.
Dave Chandler of Arvada attended as an observer.
4) Agenda was reviewed, amended to include two additional proposed bylaws changes, and adopted.
5) Each local introduced its members and gave chapter reports. Greens unaffiliated with a local introduced themselves.
6) Proposal by Kevin Alumbaugh to revoke state party privileges from Claire Ryder and Tom Kelly per bylaws 3.3 was withdrawn. An open discussion ensued on how to heal the state party, including apologies offered by people who acknowledged their contribution to inflammatory communication. General consensus was our current email list serve model for most communications is not working well, and our governance structure needs serious evaluation and revision.
Noon – 1:45 pm Lunch break
Afternoon Session:
Cindy Lowry arrived (Adams/Jefferson), 4 others left, afternoon session had 30 people present
7) Reports from state officers and committees
Secretary – report given by Eric Fried. Met statutory requirements, distributed lists of green voters as requested.
Treasurer – Report/financials handed out (Daniel was not present). Report is available upon request.
Discussion ensued (was on agenda later) of getting a PO Box again as our old one lapsed. Agreed after discussion and research to obtain PO Box as soon as possible at convenient Denver location, Craig Eades will check the box and forward mail as needed to appropriate people.
Discussion also ensued on where state party had its bank account. As it is Wells Fargo, subject of a grassroots boycott, we will ask our treasurer to investigate feasibility of changing banks, if it is possible for him to do so.
Co-chairs: Tanya Ishikawa presided over revamping our web site, started a web committee, produced Go Green TV show for many months, travelled to Southwest and San Miguel Greens with Senate candidate Bob Kinsey, volunteered with Poudre Valley on its Ranked Voting campaign, and presided over a tumultuous period including an internal investigation into allegedly disruptive activity by some members.
Art Goodtimes has been the other co-chair for such a short period of time there is little to report yet.
National delegates – some tried to solicit input on proposals before voting but got little response, so voted as best they could to represent state greens.
Bylaws committee: did not meet over last year. Restructuring Task Force will include bylaws. Not continued.
Website committee: Has consisted of state officers, but Tanya did most of the work. Charlie volunteers to help with website. Meeting/training set for Sunday with Liz Hamilton at 11:30 am. Ryan Jones reported on discussions he, Bill B. and Art G. have had on changing list serve to new model: on-line discussions, collaborative editing, producing a newsletter, etc. Suggestion that Emily join Bill and Ryan on that committee. Susan is interested in helping on a newsletter.
Fundraising: was partly active. Donated $125 from CD sales to state party. Still have hats, T-shirts etc for sale. Want to put a merchandise page on website this year, which now takes on-line donations.
E-moderator: Charlie. He moderated as requested, when requested, without clear guidelines.
8) Council facilitator Kevin reviewed all actions by State Council. None were brought up for rediscussion.
9) Election of state officers (2 co-chairs, 1 treasurer and 1 secretary), 2-3 national delegates, council facilitator, and state e-list moderator.
Nominations were opened for co-chairs: Nominees were Jim Bullington, Art Goodtimes, Bob Kinsey and Bill Bartlett. We decided to use ranked voting to select two co-chairs from four nominees. Without experience in Single Transferrable Voting to fill multiple seats, Secretary in consultation with Ryan and Marc Sanson proposed, and group accepted, a method consisting of each delegate voting for two candidates, votes were tallied, fourth place finisher was eliminated, each delegate again got two votes, and two highest vote getters were the winners (“nearly instant runoff voting”). Jim was eliminated in the first round. Second round tally was Bob Kinsey 17 votes, Art Goodtimes 18 votes, Bill Bartlett 18 votes. Art and Bill elected co-chairs.
Secretary Eric Fried and Treasurer Daniel Sage were voted in again unopposed (unrelieved?)
National Representative nominees were Victor Forsythe, Charlie Green, Bill Bartlett and Ryan Jones. Bill withdrew, and the other three were approved as national reps. Charlie Green was re-elected unopposed as E-list manager. Claire proposed and group agreed we will suspend council business for 60 days while the Restructuring Task Force makes a recommendation; in the meantime we allow the co-chairs to function as the state council. Separate communications mechanism will be established for task force. Moderation is lifted on state discuss list. Discussion ensued on adopting netiquette rules, with no conclusion except that we need to.
10) Delegation of state mailing address and state phone number – see discussion of PO Box above. For phone number, we can get free google voice phone. Bill will investigate and get that going.
A) Proposal to implement the rest of the steward’s recommendations (Tanya Ishikawa) – withdrawn.
B) Restructuring Task Force (Art) to review and propose improvements to state council operations i.e. replacement of listserve/discuss list with alternate communication model, relationship between state and local parties, review of policy and guidelines and bylaws, etc. PASSES. Volunteers for Task Force: Art, Bill, Cindy Lowry, Marc Sanson, Ryan Jones, Ned Burke, Craig Eades, Susan Hall, Bonnie Ballantyne, Emily Eisentrager.
C) Bylaws changes, proposed by Eric Fried (related to issues brought up last meeting). All deferred to Restructuring Task Force, except one critical housekeeping item: (because of imminent state rule changes due to new federal requirements, August primary likely moving to June) take out 6 words in 4.4 “on the second Tuesday in August” so it now reads
4.4 The Green Party of Colorado, as a minor political party, will nominate candidates at a nominating convention, held at least 65 days before the primary in even numbered years in a location accessible to
the public. PASSES. (See http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/992138-ready-really-early-voting)
D) Endorsement of candidates of other parties and independents (possible bylaw change/P&G addition – Bob). Much discussion ensued. Written proposal presented by Ryan, withdrawn for further refinement. Co-chairs Art and Bill announced they will not campaign for or endorse another party candidate running against a green, or would resign as officers.
E) Oppose natural gas transition statement, proposed by Bob Kinsey – no one brought copies. Amendment to narrow the resolution to opposing fracking. Michael H wants to amend to say oppose natural gas as a transition fuel – not agreed to broaden resolution.PASSES.
F) Victor announces he is starting new West Denver chapter – we will put link on website pending council approval of new chapter bylaws.
G) Bylaws proposal on proportional representation on Council – deferred to Restructuring Task Force.
H) Discussed and set Sunday’s agenda 10-12, (Nonviolent communication, web training).
MEETING ADJOURNS.
Sun., June 26
Meeting opens at 10 a.m.
Present: Art Goodtimes, Bill Bartlett, Eric Fried, Charlie Green, Susan Hall, Tom Hall, Madeline Williams, Tanya Ishikawa, Michael Haughey, Kevin Alumbaugh, John Wontrobski, Bonnie Ballantyne
10 am Nonviolent Communications and/or Netiquette Rules discussion: passed around Ten Tips for Creative Conflict, Wikipedia guide on defining, avoiding and responding to personal attacks, and standard netiquette rules. Discussion of using an on-line forum instead of a list-serve, how to beta test it, how soon to migrate to new communications model. Restructuring Task Force will use the forum model for their work and see how it works, so we can design/tailor one for state party functioning. Tips for conflict avoidance and other useful guidelines will be sent to email list soon. Several people had to leave before noon.
MEETING ADJOURNS.
Remaining members retired to the coffee shop for continued discussion of netiquette rules, and training on how to edit/update the website provided by Liz Hamilton, our webmaster. Web committee consists of four officers (Art, Bill, Daniel and Eric) plus volunteers Susan Hall, Madeline Williams, Charlie Green and Tanya Ishikawa.
Minutes by State Secretary Eric Fried
