Minutes

8 January, 2006

Meeting called to order at 4 p.m. (okay, 4:25 p.m.)

Attending:

Recorder: Hart Matthews

Agenda:

  1. Updates: Chatham County Walmart opposition, ballot access, real milk campaign
  2. Treasurer's report
  3. Trigreens letter policy
  4. Trigreens delegation to March meeting in D.C.
  5. two representatives to the NC Green Party Coordinating Committee
  6. set goals/priorities for 2006
  7. how to grow membership
  8. meetings

Ideas for discussion: John Mruk suggests ballot access, Jan Martell & Julian Chung would both like to discuss growing the membership, Ed King suggests finding candidates to run in local nonpartisan races, Elena Everett suggests alternating tri-wide meetings with county-wide meetings so we can (1) concentrate on big, good meetings every other month and (2) concentrate on growing local membership on the other months.

UPDATES:

Walmart: Ed speaks about the Walmart film, which is making its rounds in Chatham County. Chatham First is organizing the opposition to a Walmart there. Walmart has not actually applied to change the zoning in the area yet, possibly waiting to see "how the winds will blow." The land where Walmart is interested in building is just over the Orange County line in Chatham. Even Chatham's most anti-progressive county commissioner has come down against a new Walmart. Ed feels things are well organized there, but says the more places they can get the movie screened, the better. Mark Barossa is heading Chatham First (ChathamFirst.org). Elena will ask Amy to link the Trigreens site to Chatham First.

Ballot Access: The Libertarian Party this fall attempted to get two injunctions to prevent being thrown off the ballot but the judge dismissed both requests, so they may not bring their larger suit challenging the state's ballot access laws. Ed's legislative contacts feel the state Senate will NEVER pass a bill making ballot access easier. Elena feels that having the Libertarians off the ballot will actually hurt the Democrats in a big way, so maybe we can make that argument in our pursuit of Democratic support. Right now, the Democrats have a tenuous hold on power in NC, and they're tightly focused on not introducing liberal competition into the mix. Ed feels the first thing we need is a charismatic candidate who can bring progressive Dems to the Greens.

Real Milk: Susan explains that the Real Milk Campaign is fighting legislation that outlawed "cow shares" and the selling of unpasteurized milk. It's a sustainability issue that helps local farmers and a health issue for people whose allergies or stomachs are bothered by pasteurized milk. The American Dairy Council, presenting their position as a public health issue, has been working to get the sale of unpasteurized milk banned in every state. The Weston Price Foundation organizes nationally against that effort. Susan has also been working on the flouridation of public water issue. Flouride Action Campaign is getting starting up in Chapel Hill.

TREASURER'S REPORT:

We got a $200 "startup grant" from the state party this fall and used it, in a party building effort, to take Greens and non-Greens to the antiwar march in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24. That money paid the deposit on a bus and then covered the shortfall when four people didn't show up/pay for their tickets. Elena thinks it may be possible to rewrite the startup grant as an events grant and use our startup funds for something else. Before we got the $200 grant, we had a little over $25 in the account. We now we have that amount again. One of Hart's jobs as treasurer is to put out a fundraising call to the membership, and he has been remiss in that duty, will try to do better.

Elena would like us to consider using the Click & Pledge web donation and email service, asks Hart for help with that. We'll look into using it to take memberships/donations on the Trigreens site and to manage broadcast emails.

POLICY FOR TRIGREENS LETTERS TO MEDIA:

Postponed (Wayne's up to his elbows in a circuit box).

TRIANGLE DELEGATION TO MARCH PROGRESSIVES MEETING:

Ed speaks on United Progressives for Democracy, organized by Green Ted Glick. Idea is to try to coordinate progressive groups into a coalition, for purposes of morale and cooperation. There's a meeting in March to organize. We agree to empower any delegates who attend to speak on behalf of the Trigreens. Jan is interested in attending. Ed may be able to attend.

REPRESENTATIVES TO THE NC GREEN PARTY COORDINATING COMMITTEE:

Representatives to the state Coordinating Committee: John is interested in serving and is approved by acclimation; Julian allows as how he might be interested if nobody else is and is promptly acclaimed as well.

GOALS/PRIORITIES FOR 2006

Potential goals, issues, activities we're interested in for 2006 (ideas):

[Everyone casts three votes for their three favorite items.]

The three clear winners for items of action this year are:

  1. finding candidates to run as Greens
  2. hosting events/activities to increase our visibility
  3. writing letters to the media to increase our visibility

Runner-up #2, GREEN LETTERS TO THE MEDIA: Wayne would like a policy for Greens writing to newspapers, etc. Jan suggests we speak personally as members of the Greens but not officially as spokespeople for the Greens. Wayne would like to see a database of issues on which we have set responses. Hart suggests that we write letters to the media based on our personal opinions and that we identify ourselves "as a member of the Green Party," but not sign those letters "Triangle Area Green Party," then that we submit those letters to the Trigreens email list. If the membership finds that letter/position agreeable and worthy of duplicating, anyone thereafter can sign such a letter, "[their name], Triangle Area Green Party." Wayne volunteers to compile approved positions/letters. Jan suggests we pick some issues we'd like to redefine, issues that we want people to change their basic understanding of. Then we can run campaigns trying to shift the discussion in a progressive direction.

Runner-up #1, HOSTING EVENTS TO INCREASE OUR VISIBILITY (IN LEIU OF MEETING DISCUSSION [AGENDA #8]): Elena suggests that the meeting every other month become a larger event like a movie screening and that we invite people to said outreach/social event. Intervening months, we would have county meetings (Wake, Durham, Orange-Chatham). The responsibility for the quarterly large event would rotate to different Green organizers and be held in different areas. We could hold short business meetings just before each event. Hart suggests big events every third month so they can be done properly. Elena suggests we could then have tri-wide business meetings such as this one the second month of the three-month cycle. So, 1st month we have smaller, local meetings, then a tri-wide business meeting the second month, followed by a large event the third month. Approved by acclimation.

February's will be local(er) meetings, March a business meeting, and our first event will be in April. [Earlier discussion concluded that meetings will remain on the second Sunday at 4 p.m.]

#1 goal/priority for 2006, FINDING CANDIDATES TO RUN AS GREENS: Elena suggests tabling this discussion until our next tri-wide meeting in March, as this is such an important and potentially long discussion (and since we've been kicked out of our 55-degree meeting room into one that's about 45 degrees).

MEMBERSHIP GROWTH (AGENDA #7) GENERALLY ADDRESSED IN LAST AGENDA ITEM

Meeting adjourned, 6:10 p.m.

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