June 11 Meeting of the Triangle Area Green Party

Attending: Elena Everett, Hart Mathews, Ben Carroll, Brian Cornforth, Susan OÕNeill, May Becker, Ed King. Manzoor Cheema and Omar Farooq came in later.

Agenda:

Minutes:

First staff meeting was today, with Hart, Ben, and Susan attending. Staff proposes to move ballot access forum from 21st to either 27th to 28th. Exact date depends upon availability of space at the UU church. Ben will go to see them on Tuesday (later changed to Ben will see them this evening if possible). Hart and Susan will follow up. Hart proposes that we take the space without sponsorship. If we pick up a sponsor, good, but the space is $150.00 without a sponsor. Hart will ask Jerry to reserve a back-up space at NCSU. Whoever at the church is knowledgeable about the sound system will be directed to call Wayne to make sure it is adequate.

For panel speakers:
We have a Libertarian speaker/panel member (Sean ?)
Either Elena or Hart will sit on the panel. The other will be a speaker on behalf of the Greens, (maybe moderator as well?)
Ed will look for a legislator, possibly Ellie Kinaird.
Erin Byrd of Southerners for Economic Justice will be on panel, also of the Same Day Voter Registration Coalition.

Elena will talk to a friend about making event flyers. Elena and Ben will be responsible for the online calendar.

Hart proposes that we do not hold a press conference prior to the event. There is some danger the media will blow us off. But if we (OPEC) have an event to advertise with recognizable names, they are more likely to attend. Better option, generally agreed upon, is that we have a press conference the same day of the event at the legislature. Ed points out that we should achieve media awareness of the event, perhaps through a Front Porch article. Chris Fitzsimmons of NC Policy Watch should be made aware of this.

Flyers for the forum will be distributed in the area of the church (NCSU, Hillsborough, maybe other areas to be identified). The day of the press conference, a team will distribute flyers in the legislature to make senators aware of the forum and the press conference. When a date is finalized, Elena will ask the ACLU director to attend. This is because of the need to refer to the lawsuit, which is reported as going to trial, and the ACLUÕs preference to comment directly on matters with which they are involved. The actual time of day of the conference depends on the time the sessions start. We donÕt want to keep legislators out of the session, but would like those that care to have a chance to attend the press conference.

To get a letter writing campaign going, two things will happen. Ed in his capacity as chair of the NC Editorial Board will get an op-ed from Hart by Tuesday and submit to the organization for review and publication. The letter needs to come from OPEC rather than the Greens.

Wayne will distribute to the actions listserv the draft letters he has written and ask that members use them to publish letters to the editor in local papers about ballot access reform and the Electoral Fairness Act. Simultaneously, locals should get members to contact the senators on the Judiciary I committee. Wayne will include this information in his e-mail. As Ed points out, we need to be seen as good coalition members. Along with letter writing, we should as Greens visit the sites of the coalition members, also to be included in the e-mail to the actions listserv, and support the initiatives of the member organizations. Hart has been posting these opportunities to the actions list. We can ask the members of the coalition organizations to call the Judiciary I committee members and write letters in the week before the forum and the week of the forum.

In keeping with the forum, locals are encouraged to have their own ballot access forums or discussions with local organizations, a ballot access house party, or whatever mechanism they choose to promote public awareness of ballot access. Susan is visiting Asheville this weekend, and will talk to the Mountain Greens about possible Asheville action. As Ed noted, Mike Nesbitt, the Mountain GreensÕ state senator, sits on the Judiciary I committee, and it is entirely appropriate that they should talk to him.

We as a group need to post to various listservs of which we are members, and to people we know in general, requests to sign the online petition. Hart would like 2000 signatures (roughly 10 times what we now have) when the time comes to present the petition before the committee and on the floor of the Senate. Manzoor made hardcopies and passed them out to attendees. If members can get someone to sign a hardcopy, the signature can be transferred to the website.

We might have a meeting before the forum. Hart will monitor events and make the call.

ICAHD Ð next Tri-Greens social event?

Manzoor is very interested in a forum with ICAHD that addresses the issue of divestment from Israel. ICAHD is interested in September event, which makes it ideal for the next Tri-greens event. Manzoor has talked with Jews for a Just Peace. They might be (are?) interested in participating Need to start lining this up as soon as the ballot access issue has been finished or cooled off enough. There is an ICAHD event June 22. Manzoor will post details. Wayne will post to the listserv about attending.

Manzoor introduced to the group Omar Farooq. Omar is a member of Triangle Area People of Color and Triangle Area Concerned Citizens (TRACC). He has been a resident of the area for 14 years. We alo Brian Cornforth from San Diego A former business professor at San Diego state, Brian has moved to Cary.

Other Business

Forests of the World has offered to share their table at the Eno festival with the Green Party. Mark made the offer to Hart. We need to work up a rotation schedule (Hart?) Also, Mark spoke to Hart about the possibility of a silent auction of a diesel car with the proceeds going to the Greens Forests of the World is the owner of Bull City Biodiesel. They identify cars which can be refit to use bio-diesel. The catch is we may have to buy the car, refit it, and then sell it at the auction for a profit to make any money. This could mean an investment of $2-3 k. Ideally, we could just Mark and MB to make a donation. Susan spoke about the RGB project. The project sells progressive documentaries on DVD for low prices. Susan proposes that Tri-Greens get a subscription to this service and build a library of DVDs that we could use at events. Manzoor has a documentary on third parties that we can screen at the next meeting.

Ed proposes that we do more brochure/platform distribution. Ed works part time at Internationalist Bookstore. At the book fair they held last week he made brochures and platforms available.

Review of meeting schedules (for Wayne, who is a little slow about schedules and appointments)

Meeting schedules Ð three month rotation
Tri-greens
Sub-locals
Tri-greens social/public event forum

Next Tri-greens meeting August 6th 4:00 PM at ACRE.

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