PGP Personnel Committee Minutes

Pacific Green Party - Coordinating committee minutes
Wednesday, July 21, 1999, 6:45 pm - 9:30 pm
Salem (party office, 333 State St.)
Minutes by Fillard Rhyne

Present: Blair Bobier (cc), Lori Burton (cc, co-chair, 6:55),
Lisa Hamerlynck (cc), Xander Patterson (cc, co-chair),
Nan Perigo (cc), Fillard Rhyne (secretary), Bill Smaldone
(cc), Trey Smith (treasurer).
Absent: John Jones (cc)
Guests from International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5
(Powell’s Books): Anissa Couey (503) 249-2764, Paul Couey
(503) 249-2764, John McMahon (503) 788-6747
Other guests: Andy Davis (503) 257-0307, Lucy Burton (~7:30),
Sara Burton (~7:30)

==================================================
Official decisions made
==================================================
1999-058.The committee agrees that Andy Davis will pre-write a letter
that can be sent to Michael Powell of Powell’s Books in the
event that ILWU 5 experiences a situation where it desires
PGP support. The committee will approve the letter before it
is sent. (Consensus demonstrated through 6 yesses, by hand
and by voice.)
1999-059.The committee approves Andy Davis as an unfunded delegate to
the Reunion Mundial Milenio Verde (”green millennium”) in
Mexico. (No objections.)
1999-060.The committee directs its members to send Fillard Rhyne their
committee coordinator job descriptions by August 1. (No
objections.)
1999-061.The committee agrees that the allocation of dues money to
each chapter will be calculated on the basis of its
membership roster, not on the basis of the chapter’s
geographic boundaries, and that such allocation will begin
when the chapter application is approved and be non
retroactive. We reiterate that chapters may request
additional funds from the state party. (No objections.)
1999-062.The committee agrees not to make an interpretation of Bylaws
Article XIII - Legislative Committees. (No objections.)
1999-063.The committee directs Fillard Rhyne to modify the party’s
previously-approved letter to the state elections division in
two ways: by substituting his own name for Brian Setzler’s as
the contact, and by not asking the elections division to
revise and reprint existing documents. (No objections.)
1999-064.The committee agrees to send an 8.5″ x 5.5″ postcard to
supporting members in August for the purpose of meeting the
bylaws requirement for convention notification. A larger
multipurpose mailing will be sent to a broader list of
people; it will need to be ready for copying by the end of
October in order to arrive in late November or early
December. (No objections.)
1999-065.The committee approves the application to form the Coos
County Chapter of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon.
(No objections.)
1999-066.The coordinating committee endorses the referendum on the
PGE/Trojan giveway. (Approval inferred.)

==================================================
Review of action items from previous meetings
==================================================
All new committee chairs - Write own job descriptions.
—-Job descriptions brought to the meeting by Bill Smaldone
(fundraising), Nan Perigo (internal communications), and Lori
Burton (chapters, county contacts, and outreach; and
co-chair).

Fillard - Give Blair contact information for Matt Shields.
—-Information sent but not received. Will resend.

Fillard - Notify Lisa that she has been asked to serve as
coordinator of the process and administration committee.
—-Done.

Blair - Give Xander contact information for a specific Native
American who may wish to give advice on which Native American
people and organizations to contact regarding the “unplug
video poker” initiative.
—-Information sent but not received. Will resend.

Xander - Write a letter to the Native American Tribes of Oregon
as directed by the May 15 convention. Send a draft to the CC
by email.
—-This item pending receipt of contact information, above.

Trey - Give the current generic PG brochure master to Fillard,
along with printing information such as desired color and
number of pamphlets to be produced.
—-Done.

Fillard - Give the above master and information from Trey to Eric
Bagai (the printer).
—-Will do. Eric is currently busy and will print the brochure
in 2-3 weeks.

Lori - Follow up with the Portland Alliance on changing the
address on their Pacific Green Party listing.
—-This item was not clearly assigned. Xander Patterson will do
it.

Nan - Inform people about the opportunity to serve on legislative
committees.
—-Will do in November/December mailing.

Lori - Give information on the 8 new committees to the local
contacts, and ask them what they are interested in and what
they want to work on.
—-Has not received information appropriate for dissemination.
Has done other work with local contacts.

Lori - Bring names of county contacts to the next coordinating
committee meeting so they can be appointed as county central
committees (to take advantage of certain laws involving
requesting lists of members from the government).
—-Will do at next meeting.

General - Discuss the party logo on email, with the intent of
making a decision soon.
—-Apparent agreement at this meeting to use the existing logo
that has a tree down the west side of Oregon and roots
spreading through the south part.

General - Think about the new generic PG brochure; bring ideas
(preferably sketched or printed on paper) to the next CC
meeting. As coordinator of the internal communications
committee, Nan will be the point person for this effort.
—-Blair and Nan will work on the brochure.

Trey (and general) - Give information to John and Lori on
upcoming events that can be used as outreach opportunities,
in as tidy/compiled a manner as possible.
—-Currently doing this.

Lori and John - Disseminate the above information on upcoming
events.
—-This item pending receipt of event information, above.

Lori and John - Keep tabs on county contacts’ reregistration
efforts.
—-Constantly doing this.

Bill and Trey - Write a fundraising appeal to be included in the
August/September mailing.
—-This item not “due” yet. Will do. The mailing has been
rescheduled to November/December.

Bill - Send a letter to supporting members in July or so, and
follow up by phone in September, seeking donations. (This
item may have been superseded by discussion during the
meeting, regarding the August/September mailing )
—-Yes, this item was superseded.

==================================================
Action items to be reviewed at next meeting
==================================================
Nan - Create postcards to be mailed in August.
Blair (and Nan) - Work on new generic/introductory PGP brochure.
Blair - Contact Joe Keating and Deborah Hall to ascertain their
continuing involvement as ASGP delegates and obtain a report
from them for the next CC meeting.
Blair - Bring to the next party convention a clarification of
ASGP delegate status, perhaps in the form of a proposed
bylaws amendment. (This item not “due” at 9/1 CC meeting.)
Blair - Give Xander Patterson contact information for a specific
Native American who may wish to give advice on which Native
American people and organizations to contact regarding the
“unplug video poker” initiative.
Xander - Write a letter to the Native American Tribes of Oregon
as directed by the May 15 convention. Send a draft to the CC
by email.
Xander - Follow up with the Portland Alliance on changing the
address on their Pacific Green Party listing.
Xander - Send to Bill Smaldone a list of discussion points for
talking with individuals (in person and by phone) and asking
them to register.
All new committee chairs - Write own job descriptions and send to
Fillard Rhyne by August 1, 1999.
Fillard - Forward job descriptions to coordinating committee in a
single email.
Fillard - Give Blair contact information for Matt Shields.
Fillard - Give the current generic PG brochure master to Eric
Bagai, along with instructions for printing. Specify lighter
green paper than used before.
Fillard - Modify letter to the elections division as described
above before sending.
Fillard - Tell Brian Setzler that the coordinating committee will
evaluate his request for a $100 allocation for tabling
expenses when he has itemized what it would be used for.
Lori and Fillard - Contact local groups and explain that if they
want to be formal chapters, they need to apply to the CC for
that status (as specified in the bylaws).
Lori - Ask local contacts to emphasize the voter registration
drive.
Lori - Give information on the 8 new committees to the local
contacts, and ask them what they are interested in and what
they want to work on.
Lori - Bring names of county contacts to the next coordinating
committee meeting so they can be appointed as county central
committees (to take advantage of certain laws involving
requesting lists of members from the government).
Lori and John - Disseminate information on upcoming
events that can be used as outreach opportunities.
Trey - Make a list of ballot measure initiative petitions, and
compile whatever information he currently has about them, for
use in “scorecard” suggested by Chuck Fall.
Trey - Learn how to add items to web-based calendar.
Trey (and general) - Continue giving information to John Jones
and Lori Burton on upcoming events that can be used as
outreach opportunities, in as tidy/compiled a manner as
possible.
Bill - Begin recruiting a fundraising committee of 6-10 very
reliable people, with the intent that they will make
telephone calls from a coordinated script to designated
geographic areas. We may need to pay them.
Andy Davis - Write a letter for ILWU 5 as described above.

==================================================
Apparent agreements
==================================================
The coordinating committee does not delegate the responsibility
of approving chapter requests for state funds.

The following suggestions for committee openness will be put in
the coordinating committee handbook.
————————————————–
1. Any supporting member should have the right to observe any
committee in pretty much any way - attend meetings, be
informed of upcoming meetings, receive handouts, receive
email sent among the committee members, etc. It may however
be necessary to make exceptions for special reasons such as
staff evaluations.
2. Committees should be encouraged to generally encourage and
allow non-committee-members to actively participate, such as
by talking at meetings.
3. Each committee that has a specified membership should have
the authority to evaluate the usefulness and efficiency of
active participation by non-committee-members, and to limit
such active participation when, if, and how it deems
necessary.
————————————————–

The coordinating committee looks forward to seeing the Alliance
For Democracy’s initiatives when they are ready.

==================================================
Highlights of other discussion
==================================================
Presentation from International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Local 5, which has been the Powell’s Books union since April
1999:
—-Many Powell’s employees have voted Pacific Party.
—-Explanation of the many worker rights problems Powell’s has
had.
—-Explanation of the apprehension and the need for education
that have accompanied the introduction of a union at
Powell’s.
—-ILWU 5 would like to keep us updated. If they experience
problems such as union-busting, vocal community support will
be helpful.
—-Bill Smaldone suggested that ILWU 5 write an article for the
September mailing. (After the ILWU 5 members left the
meeting, the mailing was rescheduled to November/December.)

Andy Davis recapped his email report on the recent ASGP meeting.
—-Next ASGP convention is June 24-25, 2000, in Denver.
—-The ASGP convention discussed the presidential nomination
extensively. Ralph Nader was a guest at the convention. It
now seems fairly definite that Ralph will be the nominee and
that we need to move forward with the campaign. It has
however been agreed that “None of the above” will be an
option when the official nomination is made.
—-Every state in the US gets one ASGP delegate; other delegates
are awarded for affiliation with ASGP and obvious green
activity in the state.
—-Some logistical difficulty with the PGP contribution to the
ASGP since the ASGP does not accept contributions from PACs
and the political parties in Oregon are legally PACs.

Lori Burton has signed up 54 new registrants.

Trey Smith is sending letters to all new registrants, welcoming
them to the party and inviting them to become supporting members.
He was encouraged to include information on signing up with local
chapters.

Lisa Hamerlynck agrees to be coordinator of the process and
administration committee, with the understanding that she is
strapped for time and that this may have functional consequences
such as not being able to keep up with committee email.

Blair Bobier reiterated his suggestion that the party focus its
outreach on groups that are natural allies of the PGP. He is
concerned that we meet the voter registration deadline.

Xander Patterson suggests that people who register voters with
the party ask for signatures on a variety of petitions at the
same time. Lori Burton is already doing this.

Discussion on reading materials to have available when tabling.

==================================================
Next coordinating committee meeting
==================================================
The next meeting is scheduled for
Wednesday, September 1
6:30 pm
Salem (party office)

Suggested items for the beginning of every agenda
General - Read statement of principles.
Fillard - Review action items from previous meetings.
Suggested items for this particular agenda
Bill - Discuss policy for party use of union and non-union
labor.
Suggested items for the end of every agenda
Fillard - Review action items from this meeting (if desired).
General - Group hug.

(I would encourage the person who facilitates the September 1
meeting to post a deadline for receipt of agenda items, like
Xander did for the July 21 meeting.)