April
16, 2003
Park Hill Library
In
attendance:
Dave Chandler, Roger Green, Brad Barrett, Christy Bouchard, Amy Engleman,
Mag Seaman, Ken Seaman, Rick VanWie, Kent Holcomb, Randy Richter,
Jim Wilkes, Eric Karnes, Joshua Whitley
Dave
Chandler, Facilitator
Christy Bouchard, Minute Taker
The
following items were reviewed:
Treasurer’s Report: $116.28 in Checking, $25.00 in Savings
Announcements:
Rick VanWie reported that the Coalition/Diversity Committee’s
proposal from February’s meeting had been withdrawn. There was
discussion on the list indicating that most members felt it was too
soon after the restructuring to change another committee.
Rick
also said he had taken the initiative to purchase some nice lapel
pins from Goods for Greens, and wanted to offer them at the next meeting
for a suggested donation. The group thought this was a good idea.
Dave Chandler suggested we should sell them on the web site too.
Dave
Chandler announced the state Green Party meeting in Cortez on Saturday,
April 26th from 8am to 6pm. Information is available at the State
Green Party web site: go to www.greens.org/colorado/State%20meeting.htm
for information on lodging, carpooling, and driving directions. Some
Denverites are driving on Friday night. The agenda is available on
the GP state web site too.
Volunteer
Sign-up
Members are frustrated by lack of committee leadership... projects
are languishing. We need people who are interested in a particular
topic to commit to providing leadership so that new members can become
active. External PR is especially important.
Newsletter:
Dave Chandler presented his research on costs to do a mailing.
A discussion ensued over whether the newsletter should be a joint
city/state Green Party project or solely by the DGP. A joint project
would allow DGP and GPCO to split the cost and also any donations
generated; a local mailing would build the local party, address local
issues, and perhaps be more apt to bring in volunteers or donations.
Key points:
- A project like this newsletter, even if it is not the single most
important thing we should be working on, would nonetheless provide
needed focus and structure to our work; it would expand our participating
membership, force us to focus on issues, provide a direction for fundraising,
and help establish lines of internal communication.
-With this under our belt we will start to have not only internal
communication but external communication structures as well.
-Alternatively, a newsletter is not as helpful now as it would be
if we already had active committees with strong leadership to absorb
new volunteers.
-Perhaps we need an “issue” to focus on, the way the ACLU
has the Patriot Act. People suggested the war or health care. The
group thought it was important for a focus issue to have a good local
solution.
It was decided that we should do a couple of things:
1.) Make an announcement sheet about our intent to do a newsletter,
take the sheet to the meeting at Cortez, and solicit input and advice
from other Greens
2.) Make a prototype newsletter, run off 100 copies, and use them
as promotional materials to encourage donations so that we can do
a true mailing
3.) Have a fundraising party event to help pay for the newsletter
4.) Investigate whether we can solicit sponsorship of the newsletter
by businesses
Campaign
Committee Report:
Eric Karnes went through his explanation of district targeting research.
They have a computer list in progress now.
This research is important because it will help us target certain
districts in which to run candidates in 2004. The ideal district or
precinct would have a weak Democrat incumbent and a strong Green-sypmathetic
voter base.
Allard is up for reelection in the 2004 election, and we need to look
at whether we should find someone to run for that office.
A discussion took place over the importance of state and local versus
national candidates for office.
Key points:
- State and local candidates focus on issues of local importance and
build grassroots politics
- National candidates tend to get more media attention for their races,
and draw more voters to the polls on election day.
- Eric suggested www.politics1.com for anyone interested in learning
about potential candidates for political races all over the country.
Peace and War Activities:
Rick VanWie introduced the Coalition/Diversity committee:
- There has been a lot of local anti-war action lately, and a lot
of Greens are very active locally in anti-war activities.
- Rick’s goal as co-leader of the Coalition/Diversity committee
is to build party membership while acting as a conduit of information
between the local activist community and the DGP. As such Rick has
been sending out updates over the Announce-List on upcoming activist
events.
-Eventually a diverse list of activist resources will be in place
and available to Greens, and a strong contingent of local Greens will
be available to support local activist activities.
- A concurrent goal is to bring non-whites into the activist/Green
community through important local issues.
8:35
meeting adjourned
Next
Business Meeting:
Tuesday, May 20th, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
Park Hill Library, Montview and Dexter in Denver
Respectfully
Submitted,
Christy
