Steering Committee Meeting Notes

5^th Congressional District Green Party

Date: September 7, 2004

Location: Psycho Suzie's Motor Lounge

Start Time: 7:00PM

Attendance: Darrell Gerber, Lisa Boyd, Annie Young, Tamir Nolley, Stephen Eisenmenger, Molly Nutting, Tom Lee, Mark O'Melia

Facilitation: Tamir Nolley

Note Taker: Darrell Gerber

Introductions

Introductions were made by all. The non-steering committee members present were Molly Nutting, there for food, and Mark O'Melia, new state coordinator for the Cobb campaign.

Agenda

The agenda was approved as submitted with the addition of a report of national Green issues by Annie and setting the next Steering Committee date and location.

Next Meeting

The next Steering Committee meeting will be October 7th, 2004 at the Lucky Dragon restaurant at 1827 Riverside Ave near the West Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Membership Meeting

• Date – It was decided to postpone the next membership meeting by a week. Too many of the steering committee members would be tied up preparing for the Cobb visit on the 20^th plus it was felt that having two meetings in two days would be too much for the membership. The new date is September 26^th. Darrell will send an email to the listservs noting the change and will have Ashley James change the website.
• Venue – The location for the membership meeting had not be selected, yet. We did not receive much help on finding a place in St. Louis Park so we'll try to have to meeting in either Becki (59A) or Tom's (59B) districts. Stephen will call Van Cleve to try to reserve it.
• Mailing – Darrell will work on creating the mailing document. Stephen will pick it up from the printers. He and Molly will stamp and mail them.
• Agenda – It was agreed to follow the general format used in the past with an Education/History section, the Business Meeting, and a Discussion section. Darrell said he has already been in contact with Nancy Doyle about presenting something on the media and media reform during the Education/History section. He had also tried to contact the 'Small is Beautiful' group about doing the discussion session following the business meeting. All were in agreement on continuing with the plans for both topics.

The agenda for the business meeting was agreed to consist of Strategic Planning, Fundraising Committee, Cobb Campaign Report, Local Campaign Reports, Elected Office Holder Reports, and Appointed Officials Reports. The strategic planning portion would be a short section where the people at the meeting are given printed handouts of the analysis previously done by volunteers. The members will be brought up-to-speed on the strategic planning thus far and what is expected from the next meeting. The main work on this area will take place at the November meeting. Darrell was previously going to cleanup with reports from the volunteers for presentation to the membership. The reports have not been received, yet, and Darrell no longer has time to work on that project. Tom Lee will make the reports ready for distribution.

A fundraising committee will be formed with Stephen Eisenmenger as its lead. Recruiting will be done to fill the committee.

• Handouts – Darrel will prepare the handouts for the meeting. Tom will help with the Strategic Planning writeups.
• Cleanup/Setup – Tamir and Lisa will plan on working on setting up for the meeting. All available members will help cleanup afterward.

Finance Committee

The 5CDGP currently has about $1800 in the bank with $200/mo. Coming in from direct deposit. Lisa reported that she has turned in on time both the Hennepin County and Minnesota Campaign Finance Board reports. Unfortunately, she found that last year's reports did not show the same beginning balances as our records. We will need to prepare and submit amended reports for both Hennepin Country and the state. This will likely affect all three reports last year for each entity. Bill Kingsbury and Eric Makela have been helping while Melissa Herrig has been available to provide advice when needed.

David Cobb Visit

Annie gave a brief report from the national Cobb campaign. David Cobb is currently on 34 ballots and certified for several others (allows him to be a write-in candidate). There are still some problems with some state Green Party's threatening to not honor the party's nominated presidential candidate. Stephen noted that there are issues with the accreditation of the state party's contemplating placing Ralph Nader on the ballot instead of David Cobb. Annie reported that the campaign has been receiving good press wherever they show up with much more of it lately coming from mainstream sources.

Mark O'Melia was introduced as the new state coordinator for the Cobb campaign. He brought everyone up to speed on the upcoming visit by David Cobb on September 20^th. The day will be busy with interviews (MPR's Midday and Lydia Howell at KFAI), tours (Green Institute and contaminated sites), and a closing event at the U of M's Willey Hall. The question was asked as to what the organizers would like from the 5CDGP. At this point the main help would be to include the event on any publicity we put out. Darrel mentioned that there is a debate planned at the U of M between representatives of John Kerry and George Bush and that he has been trying to push to have the Green Party included as well. He'll forward both Annie and Mark's contact information to the organizers.

State Fair

Darrell reported that the 5CDGP days at the state fair went off really well. Jonathan Fluck agreed to organize the days. The decision was made to extend the 5CDGP responsibility from the original 2 days to 3 days, instead. All of the shifts had adequate coverage. Lisa will send Jonathan a thank you letter for his help. Darrell also reported that he was interviewed by MPR while working at the booth. The interview aired a couple days later.

Campaign Support

• State Fair Literature – Stephen reported that the literature prepared for the state fair was successfully created, printed, and delivered for the fair. There are plenty left to use at the Cobb event and any other events prior to the November 2^nd election.
• Print Ads – Stephen will work on getting ad prices for the SE Angle, MN Daily, and City Pages. Annie passed off information she had already found for the NEaster. We'll decide on how to proceed with the ads once the prices are found.
• Mailings – Tom will work on determining the price for mailing sample ballots to the residents of senate district 59.
• State Funds – Molly Nutting brought up that the GPMN has available $14,000 dollars from the state income tax checkoff to be used for campaign support. The hitch is that it much be used only for efforts that aid a minimum of three candidates. Stephen and Tom were going to prepare proposals for the GPMN CC meeting for the 5CDGP to use this money to greatly increase the print ad and mailing coverage for Tom, Becki, and Jay.

Volunteer List

The list of volunteer needs Lisa had prepared was briefly discussed. We will forward the list on to wishlist@mngreens.org and Ken Pentel for help filling the most critical needs. Lisa also suggested that we use more direct contact to fill the needs.

Meeting Adjourned

9PM