Monroe County Green Party Meeting - September 5, 2000 Place: Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1B Bloomington, Indiana Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, David Ploskorko, Steven Higgs, Ken Rogers, Paul Colbert, Karmyn Guthrie, Joseph Osborne, Benjamin Loudermilk, Jeff Melton, Jay Mersch, Rob Larson, Kevin Oliver, Michael Berndt, Milton Fisk, Danna D'Esopo Jackson Facilitator: Michael Berndt Scribe: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:00pm with unanimous approval of the previous meeting's minutes and, with the addition of an announcements item, the agenda. A round of introductions followed. Future meeting times and facilitators were discussed. The next meeting will be held in three weeks on Tuesday, September 26, in the meeting room of the Ellettsville library. Ken volunteered to facilitate. Michael also volunteered to reserve a meeting room at the Bloomington library branch for the following meeting. They are already booked for Tuesday, October 10, so he will reserve the room for another night and notify the email list of the date. Michael also volunteered to facilitate that meeting. * Legal Report Paul reported that he had scheduled a meeting with Student Legal Services for Friday to discuss non-profit status for our chapter. The status of the legal challenge of Nader's Indiana ballot status was also discussed. A campaign lawyer working in Washington DC has been chosen to develop a strategy for the challenge. The deadline for the challenge is September 24. Local actions are on hold until that strategy is communicated to the Indiana Greens Campaign Committee (IGCC). The national campaign is also working to get Nader certified as an official write-in candidate. Ken had been in contact with Todd from the national campaign. Concern was expressed about the pressing deadline for filing the required paperwork by the September 18 deadline. Ken mentioned that Todd knew of the importance of getting the paperwork submitted and agreed to touch base with him again to be sure that he had received the form. If he had not yet received the form, Milton could send the copy of the form he obtained from the state. Michael will also be researching information on the voter perspective of writing in a candidate for use by the IGCC and to distribute at Saturday Market. * Merchandise Report Karmyn's offer to manufacture t-shirts still stands. In discussion about possible t-shirt designs, it was pointed out that we still have Nader/LaDuke t-shirts available for sale from Jeff's last Northern Sun order. It was also suggested that we create Nader t-shirts with write-in information. The group also agreed that it would be good to design a MCGP t-shirt. * Media Report Jeff and Ken were both interviewed on WGCL AM 1370 since the last meeting about Nader's ballot status. A letter to the editor on the topic of the televised debates written by Heather was printed in the Herald-Times, IDS, and Bloomington Independent. Other members were encouraged to write letters to the editor. It was suggested that letter writers coordinate their efforts through Jeff. This coordination is particularly important if people use the sample letters (which can be found in the btowningreens message archive on the web) so that multiple people do not submit the exact same letter. It was suggested that we encourage Adam Lederer, a regular columnist for the IDS, to write about Nader and/or the debates. Heather also mentioned the Speak Your Mind feature on WFIU radio. To get your column on air, you should submit your script to WFIU. They will then contact you to set up an appointment to tape your segment. Contact Heather for more info. * Sign Report Heather investigated the possibility of ordering yard signs and posted the information to the email list. No one responded with any interest in contributing to an order. Members can visit www.goodsforgreens.com if they would like to place individual orders. * Voter Registration Report Michael reported that efforts have been delayed while IGCC waits for news from the national campaign. It will be important to associate the act of voting with the potential for reform when registering new voters. He also plans to compile information on write-in procedures to distribute. It is possible for people to register to vote on-line at www.beavoter.com. One project idea may be to hand out leaflets on campus to inform students of this possibility. Joseph reported that he had used this service to register. You submit your mailing address to the web and then they request that a registration form be mailed to you locally. It may save time, especially as the deadline approaches, to hand out the forms directly. Plans should be firmed up at the September 9 IGCC meeting. * Treasury Report Jay has not yet made any progress on his banking investigations. He will send a report to the discussion list when he gets more details. * Email Peter reports that eGroups has moved the ads from the bottom to the top of each message. This is annoying, but he recommended that any change to a better system be delayed until after the election. Peter did not have specific numbers on the membership of each list. Heather reported that the announcement list had about 35 members and the discussion list had about 9 members the last time she had looked. The activities of these new members were unknown. * Web Report Joseph created a few bare bones pages at www.freespeech.org/mcgreens. He posted the URL to the discussion list, but has not received much in the way of comment. Members should send comments to the discussion list or to Joseph directly. * IGCC Report Ken reported that IGCC has not met since our last meeting. The next scheduled meeting was set for Saturday, September 9. Ken planned to post a carpool announcement to the announcement list. * Announcements Members were encouraged to participate in the on-line Harris poll being conducted by the Commission on Presidential debates. The URL is survey.harrispollonline.com/j1247.htm. You can also find the poll by going to the CPD web site at www.debates.org. Members can also check the message archive of the discussion list for other on-line poll messages. www.votenader.com also has links to on-line polls. Members were encouraged to visit Oprah Winfrey's web site at www.oprah.com. She has invited Gore and Bush to appear on her television show. At the web site, it is possible to send her an email message encouraging her to invite Nader to appear on her program as well. Pre-printed postcards were circulated to the members for mailing to the networks to encourage them to refuse to air the CPD debates. Instead, the cards urge the networks to organize their own debates that include all serious candidates. These postcards will be added to the literature and merchandise at the weekly Saturday Market table. Ken shared information about the cover story on the September 11 issue of Business Week entitled, "Too Much Corporate Power?" The article reports on the results of a survey that found people were leery of the largeness of businesses. The results can be found on-line, too. Jeff reported on the plans for a protest in Indianapolis in conjunction with a Bush $1000/plate fundraising appearance on Wednesday, September 6. Carpools will leave at 3pm from Secret Sailor. The protest is scheduled to begin around 4:30pm. People will meet at the corner of Washing and Capitol streets. The dinner begins at 6:00pm or 6:30pm. Protest plans included serving food to the hungry to contrast with the expensive dinner, street theater, and an appearance by Billionaires for Bush or Gore. Details on the event can be found in the email message archive. Heather described plans for the September 9 Hostettler/Perry Debate Demonstration. A sign making party will be held at 7:00pm at the Drakes' home (342 S Madison) on Friday night. We will gather for the protest at 9:30am on Saturday at the corner of 5th and College. A suggestion was made the we verify with the libertarians that their candidate for the seat wanted to participate in the debate. Concern was also raised that we need to make clear our point that Nader should be invited to the national debates and that our demonstration not be disruptive. The group agreed that these were important points. Heather volunteered to contact the libertarians and post her findings to the discussion list. Mention was made of Nader's October visit to Indiana to meet with Citizen's Action people. No one knew if a firm date had been set. Ken will email the national campaign to try to obtain details and post information to the email list as soon as he receives word back. * Campus Coordinator The group agreed that it was important to begin organization work on the IU campus. There are various levels of official organization status that can be applied for that likely include collecting future member signatures and finding a faculty sponsor. Ken offered a copy of the campus organizing guide to assist the coordinator in planning. Rob Larson volunteered to head up the efforts for the moment. Other student members present at the meeting offered to assist him in tasks such as manning a voter registration table at the IMU. * Indiana Environmental Report Steve told the group about an environmental news project that he produces for email and the web called the Indiana Environmental Report that might be of interest to members. The URL is www.iereport.com. * Charter It was suggested that our group begin work on an official charter. A coordinator should be appointed to organize people interested in this project. They will review other charters and then submit a proposal. Some concern was raised that we should wait until after the election because the project could require a lot of time and discussion. A suggestion was made that we find out of if there are standard charters from the national Green parties. It was pointed out that GPUSA includes a sample charter in their organization kit. Michael volunteered to start the investigation and report back to the group at the next meeting. The meeting ended with a review of the ballot status. Ken will contact Todd to see if he has obtained the write-in form. If not, Milton will send his copy to the campaign. On the matter of the legal challenge, IGCC is waiting to hear from the lawyer in Washington. No one knew if the Indianapolis lawyers were out of the loop at this point. Members were encouraged to go to www.votenader.org and send a message to the campaign to encourage work on the suit and the write-in status to be sure that they aren't forgetting us. The meeting concluded at 8:45pm. ********************************************************************** The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 26, at the Monroe County Public Library in Ellettsville. Ken volunteered to serve as facilitator. He will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date. ********************************************************************** Note submitted by Heather Drake