Monroe County Green Party Meeting - October 25, 2000 Place: Monroe County Public Library (Ellettsville Branch) Meeting Room Ellettsville, IN Time: 7:00 - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Danna D'Esopo Jackson, Milton Fisk, David Ploskorko, Marc Haggerty, Isabel Piedmont, Andrea Becker, Chris Stafford, Ken Rogers, Paul Colbert, Vivek Boray, Jeff Melton, Benjamin Loudermilk, Julie Roberts Facilitator: Ken Rogers Scribe: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:09pm with a round of introductions. After approval of the agenda, the group viewed a portion of the Saturday Night Live episode on which Nader appeared earlier this month. The 9 October minutes were approved unanimously. * Treasurer Report Treasurer absent. Peter volunteered to contact Jay to see if he wanted to step down since his work obligations have become more time-consuming than expected. * Legal Report Paul never received the non-profit forms from the IRS despite repeated contacts with them. He found another source for the forms and printed them himself. Benji volunteered to help him review the forms and fill them out. Marc pointed out that we need also need to deal with the state-level paperwork. The group agreed that this work would be time consuming and best delayed until after the election. * Media Many people have written letters to the editor to the local media since the last meeting. Jeff also had a guest column published in the Bloomington Independent. A long, front-page article focusing on Marc's write-in campaign for 8th district representative appeared in the Herald-Times on 22 October. He is also working on a short TV program that should air on Channel 3 (public access station) soon. After meeting with representatives from the IDS, the campus Greens were able to secure space for third-party columns every Tuesday until the election. The first column, focused on labor, was printed in the 24 October edition. Several people had also written letters to the editor of the IDS in response to an anti-Nader column that ran on 23 October. Other items in the national media were also discussed. The national campaign posted a detailed press release focusing on the environment to www.votenader.org. Jeff recommended the Oakland super rally coverage as particularly good. It was pointed out that attacks on Nader by the Gore campaign have heightened as the election approaches. The C-SPAN third-party debate ended up including only Harry Browne (Libertarian), John Hagelin (Natural Law Party), and the Constitution Party candidate. * Website Peter mentioned that the campus Greens web site, created by Matt Meany, is up at www.indiana.edu/~iugreens. Members who had seen it agreed that it was quite nice. Marc asked that information about his write-in campaign be included on the MCGP web site. Peter referred him to Joseph. * Campus Chris explained that the campus web site was up and running. They have also drafted a constitution and plan to turn it in tomorrow as a further step in becoming an official student organization. The Golden Key Honor Society hosted a debate that included representatives from the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Greens. Rob Larson represented the IU Greens. It was held from 8:30pm to 10:00pm this evening in the IMU State Room West. Members were encouraged to stop by after the meeting adjourned to root him on. Flyering of dorms, streets, and events on campus continue. People went to the MTV Campus Invasion Tour, String Cheese Incident, Bonnie Raitt, and the Homecoming football game. At the Bonnie Raitt concert, the first group of leafletters to arrive were ordered to leave by auditorium security. They complied. A second group arrived later and refused to leave. Unfortunately, a member of the auditorium staff collected the leaflets as people entered and disposed of them. Andrea suggested printing out the section of the student Code of Ethics that guarantees the constitutional rights of students while on campus. She reported that citing this code worked when IU Police asked her to leave at the String Cheese Incident. Milton called Richard McKaig (Dean of Students) following the Raitt concert and he confirmed that people are allowed to leaflet at auditorium events. He also promised to talk to campus police and auditorium security to remind them of this fact. Milton was also asked to contact McKaig for a public statement to that effect, perhaps in the IDS, and Milton agreed to contact him about it. Leafletters were encouraged to be more firm in defending their rights in future. People were encouraged not to follow the notion that they need authorization to leaflet, but the notion that security needs authorization to keep them off of public property. The project to rent a billboard to encourage people to write-in Ralph Nader was a success. Canvassers, headed up by Lindsey Helms, raised the necessary money mostly in one afternoon. The billboard is located on the corner of 3rd and College streets, visible as you travel West. The next big event will be a "Rally for Justice and Equality" on 2 November from 7:00 to 10:00pm in Alumni Hall at the IU Memorial Union. It will be co-sponsored by the Citizens Alliance for the Legalization of Marijuana (CALM) and the Greens (both IU Greens and MCGP). The Debtors, the Marc Haggerty Blues Band, and a campus group are scheduled to play. Breshaun Joyner, a local poet and artist, will serve as master of ceremonies. There will also be time set aside for speakers to give short (5 minute) speeches. People who wish to speak should contact Marc Haggerty (marchaggerty@yahoo.com). The campus group is reaching out to other student groups working on Green issues and inviting them both to speak and to set up information tables at the benefit. MCGP will staff a table. Members were also encouraged to invite other community groups to participate. Interested people should contact Chris Stafford (ctstaffo@indiana.edu) no later than THIS FRIDAY so he can request tables. Monetary donations will be requested at the benefit. Several methods for collecting are being considered: people with buckets at the door, stand-alone table, boxes passed around the audience. Any money remaining after the expenses have been paid ($350 estimated) will be split among the sponsors. * Green Halloween Marc proposed a Green benefit/party for Halloween night. He has already approached the owner of The Cellar Lounge to secure the date if the group was willing to sponsor and publicize the event. This should be a good venue especially because its marquis on Walnut street is in a high traffic area. Marc has already started work lining up music. The group agreed that this was a great idea. The details are as follows: Green Halloween Tuesday, October 31 8:00pm to 11:00pm The Cellar Lounge $2 cover charge Costumes encouraged Peter volunteered to make flyers to advertise the party. He will send details on how to print it to the mailing list. Julie volunteered to contact the local newspapers about both this event and the Rally for Justice and Equality. Benji volunteered to contact the local radio stations about the same. They will try to get event announcements as well as actual coverage for the events. * Email Peter reported that we have 57 people on btowningreens and 22 people on btowningreens-discuss. The campus mailing list has about 130 members. * Merchandise Ken had a supply of Nader literature, buttons, bumper stickers, and yard signs to share including a new leaflet from the national campaign that focuses on cleaning up the political process. * Press Release No progress had been made on this project since the last meeting. Ken has been reminding the national campaign about the need for them to issue an Indiana write-in press release, but hasn't heard any concrete news. Heather volunteered to whip up a draft of a press release within the next day. Jeff and Dave agreed to assist with revisions. Julie and Dave also volunteered to help compile a media list and assemble the mailing. * Chicago Super Rally Ken and 14 students attended the Chicago rally. He found it energizing and a good time. He thought the audience included a wide spectrum of age groups, but not many people of color. * Louisville Jeff attended the Louisville meeting, but arrived late. Nader spoke to a crowd of about 500 in an auditorium. * Reading Group The next reading group meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday, November 9, at Secret Sailor (near corner of 6th and Walnut). The reading will be the Communist Manifesto and commentary. You can find the manifesto on the web or at the library. Jeff will put the commentary on reserve at Secret Sailor. * Press Conference Milton suggested that we might want to hold a press conference. The theme could try to capitalize on the disgust people have with Bush and Gore after the debates. The group agreed that it was a good idea, but eventually agreed that we didn't have enough time to organize it before the election in addition to other planned activities. The meeting concluded at 9:00pm. ********************************************************************** The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Wednesday, November 1, at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium in Bloomington. Peter will serve as facilitator. He will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date. ********************************************************************** Notes submitted by Heather Drake