Monroe County Green Party Meeting - December 5, 2000 Place: Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-B Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Milton Fisk, Julie Roberts, Ken Rogers, Sean Bagley "Steps", Joseph Osborne, Isabel Piedmont, Jeff Melton, Marge Steiner, Danna D'Esopo Jackson, Stephanie Kimball, Vic Kelson, Alex Bowden, Paul Colbert, David Vick Facilitator: Julie Roberts Scribe: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:00pm. The agenda was approved with several additions and revisions and the minutes of the 18 November meeting were approved unanimously. * Charter Isabel and Heather presented a first draft of the charter for consideration. It will also be posted to the btowningreens-discuss email list. Discussion of revisions can begin on the email list and will continue at our next meeting. Topics for that discussion will probably include the role of the coordinating council and the values statement. * Treasury Report After calling five different banks, Isabel recommended an account with Monroe County Bank. They offer an organization bank account that requires no minimum balance. The monthly fee is $2. We need to acquire a tax ID number from the IRS before we can open the account. She requested the necessary forms from the IRS two weeks ago and is waiting for them to arrive. Isabel also suggested that we consider renting a post office box to use as the address for the tax ID number and the bank account. * Adopt-A-Road Isabel proposed that we join the Monroe County Solid Waste's Adopt-A-Road program. We would be responsible for cleaning the road four times each year. They provide safety gear and collect the bagged trash after each clean-up. A sign acknowledging our group by name would be placed at the beginning and end of the stretch of road. After reviewing the list of available roads, she suggested the stretch of Walnut between 1st and 10th streets as the best choice. The group agreed that this would be a good plan to both help the community and get some publicity. Isabel agreed to sign us up for the suggested piece of Walnut. * Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday - A Day On, Not A Day Off It was suggested that our group investigate organizing or participating in a volunteer activity as part of the MLK Jr. holiday. Michael volunteered to contact the Bloomington city government's Volunteer Network to find out how we could participate and report back at the next meeting. * Media Report Jeff wrote a piece on universal health care that appeared in the H-T letters section and also ran as a Speak Your Mind commentary on WFIU. Steps also wrote a letter that appeared in the H-T letters section. Marge and Jeff attended a Bush counter-protest focusing on the death penalty earlier in the week. Marge's picture appeared on the front page of the H-T. Ken was contacted by the H-T for an election wrap-up story. * Email Report Peter reported that there are 64 subscribers to btowningreens and 25 subscribers to btowningreens-discuss. He also clarified that all messages from these mailing lists are automatically forwarded to the corresponding lists for the campus group. If a person subscribes to the campus group's lists, they will also get all the MCGP messages. Peter was unsure of the contact for the campus email lists, but suggested emailing Nate Wolf (newolf@indiana.edu) for information. Peter banned a second spammer who was posting articles to the announcement list after a warning message failed to elicit either a response or change in behavior. Vic volunteered to look into the possibility of hosting our email lists and acquiring a domain name on his own machine via his ISP. He'll report back with his findings at the next meeting. * Campus Report No students from the campus group were present to give a report on their activities. * Meeting Times Julie has reserved Meeting Room 1-A from 7:00pm-8:30pm for our January 2 and February 6 meetings. She also contacted the Unitarian church as a potential meeting place for our 3rd Tuesday meetings, but they charge $40 per night for use. She plans to call Campus Ministries to inquire about the use of their meeting room. Michael will also follow up with Harmony School to find out if we can host meetings there. * Election Jeff has requested literature for candidates from the Federal Election Commission and the State Election Board. He also decided to place an ad in the No Sweat newsletter. The state officials he spoke with assured him that it would not post any problems. The ad included the slogan "Not for sale!", his picture, and a list of issues. * Mumia Abu Jamal Activities Jeff explained that plans are afoot by several anti-death penalty groups to sponsor a public showing of a video about Mumia Abu Jamal on Sunday, December 10 at 2:00pm at the Monroe County Public Library. He has also made available a brochure about Mumia's case and the surrounding issues on his personal web page (php.indiana.edu/~jmelton/issues/mumia.html). Before the video screening, a group also plans to hand out leaflets. They will meet at noon at the Sample Gates on Indiana Street. * Terre Haute Execution Marge reported that plans are being organized for an anti-death penalty vigil and teach-in in Terre Haute to coincide with the impending federal execution at the facility there. She will post more details to the btowningreens mailing list after this Saturday's meeting of the Indiana Citizens for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. * Citizens Action Coalition Dinner Ken coordinated the reservation of a table of 10 for the CAC dinner this Saturday. It will be held on the lower level of the Radisson on Ohio and Meridian from 5:00pm to 9:00pm. He has been attempting to contact the Nader organization to ask him to address the death penalty in his comments, but hasn't been able to get in touch with them. He plans to keep trying. * State Green Party Organizational Meeting Key members from the Indiana Greens Campaign Committee who are interested in organizing a state Green party have scheduled an organizational meeting for this Saturday afternoon before the CAC dinner. Anyone interested in helping out with the organization of the state party is welcome to attend. It will be held from noon to 4:00pm at the Broad Ripple Methodist Church on 62nd Street in Indianapolis. Ken will post the exact address to btowningreens. Carpools can also be arranged on the announcement email list. * Electoral College Forum Stephanie reported that the committee working on the forum had their first meeting. They agreed that the forum would explain the current electoral college system and its history, discuss alternative electoral systems, and get points of view from the different parties (elected officials and/or party activists). The tentative date is set for Tuesday, January 9 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm at the Monroe Count Public Library. After discussion, the group agreed that it would be best for the Center for Participatory Democracy to sponsor the forum and spearhead its organization in the hopes of more easily arranging for speakers and attracting a wider audience than a Green Party event might draw. The organizers were also referred to an article in today's H-T that mentioned two Democratic state legislators who were working on proposals to change the method of assigning Indiana's electors from winner-take-all to a proportional system. Vic added them to his list of people to invite. * League of Women Voters Forum Heather reported that the League of Women Voters had extended an invitation to MCGP members to attend the League's Holiday Meeting with State Legislators. It will be held on Thursday, December 14 at 7:15pm in the Meadowood Retirement Community Terrace Room. They expected Mark Kruzan, Vi Simpson, and Peggy Welch to all attend. The legislators will share their thoughts and plans for the upcoming 2001 General Assembly and probably take questions submitted by the audience. Peter pointed out that the League event would be a great time to present our legislators with the election reform petition. It is available for download from the MCGP web site (www.freespeech.org/mcgreens). * Electoral College Protests Ken and Steps shared information about a call for national electoral college protests on December 18 (the day the electors vote). The protest's theme is "Democracy Now - Clean It, Fix It, Build It". Ken will look into the events further and forward information to the email list. If there is enough interest in participating, he will organize our local efforts via the lists. * Outreach to Other Organizations The group decided to table discussion of this topic until we were better prepared for it. There was a consensus that reaching out to people of color would be an important activity. The meeting concluded with a review of commitments and adjourned at 8:30pm. ******************************************************************** The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, December 19, at Marge Steiner's home. Her address is 409 Vernon Drive in Bloomington. (This is roughly one block north of Dunn and the Bypass, near the IU stadium.) Paul volunteered to 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