Monroe County Green Party Meeting - January 2, 2001 Place: Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-A Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Isabel Piedmont, Milton Fisk, Jeff Melton, Ken Rogers, Michael Berndt Facilitator: Isabel Piedmont Scribe: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:10pm. The agenda was approved and the minutes of the 19 December meeting were approved unanimously. * PO Box Our post office box is open for business. Ken reported that there is no charge for the box! The address is: Monroe County Green Party PO Box 71 Stinesville, IN 47464 * Legislative Update The League of Women Voters has organized a Legislative Update meeting on Saturday, January 20, at 9:30am in the Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room B and C. Members of the public are welcome to attend. Our state legislators (or at least as many of them as can attend) will be on hand to discuss the work underway at the current legislative session in Indianapolis. * Media Report Jeff's piece for Speak Your Mind on the death penalty aired in December. * Email Report Peter reported that we have 58 members on btowningreens and 24 members on btowningreens-discuss. Because of continued confusion resulting from our automatic forwarding to the campus Green email lists, he removed it. People who want to receive campus messages will need to subscribe to their lists as well as the btowningreens lists. Peter also touched base with Joseph about our web page. He confirmed that other commitments have prevented him from keeping it up-to-date. Peter will contact him to ask if he can take over web-updating duties. This move will move our organizational structure toward the one in our tentative charter in which one person coordinates technology for us. * Treasury Report Isabel had no changes to report. * Legal Report Paul was absent. * Campus Report No members of the IU Greens were present. * Charter The group agreed to discuss the charter draft one article at a time. We began with consideration of Article 1: Purpose, Values, and Methods. The group agreed that having a list of brief key values was a good idea, but that we needed better phrases. The group also agreed that a brief explanation of each phrase should be written in the future. It was suggested that we settle on the phrases at this time and, after further discussion at future meetings, more detailed explications could be developed. After all the more detailed text is prepared, we can amend the charter. The group agreed on the first four values as follows: 1. Ecological Awareness 2. Social Justice 3. Grassroots Democracy 4. Peaceful Conflict Resolution The group did not have time to complete discussion of the fifth value, currently listed as Decentralization. Several proposed alternative wordings include: Widely Shared Power Inclusive Power Structures Inclusive Power Relations Inclusive Decision-Making Discussion of this value and the rest of the ten will continue at our next meeting. * Web Server Vic was not present to report on the possibility of moving our web pages and email lists. Peter volunteered to contact him to see if this was still a possibility. * Martin Luther King Jr. Day Michael reported that the city-organized volunteer activities for the holiday were already fully staffed. He put our name on their list in case any last-minute projects come up. The group agreed that we do not have sufficient time or resources to organize our own project for the current year. We may be in a better position to participate in this event next year. Individual members who know of volunteer opportunities on this holiday are encouraged to post them to the list so that Greens who want to volunteer on a personal basis can learn about them. * Member List Because of poor response to the member list request, Heather did not print up a roster. She will send out another request to the email list and compile the additional results for the next meeting. * Electoral College Forum Michael had spoken with Stephanie most recently and reported that plans for the forum were on hold. The group was very interested in ensuring that this event did happen. It was suggested that a date in late January would be our best opportunity, perhaps during the afternoon on a weekend date. Michael volunteered to check on possible dates with the library, to touch base with Stephanie, and try to pull together an organizational meeting for the very near future. He will post developments to the email list. * Inauguration Day Protest (Saturday, January 20) Several members of the group expressed interest in organizing a group to travel to Washington DC for the national protests on inauguration day. The group also agreed that it would be good to help organize some kind of coordinated demonstration in Indianapolis. Ken will continue to coordinate with Greens in Indianapolis. Once they have settled on a meeting time and place, he will post details to the email list. Group members volunteered to contact other groups that might be interested in joining the demonstration. Suggestions included: campus Green groups, Democratic and other political parties, and African-American organizations. The group agreed that our immediate priority will be making this protest a success. The meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. ********************************************************************* The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, January 16, at Jeff Melton's home. His address is 3011 Leonard Springs Road #78 in Bloomington. (This is out by Walmart.) Jeff 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