Monroe County Green Party Meeting - March 6, 2001 Place: Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-A Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Isabel Piedmont, Chris Stafford, Daniel Logan, Hilmi Demir, Paul Colbert, Julie Roberts, Sean "Steps to Freedom" Bagley, Marcus Christie, Kevin Sowders, Maha Noureldin Facilitator: Steps Secretary: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:08pm. The agenda was approved with additions and the minutes of the 20 February meeting were approved. * Technology Coordinator Report Peter noted that the TV Turn-off Week web page is up. You can find it from the MCGP main web page at: www.freespeech.org/mcgreens * Campus Coordinator Report Chris reported that only two people attended the last IUB Greens meeting. He thinks it is unlikely that the group will meet on a regular basis for the rest of the semester, but they will continue their work in co-sponsoring events with other campus groups. * Adopt-A-Road Peter asked if our sign had been put up yet, but no one knew. * TV Turn-Off Week Plans for TV Turn-Off Week events continue to develop. Heather has lined up four speakers for the Monday night forum, "Putting Television in Its Place". It will be held at the MCPL Auditorium at 7:00pm on April 23. She has asked speakers to submit titles and abstracts for use in publicity. She is also trying to have CATS tape the event and perhaps broadcast it live. Isabel and Paul volunteered to step in for Jeff, as he deals with other matters, to organize the Wednesday nature walk. Peter has rounded up several sponsors for Friday night's Family Game Night, including the Bloomington Indiana Community Chess League (BICYCLe), Game Preserve, IU Conflict Simulations Club, and IU Go Club. He has also approached Harmony School about using their gymnasium as a venue for the event. * Recruiting and Outreach Steps pointed out that we need to make an effort to recruit new members and reach out to other Green-minded organizations in the community. Something simple, such as spreading the word about events, would be helpful in movement building. To that end, people shared details for several upcoming events: - Chris mentioned a Staples protest that is scheduled for March 28. Staples is a target because they have a poor record on selling old-growth and recycled products. A planning meeting will be held on March 20. He will post more details to the announcement email list. - Chris also mentioned a possible protest of Starbucks slated for March 20. He sent a general inquiry of interest to the email list already. There are no firm plans at this time. - Paul mentioned that Mark Kruzan will be giving a talk on the issue of animal cruelty on March 23 at the IU Law School. He will post more details to the announcement email list. - Heather mentioned the next League of Women Voters legislative update scheduled for March 17 at 9:30am in Meeting Rooms 1-B and 1-C of the Monroe County Public Library. Peter also reminded members that anyone can add events to our Yahoo!Groups calendar. The easiest way to get to the calendar is from the MCGP web address listed above. * Earth Day Chris has been in contact with SEAC and shared some of their Earth Day plans. The event will be held on Saturday, April 28. He suggested that IUB Greens and Monroe County Greens split the cost of a table. The group agreed that this was a good idea and authorized Isabel to give him the $10 for our share of the cost. Kevin also mentioned that there are plans afoot for Earth Day events on Earth Day itself (March 20) at the Waldron Arts Center. Julie volunteered to call the contact number he provided and get more information about events and the possibility of our participation. * Fundraising In discussing the need for fundraising, the group wondered how funds for the Nader billboard had been raised. The funds were generated by a few campus Greens who are professional canvassers. Chris has a contact who might be willing to run a training session for canvassers and the group expressed interest in pursuing it. Chris and Isabel also proposed that we contribute to a three-way order, with IUB Greens and the DePauw Greens, of T-shirts and bumper stickers from Goods For Greens (www.goodsforgreens.com). Selling them to members and at the Earth Day table would help generate funds. Isabel and Chris will put an order together for roughly 100 T-shirts and a stack of bumper stickers. They will post the details to the discussion email list and then, barring objections, place the order. As we will need to hand out receipts for these sales, the group also authorized Isabel to purchase a carbon receipt book. * Charter After a review of the 2/20/01 draft of the charter, the group voted to approve it with a few typographical corrections. It is planned to amend the charter with paragraph explications of the key value phrases at a later date. With the charter approved, several nuts and bolts issues needed to be resolved. First, we needed to set the dues level. Several suggestions were considered including a sliding scale, $20/year, $15/year, $10/year, and payment plans. After discussion, the group decided to start with the $20/year level. (10 in favor, 2 abstain) If we find that another amount would be better, it could be changed for the following year. Other issues related to dues collection, such as pro-rating membership for people who join in mid-year, also needed to be worked out. Isabel, as acting Treasurer, was asked to come up with some procedures to present at the next meeting. Second, we needed to schedule the first election for Coordinators. The group agreed that it would be best to hold the election at a meeting scheduled for the Monroe County Public Library because they are the best attended. Since our April library date is being used for the TV Turn-Off Week forum, May 1 was the next such meeting. The group decided to hold the first election at the May 1 meeting. (10 in favor, 2 abstain) After a review of commitments, the meeting adjourned at 9:55pm. *********************************************************************** The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, March 20, at XXXXXX. Julie volunteered to serve as facilitator. She will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date and post an announcement of the meeting at the Monroe County Public Library bulletin board. ***********************************************************************