Monroe County Green Party Meeting - April 17, 2001 Place: Environmental Center 116 1/2 S College Avenue Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Jeff Melton, Steps to Freedom (Sean Bagley), Julie Roberts, Hilmi Demir, Maha Noureldin, Isabel Piedmont Facilitator: Steps Secretary: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:03pm. The agenda will be loose to accommodate late arrivals who were attending the nuclear waste presentation on campus. Minutes of the 3 April meeting were approved. * Technology Coordinator Report Peter reported that our web host, freespeech.org, has been down for a few days, but has come back up. He has also recruited a few new members for our email lists by calling people who wrote H-T letters to the editor that were in line with Green values. He also explained that the state party has decided to buy a domain name and should have space for local groups to use in the future. He will keep us posted as things develop. * Media Report Jeff has been unable to submit our meeting information to the H-T and other media outlets over the past few weeks, but will resume. * Mail Jeff volunteered to get in touch with Ken to find out if we have any mail in our post office box as Isabel is expecting our tax ID number. We also hope to get a more detailed update about what is happening at the state party organizational meetings. * TV-Turnoff Week Peter reported that the press kits were mailed to all the local papers and radio stations. He has also submitted a guest column to the H-T for publication at the beginning of the week. Heather also asked for a volunteer to moderate the Monday forum. She will likely be tied up at a Utilities Service Board meeting that could well run long. Julie volunteered to help if needed. She and Peter will meet at the library at 6:30pm to make sure all the arrangements are made in time for the 7:00pm starting time. It was also suggested that we develop a mailing list of local groups, churches, schools, and other organizations who might be interested in our future events to help get the word out into the community. * Nuclear Free Great Lakes Presentation Isabel attend the presentation this evening and found it very informative. If the plan goes forward, nuclear waste will come through Indiana on its way to Utah. Jeff will forward information about a protest next week in Michigan at the Cook Nuclear Plant. There's a good chance he will attend. Others interested in attending should contact him. More information about this issue can be found at the web site: www.nirs.org * Treasurer Report Isabel told us that the Monroe County Bank now says we are not eligible for an organization account because we're not a non-profit group. We have to get a small business account. The fee is $6.50 per month. She also had information from Old National. Their small business accounts are $5.00 per month. If you maintain a sizeable minimum balance, this fee is waived. The group agreed that she should open an account there. She will try to open the account before this weekend so we can accept checks for t-shirt sales and dues. * Waldron Earth Day The group discussed plans for our participation on Sunday. Julie (and any other people who can help carry tabling supplies) will meet at Heather's house (342 S Madison) at 11:00am on Sunday. They will cart our folding table, chairs, giant sunflowers, and other tabling materials to the table area on 4th Street between College and Walnut. Our group will also walk in the parade. People should meet near the Waldron at 11:45am. Please wear Green Party t-shirts (they will be available for sale for $15 at our table before the parade) or green. The group agreed that it was CRITICAL to get as many people as possible to turn out for our marching group. Tabling will happen after the parade until 4:00pm. We will try to have the following items available as literature: - Ten Key Values flyer (Heather) - 50 Things You Can Do To Save the Earth (Jeff) - TV-Turnoff flyers (Isabel) - Clipboards with sign-up sheets for new email list subscribers (Heather) - MCGP contact handbills (Heather) * Adopt-A-Road Isabel reported that our name plate has been added to the sign. Her call to the office turned up the information that the city does not allow as many signs downtown as would be needed to post our sponsorship at the beginning and end of our strip. Instead, we have to share posts with the other two groups who maintain other stretches of Walnut. * CALMfest CALMfest will take place on Saturday from noon to dusk in Dunn Meadow. They hoped that we would be interested in tabling. Steps plans to be there for most of the day. If other people would like to stop by and help distribute information, they should feel free to help him out. * SEAC Earth & Music Festival We will also table at the SEAC Earth Day event on Saturday, April 28. We are sharing a table with IUB Greens. We think that table and chairs will be provided, but need to check with Chris to verify this. Heather and Peter will bring the giant sunflowers and literature to the first shift. The shifts are as follows: 11:00am to 2:00pm Heather and Peter Drake 2:00pm to 3:30pm Isabel Piedmont 3:30pm - end Hilmi Demir We need other members to join these people as they are able to help hand out information, talk to potential new members, and enjoy the festival. * Water privatization Public comment on the water privatization proposal continues at the Utilities Service Board meetings. The next meeting will be at 5:00pm on Monday, April 23. Sewer connection fees, an important sprawl issue, will also be on the agenda. People should keep coming to the meetings. * Dolphin's Tree Sit Jeff gave us some brief information about the reasons for the tree sit. Among the criticisms are: - The woods is an environmentally sensitive area. - Although billed as low income housing, rents will be $569/month for two-bedroom apartments. - The developer has applied for abatements. He also promised to send notes from the support meetings to our discussion list for more information. * Yellowwood Tree Sit The goal of this tree sit is to stop logging in the state forest. The rights to the trees have already been sold. Steps has more information for people who would like to go out to the sit and support it. * SB 329 - Election Reform Peter has already sent information about this bill to the mailing lists, but mentioned it again. The bill will require publicity for the Voter Bill of Rights and mandate that polls stay open for an hour longer on election day, but it will also move up the deadline for independent candidates to submit their ballot access signatures from July 15 to June 30. This will be disastrous as it deprives activists of the July 4 weekend as an opportunity to collect signatures. Peter encouraged all members to write to our representatives and the governor to urge them to oppose the legislation. * Merchant Power Plants Legislation Jeff, who has been working with Citizens Action, told the group about some legislation that would have allowed the state go regulate merchant power plants. These plants are built in Indiana, but sell their electricity outside the local area on the wholesale market. Legislation has been killed, but they are trying to insert it into another bill. He asked people to contact Vi Simpson and tell her to support this action. * Student Disorientation A coalition of campus progressive groups and community groups had an organizational meeting to plan a student "disorientation" for the fall. Peter attended their first organizational meeting. They hope to inform students about community issues. They would like to hold a Dunn Meadow event, assemble a booklet about issues (IU's Nike contract, use of old growth, etc.), and get them involved. At this point, they are trying to bring in more groups to help organize events. Much of the planning will go on over the summer. Peter will keep us updated as plans develop. People can also contact ufdave1@aol.com if they would like to get their group involved. * Focus and Planning The group engaged in some discussion about our future focus and planning. It was suggested that we get more regular updates on state, national, and international activities and trends in the Green party. Once we have elected a Green Party Liaison, this kind of information should become a regular report at each meeting. It was also suggested that we hold a day-long retreat in the near future (May or June?) to plan our activities for the next year, establish committees to work on them, and develop a list of specific goals and deadlines for their work. It was also emphasized that we need to get as many people as possible to our next meeting for the election of coordinators for the next year. After a review of commitments, the meeting adjourned at 9:22pm. ********************************************************************* The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, May 1, at the Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-B. Peter volunteered to serve as facilitator. He 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. *********************************************************************