SJVGreens Minutes

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Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens

June 10, 2004; Tom Brown, recorder

Call to Order: Kathleen Petitjean (fomerly, Kaiser) called the meeting to order at 7:12 PM in the Molloy Room of the St. Jo. Co. Public Library, South Bend, IN.

Members Present: Lance Howard, Tom Brown, Kathleen Petitjean, David Vollrath

Agenda: Kathleen Petitjean, coordinator, solicited agenda items.

Officer Reports

Treasurer: Lance will circulate an email report to members.

Coordinator: Kathleen has taken responsibility for scheduling GreenTV studio time. Vicki used to do the scheduling.

Delegate Reports

IGP Delegate: Dave Vollrath reported on IGP. IGP-CC will hold its June meeting at the GPUS convention in Milwaukee.

The first round of votes for the Presidential nominee is complete and was held by email and letter. The IGP CC polled members for their candidate preferences in the Instant Runoff Voting manner. IGP delegates to the convention must cast Indiana's votes proportionately during the first round of voting at the convention. If there is no winner on the first round, delegates are allowed to use their discretion in voting.

Several states have submitted a proposal to strike the solidarity oath requirement from the delegate form. Dave explained the issue of the loyalty oath as best he could. The delegate form requires a pledge to not actively work against the selected GPUS Presidential candidate. Some Greens object to the oath on the grounds that it is anti-democratic and restricts individual freedom. The SJVGreens' consensus is to vote for the proposal to strike the oath from the delegate form. Tom proposed that Dave explore the options open to our delegates if they refuse to sign the pledge and are not seated. Can we assign the votes of unseated IGP delegates to seated delegates. The proposal passed and Dave will check on delegate rules and options.

[Recorder's note, 6/17/04: Jeff Sutter was not present at the meeting. In an email he wondered if we had considered that opposition to the oath might be motivated by Greens who are sympathetic to the Democrats or intend to support Nader rather than the Green candidate. They may simply want to work against the Green candidate without guilt, and therefore oppose the oath. The opposition rhetoric seems over blown and disingenuous to him. In fact, Jeff's ideas were not discussed at the meeting.]

Our understanding of the "safe states" strategy is that the Green Presidential candidate will campaign vigorously only in states where there is no possibility of Greens tipping the election. The consensus is that the safe states strategy is OK.

Old Business

Submit GreenTV shows to networks: Lance had proposed that GreenTV submit shows to Free Speech Television (FST). Tom explored FST's technical requirements with the production staff at Comcast. The Comcast studio is not able to meet FST's broadcast requirements. Therefore, GreenTV will need to hire a commercial digital studio to do the prep work if FST accepts any of our shows for airing.

CSO alerts: Last month Tom proposed that we publish the City of South Bend's CSO warnings on the SJVGreens' web site. Tom subscribed to the City's email CSO alert list and has been publishing the alerts on the front page of our web site.

New Business

Upgrade Comcast's studio: Kathleen proposed that the Greens organize a petition to upgrade the Comcast cable access studio facilities and submit it to Comcast and the City of South Bend. The proposal passed by consensus. Dave will gather contact information re the other cable access show producers. Kathleen will call Neal re technical matters involved in upgrading the studio.

GreenTV budget: Tom presented an annual budget for GreenTV. The report contained the actual costs of producing the first 26 weeks of GreenTV and projected costs for the next 26 weeks. Vicki and Tom have underwritten the entire capital cost and production expenses. Lance proposed the Greens reimburse Tom as much as possible from the special fund. The proposal passed by consensus.

Pitch shows to WNIT: Lance proposed that GreenTV pitch its shows to WNIT. Tom said that Vicki had looked into this. WNIT won't broadcast GreenTV shows, but WNIT is looking for good ideas. So they might use our ideas to produce a show or allow us to work with their producers. The hitch is that we need to spend time at WNIT and get to know their producers. No one volunteered to take on the project. So we may look into the proposal later.

GreenTV fund raiser: Someone, I didn't note who, made a proposal to raise funds to support GreenTV. The proposal passed by consensus. Tom will organize an email appeal. Kathleen will offer dubs of shows to several groups who've benefited from GreenTV productions and ask for donations.

Voter registration: We didn't get to discuss voter registration.

Closing: Kathleen Petitjean closed the meeting at 8:45 PM.

Next meeting: Our next meeting is Thursday, July 8, 7:00 PM, in the Molloy Room at the St. Joseph Co. Public Library downtown.

 St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN