SJVGreens Minutes

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Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens Meeting

September 13, 2007; Tom Brown, recorder

Call to Order

The SJVGreens met on Thursday, September 13, 2007, at the GLBT Resource Center in Mishawaka, IN. Karl Hardy called the meeting to order at 7:15 PM.

Members Present: Karl Hardy, Lance Howard, Kathleen Petitjean, Tom Brown.

Guests Present: Al Koch, Bill Duggin, Robin Beck, Patty Henges

I. Campaign Support

1. Campaign Go Live

Press release

  1. Karl will coordinate a press release to announce the Green candidates with the announcement of the blog. He asked for suggestions for groups, individuals and lists - other than the media - to whom he can send the press release.
  2. Tom asked Karl to replace the link to GreenTV with a link to a page re media democracy and Comcast closing three public access studios in north eastern Indiana.

Platform

  1. Karl will add media democracy to the platform.
  2. Consensus is the platform is good enough.
  3. Tom asked Karl to make a bullet point list of the platform planks for easy browsing. Karl agreed.

Yard signs, posters, banner

  1. Banner - Lance brought our banner to the meeting. There is minor damage. We decided it is good enough for the campaign. There is no need to purchase a new banner although Karl will ask a friend to touch it up.
  2. Yard signs - Karl has a friend who is a fine/graphic artist. He makes silk screen posters and offered to produce yard signs and posters for Green candidates. The artist is putting together an estimate for different quantities beginning with 100 of each. We would like 50% general purpose "Vote Green" signs and 50% "Vote Petitjean" so we can blanket the 1st District main streets.

2. Debates

Young Professionals Network mayoral debate - 10/3/07

League of Women Voters/IUSB Political Science Club/Democracy Project - no date

  1. Robin Beck is the new president of the Poli Sci Club. She will propose to the debate committee to include Tom in the mayoral debate. Robin feels sure Tom will be invited.

Progressive Voter Forum - 10/21/07

  1. Robin has agreed to moderate the forum.
  2. Robin and Tom suggested that we change the name and the format from Progressive Voter Forum to Progressive Town Hall Meeting. A town hall meeting allows a looser format. Everyone agreed.
  3. Robin wants us to have mics for the exact number of candidates, plus a mic for the moderator.
  4. Robin will write an invitation letter to send the candidates, outline the format and post them to the SJVGreens Yahoo group. Tom will send a group subscription invitation to Robin ASAP.
  5. The Greens will contact progressive groups in town and ask them to co-sponsor the town hall meeting.

Regarding additional groups to contact to co-sponsor the town hall meeting, Tom suggested we use the SJCPL Community Information catalog. Lance volunteered to ask a reference librarian for a copy of the listing. However, the database is online. Tom will search for organizations which are related to our Four Pillars.

3. CFED - 9/18/07

Kathleen will go to the Community Forum on Economic Development meeting and ask what Green candidates can do to support CFED.

4. Legal Challenge to Election Board

Karl seeks permission to continue to work with Richard Winger, publisher of Ballot Access News, regarding legal remedies if the Election Board does not count, does not certify or under counts write-in votes in the upcoming municipal election.

The consensus is to continue to work with Winger.

Tom notes, ironically, the Greens did not intend to seek legal remedies until Tom Botkin, the Republican Election Board member, told us to "find an attorney", and the Election Board then refused to further discuss issues that arose in the November 2006 general election.

5. St. Mary's College - 9/25/07

Kathleen and Karl discussed what materials to take to the presentation at St. Mary's College and to the YPN mayoral debate. The SMC event will be a small gathering of 10 or a few more. Bill volunteered to photo-copy anything we need for events. Karl suggested we prepare a kit copies of newspaper clippings or quotes from newspaper articles and op-ed pieces Greens have written for Voice of the People and Michiana Point of View. Tom suggested a cover page for the kit which explains the issues contained from a Green perspective. He also suggested that we not spend much on printing if we can bring a laptop computer and portable printer to events. Then we can print documents on demand.

Karl and Kathleen will create a draft kit.

6. Election Night Party

Karl offered to host a party. So did Kathleen.

II. Treasurer's Report

Lance gave the Treasurer's report.

Fund Balance
Special savings: $1357.50
Political fund: $210.52
Share draft: $93.89

III. GreenTV

Before the meeting started, Tom gave a report on Comcast closing public access studios in northwestern and northcentral Indiana and Michigan. The studios will be closed as production facilities on September 28. The technicians will continue to receive and broadcast tapes until an unannounced date in November. However, the tapes must meet Comcast public access broadcast specifications which will virtually eliminate any fresh tapes. The studio technicians will be laid off no later than December 15, 2007, and the public access channel will go black unless municipalities and/or non-profits open their own production studios.

IV. IGP Congress - 10/6/07

Karl will be the only delegate to the Congress in Terre Haute. He will drive to the Congress early on Saturday morning and return after lunch on Sunday. Let Karl know soon if you want to attend the Congress with him. He would appreciate someone to talk to on the trip.

We ran out of time and didn't discuss issues for Congress so Karl will continue discussions on our Yahoo list. We reckon our group has the largest organized voting block at Congress.

VI. Adjournment

Karl adjourned the meeting at 9:30 PM.

VII. Next Meeting

The next monthly SJVGreens meeting is Thursday, October 11, at the GLBT Resource Center, Mishawaka, IN. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm.

 St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN