Sunday, December 8, 6:45 - 9 :00 pm

Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave.

Attendees

Councilors present: Leslie Bonett, Greg Jan (proxy for Bud Dickinson), Bob Marsh (proxy for Kate Tanaka), Suzanne Baker, Kevin Reilly, John Selawsky, Patti Marsh, Laura Wells, John Klopf (proxy for Gloria Guy). Councilors absent: Lee Amoslee, Gloria Guy, Lisa Stephens, Kate Tanaka.

Members present: Martin Ilian, John Morton, Peter Gaposchkin, B Soffer.

Facilitator: Sunni.

I. Introductions

II. Announcements

1. Green Solstice, Tribute to Dona Spring for Ten Years of Service, Dec. 15, 7 pm, Café de la Paz.
2. GP State Plenary, Jan.11 & 12, Stanford University, Palo Alto. Agenda can be found at: http://www.cagreens.org/plenary/packet.html.
3. Stop Iraq War/Rally for Peace, Tuesday, Dec. 10th, 12 Noon, Oakland Federal Building
4. National Lawyers Guild will present resolution opposing USA Patriot Act, stage tea party, Tuesday, Dec. 10th, at Unitarian Church in Oakland 685 14th St. (at Castro) 6:00-8:30 pm.
5. Celebrate Dona Spring‚s Re-election, Tuesday, Dec. 10th, Berkeley City Hall, 4:30 ˆ 5:00 pm.

III. Consent Calendar - No items.

IV. Review of agenda to add or remove items

Add discussion item about grass roots house rep (Bob).

Add discussion item about Sierra Club position on Iraq war (Bob).

V. Action Items ˆ No items.

VI. Discussion Items

California Green Party Plenary

January 11 & 12, Agenda is not yet set, check state website for posting. We need 10 delegates from Alameda County. Should announce to list for delegates and observers. Working groups and standing committees will be meeting.

County Council meeting is also Jan 12. We do not want to change date or time. Councilors who attend plenary should have time to get back from Palo Alto. Delegates working on Green Sunday can leave a little early and have alternates stay for any votes.

PROPOSAL TO KEEP GREEN SUNDAY AND COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULED AS PLANNED PASSES BY CONSENSUS

Delegate selection: Leslie Bonett, Greg Chan, Bob Marsh, Suzanne Baker, Martin Illian, Kevin Reilly, John Selawsky, John Klopf, John Morton, Larry Shoup, David Sheidlower, Leslie Dinkin, Patti Marsh, Peter Gaposchkin, Laura Wells all volunteered.

The fifteen volunteers will arrange to have a full complement of delegates and available alternates at the plenary. Leslie Dinkin will coordinate delegates. Delegates will meet and decide the voting strategy. If the CC wants to mandate items relating to agenda we can do it by email once we have the agenda.

DELEGATE AUTHORIZATION PASSES BY CONSENSUS

Plenary costs are estimated at $30 - 35 per day. Leslie Dinkin requested that her costs be covered. Greg and Leslie B. also expressed interest. John proposed we authorize up to four scholarships (4x full amount) for the delegates. Kevin asked where does money come from in our budget? Bob said it is not budgeted, but there were no concerns.

SCHOLARSHIPS PASS BY CONSENSUS

Delegates should read agenda packet (at a minimum) before attending. To find agenda, go to the state party website or email Leslie Dinkin.

Capacity Building

Leadership function, group dynamics, working relationships, five year plan.

Sunni: showing charts from previous meetings. Four possibilities for capacity building, at the last meeting we split up into pairs and talked about priorities. Are there any clarifying questions? Q: What is "speaking style"? A: the way people speak to each other and respect teach other. Q: What is "diagnosis"? A: Sonny's perspective is not complete, but she can meet individually with each person in the group and diagnose problems.

Sunni: Leadership and Vision were competing as the first priority. Today we can see what it would be like to focus on one of these two areas.

Laura: organize volunteers?

Sunni: that would be connected to leadership.

John S: he'd like to have a definition of leadership. Nuts and Bolts should be separate, and organizational systems should function on their own. Can we clarify leadership?

Greg: is this about the CC meetings itself or leadership for party? Or general leadership?

Sunni: it's for CC or the way CC relates to the whole membership, depending on what we decide today. She's not clear what our focus is: Local vs. statewide or national? She sees ambiguity.

Bob: leadership wasn't individual people's traits, but this body as a whole in local politics.

Sunni: an appropriate model for this group might be "distributive" leadership. Often there's an assigned vibes watcher, sometimes there are people who do that naturally. Clarify roles and functions that people can have and empower them to use them in this group. Plus, there's leadership outside this body... We need to decide as a group.

Greg: we have to address both. County needs leadership so party as a whole has focus. Leadership in this body is necessary so this body will get things done.

Leslie B: we have a problem assigning people to positions of responsibility, we don't even have working group coordinators. It's our nature as a grass roots party.

Martin: Leadership is a loaded term. People can think of it in different ways. Certain personalities rise to be leaders in a group like this. CC is more decision-making then leadership. Outreach committee can take a leadership role (for instance Green Sundays and Newsletter). Wants to clarify what leadership is before we go further.

Sunni: should this be the first focus or are we just trying to clarify. Vision is also an issue - do we want to address that?

Laura: We need a "contact person" for various things - that's a leadership function that she's comfortable with. State has contact people for various things. Statewide campaign was powerful because they could identify with Camejo. It's hard to contact our party when we don't have that type of visible person.

Leslie D: vision question: leadership should come first before vision. Who gets things done? Who's accountable? Do we trust each other enough to be accountable for projects? She thinks we should. Leadership can lead into vision.

Greg: partly this is timing. There are many important topics we could talk about for hours and hours - we should try to spend less time on this so we can get to vision issue by February of 2003. Time goes quickly and we haven't decided what to work on next year.

Laura: sooner rather then later on vision question.

Sunni: everyone should define what they think leadership is in this context. We'll break up in groups and discuss.

Suzanne: she'd rather talk about structure of leadership than this amorphous process. There was a committee structure with designated people. We should look at that first.

Sunni: that concern is Suzanne's idea of a starting point. She wants to see if everyone else agrees or not.

Martin: what is value of leadership?

Patti: structural stuff like website and database and contact people is most important. We can't lead the party without these things.

Greg: how does the county council get things done? That's the important part. Bigger picture is whole party of Alameda County. There are some elected greens who are leaders that sometimes take the lead on their own, and chapters that take leadership in certain areas. There are ways that GPAC activity gets done that aren't through this body, for example, letters to the editor and representing the GP at City Council meetings. Most of our discussion should be for this group, but it's important to remember the bigger picture.

Sunni: what should we focus on and how will we do it? Will the whole group do it or set up a committee?

John Morton: Likes practical nature and setting up a structure for positions with assigned duties. Before we can do a structure, maybe there should be a mission - what do we do as a CC?

Leslie: she thought Sunni was going to instruct us on one of these issues... She feels like people have been searching for the perfect structure for a CC, and haven't been focusing on the real "doing" part. Shouldn't we be learning to be better counselors?

Bob: we have a modified plan of operation that he wrote and people modified. It's not published, but the document is agreed on. Some of it hasn't been implemented yet. For instance we haven't got a media contact person.

Martin: plan of operations can be changed on a weekly basis - if letters to the editor are important and we forgot to put it in we can include that. He took a leadership position on website.

John: time is running out and he feels people know what we need to do and we should get structure down and review what we have. Let's just start. Organizations are complicated - outreach becomes a budget item, etc. Individual initiative is great but it's not structural.

Suzanne: can email structure and committee contact people to the group tomorrow.

John: it should be understood by those not on CC.

Laura: she'd like to see a binder with all procedures compiled.

Greg: we have lots of volunteers out there that would like to be on committees.

Bob: no more binders - he wants it on computers.

Martin: three people a day volunteer on the website and he forwards to Kate Tanaka.

Sunni: is there going to be a small group or will the whole group do it?

Greg: the whole group needs to work on it.

LD: whole group wants to weigh in on this. Can start this via email. She hears impatience and thinks we should get going.

Greg: hopefully after all comments are in, the administrative committee will give us suggested focus areas for next meeting. Which committees to strengthen, etc.

LD: willing to read comments and distill it for admin. committee.

VII. Reports

Treasurer’s Report (Bob)

Last month's pessimism about money was unfounded because money has been rolling in. We have a small surplus from voter guide. We're about $300 down for the fiscal year (ends in July) and we donated $700 to other campaigns that should've come out of capital reserves instead of operations.

We put $1000 in business reply envelopes in voter guides, and made $3000 from those envelopes. Fixed monthly expenses are about $350, monthly sustainers about $100 a month now, but it varies because some donations are quarterly.

Outreach Working Group (Patti)

Green Sunday is the project - today was first. It was successful, forty-five attendees. Will do it every month with a different focus. As far as email lists go, there are three announcement list moderators. All three will read it before it goes out to eliminate frivolous messages (Laura, Kevin, Patti). Green events can be included on the email on the Monday before Green Sunday - send them to the outreach folks. Eight days after CC meeting will be outreach meeting. Location to vary. Laura: tabling at Grand Lake farmer's market: getting 4-5 people registering green each week. Greg: Large anti-Iraq war demonstration in SF January 17th or so - Greens should show up and march. Include this in the Green Sunday email. Suzanne: volunteers for tabling at Jack London Square would be welcome.

Newsletter Committee (Suzanne)

A group of 6 or 8 people enthusiastic about the layout and editing. Meeting tomorrow to finalize the second issue. They'll send newsletter to everyone who donated in the last period (since January 1st) plus people who subscribed to the newsletter. 94609 in Oakland is the current zip code (we rotate zip codes). She needs submissions for April issue.

Administrative Committee (Martin)

The Committee met a while ago, will meet January 9th, 6:30 pm, Au Coqulet and will focus on centralizing data to get a membership database functioning. Next meeting Jan. 9th at Au Coquelet, University Ave., Berkeley, 6:30 pm.

Secretary (Kevin)

Will be updating records for Council meetings minutes, new Council roster and committee structure from Suzanne, fundraising plan in draft stage.

Locals

i. Berkeley (John): got out 411 postcards for Andy Katz running for City Council from District 8 but Gordon Wozniak won anyway in a big turnout election. There is no local - it's ad hoc.

ii. Alameda (Kevin): Focus on issues related to Alameda Point park and proposed golf course. AC Transit is also being re-routed. Next meeting will be social gathering, Dec. 12th at McGee‚s Bar & Grill, 1645 Park St., 7:00 pm, all welcome.

iii. Oakland (Leslie B): The chapter played a key role in helping pass Measure EE (just cause for evictions) and defeating money for 100 cops. Judi Hirsch proposed that Oakland greens support Oakland becoming sister city with Oasis of Peace - it was not approved. Judy and Peter will be coming up with education presentation for February. Laura will set up tables. Please attend the Oakland City Council meeting on the Dec.17th to support the vote against compliance with the federal Patriot Act. We will be holding a picket line outside o! f City Hall starting at 6:30 pm and expect good press coverage. Please come picket and then sign up in favor of the Resolution. You do not need to speak. The Council will also certify Measure EE (just cause for evictions) that night and you can sign up to support it also. Next meeting, Jan. 27, 2003, Grand Lake Neighborhood Center (between Grand Avenue and Lakeshore) near Sechuan restaurant. The Center is wheelchair accessible and near AC Transit bus routes 57 & 58, 7 pm. December meeting is cancelled.

iv. UCB Campus: no report.

v. Others: San Leandro local exists now - Bob Fox is meeting monthly - it'll be in the newsletter (Suzanne).

House (Bob): three weeks ago Steve Unger told him no one representing the Greens had come to a meeting since summertime. We need a house rep, and someone will have to pick up the slack. Meetings are 6:30 second Weds. Kevin could do it. John will email info to Kevin.

VIII. Action Items added during Agenda Review

Sierra Club (Bob): heard story on KPFA news that Glen Canyon chapter and a number of others are objecting to Sierra Club national board of directors position on Iraq war. Letter to editor of LA Times from Sierra Club - the board of directors for the Sierra Club is supportive of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and achieving a peaceful resolution through the UN Security Council resolution. The dependence of US on oil is a root cause of these problems. There is a referendum to overturn this new policy.

PROPOSAL: we should write a letter to Sierra Club (for announcement list people to forward) and say what Greens believe about no war at all. Bob recommends group of three people to work on it.

Suzanne suggests we post letter on website that people can email. The timing of distribution is right after New Years. Greg suggests we send it to all greens in the country and send it to State party county contacts - ask Joe Chamberlain for list of names. Laura suggests we add information on when they had to become a member in order to be eligible to participate in the signature petition for Sierra Club.

PROPOSAL PASSES BY CONSENSUS

Volunteers? We could ask: Michael _____, Larry Shoup, Pam Webster - a Green that just got elected to Sierra Club board.

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.

Minutes by: Kevin Reilly

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