Hi Laura et al, Here's the main decisions taken at the last meeting between Laura and me (in July) regarding the GPCA newspaper. It's a lot of info but thought I'd send it to all of you so that you are up to date with the latest. Please read it through and send us any comments, suggestions and corrections. In cases where there were some remaining questions or new updates, I marked them with angled brackets like this >>> . I believe there are some questions there for Mike Wyman and Laura Wells mainly. -Karine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title Logistics (address and bank account) Coordinators' Duties Website Subscriptions Submissions Advertisements Budget Content and Topics Timeline / Summary ----------------------------------- TITLE: Green Focus LOGISTICS: website is www.cagreens.org/greenfocus email is greenfocus@cagreens.org bank account for online donations: we use the GPCA one address for submissions: use the Oakland office one address for subscriptions: use the GPCA one Green Party of California Attn: Green Focus P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812 >>> Note: need to make sure Mike Wyman notifies us of any subscriptions >>> Laura, a reminder that you need to send me the Oakland PO box address DUTIES: website - Karine / Kendra submission requests and mailings - Karine budget maintenance - Karine subscriptions - Karine layout - Laura /Russell production (i.e., printing) - Laura writing - Laura / Karine editing and reviewing - Laura / Karine distribution - Laura / Karine volunteer coordination - Laura / Karine (first contact of vols. - Karine) WEBSITE: Karine and Kendra will set it up Button for subscription form; proceeds will be automatically deposited into GPCA account Ask all locals to put the subscribe button on their sites, linking to subscription form Info to include on website: info about the paper (from the editors), contact info, submission info, subsription info and form, how to submit ads and how to pay for it. Also include couple of the latest articles and possibly archives. SUBSCRIPTIONS: We agreed that subscriptions will really be memberships to the GPCA and as a member of the party, they would get an automatic subscription to Green Focus. Prices: $35 (get free GP merchandise and newspaper) $25 (newspaper only) $15 (low-income / newspaper only) See attached sample subscription form -- may need to be edited a bit >>> Still need to figure out what kind of merchandise we're giving away (we know that there are no more GPCA t-shirts...) and also who is handling the merchandise part --- is it the Clearinghouse? We would need to really coordinate the receipt of subscriptions (Mike Wyman?), the sending of merchandise for donors of $35 and above (Ken Adams?) and the maintenance of the Green Focus budget (Karine M.) SUBMISSIONS: Send a call for submissions for December issue Contact Nader, Medea, etc. and see if they would contribute an article or give us a reprint ADVERTISEMENTS: We will allow "Green" businesses to place ads in the paper. The criteria would have determined more specifically, but it would be something like the criteria used by Yolo County at http://cagreens.org/yolo/GCAList.htm. This would help us promote "Green" businesses -- such as, for instance, Camejo's solar company. We will charge $15 for classifieds / text and $50 for business card size ads. Submissions and check will go to the Submissions address. BUDGET: Expenses - copies and production --> $1700 for 25,000 copies - distribution costs --> about $300 - merchandise costs - percentage taken by PayPal for online donations (about 3%) - mailings between coordinators Income - subscriptions - advertisements - locals paying cost Note that we would need 60 new subscribers at $35 per quarter or per issue in order to be self-sustaining. We currently have about $1500 in the GPCA budget as seed money. >>> Question for Mike: would we be able to get $2000 for the December issue? That would include the estimate Laura got for production and distribution for 25,000 copies. CONTENT AND TOPICS: Topics for the December issue may include Statewide races - discussion and analysis of results Oil and foreign policy Enron and neoliberalism + globalization / corporate abuse (Nader article?) War on terrorism and civil liberties Latino issues and Green Party (in spanish) Regular columns: 10 key values (English and Spanish) mail-in coupon [see attached] 2-3 cartoons 4 to 6 photos staff list FAQ Main articles in Spanish Call for submissions Advertisements Letters to the editor TIMELINE AND SUMMARY: (L=Laura and K=Karine) July 24: --------- - find out whether we can have merchandise to give away with subscriptions (L) [DONE] - finalize title (K&L) [DONE] July 28: --------- - get email address (K --> Cameron) [PENDING] - decide on mailing address for subscriptions and submissions (K&L) [DONE] - decide on the splitting of duties (K&L) [DONE] - write up text for subscription and submission call (K) [PENDING] - decide tasks for the volunteers and write text of message (K&L) [PENDING] - determine criteria for ads we would accept (K&L) - send out subscription info to Green Locals -- via Ginny-Marie Case (K) - send out call for submissions to Green Locals - via Ginny-Marie Case (K) - send out volunteer responsibilities (K) August 5: ---------- - create subscription coupon to hand out at tabling events (see attached) - (K) [PENDING] - create subscription form and button for locals' websites (K) - send out call for submissions to local progressive groups and Indymedia (K in San Diego / L in Bay area) August 31: ----------- - set up website (K --> Kendra) [PENDING] - come up with a preliminary budget and submit to Mike Wyman? (K&L) - fax Nader and ask for reprint permission of his articles or a new article for our first issue (K)