Amended Minutes: >>> indicates original text and *** indicates amended version. Minutes of COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING at GREEN PARTY OFFICE 4406 Park Blvd, Suite D, San Diego NOVEMBER 13, 2002, 6:30 - 8:30 pm 1) Called to order by Ted Muga (moderator) at 6:30 pm - Green Party Chairperson, Lupita Jimenez was unable to attend this evening. 2) Those present were CC members Ted Muga, Robyn Ardez, Muriel Adams, Ann Menasche, Ed Zugates, and Magali Offerman. Also attending was Karine Megerdoomian >>> as temperary "acting Secretary". Quorum obtained. *** as Acting Secretary. Quorum obtained. 3) Agenda as submitted by Lupita Jimenez (via internet) was approved. 4). Minutes/ Treasurer's Report - Robyn reported that the minutes from previous CC meeting were not available at this time, but will be submited at a later date. >>> Karine (also our "acting Treasurer) *** Karine (who is maintaining the books in the absence of a treasurer) provided a Treasurer's Report that indicated a balance >>>of approximately $620. *** of approximately $1000 There was then a discussion concerning outstanding liabilities ( expendentures by Karine, Robyn, and Magali that will be discussed in more detail at a future "emergency" CC meeting) 5) Filling Treasurer position - Prior to this meeting, Magali submitted the following notice via internet to the County Council: "As of our last council meeting, I'm no longer the Treasurer. The only thing I'm working on is in deciphering our books for the first half of this year. Hopefully, Micky and I will be done with this before our council meeting. After all of our accounting is clear and correct up to the end of September, I'm handing over the papers to the council. The GPSD needs to file an activity report in January of 2003 which needs to have a Treasurer's signature. Also, I will bring a form on Tuesday for the council to sign. It is a form that will give us an ID # with the Secretary of State. That form doesn't require us to provide any financial figures. I will explain it all on Tuesday. I request that the agenda be changed to show a financial report by Karine (?) since I think she's the one keeping track of the books. A separate report from me about our filing status should take about 15 minutes. Also, please add a discussion of who will be the GPSD's Treasurer. The GPSD needs someone to take the responsibility of signing all the reports that need to be filled with the FPPC on a regular basis. Thanks, Magali" - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>> Karine served notice that she would be willing to continue as "acting Treasurer" only for one more month (next CC meeting). *** Karine indicated that she would be willing to continue handling the books and pay the bills only for one more month (next CC meeting). CC members agreed that for the next month we would conduct an intense search for a volunteer to serve as our Green Party Treasurer. >>> CC members were reminded that we also do not have an official Green Party Secretary. *** remove this line. 6) Election statistics: a general review of election statistics was discussed. 7) Office maintenance and change in Lease - There was a general discussion on the need for more volunteers to work in maintaining our Green Party Office. Karine submitted the follow proposal concern the lease on the Office. Proposal to change the name on our Green Party Lease. This is a proposal to change the names on the office lease from Karine Megerdoomian and Robyn Ardez to Green Party of San Diego County. The GPSD office has been advertised as such in the community and among Greens, it has helped us tremendously in outreach and organization, and was a great asset for our campaign efforts during the November 2002 election. It is obvious that the GPSD needs to do all it can to maintain this office space. The renting of an office is in complete accordance with the GPSD Two-Year Strategy Plan approved by the County Council and the General Membership in 2002, which included the renting of an office space as one of the goals for the first year. Several members have made donations towards the office. In addition, a few members have volunteered to become sustainers, thus covering half the office rent for the first six months. The County Council should make all efforts to organize an office fundraiser and establish an office sustainer program in order to set aside the rent amount for one year. The office rent should be included in the overall yearly budget of the GPSD. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>>CC members voted 6-0 to approve the proposal. *** The proposal was approved by consensus The discussion did not specify exactly WHO would actually put their signature on the lease. Lupita's name was suggested. CC members agreed that Robyn would form a special committee to put together a program to raise the necessary funding for the office lease....And that all CC members would assistance in this effort as necessary. 8) Discussion: Proposal for Meeting changes - Karine submitted the following proposal concerning our meetings: PROPOSAL TO MODIFY MEETING FREQUENCY AND TYPE (Informal Text) (1) Core Group I would like to propose regular and frequent meetings of the "core group" which would consist of all elected county council members, but not the representatives from locals. The "core group", in theory at least, consists of the active members of the GPSD with a vision about the future of the GPSD and an interest in developing strategies for achieving these goals. This group should meet often enough like once a month or even every two weeks. (2) County Council The full county council would also include delegates from all local groups and would meet every two months only. These meetings will be geared towards coordination of county strategy and goals with the locals. One of the problems we are having now is that the local group representatives do not have the time to attend county council meetings where most of it is not really directly related to local business. By separating the "core group" meetings and the general county council (including local reps) meetings would help in getting delegates to attend. Specially that these meetings will consist of only issues that are directly relevant to the locals, local groups' updates on their projects and issues, discussion of strategy implementation within the local groups, how the county can help locals in achieving their goals, etc. This group will meet every two months. This structure of "core group" in addition to "county council" or "delegates" meetings would allow us to gear the meetings towards the people present and would help us cut on wasted time. (3) General Membership The General Membership is the one that suffers most of low attendance. I suggest that we cut those meetings to, let's say, every 3 months. Our current bylaws say "The General Membership shall meet at least once every three months, but may be held more frequently as determined by the County Council." The hamburg greens hold their general membership meetings every 6 months and it's mainly for discussion and decisions on issues such as endorsements, general policy or platform decisions. Sometimes however they may have an emergency meeting to come up with a position on e.g., the war on Iraq. ---- ---- ---- - >>> CC members voted 6-0 for the proposal as follows: *** The proposal was approved by consensus a) CC meeting to be held once a month b) General meeting to be held once every three months (or more if necessary) c) Every two months the CC, along with delagates from our Locals and other activists, would meet to discuss specific issues submitted by Locals and activists. 9) Working Group Update; Campaign -A general discuss of our current working Groups. We all agreed that we need more volunteers. 10) Status of State Rep position - Magali submitted the follow e-mail to CC members prior to this meeting: "Hi everyone, I forgot there is one other item to discuss at this council meeting. We need to discuss how the position of state representative will be filled. I think 10 minutes would suffice. I talked with both Peggy Lewis and Michael Borenstein. I emailed Ric about it first, before election day and that is how the discussion eventually involved Peggy, Michael and Helena. Ric was very unhappy. In any case, these are the suggestions that I've received: - Leave things as they are until the next plenary (Jan 11? or so) where we can have a regional caucus with the delegates rom SD and Imperial County. We can then elect a new representative. Right now we are stuck with the alternated and there's nothing in the GPCA bylaws that would help us take any action. - Start discussing with Imperial County how we would like to be represented between now and January so delegates go there prepared. San Diego can't make regional decisions without Imperial County. - Each county needs to start looking for potential candidates. - I can't be both a representative At Large and a GPSD representative. Informally, I can make sure SD knows what is going on at the CC level. Formally, if SD would rather have no representation, then SD would be choosing not to have a vote at the GPCA CC. I don't know what Imperial County thinks but I will make some calls next week. That's pretty much all the information I have right now. Talk to you soon, Magali " ---- ------ ----- - ----- CC agreed to discuss this issue again and more completely at our upcoming General Membership meeting on Nov. 24th. and also during the next plenary meeting in January 2003. 11). Dates for 2003 General Membership Meetings Lupita submitted the following notice prior to this meeting: Dates for General Membership Meetings In a written request to Hector, the following dates have been requested for the Greens at Beers Community Room: However, if there is a change in meeting dates resulting from Weds. Meeting, this will have to be changed. Jan. 19, Feb. 16, March 16, April 20, May 18, June 22,July 20 and Aug. 17. (I would suggest NO December General Memb. Meeting) These are Sundays at 1-3 p.m. I have not received confirmation from Hector as to whether or not we have been granted these dates and times, however, from a conversation I had with him, they are pretty much assured for us. ------ ------- ------ ------ ------ CC agreed that we would schedule and use the Beers Community Room for our General Membership Meetings every three months, starting Nov. 24th. Additional use of the Beers Community Room will be scheduled as necessary. 12) Plans for Selection of Delegates to January Plenary - CC agreed to discuss this item at our next General Membership Meeting on Nov. 24th. 13) Discussion: Zero Point/Overunity Systems/video possibilities- Lupita and guest Jan Kregars did not attend to make this presentation. CC members agreed to cancell this item. 14) Info on Voting irregularities - Lupita did not attend this meeting. No report made. 16) New Business. Ted reported that the "Clean elections campaign" that we worked on earlier in the year will once again make an attempt to get the necessary signatures to get a initiative on the ballot. Derik Cassady has asked our S.D. Green Party to participate again with them. CC agreed that because this issue is important to us, and that we would once again present this idea to our General Membership for discussion approval. 17). Adjourn at 8:30 pm.