Last Update Jan 25, 2002

GPCA Plenary, Jan 18 to 20, 2002

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    GPCA Plenary Report
    January 19-20, 2002
    Submitted by Orval Osborne, Jan 22, 2002 to the California Forum listserve.

    Orval Osborne's summary report. If you find errors, send me corrections.[oosborne@fix.net]

    1. Information
      A. Information Policy: The following labels will be assigned to documents:
      1. Public (send anywhere),
      2. Internal (sensitive, password- protected), and
      3. Private (example: financial donor info).

      B. Website
      www.cagreens.org contains (or soon will) the following resources (which are all printed on a pretty bookmark):

      In addition to the above are the state Working Groups and Standing Committees:

    2. Consent Calendar
      A. Endorsed statement on Armenian Genocide
      B. Endorsed joining the CalIRV coalition
      C. Endorsed Proposition 40

    3. Platform
      A. Education - accepted, with minor amendments
      B. Energy - accepted, with minor amendments
      C. Transportation - accepted, with minor amendments
      D. Economy - withdrawn after failing to receive necessary support.
      Disagreements are in many diverse, even contradictory areas, with taxation the most diverse topic.

    4. Reapportionment of the GPCA Coordinating Committee
      The Coordinating Committee (CC) consists of 20 people who run the Party in between Plenaries and set the Plenary agendas. The state is divided into regions, with representatives coming from each region.
      The current (now former) system had 10 regions, with 1 or 2 reps form each; 4 at-large members are chosen to add diversity. The Plenary chose a new system with 11 regions, resulting in much better balance between regions in terms of population per representative. Our region did not change. It consists of SLO, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. We have 1 representative, currently Pamela Meidell, of Ventura. We need to groom alternates and eventual replacements for our regional representative.

    5. Barbara Lee endorsement
      Proposal was withdrawn. Some (including myself) argued against an endorsement of a Democrat in a Primary because this sends a message to quit the Green Party and register Democratic. (The open primary law was removed some time ago.) The proposal was not clear enough about whether it was an endorsement of the candidate, or support for her one, courageous vote against Presidential war authority and funding. It was withdrawn, possibly to be resubmitted for the next Plenary.

    6. Saturday Night Event
      All our statewide candidates made excellent speeches. I am proud of our slate of candidates. (I was told audio files will be available on http://la.indymedia.org)

      Green Party Press Conference: Peter Camejo (article) -- Jan. 20, 2002
      Peter Camejo at GPCA Candidate's Forum (audio) -- Jan 19, 2002

      The keynote speech was from Antonio Gonzales, the head of the Southwest Voter Project, the largest Latino organization in the country. (He is a longtime friend of Peter Camejo, our candidate for Governor). He stressed voter registration as the most important thing for Latinos, and for our Party too. Latino registration went from 2 million to 8 million; now their power is starting to be recognized. As for Party affiliation, Latinos are disappointed with the Democrats, Governor Davis in particular. The Republicans are no longer anti-minority, but don't reach most Latinos because of their economic policies. They appreciate the gesture of candidates speaking Spanish, and are impressed by parties putting forward Latino candidates. The Green Party has theoretical potential to attract many registrants and votes, but has not done any serious organizing in the Latino community. The Greens are far from being in a position to offer Latino voters and especially politicians convincing reasons for switching parties.

    7. The Green Party celebrated out 10th anniversary of being a ballot- qualified Party.

    8. The next Plenary will take place May 4-5 in Fresno.

    9. Greens love LA! Ginny Case desereves a huge thank you from the state for doing so much of the organizing of this Plenary. A joyous moment was when Kevin McKeown presented Ginny with a personalized license plate reading: "GRNS {heart symbol} LA"

      +Orval Osborne

      End report

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