LA Greens General Meeting - January 18, 2006 7pm
Facilitators: Derek Iverson & Erin Schmidt
Minutes: Derek Iverson
Also Present: Bob Smith, Christine Pinto, Les Amer, Coby Skye, Larry Silvermintz, Linda Piera-Avila, Genevieve Marcus, Michael Rochmes, David English, Denise Robb, Siel, Peter Thottam, Byron DeLear, Sasha Karlik, Lisa Taylor, Will Yaeger, John Wenger
2. Byron's Campaign. Byron's running for Congress in the 28th District. Byron needs signatures in lieu of filing fee. 150 registered Greens in the 28th District are needed. Byron sent an awesome letter to registered Greens in his district asking for their signatures to put him on the ballot. Byron wants to put together an event connected with the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Suggestion: go to KPFK, it's in your district. We'll have a strategy meeting Jan. 28, join us!
3. Peter Thottam's (pronounced "thought-um") Campaign. Running for State Assembly District 53. Just made the decision to run two weeks ago. For Peter the big motivator is his anti-war stance, but also social issues, the backlash to immigrants, education, traffic, and a lot of common ground issues.
4. Other Green Campaigns: http://216.92.191.78/elections/races.php?stateId=6&year=2006
5. The Starbucks Fair Trade Challenge: Starbucks has only 1.6% fair trade coffee, but that's fully 1/4 of the fair trade coffee beans in the US. Fair trade coffee comes from a certified fair trade coffee co-op. Fair trade asks the companies to take responsibility for making sure the coffee is fairly and ecologically well-sourced. No major pesticides, usually organic and shade grown. The Starbucks Fair Trade Challenge: Starbucks claims that fair trade coffee is available by request at any of their locations. What you do: go to a Starbucks, ask for a fair trade cup o' joe, and blog what happens to a common blog. What brand should we ask for? It's a brand called Cafe Estima. It usually needs to be French pressed. Go to greenlagirl.com to blog about your experience at Starbucks. Monkey & Son Coffee is a local company to buy fair trade coffee from. Even Costco and Wal-Mart have Fair Trade coffee. Groundworks = fair trade coffee? Well, they're in the process of fair trade certifying, but ... not quite yet.
6. Presentation to apply for recognition from the Green Party of Los Angeles County. How will we define the geographical boundaries? Have we? Per the bylaws, no. Coby: the Long Beach Greens dis-affiliated from LA County. Coby presented numerous concerns that they had about how the LA County's requirements of locals, including necessity to have by-laws, reporting of members to LA County, antithesis of decentralization and grassroots democracy, Green Big Brother-ness etc. Les suggests we might be able to have more influence on GP national policy/press releases through affiliation. We don't even get to use "Green Party" through affiliation. Membership is expanding to 44 members in the County Council. Genevieve: county has to straighten out the question of boundaries, membership & such. You can participate as a registered Green now without formal affiliation. Larry: where does the LA County Council meet, and is it open to the public? And does the County Council have a direct influence on state decisions? Linda thinks our affiliation will enhance communication between the locals and the County. Michael withdraws the proposal.
7. Elections: Erin & Derek are '06 co-facilitators. Denise is '06 treasurer. Sasha offers to record audio of meetings. Derek offers to loan his laptop to Linda. Linda is the new secretary. Will suggests we approve the agenda before the meetings. Christine is the nominee for events coordinator. All decisions are uncontested and unanimous.
8. Treasurer's report: $3658. $2058 earmarked for scholarship. Bought Green Party Green Pages $25. Phone bill $40. FPPC filing made, original available for your review.
9. New Member Speakout. Dave English decided he need to do something, getting involved in politics. He wants to get involved in political reform issues, particularly ranked choice voting. May register Green. Siel is interested in fair trade, the environment. She's a registered Democrat but she's wondering what the benefits of Green involvement could be.
10. Announcements: LAANE needs Green help to take the next step in getting a fair labor contract at hotels. Contact patsweetpat@verizon.net. Coby: we need people to run for County Council! We've got 44 seats open, it's unlikely we'll fill half of them. The county council does have resources it could offer like voter registration lists (database) but they don't bust out. If interested contact coby@greens.org. Cooley's proposed an amendment to three strikes that would get a lot of nonviolent offenders out of prison. Coby: Donna sees Cooley's amendment as a way to undermine the total overthrow of three strikes via ballot measure. Derek: check us out on kpfk Monday: Indymedia on Air! Yeah! California Clean Money Campaign. Upcoming event, Byron will be there. AB 583 Loni Hancock. February 2nd at USC. Sasha: we should have a contingent at the MLK Day Parade next year. Derek: if you're not a non profit organization, which the LA Greens is not, thatŐs an expensive venture. Coby: join in with a friendly contingent and save! The Long Beach Greens got in with the Gray Panthers, who are sympathetic to the Greens, and got their message out without paying an exorbitant entry fee. Perhaps we Greens could do something similar at the MLK Day parade in Crenshaw.