SHEPARD/FLOOR MANAGER/SPONSOR: Assabet River Valley Chapter

Shepherd: M K Merelice, Norfolk County Representative

Co-Sponsor(s): Frank Jackson

Vetting Committees: Platform, AdCom, CDLC (?)

Background: Over the years, the GRP has worked on state legislative bills and warrant articles, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes the effort has been frustrating and has discouraged further involvement. However, the party’s advocacy has also helped legislation pass (e.g. MAAPL bills related to the foreclosure crisis).

As an official political party that hopes to engage directly in state government, there are particular issues that rise to the top of party interest. This proposal is to identify up to a half dozen such issues in which the party might help develop legislation or, minimally, follow legislation and communicate progress and any timely need for lobbying to GRP members.

 Proposal Text: The GRP hereby establishes a Legislation Working Committee. The responsibility of members of the committee will be to select up to a half-dozen issues that require state legislation to address. 

     Once the issues are defined (within the scope of the GRP’s volunteer resources), a volunteer will track the progress of relevant legislation from filing to enacting, keeping GRP members informed and activated. Communications will also be posted on social media.

Implementation: Issues to be considered could include the Community Uplift Initiative introduced by the 2014 statewide candidates and endorsed by the GRP, the continuing foreclosure problem being addressed by the GRP-founded Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL), Instant Runoff (ranked) Voting (IRV), Single-Payer Health Care (Medicare for all), eliminating the Supreme Court decision about corporate personhood and money as free speech, and establishing a State Bank (a goal raised during the campaign for State Treasurer and about to be worked on by party members). If helpful, this committee could work under the auspices of the Platform Committee.

Financial impact: None identified.

Title: Growing the Green-Rainbow Party 

Proposal Shepherd: Wes Nickerson, Middlesex

Co-Sponsors: Roni Beal

Vetting Committees: Adcom, Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment

Revised: January 6, 2015

Background: The Green-Rainbow Party is once again in danger of losing its newly re-won official party status in the Presidential election year of 2016. This on-again, off-again cycle interferes with the progress of the GRP in achieving its goals. There are two ways of maintaining party status.

1. Achieve more than 3% of the vote in any one statewide race, including the presidential race.

2. Enroll at least 1% of voters as members of the Green-Rainbow Party, by election day of 2016. (This was done successfully in Maine, using Robo-calling.)

Considerations:

1. Given that the only statewide office being voted on in 2016 is the presidential race, and that no Green Party presidential candidate has received more than 3% in any Massachusetts election since Ralph Nader received over 6% in 2000, it is unlikely for the Green Party candidate to receive over 3% in 2016, which would be a five-fold increase over the previous presidential election. 

2. Given that there are about 5,000 people enrolled in the Green-Rainbow Party now and that enrolling 1% of voters would mean enrolling an additional 45000, that would be a tenfold increase, which is also unlikely for the Green-Rainbow Party to achieve.

Nevertheless, increasing the membership in the Party would help to bring the GRP closer to both of these goals, and having clear, ambitious goals is inspiring.

Proposal Text: The Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment Committee will develop and implement a GRP Growth Plan to achieve stability, sustainability, and long-term Official Party status. 

Implementation: The Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment Committee (MDVRC) will create and present a GRP Growth Plan to Statecom at its Spring 2015 meeting for approval. Once approved, MDVRC will implement and monitor the plan it develops and provide progress reports at Statecom quarterly meetings.

Budget Impact: Budget impact depends upon specific projects and growth methods undertaken.

Title: Rapid Response Protocol

Proposal Shepherd: Daphne Stevens, Worcester

Co-Sponsors: Wes Nickerson, Elie Yarden, Danny Factor

Vetting Committees: Adcom

Revised: January 7, 2015

Background: In the fast-paced news cycle of contemporary politics, events and issues change rapidly. In order for the Green-Rainbow Party to improve its visibility and relevance, it needs to respond rapidly to current events. The Green-Rainbow Party many times misses out on opportunities to endorse and participate in events such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, because of a slow decision-making process, that often involves going through one or more committees, that only meet once every two weeks or even less often. This proposal would empower the Co-Chairs of the Party, at their discretion, to take action if needed between meetings of Adcom or other committees, if an event is in keeping with GRP values and previous GRP participation or endorsement of similar events. This proposal would also require both co-chairs as well as the treasurer to all three agree before any money is spent which is not budgeted or approved by the rest of Adcom, in order to safeguard Party funds from unsound spending.

Proposal Text: Amend the GRP Bylaws by adding the following two sentences to Article 9.11 under Duties of the co-chairs shall be to: 

- Exercise discretion in expediting, endorsing, participating in, and promote important, urgent events, such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, in the name of the Green-Rainbow Party, in keeping with GRP values, and previous GRP endorsed events. 

- Delegate responsibilities as necessary for the sake of punctuality.

The full text of Article 9.11 as amended would read:

Duties of the co-chairs shall be to:

• Act as official spokes people for the Green-Rainbow Party;
• Set the agenda for administrative committee meetings;
• Arrange for the facilitation of all state conventions, state committee and administrative committee meetings;
• Notify other administrative committee members and directors of meetings;
• Ensure that other administrative committee members and directors are performing their duties.
• Exercise discretion in expediting, endorsing, participating in, and promote important, urgent events, in the name of the Green-Rainbow Party, such as marches, rallies, conferences, and festivals, in keeping with GRP values, and previous GRP endorsed events.
• Delegate responsibilities as necessary for the sake of punctuality.

Amend Article 9.10 by replacing the words, "if two of the three agree" with the words, "if the co-chairs and treasurer agree" 

The full text of Article 9.10 as amended would read:

"All administrative committee members shall be able to oversee the work of all Green-Rainbow Party staff. The co-chairs and treasurer may authorize financial expenditure that are not in the budget and have not been approved by the rest of the administrative committee if the co-chairs and treasurer agree, provided such expenditures are ratified at next AdCom meeting."

Implementation: N/A

Budget Impact: No cost to modify the Bylaws themselves. There is an unknown potential cost of participation in more events. Any potential cost is covered by Article 9.10.

Shepherd/Floor Manager/Sponsor: Ian Jackson Treasurer

Co-Sponsor: N/A

Title: AdCom Chapter Alternates

Shepherd/Floor Manager/Sponsor: Administrative Committee
Co-Sponsor: N/A

Vetting Committees: N/A

Explanatory Background:
With the addition of voting representatives of local chapters to the Administrative Committee allowing direct access between the committee and local members the Administrative Committee has been able to quickly respond to local situations and increased its abilities to carry out the decisions of the State Committee.

Despite the committee's flexibility there are times when members are unable to attend a meeting. This can prevent quorum from being achieved or the representative whose presence is required for a matter that is being addressed is unable to attend.

Some representatives have asked for an alternate to be in attendance when they are unavailable in order to ensure that the chapter is kept up to date and fully involved.

Summary:
This proposal will change the current text of section 9.21 of the by-laws regarding chapter representatives to the Administrative Committee to include and define the role of chapter alternates.

Current Text:
9.21 The members of the Administrative Committee who are representatives of officially recognized local chapters shall be selected by whatever means each local chooses. The members chosen by the local chapters shall be confirmed at the state committee immediately subsequent to the state convention.

Proposed Text:
9.21 Officially recognized chapters of the Green-Rainbow Party may select a representative and an alternate to serve on the Administrative Committee. The representative and alternate are selected by whatever means the chapter chooses. The chapter shall notify the party secretary and the State Committee of their selection. After notification, representatives and alternates shall be confirmed at the next State Committee meeting and may be seated
on the Administrative Committee prior to confirmation by a two thirds vote of the Administrative Committee subject to confirmation. Representatives are able to participate in Administrative Committee discussions and vote on decisions. Alternates can participate in discussions but are only eligible to vote in the absence of their chapter's representative.

Financial Impact: N/A

Implementation:
Upon the passage of this proposal chapters may immediately begin the selection of an alternate to the Administrative Committee.

Proposal Title:Formation of an Action Working Committee

Proposal Shepherd: Frank Jackson Middlesex

Co-Sponsors: Daphne Stevens, Mike Heichman, Elie Yarden, Danny Factor

Background: Unlike “Traditional” political parties, the Green-Rainbow Party can be organized as both a political movement which elects candidates and a social movement which uses different forms of organizing to establish a more just society. We have a well developed GPUS platform, Green Rainbow Party Agenda, several thousands of members across the state, elected officials in several towns, and candidates in several races each election cycle, features of a “traditional” political party.

Green-Rainbow Party members have often undertook and joined campaigns to better lives in the Commonwealth, be it launching solar farms in our local communities, protecting them from hydro-fracking, or launching a group to prevent predatory lending. We have had elected officials involved in preventing tuition hikes at our universities, and members lobbying to ensure this was not limited only to our “flagship” campuses, but also involved protections for our community colleges.

Different strategies have been used for these successes, such as electing officials, holding meetings with a lot of visibility, making coalitions with other organizations. There have been discussions between members of the party to implement warrant articles in various towns, support statewide legislation which would further the party agenda for a just future, but no group whose goal is specifically to work towards this.

Proposal:

An Implementation Working Committee will be formed with the purpose to strategize, and organize to achieve defined goals in different campaigns.

Limitations: Actions the working group is involved in will be in accordance with the members understanding of the 10 key values.

Role and Actions: The Working Committee will coordinate with the appropriate chapters, elected officials, candidates, and committees to achieve progress on different issues in the Green-Rainbow Party platform and agenda. This can be, but isn't limited to, implementing legislation, warrant articles, holding public meetings, taking direct actions. 

Structure: The working committee will begin by forming subcomittees to address hollistically interconnected issues such as abolishing poverty, and an environmental justice. Membership to the working group will be open to any Green-Rainbow party member interested in implementing elements of the Green-Rainbow platform or agenda in communities in Massachusetts. The working group is empowered to form subcommittees as necessary for the purposes of implementing parts of the party platform.

Responsibilities and Reports:The working group will send a report to the state committee email list which will include the list of campaigns the working group is involved in, and the list of Green-Rainbow Party members involved in each campaign.

 Financial Impact: Unclear.