The Denver Greens – Meeting Minutes
9/17/2013
Mercury Café, Denver
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm by chair Laura Clark. There were seven members and several guests that attended.
Members in Attendance: Laura Anderton, Laura Clark, Victor Forsythe, Michelle LaMay, Andrea Merida, Gary Swing.
Guests: Dan Felzien, James F., Miguel Lopez, Freddrick Moore, Cindy Welch, Darby Welch
Laura C. welcomed new members and guests
Laura C. then spoke about the by-laws and what was necessary to be a Denver Greens member.
Membership in The Denver Greens requires Green Party voter registration. Requirements to be a voting member of Denver Greens consist of yearly dues of $15.00.
Officer openings (co-chair and secretary) in The Denver Greens were discussed. Laura C. had spoken with Andrea Merida about serving as co-chair and Andrea agreed. Laura C. asked if there was a nomination or discussion if someone else was interested. Michelle LaMay nominated Andrea Merida for co-chair. Victor Forsythe seconded the nomination. Andrea spoke briefly to the group. Voting members in attendance voted a unanimous yes.
Andrea Merida nominated Laura Anderton for secretary. Victor Forsythe seconded the nomination. The vote was a unanimous yes. Michelle LaMay agreed to serve as back up secretary.
Gary Swing brought shared information on the history of The Denver Greens voting membership requirements. There was discussion on this and the suggestion was made that we may want to revisit the voting requirements.
Discussion was brought to the table by Andrea about Quorums.
Laura C. gave a brief overview of state party officers as well as the Fundraising and Outreach committees.
Andrea is working on the DG website – debut will be to be announced but anxiously anticipated. The group discussed logos (local chapters, state, and national vary). Many, but not all, are some variation of the sunflower. The Denver Greens will be setting up a Paypal account for donations on the web site.
Transfer of the domain ownership is being worked on. Laura C. will send the two files she has with Green Party of Colorado logos to Andrea.
The group discussed ideas for Outreach. There was discussion about business cards and banners, and wanting to use local sources for our materials as much as possible. We should look first to spending our money within local GP communities. Bill Bartlett may have a good source for banners in Greeley.
Laura C. turned the floor over to Andrea to speak about topics for forums specific to our 10 key values.
Discussion included “Inequality for All” a Robert Reich movie opening Sept 27th. Andrea is checking to see if The Denver Greens can host a showing. Most agreed this would be a good event for us.
Cindy brought up filming and uploading to social media. Linking to others and all leading back to the GP website.
Andrea spoke of brainstorming event ideas over the next week. Everyone should send suggestions to Andrea within the next few days!
Dan Felzien (guest, representing 350.org) talked about connecting with environmental organizations such as 350.org. 350.org is a group opposed to the Keystone pipeline and fracking. They are holding a rally and march Saturday, 9/21. Laura C. agreed to send a broadcast email to one of the Green Party of Colorado aliases (not sure who all is on the list) if Dan would forward information on the rally. Andrea pointed out that if 350.org is a 501(c)(3) they might not be able to work directly with the Green Party and recommended Dan research and find out more.
Michelle spoke of voting NO on Proposition AA Nov. 5th, 2013. Andrea asked Michelle to gather info concerning the GP supporting the proposition and proposed voting via email on the info Michelle gathers. That was agreed to. Michelle will send out the press release on our position statement once approved.
Guest Freddy Moore said that he would be glad to put political content on his radio and internet sites.
Guest Miguel Lopez spoke of police violence and there was discussion concerning this issue.
Andrea said we should look at getting on different boards for human rights issues.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.
Submitted by
Laura Anderton, Secretary
The Denver Greens