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November 12, 1996
The Rockbridge Greens met at Stephanie Porras's house on November 12 at
7:00 P.M. They conducted business around dinner served by Stephanie.
Present: Eric Sheffield, Stephanie Porras, Sherry Stanley (note taker), Eli
Fishpaw, and Kathy Fox.
1. Treasurer's report and minutes. Eric reported $96.95 in the Rockbridge
Green treasurey. He has ordered replacement parts for the canopy, which
should total about $25. The GOV have $268.16, but we owe $140 to Peter for
copying the platform. Eric read the minutes, and we approved them.
2. Eric explained that he had gotten a call from Harmony Periman saying she
was resigning from Rockbridge Greens and the Greens of Virginia. She has
since agreed, in principle, to mediation.
3. The annual meeting will be on December 6. Eric suggested we mail
invitations and directions to all RG members. Eli agreed to do the design;
Eric will mail them.
4. Meetings in general. We had a general discussion of lack of
participation and restructuring. We considered quarterly meetings after GOV
meetings and committee meetings between times. The committees could
generate their own energy. Each steering committee member could commit to
one of the committees as a convener. For day-to-day business the steering
committee could work on an ongoing basis through telephone or whatever is
necessary. We agreed to take this idea to the annual meeting.
5. Eric reported on the lawsuit decision that the GOV had reached at the
October meeting. Our attorney, Matt Pethybridge, said at that meeting he is
willing to donate time if necessary if we can cover the fees. We need
between $400 and $600 and would like as much as possible to cover some of
Matt's costs. Eric has sent out a national appeal and has asked the locals
who did not contribute to the original lawsuit to do so for the appeal. We
now have $290.
Eli expressed reservations that this lawsuit is not leading us in a good
direction, not productive towards ballot access. We approved the GOV
decision to ask Matt to continue with the appeal.
6. On November 16 and 17 representatives from at least 29 states will meet
in Middleburg, Virginia to organize a Green Party network, continuing and
expanding the work of the Draft Nader Clearinghouse. Sherry and Jim
Lowenstern will attend as VirginiaUs representatives. We have agreed to
participate in a national organization that is all-inclusive.
7. Peter and Harmony asked at the October GOV meeting to set up a meeting
in April in Virginia to get people together to talk, from any and all
states which wished to participate. We are not sure of the status of this
meeting at this time. The GOV said we would commit no funds to this
meeting.
8.We reviewed what had happened at that GOV meeting (for the most part
covered elsewhere in these minutes), including the nomination of Tyla
Matteson as a write-in candidate in the 1st congressional district, a
bibliography proposal, an interim committee proposal, and platform
revision. Extensive coverage of all these can be found in the GOV minutes.
9. Sherry asked that we focus on promoting voting options any way we can,
such as write-in votes or NOTA (none of the above), which we can write-in
on Virginia ballots. We welcome any suggestions of ways to get this message
across to Virginia voters.
10. The airport referendum failed 3 to 1. We loaned our bulk mailing permit
to the anti-airport group. We all agreed that this has been a rewarding
exercise in democracy.
11. Eli expressed interest in running for office soon because he has an
agenda centered around the contradictions of economic growth and feels
electoral politics is a useful tool to engage the whole community. However,
he expressed reservations about running as a Green because he feels the
platform is too binding. We agreed to continue discussion about the
platform and its relationship to attracting candidates.
In general, we need to look ahead at what elections will be coming up.
12. Eric said he had attended a memorial service for Carolyn Ford Eagle, a
member of RG, who had died after a long battle with cancer. Carolyn was a
leader in many community civic groups and will be greatly missed.
Our next meeting is December 6 at Darryl Crosson's house.
Rockbridge Greens
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