Minutes


	Monthly meeting highlights, July 6, 2003 Pebble Hill Interfaith Church- Doylestown Township, Bucks County, Pa. Gus Linton introduced new officers to the group including himself as chair, Skip Moyer as co-coordinator with Gus Linton, Paul Teese as Treasurer, Cynthia Hoyt as Secretary. Outgoing officers included Paul Teese, former chair, Rick Browne, former treasurer, and Amanda Aamarotico, former secretary, who was absent. Old Business Paul Teese announced that the party has rented a post-office box at the Doylestown, Pa. Rick Browne and Gus Linton have keys to the mailbox for access. Our new mailing address is: Bucks County Green Party P.O. Box 35 Doylestown, PA 18901. Teese suggested a fund-raising event be planned for Labor Day weekend, with the sight of the proposed annual event to be rotated within the county each year. A consensus of the members present agreed. Teese said he would contact Tom Heitzenrater about holding the 2003 fund-raising event at his home in New Britain Township. Committee Reports Outreach and Membership Gus Linton reported that he had sent out postcards to new members listed as registered Green Party members on the quarterly list from the Bucks County Board of Elections files. Linton said, as membership committee chair, he will send out postcards regularly for first contact to new members. Cynthia Hoyt asked if members were interested in securing a spot at the Middletown Grange Fair in August, as the party had done in 2002. The group consensus was that Grange Fair participation should be limited to alternate years when national elections are slated. Issues Moyer reported on the actions opposing a proposed irradiation facility in Milford Township were moving forward. A group formed under the name of Concerned Citizens of Milford Township, a.k.a. N.O.C.O.B.A.L.T.-4-FOOD, had attended township meetings, had much media exposure, had hired an attorney for legal representation in the matter, and had induced the township supervisors to schedule a town meeting in Quakertown Borough, at Quakertown High School, on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting would include information from members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, charged with licensing the proposed facility, and a question-and-answer period was scheduled for the event for all those who would attend. Elections Teese said he had contacted some party members who he thought might be interested in running for open offices. He recommended an ad-hoc committee schedule meetings with potential candidates for endorsement by the party. A consensus approved the motion. Teese also reported that two delegates to the state party were stepping down: Eric Prindle, because he is out-of-state, and Cynthia Hoyt. By consensus, Dennis and Diana Loreman were inducted as full delegates in place of those who resigned. Green Party December Meeting Highlights: 12/1/02 We had 22 in attendance, including 7 first time guests from as far as Easton, PA and Flemington, NJ. It was good to experience this much energy immediately after the election, when there is usually a letdown. With this momentum we will be able to accomplish a lot in the coming year. We expect to have both regional and special interest groups meeting before the next presidential election. We seem to have reached a critical mass (not to mention a critical time in our history) when it has become easier for people to register Green. Our biggest problem may soon be responding to the rapid growth in membership. . . . . Oh, yes, and what to do with all the contributions streaming in : ) At Sunday's meeting we agreed by consensus to Larry Menkes' recommendation to sign on to the Earth Charter (see "links" page for further info.) We recognized the need to publish a local platform to better focus our efforts, to inform people pf whpo we are, and to evaluate candidates for local office. We will begin this process at the next monthly meeting. We approved an annual report, developed by Cynthia Hoyt, to be mailed on postcards to all registered Greens. We acknowledged the need to educate all voters, especially students and silent majority (the 60% eligible voters who don't) about our presence and our values. Tom and Skip reviewed their election experiences, and made recommendations for future campaigns. Both Skip and Tom were too hopelessly underfunded to have a real chance to win their races. Both also have the inconvenience of having to hold full time jobs and family commitments as well. Tom suggested that we pass out a questionaire the next time we're at the polls: a two way communication, instead of just hustling votes. Paul Teese, party chairman, pointed out that the Green Party is not actually America's fastest growing political party, it is America's only growing political party. All other parties with ballot access have actually been shrinkig in membership. Paul also reviewed the accomplishments of the State and Local Green Parties: Pennsylvania Green Party accomplishments: • Recognized by PA Bureau of Elections • Now listed on voter registration forms • Ran candidates for Governor and Lt. Gov. • Ran five PA candidates for U.S. Congress • Hosted National Party Convention in Philadelphia Bucks County Green Party accomplishments: • Recognized by Bucks Board of Elections • Registration tripled to 438 in 10 months (January thru October) • Ran two candidates for State Representative • Former chairman, Guy Anthony, invited to do election coverage on WHYY Here's what you can do to help create a sustainable future: • Volunteer your time for Green activities and causes • Make a contribution to the "Bucks County Green Party" • Get family and friends to register and Vote Green • Visit www.pa.greens.org/bucks to stay informed Next Meeting: Sunday, January 5, 7 p.m. at Pebble Hill Interfaith Church in Doylestown. Green Party Meeting Minutes 11/03/02 • 21 present • Round Robin Introductions • Announcements • Polling – Necessity of maintaining threshold of voter’s to keep Green Party on the Voter Registration Ballot • We must take up any green party lawn signs one week after the election • Election Returns will be posted live online (www.buckcounty.org) • Guy Anthony will be on Channel 12 for election coverage • New Business • Earth Charter – (www.earthchartersummit.org) • A member of the BCGP requested the political party become an affiliate by signing the charter. • A consensus vote was taken, and passed. • All necessary paperwork will be handled by Larry • Next Meeting – 12/01/02 • Evaluation of 2002 • Set goals for 2003 • Send a list of accomplishments to Buck Greens through a mailing • Agreed upon by consensus • Paul Teese will cover costs for reimbursment • Membership – Gus Linton reported that voter registration has been continually growing and that the number of Greens has more than doubled over the past year. • Campaigns • Skip Moyer: • Hopeful, but not expectant due to lack of resources • Tom Heizenrater: • Reported that he has covered 13 of 22 polling places in the 144th district • Desires to hold a post-election wrap session to discuss what he learned from the campaign to the BCGP. • Nearly all meetings participants focus on covering a polling place in the 144th as Tom has a greater opportunity for winning the election. • Guest Speaker: Friend of Tom H. discusses polling place suggestions • Hand everyone a pamphlet that will take one • Be the last person the voter receives a pamphlet from before going in the place • Tell them to “Be sure to vote for _______Tom Heizenrater_____” • Talk to the unknown voter, friends will be more easily swayed by your presence • Engage the voter in conversation about candidates standings, but keep it short • The prime times for polling is 7-9 AM, 11-1:30 PM, 4-7:30 PM • Be sure to maintain a distance of 10 feet from the entrance Bucks County Green Party Minutes – August 4, 2002 Attendance: 12 • No agenda • Membership -- Gus Linton mentioned that there are 346 registered Greens in Bucks County, which is up from 80 less than 2 years ago. Gus suggested getting postcards to mail to new registered Greens with a welcome note, our phone number and contact information. Cynthia Hoyt offered to design the cards. • Website – Gus Linton solicited suggestions for the Bucks Greens website. Dennis Loreman suggested a site that allows one to send either a prefabricated or original email letter to all representatives in the person’s district. Paul Teese suggested that the site focus on the campaigns of those running for office. Dennis Loreman suggested contact information and titles for Bucks Green Party officials. • Fundraising – Paul Teese, who sits on the fundraising committee for the PA State Green Party, asked for statewide suggestions as well. Guy Anthony suggested a tri-state candidate fundraiser. Charles Moyer suggested Goods for Greens out of Canada to raise money. Paul Teese suggested that we focus on fundraising around April 15th in the future, because that is when people generally realize how much the government impacts us. He suggested that we concentrate on raising money for candidates in the fall and for the Party in the spring. Diana Loreman suggested a booksale, as she has gathered a number of used books and was willing to donate them and her time for a large sale. Dennis Loreman suggested a “Green Day” at a local café or restaurant where for that day 10% of all sales go to the Green Party. Dennis Loreman also suggested a debate viewing day where we can charge $10 or so dollars for entrance to watch the Gubernatorial debates on television. • Campaign – Guy Anthony announced his official withdrawal from candidacy in the 144th. He has enough signatures to qualify on the ballot with no Democratic challenger. His reason for withdrawal was due to his recent relocation out of the 144th district. His new replacement will be Tom Heizenrater, who had a cable television show not too long ago called, “Nothing Really.” Guy Anthony also announced his withdrawal as the Chair of the Bucks County Green Party. He nominated Paul Teese as the new Chair due to his excellent service to the Party in organizing the signature collection to get Michael Morrill and Vicki Smedley on the State ballot. Cynthia Hoyt seconded the nomination. Paul Teese accepted the nomination saying it was an honor. • Party Promotion – Gus Linton asked if there were events Greens should go to to promote the Party. He suggested August 6th, Hiroshima day. Cynthia Hoyt mentioned the Middletown Grange Fair and offered to make arrangements to get us space there. Guy Anthony suggested Labor Day as a good time for Greens to hold an event. Bucks County Green Party Minutes – July 7, 2002 Attendance: 10 • No agenda • National Convention - Guy Anthony reported: It will be held at the Holiday Inn at 4th and Arch in Philadelphia. A schedule is now available online at the national site: http://www.greenpartyus.org/convsched.html. Volunteers are needed for the convention. Ralph Nader will speak at a rally on July 19th at the Irvine Auditorium at 34th and Spruce Streets. Tickets for the rally will be on a sliding fee scale between $5 to $20. There will be three musical guests. The opening speaker will be David Cohen, a Philadelphia Councilman. Montgomery County Greens are interested in sharing a table with us at the convention. Gus Linton suggested we commit to a table since Montgomery County has committed already. Volunteers are needed to poster and flyer for the convention. Guy Anthony suggested sellng rally tickets as a fundraiser due to the sliding fee scale. • Petitions – Cynthia Hoyt took two lists, one of Green members an one of former Sierra Club members, and broke them up into Townships and Boroughs for targeted door-to-door petitioning. She handed out the lists to those present at the meeting to petition more efficiently near their own neighborhoods. Paul Teese mentioned that the 4th of July parade petitioning strategy turned out not to be very productive, because some folks were on vacation, the heat was very intense that day, and there were a number of non-Bucks County residents present. According to Paul we received 200 more signatures for a total of 1,800 signatures now altogether. We have 1,200 more to go to reach the goal of 3,000 requested by Eric Prindle. That adds up to about 400 per week or 50 a day, plus a few more on the weekends. Paul Teese said that this is s doable if we have 12 people get 30 plus signatures a week. The good news, according to Paul, is that we have contacted a lot of people and have many new volunteers for petitioning. Paul has also suggested that if we slip further, we can get authorization to send one or two hundred dollars to the Michael Morrill Campaign to hire someone to go out to get the signatures that we need. Guy Anthony will provide street lists of registered voters for neighborhoods in which canvassers are interested in order to save time and canvas in a more efficient manner. • Paul Teese suggested that after August 1st, we consider cold calling registered Independents and Others in each of our individual local areas, which will not cost anyone, in order to persuade them to vote for Morrill/Smedley. • Gus Linton requested suggestions from those present for websites that we could link to from our own website. • Paul Teese will arrange to have outstanding petitions handed in to him on Sunday evening, July 28th. Eric Prindle needs them by Wednesday, August 1st. • Before the meeting adjourned, the group present decided that with only three weeks left to petition for Morrill/Smedley, it would be a good idea to send the Morrill Campaign $100 hire a petitioner. Bucks County Green Party Minutes - June 2, 2002 Attendance: 16 Agenda: 1. Minutes of 5/5 General meeting - Amanda Amarotico 2. Committee Reports •Treasury - Rick Browne • Membership - Gus Linton • Elections - Paul Teese, Guy Anthony and Charles Moyer 3. June 22 Concert/Rally for Vicki Smedley - Amanda Amarotico 4. July 17 - 21 US Green Party National Convention in Philadelphia - Guy Anthony 5. Guest Speaker: Kali Marino - “Doing the (Politically) Impossible” 1. Minutes of 5/5 General Meeting - Highlights included: Registration of voters at Bucks County Community College along with the collection of approximately 80 signatures on the petition for Michael Morrill and Vicki Smedley; Bucks County Greens Discussion Group on Yahoo; Collection of signatures for Morrill, Smedley, Guy Anthony and Charles Moyer at the polls during the primaries; Adoption of the State Green Party Platform. Amanda will be away in July and August and Diana Loreman has volunteered to take the minutes. Thank you Diana! 2. Committee Reports • Membership - Gus Linton and Dennis Loreman created a BCGreens Discussion group on Yahoo. Gus has created a calendar there as well. There are many ways to use this discussion group including polls, multiple groups, real time chats, and posting photos. Post to: bcgreens@yahoogroups.com. We now have 276 Registered Green Party members in Bucks County. Montgomery County has 285 Green Party Members. • Elections - Paul Teese - We collected close to 1000 signatures at the polls on Primary Election Day. There were 14 Greens volunteering at polls around the county. We then met at the Bucks County Court House to watch the start of the counts come in. It was a fun and energizing day for all of us. Our goal is to collect 2000 signatures by July 31st. Guy Anthony has his required 300 signatures to get on the ballot in the 144th for State Rep. He will continue to collect another 300 just to be sure he has more than enough valid registered voter signatures. Charles Moyer has 150+ signatures toward getting on the ballot in the 145th. We need to step up on the canvassing from door to door and find festivals and other events where we can table. The Grange Fair, being in August, will be too late to collect signatures but we would like to table there to increase our visibility. 3. June 22nd Concert/Rally for Vicki Smedley • Ads and flyers have gone out. We need to contact Women's and Environmental organization. Larry Menkes will contact NOW of Bucks County. • Volunteers to help set up for the concert will arrive on the 22nd at 5:30. • A call for baked goods from all who like to bake is being put out. • Volunteers will help set up, staff refreshment and sales tables, make coffee, take money at the door, collect petition signatures, pass out BCGreens information, and clean up. • Crafts people are invited to sell their wares at the concert. 4. July 17 - 21 US Green Party National Convention in Philadelphia - Guy Anthony is the regional organizer for the National Convention. He is working with the Green Party of Philadelphia to increase our visibility in the region - at events and in the media. On June 9th Michael Morrill and the Greens will be at the Odunde Festival, an African-American cultural event celebrating Spring and Fertility. It is combined with the Philly Block Party. We discussed having a table at the convention to share with regional Green Parties to hand out information on local contacts (Delaware, York, Chester, Phila., Mongomery, Bucks, Berks, Lehigh, others?). It is important to let people know that we are there representing our local Greens. Schedule of events: July 17 & 18 - business meetings July 19 - Superrally with Ralph Nader July 20 & 21 - Workshops, planning and breakout groups For more details go to the web page of the Green Party of the United States: http://www.greenpartyus.org/convention.html 5. Guest Speaker: Kalie Marino - Doing the (Politically) Impossible. Kalie worked directly with Barbara Marx-Hubbard on her 1984 bid for the U.S. Vice Presidential campaign. Barbara Marx-Hubbard is a noted author, futurist and social architect. Buckminster Fuller had wanted Hubbard to run for President because of her vision for a peaceful future. In 1984, a year after Fuller's death, Barbara decided to run for Vice President. She felt that the VP didn't really do anything - didn't have a clear cut job. She proposed that she should head up the Office of the Future. This office would use methods developed from cutting edge science to solve intractable pressing social problems. Hubbard proposed two planks for the Democratic platform: 1) The Vice President should be a woman; 2) The VP should head up the Office of the Future to plan for and create ideas that work. (The song, "We are the World," being sung all over the world at large concerts was part of that work.) In 1984 Kalie Marino, Barbara Marx-Hubbard and about 38 inspired people were able to get Barbara and her proposals represented in 19 caucuses in Iowa in just two weeks. This led to her speaking at the Democratic National Convention. We meet on the first Sunday of every month at Pebble Hill Interfaith Church , 320 Edison-Furlong Rd, just south of Doylestown at the corner of Woodcrest, 1 mile from Route 611 and 1.5 miles from Rt. 263. (Entrance is from Woodcrest) Bucks County Green Party Minutes - May 5, 2002 Attendance: 12 1. Committee Reports • Treasury - Amanda Amarotico reported on the fund-raising Rally and Concert on June 22 at Pebble Hill Church with Jim Beer & the River, Jennie Avila, and Spirit Wing. Amanda will seek volunteers to bake cookies, pies, etc, donations of beverages - coffee, sodas, juices, seltzers Ads are in New Visions, Creating Community and Pebble Hill Church Sunday Programs. Tickets are $10 at the door. • Membership - We registered 21+ students to vote at Bucks Community College on April 15th and 16th, eight of whom registered Green. We collected 80 signatures for Michael Morrill and Vicki Smedley. Diana Loreman suggested we establish a Bucks Greens Listserve for Greens and Supporters to have discussions and to place news of interest. She and Dennis will help us to set this up. • Elections - Paul Teese, our new Elections chairperson, is coordinating volunteers to go to the polls on May 21st with petitions to get Michael and Vicki on the ballot. We will gather on Sunday, May 19th, at 7 PM with all volunteers to distribute Morrill lawn signs, petitions, and instructions. The best times to be at the polls are 7-9 in the morning and 4-7 in the evening. We will gather together at the County Courthouse after the polls close to watch the vote count and then celebrate at a venue close by. Charles Moyer has decided to run for State Representative in the 145th district, which includes Quakertown and Perkasie. Pennsylvania State Green Party Meeting Report: Guy Anthony and Skip Moyer arrived to our meeting straight from Carlisle and the PA State Greens meeting. The big item at the meeting was the Adoption of the State Green Party Platform for Michael Morrill. It is ready for approval next month. 2. John Halley was unable to make it to discuss wind power in PA. We may schedule a meeting with him another time. Next Bucks County Green Party General Meeting - June 2nd, 7:00, Pebble Hill Church. Minutes, March 3, 2002; present: 19 Special guests: Dan Kinney, State Green Party Treasurer and Eric Prindle, Field Director for Morrill for Gov. Campaign 1. Committee Reports • Membership - We have been updating the database preparing for a mailing to registered Greens and other Bucks County citizens who have supported environmental issues. We are exploring bulk mailing options. We decided to share an order of 1000 Green Party buttons with Montco Greens and the State Greens. • Elections - Guy Anthony will issue a press release at the Doylestown Court House when he files his candidacy for the 144th District. Guy will need 600 signatures of registered voters from his district to secure a place on the ballot in November. 2. Petitioning, registration, and ballot access • Eric Prindle and Dan Kinney gave us a half hour presentation on petitioning. Pennsylvania is one of the most difficult states to gain ballot access, and although we are the only third party listed on the Pennsylvania voter registration forms, we still need to gather 40,000 petition signatures to get statewide candidates on the ballot. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The bulk of these signatures will be gathered by door-to-door canvassing. This is a tedious process, but it will allow us to inform and recruit voters while completing the petitions. We are organizing regularly scheduled canvassing drives in small groups. Another way to reach people is to go to the polls on May 21st, for the primaries, to collect signatures from registered voters. • We will have a table at Bucks County Community College’s voter registration drive on April 15 and 16. 3. Fund-raising Events • Houseparty for Michael Morrill in the central Bucks County area. We hope to attract 30 prominent civic leaders to attend and support the Michael Morrill for Governor Campaign. • Benefit concert on June 22nd at Pebble Hill Church to raise money for Guy Anthony and Vicki Smedley (Lt. Governor). The performers will be Native American band Jim Beer & the River, singer-songwriter Jennie Avila, and Native American Duo Spirit Wing. Guy and Vicki will give a speech. This will be another great opportunity for Bucks County Greens to reach out to new participants to come forth and help grow, get the word out and, petition for Michael, Vicki and Guy. • Please contact us if you can help with any of these early campaign activities, know anyone who might want to take a more active role, or if you want further information on any of the above events and activities.

For problems or questions regarding this Web site, contact bcgreens@comcast.net. Last updated: August 3, 2003.