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Harry, is there some history about why the meeting has been held in August in recent years? How long has it been since the meeting was held earlier? What month was the meeting held before the change to August?
Before 2013, organization meetings (odd-year annual meetings) were held in June or early July. In 2013 and 2015 the meetings were six to eight weeks later -- the last week of August. The 2013 meeting was late because the Annual Meeting 2013 Working Group, formed on March 19, 2013, just didn't get around to it. The same for the 2015 meeting.Here are the dates and locations of GPCO annual meetings since 2004.
Organization Meeting Nomination Meeting Election Cycle Date Location Date Location 2004 4/24/04 Fort Collins 2006 7/9/05 Frisco 5/13/06 Denver 2008 6/23/07 Carbondale 5/3/08 Littleton 2010 7/?/09 Teleconference 5/1/10 Florence 2012 6/25-26/11 Longmont 3/31/12 Carbondale 2014 8/24/13 Highlands Ranch 3/22/14 Denver 2016 8/29/15 Denver 4/3/16 Centennial Major parties typically have their odd-year annual meetings in March to get organized for the new election cycle. I'd like the GPCO 2017 Annual Meeting to be in February, while people still remember the 2016 election, before the spring snows.
It will be in August or September. There can be separate meeting to take care of any nominations for office, but we co-chairs and other officers were elected on August 29, 2015, and the co-chair positions are for two years.
That's bullshit, Andrea. Your term is from the 2015 Annual Meeting until the 2017 Annual Meeting.Your interpretation of "two-year term" as meaning 24-months can't be right. Have you considered the implications?When you argue that the 2017 Annual meeting must be in August or later, because the 2015 Annual Meeting was held in August, the implication is that all subsequent odd-year annual meetings must be held in August or later. After a few election cycles we would be meeting on New Year's Eve.The annual meeting in 2015 (and 2013) wasn't late by design; the party just didn't get around to it. This has worked against the interests of the party.Its time to get our annual meetings back in sync with the election cycle. Odd-year annual meetings, to organize the party around goals and a strategic plan for the new election cycle, should be held as early as feasible. For the record: You announced the 2017 GPCO Annual Meeting will be held around late August on the official party website on Nov. 18, 2016. You did this without Council's agreement (and without even notifying Council of your intention). Under state party bylaws, you do not have authority to decide the timing of annual meetings. That authority is reserved to Council.
Andrea, by your logic we can never hold a meeting earlier than the previous meeting at which a co-chair was elected. That is of course silly.A good first start to selecting a meeting date is for chapters to volunteer to host the meeting, and propose a location and date. Then council can select amongst those.Michael HaugheyJC GReens
Here are some good reasons (from 2015) for holding the odd-year annual meeting as early as feasible.
Re: GPCO Reorganization Meeting DateFeb. 9, 2015Folks, if I may, we need to consider that the objective might be our plans for 2015's work. That's the theme of Boulder's upcoming meeting, and they will need to get the state party's commitment to support those plans...sooner rather than later.Denver wants to play on a team with the rest of the state and not dominate the agenda going forward. I would much rather know what position we're to play, instead of going off on our own tangent.Further, Jill Stein has launched an exploratory committee for 2016. Whoever the nominee is, Colorado needs to be ready with a game plan to support. We need to be spending 2015 building the machine. Therefore, May is too late in the year.March, please. We can work on adding a Skype capability for the meeting if travel is a hassle.-- Andrea Merida303-550-0677"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." --Saul of Tarsus
I agree that we definitely need to hold the annual meeting sooner rather than later. The momentum from the election will dissipate the longer we wait and we will miss out on the opportunity to keep people motivated. Our president elect is sure to make some unpopular decisions in the coming months and we should be prepared to at least look like we're organized and ready to fight. March or April would be good months in my opinion.
Hey Scott,Would early May be soon enough? Just speaking personally, I would really prefer May. March and April are the snowiest months, making travel across the state difficult. Somebody has to travel, so it helps to schedule the meeting during a more travel-friendly period, no matter where we hold it. Speaking of which, the two choices that Harry floated, Frisco and Carbondale, are not getting much support in the Poudre Valley chapter. We are leaning toward Grand Junction as an appropriate location, given the new chapter there. Of course, that chapter would need to agree to host. But that's what we are thinking. What are you thinking?Judy Harrington
Hi Judy,I think early May is okay. That probably should be the latest date though. Anything later and I feel like we'll be missing out on the opportunity to have a good showing at the meeting. Location is always the hardest decision. I want to be sensitive to the fact that we have Greens on the other side of the state but also to realize that, by far, the majority live near the front range (I could be wrong on that, I don't have the numbers in front of me). I'm a little concerned that a four hour drive will keep a large number of people at home. Also, I would want to be sure we put together some type of carpooling/sharing for the long trip. It would seem out of sorts that an environmentally friendly political organization would have a parade of polluting vehicles rolling through the mountains. Another point to consider is the timing. People will have to leave quite early in the morning or the day before, which would mean a hotel stay. These are not insurmountable obstacles, just something to consider. Of course, all those obstacles apply to those living on the Western slope to come to the front range. However, maybe we can offset some of the expense. I have a spare bedroom to offer and maybe a few others do too. Maybe all the front range chapters could donate a little money for gas. I don't know, I'm just brainstorming...
Brainstorming is good. The more ideas we float and discuss, the more chance we have of picking the best possible option.I'm looking for weather data that shows the daily pattern through April into May for various cities around Colorado. If you know of a web site, please post it. If I remember right, even the end of April can be bad anywhere in Colorado, but May tends to be suddenly better. So just playing the averages about whether we'll have to postpone the event on short notice, or whether people from one side of the state will be unable to get to the meeting (which would not be fair), I'm hoping for a date that is likely to be not snowy. Is there a date in mid or late April when the likelihood of a snow storm suddenly drops off? We should consider snowfall along likely travel routes and not just snowfall in the host city.No matter where we have it, some people will have to stay overnight, or even over two nights (before and after) to avoid some pretty long days and driving while not at the most alert. So we should try to spread that burden around. It's not fair to make the folks on the west side of the state always do the marathon driving. We don't encourage statewide chapter growth by favoring the Denver area for meeting locations, even if the number of members is higher in Denver. I'll see if I can find numbers.I remember sleeping four to a room in my college days when there were long trips. That keeps the motel costs pretty low. Would a fixed-price buffet keep the meal cost down for people who need to stay overnight? Maybe the host chapter could look into providing a pot-luck dinner for the out-of-towners. Maybe the host chapters on the west side have members with spare bedrooms, too.Anyone else have ideas? Or cities that seem like appropriate locations?
Secretary of State's web site with downloadable data. Try the Excel file for Greens in each county.http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/VoterRegNumbers/VoterRegNumbers.html
Why couldn't we allow E-Participation? Use Skype conferencing or something similar. It would be much easier to get someone to a Computer than across the state. For those unable or unwilling to make the trip of course. That would allow us to be strategic about where we hold the meeting. For instance, if Grand Junction is new and eager than maybe they should host.
There will be voting at the meeting. I have not participated in a Green meeting before. Is voting anonymous or do we raise our hands to be counted? Do we have a way of confirming identities and counting votes cast when some participants are attending via Skype? I suppose members who know the people in other chapters could verify that the on-screen image of somebody is really the person. Do we have the ability to display a dozen or so images of remote attendees on a single screen so we can see if people are raising their hands to ask a question, or will it be limited to the meeting being broadcast out to the remote attendees without us seeing the remote attendees? Will remote attendees need to be willing to make their votes public (if voting is anonymous at the in-person meeting)? Nothing insurmountable here, but we should think about how it could be done.
Okay, I totaled some numbers from the Secretary of State's website that you provided Judy. Super interesting! I split the state into three sections: western, front range, eastern plains/far south. I used my best judgement on some of the counties like putting Park (52 registered), Gilpin (25 registered), and Clear Creek (31 registered) into the front range category.64 total counties in ColoradoWestern: 1,697 (14.9%)Front Range: 8,026 (70.2%)Eastern Plains/far south: 1,711 (14.9%)Total Green registered: 11,434I've been to a couple of annual meetings and voting happens both ways depending on the issue. When we voted for co-chairs we wrote on a piece of paper. When we voted for delegates at the national convention we raised hands, if my memory serves me correctly. I'd have to do some research on teleconferencing and voting. I'm sure there is some software out there that would suit our needs.
Thanks. Yes, very interesting. I'll play with the numbers myself later, maybe try some other splits like north, central, south, percentage of Greens in the population. Obviously the Denver area will have the largest absolute number of Greens because it has the largest population.
Better yet we could just stream the meeting, and use something like https://electionbuddy.com/ and have everyone vote electronically.
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