The first thing Sunday morning was "announcements". Since there wasn't a spot on the program for him, this Native Californian took some time then to tell us a little about his community. He said that they still remember the genocide that started when the '49ers came to the area looking for gold. The big presence of Native Americans in Sacramento right now revolves around the Gaming Commissions, which give a lot of money to politicians for their election campaigns. He said to look for them at Chicano Centers and the like, because they are interested in finding ways to work with us when it makes sense for them.

The first issue of business was the relationship between the state and national platforms. Bud Dickenson explained that the National Green Party is currently working on a platform to go with the 2004 Presidential Campaign, and the time line for that is such that we can't dither over each plank the way we do with our own platform. He was asking for the plenary to empower an ad hoc group to do the work on our behalf.

 

Bill Meyers and Ginny Case gave a report on what our delegation to the National Green Party is up to. What I remember most about what they said is that California's twelve delegates are doing a lot of work that boils down to mentoring parties from states were Green Values aren't as entrenched in the system as they are here.

At some point in the presentation, they asked the National Delegates to stand. I got these, but they sat down before I got the rest of them. For the record, California's delegation is Jo Chamberlain, John C. Strawn, Beth Moore Haines, Mike Wyman, Alex Brideau III, Bill Meyers, Ginny Case, Kevin McKeown, Peggy Lewis, Stuart Beckman, Sara Amir, Donna Jo Warren, and Greg Jan. Our alternate delegates are Budd Dickinson, Nanette Pratini, Sola Sarmiento, Leslie Bonett, and Bill Pietz. Of those, only Nanette Pratini, Donna Warren, Sara Amir and Leslie Bonett weren't at the meeting this weekend.