The Santa Clara County Green Party spent months organizing for our Statewide plenary. Andrea and Miriam planned a vegetarian menu that only the most hardened carnivore could complain about. Jim Stauffer found a great venue for the meeting. Brian made signs that would point people the rest of the way once they got close. Fred made great coffee.  At the last minute we were just hoping everybody would show up and it would work out well.

  

I registered as an observer, just so I could share what I saw there with you in this summary.



When I looked around the room as the meeting kicked off I was pleased to see that the venue was about the right size for us. People that wanted desk space to take notes had it, and there were plenty of chairs. Carol Brouillet loaned us her sound system, so even the softest voice was easy to hear. There were lots of people that complained when somebody tried to get by on their internal organic sound generating powers.  Also there was the factor that words spoken into the sound system went into the recording of events.

     

Fred started out by welcoming everybody and telling them a few housekeeping details like where the bathrooms were.

Then Dana read a poem that was written by the poet Laurette of the USA.

Adrian Prince and Barry Hermanson took the stage to explain that Larry Mullen was no longer capable of carrying on as a leading member of the GPCA. Adrian read the plaque to us and asked us to consense to the contents. We all agreed. Everybody knows Larry, and we want him to know we will remember him. Click their picture to read that plaque.

     

  

Then came the treasurers report. Fund raising is way down from where it was in the Jo Chamberlain era. Expenses are also way down. Barry did a fund raising pitch. Maybe he lit a few fires under peoples butts.

        

  

I forget all the comments, but a lot of people had something to say about the money issues.

     

Finally we had a break. I met this guy in the green shirt, who said he is running for Congress up in Mendocino County someplace. He gave me his flier. Cres Veluchi used the time to hold a press conference outside for the Green candidates in the room.

     

        

Unfortunately, I spent the days when this stuff was fresh in my memory gathering signatures and doing other things that were time critical. Now I just can't remember all the important things they said.

     

     

The guy in the blue tie is Paul V. Allen, the most last minute addition to the Statewide Green Party Candidate slate. He is running for Attorney General.

After the meeting was over we walked/rode to this coffee house about half a mile down the road. There we had a nice debate between the candidates for Governor, and then we listened to speeches from the other candidates who showed up. Click the picture of Deacon and Laura to find out more about that.



Sunday morning, this was the best sticker collection I saw in the parking lot. As a token of my appreciation, I've given it this exposure.

     

When I got inside I found out that the menu for lunch was going to be baked potatoes with fixings. Miriam, Fred, and Brian were already working on that.

 

After we talked platform it was time for breakout sessions. My big thing is making "one dollar, one vote politics" all about voting your greenbacks in the marketplace. I couldn't see either of the groups really taking on that project. I talked about that with Jan Arnold and she said something like "true genius is never recognized in your lifetime". She agreed that neither group was likely to take on that project though. Then she said she wasn't much into either topic either. We walked down to the end of the street and back. It was a nice break, made the sweeter by the fact that some of the spring flowers are beautiful right now.



I never did find out what this group did.



While we were gone this group had ironed out the details on their voter registration drive proposal, and had it ready to bring before the statewide body.

    

My contribution to the food was two tubs of bean dip. Later Caroline told me that I'd made the stuff just a bit too stiff for the average corn chip to pick up without breaking. She solved that problem by mixing some with salsa in a bowl, which worked out really well.



Green Issues Working Group appears to be rising from the ashes. The guy with the white beard in the dark shirt on the left wants to resurrect it, and he is asking people that want to spearhead a project to sign up for it on the wiki he is getting going on our website. I said I wanted to work on "one dollar, one vote" politics. His reply was that "we need to weed out the craziest hair brained schemes." I didn't say anything, but I still don't see what's crazy about ideas like "stop voting for oil companies at the gas pump." He didn't seem interested in finding out more about the subject.

  

Just before the closing ceremony the kitchen crew came out and we gave them a great round of applause. Brian was too busy cleaning up to share the moment in the limelight with Fred, Merriam, and Caroline.

  

A week after the plenary we had a meeting to discuss how it had gone. Everybody was very happy. There had only been one complaint from a carnivore who wanted to eat carcass. The money had worked out, maybe we made $100 or so for the Green Party of Santa Clara County treasury. Jim was happy that we had kept the registration fee low. I think it was Andrea that said "we should do that again!" Nobody argued, although I think they want to wait at least six months before going around again with that big a project. Besides, tabling season is coming up!