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.
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!
