I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of the very interesting things that happened on Saturday. However, one of the things that did happen was a conversation with Greg Jan, who chided me for it. He said I was the "official photographer for these events", so I borrowed a camera to take pictures on Sunday. He also suggested that I make a page where all of the Green Party Meeting photographs are listed. Click here to see that.
Since I didn't have my camera then, I can't show you the organizing we did to prepare for the National Meeting in Milwaukee. I also can't show you what happened at our regional caucus, when we decided to have regional picknik during the last weekend in July, or maybe the first weekend in August. I also can't show you what the Iron Sheik looked like, or the fun people had listening to him. We chanted "olive trees" right on que many times. Sorry, but I can't show you Peter Camejo's speech either. The jist of that one was that we need to find a way to come together in Milwaukee, for the good of the Party.
Luckily, Arlen Comfort wasn't using his camera on Sunday, so he loaned it to me. I probably set the resolution too low, but in any case I got lots of pictures. The following are the best ones.
We began the day with an open mike session for Candidates and Officeholders. Adrienne Prince spoke as a Candidate for Assembly District 37, Kevin McKeowan spoke as the Mayor Pro Tem of the Peoples Republic of Santa Monica, and Larry Mullen spoke as our Candidate for Congressional District 19.
Jo Chamberlain just spoke to introduce her friend and "horse in the race", Pat Gray. Pat is running for Congressional District 12, which overlaps a lot with where Jo Chamberlain ran for State Assembly 2 years ago, San Mateo County mostly. Pat Gray talked about how so many of the Government services that she had taken for granted as a young woman have been stripped away since then. She discovered this by having to take over raising her grandchildren when their parents were made incompetant to do so by drug problems. Jane Becker just wanted everybody to know about the Candidate Fundraiser next weekend at the home of Tyler Snortum-Phelps in Contra Costa County.
By this time the room had a lot of bright eyed and bushy tailed Greens in it, ready to start the business section of the meeting.
Beth and Jared were the morning facilitation team. Beth doesn't smile that often, but I finally got one of her doing it, so I had to share that with you.
The first pannel was a discussion of consent calendar items that weren't consensed to Saturday. We agreed to the item about National Delegates, but after much toing and froing we decided to forget about separating the Media Committee from the Internet Committee until we have sorted out bylaws language to make the separation make sense.
Many members of the party had to state something important before that happened.
After that we broke up into working groups. I went to Media, just to find out what that group is up to. Click on Erica (our coordinator) to find out what I got from the experience.
Warner, Jim, and the Chris with the microphone were working on a Green Party section for the California Elections Code. They went over what they had which was fairly complete already, then they took input from the floor for half an hour. They promised to have something worth enacting into law by next year, when hopefully we will be able to find a Legislator willing to sponsor the act and shepard it throught the halls in Sacramento.
After that we broke up for afternoon Working Groups. I went to the International Protocols meeting. Click on Fred to see what happened there.
Bud Dickenson gave us a birds eye view of the platform we are going to have to approve in Wisconsin at the end of the month. He advised everybody to read it ASAP, and get comments in yesterday if not sooner. The attitude was, the more eyes that look over it the better. Click on the "draft" above to visit the page where it begins.
These were the newly elected/apointed officials to various working groups and delegations. The last thing we did before the closing ceremony was listen to them introduce themselves and say what they were in for. I know the guy on the left is a new member of the Delegation to the USGP. Next to him is Peggy Lewis, Michael Borenstein, Mary Beth, a guy whose name went over my head, Forrest (the other USGP Rep.) Stuart Bechman, Nanette Pratini, and a guy I should know. If you have details on any of these people please share them with me.
Bud finished off the meeting by reading a poem to us. After that people schmoozed for a while if they had time. There were also some intense meetings, but to find out about those you should ask somebody else.
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