I have no idea whether there will be wifi at the GRP convention today. However, I will be live blogging the convention, either here or on my twitter account. Hope to see you there.
NOTE: I forgot my camera's download cable, so pictures will have to wait until tonight. I'll put them up at the GRP flickr group.
10:10am Arrived and checked in
10:15am Didn't have wifi yet – twittered the 1st post, now have wifi, yeah!
10:20am Caught the last of the opening plenary:
- Sandra Harris spoke on anti military recruiting
- Nancy Lee wood speaking on peak oil
- Ben Grosscup from NOFA speaking on community farm initiative
10:31am Plenary over, Nat Fortune, co-chair, is thanking plenary participants, convention comm. and Steve Baer for food, Telling us what is next and where the workshops are. I will not post for the next hour because I have to go run a workshop.
10:40-11:35am lead the Growing Our Membership workshop – great discussion from members throughout the state about local organizing and growing our membership. Focus on developing goals/strategy for you, your local area and the state party.
12:10pm Office holder plenary started. Arthur Conquest, Brookline town meeting member, is speaking and, rightfully, chiding us for the lack of latino and african-americans at the convention, that we need to broaden our membership and that we must support Chuck Turner. Amen!
12:20pm Other candidate statements and open questions
12:55am Question: how do you keep elected offices accountable: Luc suggested using Chuck Turner's district roundtables
01:02pm Lunch is starting, GRP nominations for Administrative Committee to follow after that.
01:46pm Been having a fun time with the local McKinney campaign organizers talking about the lessons of the campaign. Folks are eating and mingling.
02:12pm Merelice is talking about the rest of the convention with nominations and elections to the Administrative Committee and our representatives of to the national party up next.
02:26pm Nominations are being proposed and candidates are speaking:
Female Co-Chair: Martina Robinson, Jill Stein
Male Co-Chair: Eli Beckerman
Secretary: John Andrews
Treasurer: Merelice
Membership Director: Lee Scott Laugenour
Fundraising Director: David Dionne
Communications Director: Grace Ross, Lloyd Smith, John Andrews (withdrew)
Female National Rep: none
Male National Rep: Lee Scott Laugenour
Female Alternate National Rep: Jamie McLaughlin
Male Alternate National Rep: none
03:14pm Break up for workshops. Since I am not running one, I will be taking pictures and posting them later.
03:58pm Heading home. See you all later!
Update: I heard that the winners for the elections were:
Female Co-Chair: Jill Stein
Male Co-Chair: Eli Beckerman
Secretary: John Andrews
Treasurer: Merelice
Membership Director: Lee Scott Laugenour
Fundraising Director: David Dionne
Communications Director: Lloyd Smith
Male National Rep: Lee Scott Laugenour
Female Alternate National Rep: Jamie McLaughlin
At least one person's take on the convention is posted at the GRP Facebook group.
Hello, Jamie, thank you for inviting me to post my rant on the Green Convention in Leominster yesterday.
I don’t know. I couldn’t bring myself to stay for the party. The Green Party of Massachusetts should shamefacedly dissolve itself and re-organize with brown roots. I couldn’t believe how white that convention was. When Arthur Conquest scolded the group as the only African-American present (there were also two–count them–two Latinos), the cake was watching the group politely applaud.
When I arrived, sometime around 9:15, I walked over to the registration table and saw that one person behind the table at the far right was free, so I asked her for help. She told me, basically, that I would have to wait in line like everyone else and go to the first person, at the far left, when he was free. I waited as the person in front of me completed a complicated registration form, and, when that person had moved on to the next functionary on the assembly line, I said, Mr. Form-filler Man, Sir, may I have a form to join the Green Party. I didn’t really say the part calling him Form-filler Man. Mr. Form-filler told me that I just needed to fill out form X to attend and pay my money, including money for dinner (for which I did not end up staying). I moved on to Mr. 1, the person to Mr. Form-filler’s right, and I’m not quite sure what he did, but we had a pleasant enough if brief conversation. I was then back where I was started. Ms. Far Right, took my money and filled out my name on an yellow card saying I was an “Observer.” I immediately objected, saying I had understood I could come to the convention to participate. I did not want to be just an observer. She told me to work it out with Mr. Form-filler, so I tried, and he handed me a voter registration form and to send it it, but, because I was enrolled in Newton as “Democrat,” I would not be allowed to vote regardless of my renouncing the Dems and declaring as a Green. So I figured I might as well leave, and I almost did, but Sandra Harris appeared and persuaded me that I would enjoy the workshops even if I were not allowed to vote. So I went in as an observer.
The workshop by Chelsea Uniting Against the War was super. But it was not a Green Party activity. I was excited about the idea of joining the immigrants’ struggle with anti-war and Green, but the workshop was the only opportunity I had to discuss it, as for the remainder of the plenaries, I was an observer. The elections were boring and, from my perspective, incestuous. They had nothing to do with me. Or Latinos, as far as I could tell. You guys are blowing it. Inclusiveness did not include me. And I am an English speaker and generally well-educated. Green? I guess I’m just Brown.
Thanks, Bob!
The convention was not as diverse as the party is. It was also older than the party and past conventions have been. We didn’t do a mailing to all members, as we have done with past conventions, but instead relied on email and phone calls and social media like facebook, unfortunately.
I am not sure what the mixup was when you were registering. My understanding is that people can change their voter registration on the spot (we had voter registration forms at the registration table). I’ll talk with the registration folks and see whether my understanding is correct and how we can make sure that the problem your encountered does not happen again.
I am sorry your experience was not what, I believe, all of us wished it would be. I hope that you will check in with us to see whether we improve in the ways you rightfully pointed out.
peace,
Jamie