WR Greens Meeting Notes 2019-01-09

When

Wednesday, 9 January 2018 at 6:00pm

Where

KWIC Co-working Centre, 2nd Floor of the Boehmer Box Building, 283 Duke Street West, Kitchener Map

Who

Laurel Russwurm, David Weber, Trevor Pollitt, David Dolson, Teresa Cornwell, Stephanie Goertz, Tori Miknovic, Henry, Cameron, Meg Ruttan Walker, Ian Graham, Sam Nabi, Kirsten , Kris Braun, Seth Ratslaf, Stacey Danckert, Ian McGregor

Introductions

• Q&A -- Members ask and answer questions

Nomination Meetings

• Candidate counts: Kitchener Centre has 6 nomination candidates
• Joint Kitchener Centre and Waterloo nomination meeting to be held Wednesday, 6 March 2019 (WR Greens regular meeting day)
  • This means Monday, 4 February 2019 is the cutoff for new memberships eligible to vote in the nomination contest.
• Joint Kitchener South--Hespler, Kitchener--Conestoga, and Cambridge nomination to be held on Wednesday, 3 April 2019
  • Cutoff for new memberships would be Monday, 4 March 2019
  • Venue for KitSHesp, KitCon, Cambrige nomination meeting: Edelweiss Tavern on Doon Village Road, Kitchener?

• Lapsed members (less than one year overdue) can renew membership at the nomination meetings
• There needs to be a quorum of members for a nomination contest
• If nominees have question please contact Randi Ramdeen randi.ramdeen@greenparty.ca ; she's the Ontario provincial contact for the Green Party of Canada
• Registered nominees get information from their EDA, eg. Green Party membership list

Campaign Funding

• Elections Canada has rules about campaign funding for nomination contests
  • If a nominee spends money on the nomination campaign that nominee must appoint a Financial Agent, bank account, auditor, &c.
  • So, don't spend money on your nomination contest
  • If a Financial Agent is needed for zero-cost nomination campaigns then Theresa Cornwell can be your Financial Agent

Contested Nominations

• Joint nomination contests are unique to Waterloo Region
• Even electoral districts with only a single nominee will have a nomination contest against "None Of The Above"

Pre-nomination Meeting

• For nominees in all five Waterloo Region ridings (Kitchener Centre, Waterloo, Kitchener South -- Hespeler, Kitchener -- Conestoga, Cambridge)
• Gives all nominees a trial run at campaigning
• Should this be a social event? Yes.
• Will be held on Thursday, 31 January 2019 (6:00pm?)
  • Venues considered:
    • KWIC, 2nd floor of the old Boehmer Box Building
    • Church (Waterloo Grand River Church?)
    • Huether Jazz Room? (needs a minimum of 30 people, but then it's free)
    • 1 King Street North (Waterloo), a co-working site
    • The Working Centre, Fresh Ground Cafe
    • Retirement homes?
    • Morning Glory Cafe?
  • Book a small venue, then rebook to a larger venue if necessary
  • Try Jazz Room first

• Have a training session for candidates?
  • Either through the GPC, or by webinars
  • Stacey Danckert could help to organize

• What is our reach?
  • Waterloo mailing list is 1,500, with 30% of recipients opening the messages
  • Website has about 2,300 followers that get e-mail for new posts
• Press events?
  • CBC has again not included Greens in their recent morning show
• Media buys?

Green Walks

• Initiated by Ian McGregor and Tom Nagy
• Green Walks will be made a part of the official campaign for Waterloo, a central component in the Waterloo EDA
  • Other electoral districts to join?
  • Other people to join?
• People commit to voting Green for climate action if we pass a threshold of support: 50, 250, 20,000?
  • Method: People going for a walk to explain the Green Walk principle and Green Party policies
  • Keep a list, riding-related
• This is a good campaign for Kitchenre Centre and Waterloo, and other ridings
• There should be a website to allow people to participate, self-select, and see results.
  • Website should track both streams (self-selected and invitations to participate), A-B testing
  • Checks the difference between making a human connection and clicktivism (merely clicking on a website button)
  • Need a design session?

• "I'll do, will you?"
  • Four key points:
    1. A threshold of commitments (web and personal)
    2. A clear, personal relationship
    3. An object to wear (bracelet, amulet)
    4. Followed up with a "We Remember" party, celebration

• Hash-taggable, put on campaign signs
  • Keep the number of signups visible
  • Assurances that this is not all Greens
  • Have a reveal of numbers after a higher total has been reached

• Green Walk numbers will be good in door knocking during campaign

• Write two e-mails:
  • "We have 20,000 signups, go vote!"
  • "We have (some other threshold), go vote!"

• What if we don't get our targets?
  • People follow through
  • Walks foster friendship

• Roles for Green Walks
  • Organizing, recruiting
  • Adminstration: keeping tabs on numbers
  • Marketing: strategy and execution
    • design and website
  • Strategy: designing the event
  • Have an e-mail list?

• Ideas to export this idea to other Green Parties (if successful)

Committee Reports

Communications

• Difficulty getting a committee meeting together
• Social media, and general marketing strategy
  • Most of this work has been done by Laurel Russwurm
• There is no cohesive strategy
• There is no paid campaign
• There are no tools like Buffer
• Need to redo website?
  • Copy and rebrand WREN site?
    • But that site is not finished yet

• We'll get more volunteers once election campaigns kick off
• Candidates will bring in their networks
• Communicate with existing Mailchimp lists
  • Get some volunteers coming out from these lists

Volunteers

• Pages of ideas
  • But execution is tough with only three members on the Volunteer Committee
  • Dependent on action by the Communications Committee

• Would the WR Greens be better with a board of directors?
  • Big picture thinking?
  • Committee chairs as executives?
  • Or an Executive member from the riding associations?
  • At least five people
  • Would provide structure for the Committees
    • ie. What should Communications do?
  • Provide structure for the candidates

• Stacey will:
  • Contact the Executive mailing list
  • Get coordinated before the October election

• Local sustainability groups are talking about the election
  • Other social justice groups too

• Get a meeting of the Communications Committee re: website

Events

• Doug Ford is having a fundraiser at Bingemans
  • There will be a protest.
• Rebook the Post-Holiday event for Earth Day?
  • No, that's Easter Sunday
• Have a Post-Nomination Event
• Other events

Meeting notes taken by Bob Jonkman