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
 
Contents
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
 
 - Venues considered:
 
- 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:
- A threshold of commitments (web and personal)
 - A clear, personal relationship
 - An object to wear (bracelet, amulet)
 - Followed up with a "We Remember" party, celebration
 
 
 - Four key points:
 
- 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
 
 
 - Copy and rebrand WREN site?
 
- 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