WR Greens Meeting Notes 2018-11-07
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- When
- Wednesday, 7 November 2018 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm
- Where
- Abe Erb Brewery and Restaurant, 151 Charles Street West, Kitchener, Ontario Map
- Who
- Theo, Ian McGregor, Cathy Scott, Laurel Russwurm, Stacey Danckert, David Weber, Kris Braun, David Dolson, Tori Mikhnovsky, Trevor Pollitt, Stephanie Jantzen-Martin, Collan Simmons, Tyler Rouse, Teresa Cornwell, Sam Nabi
- Regrets
- Ingrid Douglas, Bryan Izzard
Riding Updates
- There should be a meeting of Financial Agents for EDAs and CAs from all ridings
Kitchener South -- Hespeler
- KitSHesp will be having its inaugural AGM
- When: Wednesday, 28 November 2018 at 7:00pm
- Where: Borealis Grille and Bar
- Location: 4336 King Street East, Kitchener , Ontario Map
- Several volunteers and members have indicated interest
- This meeting is open to visitors!
Kitchener Centre
- The EDA is without a President!
- Matt Piggott has moved to Toronto
- The role of President is largely symbolic:
- Arrange the AGM
- Sign documents for the CFO and Elections Canada/Ontario
- Who would like to be the Kitchener Centre President?
Kitchener -- Conestoga
- Had meeting on 18 October 2018
- Mostly to discuss closing down election campaign finances
- Events should include Fundraising
- Want a better understanding of money flow amongst the 5 EDAs and 5 CAs in WRGreens
- Is there / Should there be equalization payments between EDAs / CAs?
- Financial stuff should go through one riding, the one most likely to get its campaign expenses reimbursed
- Not suggesting a "Finance Committee", but a procedure
Committee Reports
Nominations Committee
- Kris Braun has a spreadsheet of potential nominees
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IdPdcqD9jpOc89blp6W5h_cBGx1ppJstf_gQv79XGJ8/edit?usp=sharing
- Contains names of candidates from municipal election
- Please add new names if you have them!
- Talk to other potential candidates; Kris Braun will reach out to them
- Need to focus on joining the Green Party, coming out to meetings and events, and working with us
- Nomination Meetings?
- Do we have one meeting for everyone?
- Talk to the individual EDA Executives (who will hold their own nomination meetings)
- Timing? Still too early...
- But Kitchener South -- Hespeler will set a Nomination Meeting date at their AGM (Nomination Meeting in February)
- Do we have one meeting for everyone?
- There is still the possibility of an early election, perhaps as early as April
- But maybe not -- there would be a lot of political fallout for the ruling party if an early election is called
- Get media to cover the nomination meetings!
- Get candidates nominated early, so they're available for Summer Festivals, door knocking, &c.
- Things have changed for the Greens with Mike Schreiner's election
- Funds? EDAs no longer have funds in the bank after the removal of federal per-vote subsidy
- A Fundraising Committee is needed!
Communications Committee
- Need a Mission Statement for WRGreens
- What are we trying to achieve?
- Web site needs streamlining
- https://wrgreens.ca/ is the touchstone
- Google Suites?
- Green Party of Canada already has Google Suites
- Used by WRGreens in the last two campaigns
- Creating yet another separate suite will only fragment things even more
- Tori Mikhnovsky and Bob Jonkman will meet to sort things out
Events Committee
- Trashion Show https://www.projecttrashion.com/ (Tori Mikhnovsky)
- Had volunteers (from the Green Party?) staff WRGreens Info Table
- University of Waterloo fashion show with clothes made of trash
- 220 people in 2 shows; 500 through
- Students signed up
- Offers to volunteer
- Need something for new volunteers to do right away
- Perspectives On Peace http://kwpeace.ca/pictures-perspectives-on-peace-2018/ (Laurel Russwurm)
- Had info table
- No new signups, but there was general interest
- Good visibility for WRGreens (held in Kitchener City Hall Rotunda)
- Three environmental events
- 16 Oct: Partnering with Nature To Heal The Biosphere (Micheal Purves-Smith and WREN) http://kwpeace.ca/event/partnering-with-nature-to-heal-the-biosphere-2/
- 4 Nov: Faith and Climate Transformation: A presentation with Dr. Sailesh Rao (Climate Save & Grand River Unitarian Social Action Committee) http://kwpeace.ca/event/faith-and-climate-transformation-a-presentation-with-dr-sailesh-rao/
- 6 Nov: Warmer Wetter Wilder (Nith Valley Ecoboosters) http://kwpeace.ca/event/warmer-wetter-and-wilder-with-dr-blair-feltmate-hosted-by-nithvalleyecoboosters/
- Green Party people attended these events, but there was no WRGreens Info Table
Meeting Notes
General notes
- People wanting to get involved have found it difficult to get information about the Waterloo Region Green Parties
- Sent e-mails, but they "went into a black hole"
- (what e-mail address were they sent to?)
- Stacey gives overview of WRGreens history:
- There are enough of us together to overcome the problems of a single riding association
- Explanation of Committees:
- Events
- includes both non-Green events where we have info tables (eg. Open Streets) and our own Green Party events (eg. Fundraising event, social events)
- Communications and Outreach
- includes Membership
- Volunteers
- Nominations
- Events
- Discussion List e-mails need to be made easily accessible
- There is an archive, but it is difficult to use
- Bob Jonkman to fix, will meet with Tori Mikhnovsky about web stuff
- GPO did a survey one year ago
- "People like Greens, but Greens aren't electable."
- This has changed with the election of Mike Schreiner
- Fundraising Committee needed
- For now, the role of a Fundraising Committee will be left empty until we can find a volunteer who is good at it
- Debate Rules
- There is now a Leaders Debates Commission, headed up by former Governor General David Johnston
- The current rules should ensure that Elizabeth May will be included
- https://www.canada.ca/en/democratic-institutions/news/2018/10/government-of-canada-announces-the-creation-of-an-independent-leaders-debates-commission.html
Ian McGregor's idea
- Ideas on voting?
- People are not voting Green, but voting strategically
- Everyone needs to tell 5 other people to vote Green
- Go for a walk?
- It would take only 6 generations of conversations to get 20,000 voters
- One-on-one contacts are easy and community-building
- Going for a walk is also exercise-making!
- Website with tally of people who pledge to vote Green?
- When successful, if we can say "There's 20,000 other people voting Green" then others are more likely to vote Green
- Should this go to the Events Committee? "Green Walk"
- Wording for a vote pledge? Collect e-mail addresses?
- What is the "soft ask"? "Vote for the Green Party if we get 20,000 people"?
- It's marketing...
- "We can show you there's enough people voting Green" (to make a difference in the election's outcome)
- Even Mike Schreiner was not thought to be able to win on 1 May 2018
- but once the media got hold of it, things changed
- Need to start soon!
- "Latent desire to vote Green"
- But achieving Proportional Representation is better, this is just a stopgap.
Perth -- Wellington
- We welcomed Collan Simmons and Tyler Rouse from the Perth -- Wellington electoral district!
- Perth -- Wellington is welcome to join the WRGreens federated ridings
- There's no formal Perth -- Wellington EDA; the riding association is just starting out
- Need an EDA to raise funds and find a candidate
- WRGreens has pooled resources, eg. to attend Waterloo Region festivals (but they're all in downtown Kitchener or Waterloo)
- But each electoral district is on its own for campaigns
- Getting volunteers is tough (but helped by pooling resources)
- Federal Green Party of Canada will offer some support to EDAs
- Randi Ramdeen is the Ontario contact person for the Green Party of Canada
- WRGreens can share volunteer help with Perth -- Wellington
- Need to address how well volunteers can join (see General Meeting Notes)
- WRGreens will provide assistance in info table material
- But get banners with local branding
- Put events on WRGreen Calendar
- WRGreens will share a centralized (KW) campaign office with Perth -- Wellington
- If that doesn't work out, fallback is to do it on their own
- Make phoning people a first priority!
- "Ask!"
- Call people for donations
- Get an EDA, people will join...
- Perth -- Wellington is giving people a place to put their passions
- Start up a Green Drinks to engage people
Next Meeting
- Perhaps we can use Tori Mikhnovsky's office
- This would be a potluck event!
- This location should be made accessible by January
- Next meeting to be held on second Wednesday in January to avoid the holiday rush
- What: WRGreens Regional Meeting, followed by Social Night
- When: Wednesday, 9 January 2018 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, Social Night goes later!
- Where: Innovation42
- Location: 2nd Floor, 283 Duke Street West, Kitchener, Ontario Map
- Holiday Party!
- Events Committee to organize a Party before the end of the year!
Acronym Expansion
- AGM - Annual General Meeting
- CA - Constituents Association (provincial riding)
- EDA - Electoral District Association (federal riding)
- GPO - Green Party of Ontario
- GPC - Green Party of Canada
- CFO - Chief Financial Officer (for EDAs, CAs and campaigns)
Meeting notes taken by Bob Jonkman