Report on the 7th Meeting of the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) Santa Barbara, California--July 27-29, 2001.

• Author: Hunter, Jane
• Position: Brief Article

Summary of Decisions:

Accreditation of State Parties

The Accreditation Committee recommended and the Coordinating Committee (CC) accepted the applications of Idaho and Maryland to join the ASGP. During the 2000 campaign, the Idaho Greens were blocked from ballot access, but subsequently organized a major write-in campaign for Nader/LaDuke--garnering 2.3% of the vote.

Name Change and FEC Filing

The CC voted to change the name of the Association of State Green Parties to the Green Party of the United States and to use that name in filing an Advisory Opinion Request with the FEC for "National Committee of a political party" status.

Representation to the Coordinating Committee

This is a summary of the impact of a series of votes and negotiations over the course of the meeting. (Note that this fulfills the conditions of the Boston Proposal.)

The CC voted to expand its membership to more closely approach proportional representation. Initially, this will be based upon one vote for each four congressional districts or majority fraction thereof in which there is at least one Green local organization.

This would give New Jersey three representatives on the CC, if all our locals take steps to meet the definition of local in this resolution. A representative may carry up to two votes for national meetings, although individual representatives will be expected to cast their own votes online during the rest of the year. (The proportional formula and proxy provisions will take effect at the next general CC meeting and will have to be revoted during the CC meeting following the 2004 elections.)

The definition of a Green local for this purpose is (1) recognition by the member state Green Party, (2) bylaws and/or a constitution and (3) adoption of the 10 Key Values and a mission statement and/or platform that demonstrates this commitment. This will require many of our county organizations to pursue more formal definition to maintain our maximum number of representatives.

The CC shall reserve seats for representatives of nationally organized caucuses for traditionally disempowered groups, provided that each caucus shall demonstrate a total...