Minutes of Charlotte Area Green Party Meeting, January 10, 2004

Attending: Albert Aulette, Judy Aulette, Alan Burns, Kathryn Kuppers, Gregg Jocoy, Sarah Pearsall

Mark Ortiz was in California so there was no treasurer’s report per se, but in a list serve message a week or so earlier, he had reported that there was $1,069.90 in the CAGP account with the only activity since his last report having been receipt of one $20 membership payment and $25 from Alan from the yard sale.

Judy called on the CAGP members to try to define goals for our various activities. One goal that seemed to be important for all members present was finding candidates to run as Greens in non-partisan, and maybe even partisan, local elections. Gregg suggested that we needed brochures to further this goal. The brochures would explain to the public that we are looking for such candidates, explain our positions, and lay out our plans for supporting the candidates. Another goal that was generally agreed upon was to find a member willing to attend city and county meetings on a regular basis to keep us better informed of the local political situation. No one present was willing to take on that duty. We are still looking!!!

Our new member, Sarah Pearsall, has volunteered to regularly distribute copies of the Green Pages around Charlotte. She has already distributed 192 copies of the Fall edition to ten businesses in Charlotte. Alan will draw up some CAGP inserts for the Winter edition which comes out soon. The cost of the Green Pages will probably continue to be paid by the NCGP. Some mention was made of the UNC-Charlotte Campus Greens and their lack of activity. Sarah intends to distribute Green Pages on the UNC-Charlotte campus also.

Judy reported that Mark showed about 20 minutes of the CAGP-approved video on CIA covert operations to the managers of the Evening Muse on January 2 and is waiting to hear from them about showing the entire video there to the public at a future date.

Judy has agreed to keep up with the Creative Loafing calendar and make sure that our meetings are listed there.

Alan and Kathryn (and anyone else interested) tentatively plan to go to Greensboro sometime in February to help the ten or so interested Greensboro-area residents start a local.

Alan has not yet been able to talk to Edith about a donation to the CAGP. He plans to write her a letter to set up a visit with her. In the event that we do receive a donation from her, Kathryn suggested that the CAGP become a donating sponsor of the Sugar Creek Greenway Project. She will find out what amount of money would get us listed as a sponsor.

It was agreed that the CAGP should find out if there is some way to become a non-profit corporate sponsor of the Dogwood Alliance and that we should link them to our website.

Ralph Nader will be at Talley’s Green Grocer on January 21 at lunch to meet area Greens and to discuss with them his political plans and how they might fit in with ours. This is NOT a fund-raiser and will not be announced to the media.

Alan reaffirmed that Talley’s is willing to host monthly evening discussions for the CAGP.

It was decided that the CAGP website should feature a new article from some media source every two weeks. Members can submit suggestion to Judy who will choose the most interesting and timely one and write a short introduction for it.

Gregg agreed to draw up business cards with some really attention-grabbing info or idea to pass out to the public and to draw their attention to the existence of the CAGP. Kathryn asked that he submit his text and graphics to the list serve for approval by the members, and he agreed.

Kathryn announced that Mary Olson of NIRS will be at the Charlotte Friends Meeting on Rocky River Road on February 15, 2004 to present information about the mixed-oxide fuel issue. Mary will speak at the Forum which begins at 11:30 AM.

Alan, Sarah, and Gregg, who were all present at the January MeetUp at the Thomas Street Tavern, gave a favorable report of the first Green Party MeetUp in Charlotte. There were nine people there. The next MeetUp will be at Caribou Coffee on East Blvd., because the Tavern was too noisy. The designated topic of discussion was “Should the Green Party run a presidential candidate?”.

Gregg and Alan will work together to “clean-up” the CAGP list-serve to help discourage interference from individuals with agendas unrelated to Green interests.

The next CAGP meeting will be at 2214 Chatham Avenue on February 14, 2004 from 1:00 PM- 3:30 PM.

Submitted by Kathryn Kuppers, Co-clerk, Charlotte Area Green Party