[Iowa-dx] RE: [iagp-johnsoncounty] Revitalizing Iowa Greens

[Hart, Holly J]

MY comments on Ron's message -

I didn't exactly disagree with Ron, but I do think we can't move forward un=
less we accurately take stock of the surrounding political climate and what=
 resources we have.  If we don't, we will set goals with no basis in real p=
ossibilities, and *we will miss real incremental achievements that are crit=
ical to building a political party*!

To put things in perspective, the Iowa Green Party was an official state pa=
rty in Iowa for about a year and a half (2001-2).  During that time, our re=
gistered members grew from about 50 to a little over 2600.  This is the fas=
test rate of growth of any state Green Party (registrant or otherwise) in t=
he country, ever.  Notice, that's nowhere near 10,000 members, but it was e=
nough to get us notice so that, after we'd lost ballot status but recently =
joined the Libertarians in a lawsuit, our case was settled out of court, wi=
th the result that Iowans can again register "Green."  My sense now is that=
 we will not gain a lot of traction for high-end candidates, but there is m=
ore general public support for voting for down-ticket candidates in races w=
e could actually win.   WE need more responsible members like Ron (as in, s=
hows up, offers good ideas for displays, outreach, etc) and candidates...

Ron didn't arrive here until well after the 2004 election decimated our num=
bers, but we have an organization and an infrastructure, just not enough to=
 fill all the possible roles, or to fill them consistently.    Our officer =
elections are biennial, and we've had at least two (one state one local) si=
nce Ron arrived.  We don't do them every year, though; interim elections co=
me when someone wants to step down....

Holly
________________________________________


I was intending to write this to Johnson County greens, but in my
reflection on this problem, I decided to write this to all of us in Iowa.
And I know there will be some discordant disagreement with what
I am about to say, because I've already heard it, as well as in
Explore 07.  But I will say this, because it is critical that we act.

Holly Hart scheduled a work meeting in Iowa City Public Library
for Johnson County Greens.  Holly and I were the only ones who
showed.  I began a discussion about this with Holly, who essentially
disagreed with me, but these are my two main points:

1.  We are not supporting our local and state Green Party organizations.

2.  We need to rejouvenate and revitalize our local and state Green
Party organizations, but we are doing nothing to publicize ourselves.
We are not doing anything to support our candidates when they run
for election, but, with our pitiful membership numbers, we really are
not ready to run candidates.  We need to build up our membership
immediately!

Whether the state organization or our local group organizations, I see
a total lack of the ingredients that make for a successful organization:
FUNCTION which creates interest; PURPOSE which creates
volunteerism; DEMOCRACY which creates longevity and unity;
DELEGATION which creates involvement and respect.  These are
just some of the essential ingredients to making any organization
thrive and have an impact on society.  We lack all of those.  Let me
explain.

1) FUNCTION: what we do and how we do will define what we
are.  We are an advocacy organization, yet we are rarely advocating
anything publically.  We are an educating organization to the public -
or we are supposed to be (! ! !) and we are not doing that.  We are
a political organization - again or we are supposed to be and we
are not doing what "real" political organizations do to encourage the
public to join in our causes and elect our candidates.

So what are we doing?  Introverted things!  We have small (often
tiny) meetings.  We put candidates on the ballot but are not really
running them as candidates.  We are basically (with certain known
exceptions) sitting on our asses and pretending we are a real political
organization.

Think about that.  What I said is entirely true!  Are we AFRAID of
success?

If we are more concerned about keeping our jobs than we are about
actually getting someone elected who will have an official political
income, then we need to just be a public cheer-leading section for
other political parties.  Have we EVER really considered and made
plans for what would happen if 10,000 public voters were to register
Green Party in Iowa?   Moreover, are we willing to organize (we
are not organized) and to manage (we are not managing) a truly
GENUINE and successful political party of 10,000 members... or
more?  What if we were to attract one fourth of Iowa's voters to
join us?  Have we planned for how we will handle that?  I do not
even think we are planning how to handle 150 members !!!!!!!!!!!!

2.  PURPOSE:  I have not addressed this issue in the Function
section.  Our purpose should be to advocate Green Party principles
to the public and to educate the public about Green Party principles
and to inform the public about the rights and wrongs of the
established political system; to organize local groups and our
statewide Green Party of Iowa (IGP) into an active political
advocacy that involves itself in local city, county and state politics,
and to mentor fellow members into being knowledgeable and
qualified to assist our prime active members (not in the least bit to be
as a clique!!!) and to progress active members to become qualified
to assume greater duties as we grow or as they move on to other
things (hopefully to be elected!).

3.  DEMOCRACY is the biggest failure in our local Green Party
state and local groups.  Every Green Party organization needs to
practice genuine Democracy, because if they do not, then we are
anti-Democracy!  That means elective administrative positions and
periodic certain elections to those positions.  I have seldom seen
that.  If we had an actively thriving organization it would be because
of our Democratic principles above all else, and I am not putting
the cart before the horse here!  So what positions do we have?

Having formed two-handfuls of corporations in California, Nevada
and Missouri, I detest the established corporate elitist term of "chair"
or "chairman" or "chairwoman".  I detested the ancient elitist term
"board of directors".  I created "Directorate" for the Board and
discontinued any reference to a chairman as being a detestible
anti-Democratic crown.  There is no such thing as "leadership" in any
true Democracy, only administrators and executives under them
who are responsible to their offices and are held accountable.

In Green Party, the idea of co-chairs seems to me to be able to
have dual-gender representation (one male and one female) as well
as to break up the power that one person has over the organization.
This seems to work well at the national and state level, but in
Las Vegas, Saint Louis, and Iowa City, the local Green organizations
did not and do not practice Democracy!  There are no and have
been no elective officers, let alone a process for regularly electing
administrators and functionaries!

4.  DELEGATION, a very important aspect, and this ALWAYS
involves COMMITTEES!!!  Whatever has to be done, there must
be a committee to handle it!  The committee is what has to be done!

Committees must NEVER be powers of authorities in their own
right, and here is where delegation comes in: the local group by
Democratic process assigns tasks or activities to the proper
committees, but committees need not be static groups of people.
The committee is like the table where the paper and pen are used
to write a document, the committee is the platform in the form of a
function, so persons may join into any particular committee or
several committees that interests them, but the committees always
function in their individual mandates.  But each committee only
handles a specific function:

An Election Committee to support, publicize, and coordinate as well
as fundraise for members running for election!

A Publicity Committee to inform the public about Green Party and
our activities and issue support or disapproval!

A Political Action Committee to make official Green Party testimony
at city council, county commission, or state legislative meetings, as
well as to inform the local organization's members about events!

These are just some of the committees that can and should be
formed, but FIRST, we need to build up our membership BEFORE
we do anything else.  We can do that with a Membership Committee.

I've complained that we are not doing anything at all to really build our
membership, and I've taken flack on that.  But it is entirely true. The
way we build our membership is NOT to post a simple notice in the
paper about a meeting we are going to have, but to turn it into an
advertisement, which has to be skillfully done or the newspaper will
edit out the enticements!  By participating in public events and in
government meetings where we can get our organizational name in
the record and... hopefully... in the news, it will interest those who are
inclined to think the way we do, and they can contact us to join!  We
also need more public event participation!  Tabling is a great way to
do this, but what kind of free informational brochures and attractive
posters do we display?  Both are forms of advertisements in the way
we produce our platform to various topics!  I already told Holly
that we need to have flyers for different topics, perhaps photocopied
on different colored pale paper such as pale green for environmental
and ecological issues, pale yellow for civil rights issues, pale blue for
government issues, and plain white for events.  Holly and I agreed
that we could use high-lighters to color-code the existing white flyers
we have, rather than throw them away.

We absolutely must become more involved in our organizatons!  We
will not attract and keep new members if we offer a dull organizational
meeting that does not amount to anything.  Democracy and Organization
are the two key methods of giving members something to enjoy about
coming, and, Purpose and Function will keep them interested!

It is all up to us!  Now, like my "Marching" poster says, what are WE
going to do about it???????

Ron Kinum  (Green Party Ron)



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