no top header at this time

discussion group

Volunteer Prep work for WI Recount

http://www.jill2016.com/sue_waukesha_county3

Observers at the 2016 Waukesha county recount were asked to stand
behind yellow tape that had been placed on the floor. This request
made it impossible for observers to see presidential candidate votes
on ballots. The rule forced people to stand too far away from the
tabulators and the Waukesha Board of Canvassers to effectively hear
relevant conversations. The distance also made it unrealistic for
public observers to be able to follow the recount of the presidential
votes because they could not see tge fine print on the ballots
accurately if at all.

http://www.jill2016.com/waukesha_county_reports

Rudy, Waukesha County
Dec 06, 2016
Three primary problems observed:Poll lists are not being reconciled,
except when the number of ballots exceeds the number of voters. Thus,
they are playing favorites with some poll lists.Votes are not
being rejected where the voter did not sign the poll list. They
are finding very few of these because they are not doing poll list
reconciliations.They are accepting absentee votes where the envelope
was not witnessed. If the ballot originated with the city, per a
slight difference in the voter's name label, they are accepting these
as "witnessed.

http://www.jill2016.com/dave_racine_county

Dave, Racine County
Dec 01, 2016
I observed the first day of the recount in Racine County. The Board of
Canvass voted unanimously to conduct the recount by Optiscan rather
than by hand. I filed an objection on behalf of the campaign, arguing
for a hand recount. The objection was recorded in the official minutes.

I observed reconciliation of poll books from Caledonia and Mount
Pleasant. I did not see any major discrepancies in the numbers, but
Mount Pleasant had an unusually large number of absentee votes.

Furthermore, voter numbers for many absentee voters in Mount Pleasant
appeared to have been written in the poll book using pencil, rather
than pen.

http://www.jill2016.com/mary_walworth_county

Minutes do include objections re: absentee ballots with no
initializing by clerk at location to indicate photo ID was checked

http://www.jill2016.com/donald_walworth_county

The first day ballots from each ward(s) were machine counted (optical
scan machine: Accu-Vote). On the second day, the ballots were hand
counted. Interestingly, the hand count was quicker. The reason: with
the machine count, one person hand fed the ballots into a single
machine, while the 15-20 tabulators waited during the process. With
the manual count, all the tabulators were counting, recounting and
double checking each others work and could get through the ballots
quicker. The hand count also allowed the observers to watch over the
tabulators shoulder to spot check accuracy of the vote and the count.

http://www.jill2016.com/walworth_county_reports

Objection made regarding 82 Regular Ballots from the City of
Whitewater, Wards 1 and 2. None of these ballots were initialed by
Election Officials are required by the Electoral Process.

http://www.jill2016.com/la_crosse_county_reports

I delivered objections to all three county clerks over not
re-reconciling polling lists,

GP Jill Stein Oct event

Flyer

Milwaukee Green Party Meeting Minutes Sat 13 Aug 2016

11 of us at mtg! ~86 days left to election.

The new faces and enthusiasm is wonderful.

Bernie or bust people are ready for Jill

If anyone wants to add to or edit a copy of these minutes goto https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/mkegp_meeting_min_13_aug_2016. For info on etherpad, see http://n7s.org/gp/#znaaj_Collaborative_Web_Editors.

www.facebook.com/MKEGreens

Team Building

Greg Banks passed around a form to encourage "follow through", and tracking progress on team projects. To grow membership, means keeping current members happy and productive, and having a recruiting strategy. Greg encouraged us to think about what we learned today or know about team building for our group.

On jill2016.com, signup to volunteer

Report on Houston Green Party Convention

Greg Banks (delegate), Bruce Hinkforth (co-chair of both Wisconsin Green Party and national Platform Committee), and George Martin (now at World Social Forum) were there from the Milwaukee area. Logistics/arrangements largely by volunteers were done well; everything was within walking distance. It was fun.

Greg arrived on Thu. National Delegate meeting was Friday. Attended good session on racism and white privilege run by two women.

8 delegates from WI. ~500-700 people total.

There were Bernie supporters; also International GP members.

David Kobb did a great job MC'd an entertaining auction fund-raising event Friday night. There was a meet and greet event that was great for networking with Greens.

Saturday was the nominating convention. Got the impression it was voice voting. Ms Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry complained that the nominating process was unfair.

Greg was at a LGBTQ caucus (platform?) meeting.

The highlight the the convention for Greg was the live stream of a powerful speech from Julian Assange.
Per Greg, if I understand correctly, Julian said that Google collaborates with the Whitehouse in on site meetings weekly. Greg said he had heard "none of this from anywhere else". Julian is promoting both Jill Stein and Gary Johnson as alternatives.

group discussion

It was said that the USA Green party is one of the more progressive examples; but that world wide they all agree on the Four Pillars - 10 Key Values.

We discussed Jills VP Choice Ajamu Baraka. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajamu_Baraka Notes from our discussion: great speaker; human rights activist; academic; involved w/Amnesty International; friends w/Cornel West.

Help us plan for Wed Aug 17 8pm CNN town hall event w/Jill Stein

We want to have a watch party for Jill's town hall.

We need a place (or places!). They have to be willing to show Stein on CNN.
Possible venues:

S76W17745 Janesville Rd
Muskego, WI 53150
Phone: (262) 682-4406

We need to invite friends and get the word out. Let's put together a listening party.

Now! Sun Aug 14 Converge At The Confluence

Fun afternoon event, and opportunity to hand out Green Party fliers.

leafleting

The small flyers, /print 2-sided/ were handed out to everyone.

More Flyers

The goal is to get our group out there face to face with voters, at events coming up like:

In response to view that labor is strongly democratic it was suggested that we consider making a sign Green Party for Labor to show our support at labor fest.

Discussion: face to face strategy

One idea brought up: create a petition with a widely acceptable demand like I support getting Jill Stein and Gary Johnson into the election debates, along with perhaps an opt in check box to get on a low frequency announce only Green party email list.

Also suggested: we door to door canvass or table in the conventional way encouraging people to sign up for our email listserv.

lesser of two evils / spoiler

Article by 'George Martin 'Vote Our Values, Not Our Fears'

Green Party as a spoiler / lessor of two evils issue was discussed. One view being we have nothing to apologize for, that we have every right to vote for the candidate that best represents your values.

Why 5% is a win - 5% gets the Green party Federal matching funds for the next four-year election cycle. 5% would be a lever to get into the next election cycle's debates.

Article sited by new attendee Jabril https://fee.org/articles/how-not-to-waste-your-vote-a-mathematical-analysis/

twitter account has been for Milwaukee Green Party

Polly is experienced with promoting causes and events through twitter; still does so regularly. She has created a shared twitter account @mkegreenparty for our group so we can recruit support for example: in response to news, or in prep for our events.

Effort required to get Jill Stein into Fighting Bobfest

Mike is concerned Bobfest may need to be persuaded to book Jill Stein.

Unofficial On Going TODO

Write up new bylaws

Activate Google Groups Discussion list

Create library of activist sign PDFs

Consider using task/issue/ticket based online work management tool

Milwaukee Green Party Meeting Minutes Sat 19 Mar 2016

team building

~5 minute exercise focused on need for constructive positive feed back for co-team members. A related discussion about dealing w/in experienced co workers in the work place -- mentoring vs hazing.

Rick Kissell's campaign

Rick's points:

Adam Kossulke State assy race. Consv Congress WCC

Next Milwaukee GP mtg scheduled : 4/9 Sat.

Quite a few new events mentioned at meeting

possible educational or strategic events

Discussed bringing in outside speakers, or one of us doing a presentation, or selecting an online video, or gathering to do focussed workshop of some sort.

Topics that came up:

Misc topics touched on

Need committee to promote Stein visit.

The key events include Jill Stein's appearances, and the Green party presidential preference Voting at UW Madison.

Green Party Events Calendar

Most of these came out ofe the 3/19 meeting, from George Martin. Several need details or corrections.

Event Organizer
Elizabeth Ward
elizabeth.ward@sierraclub.org
6082560565

Leaders / Activists / Press

Friendly Media

Lisa Neff

Lisa Neff is senior news editor for the Wisconsin Gazette.

Chuck Hornbock

Chuck Quirmbach is a Milwaukee-based reporter who covers developments and issues in Southeastern Wisconsin that are of statewide interest. He has numerous years of experience covering state government, elections, the environment, energy, racial diversity issues, clergy abuse claims and major baseball stadium doings. He enjoys covering all topics.

Leaders / Activists

Adam Kossulke [WI Wolf Front](https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinWolfFront) on WI Conservation Congress

twitter addresses and hash tags

MPS, School Privatization

#ClassSizeMatters

@MTEAunion
@NoMPSTakeover

Collaborative Real Time Web Editors

Google Doc Alternatives

Summary/Conclusion: let's try Etherpad_Lite

This tool uses the Apache Software License which is considered a free software license.

I first became aware of Etherpad in 2011 during the WI protests, when people were using http://piratepad.net. I think Etherpad_Lite is a rewrite of the code used by piratepad. piratepad seems to be most active in Europe (Netherlands, Germany for ex).

Etherpad.org appears to have an active development community. Etherpad_Lite is basic and simple, no frills, easy to start using, requiring no registration, no user names. It is based on Etherpad, but is a ground up rewrite. It is a real time text editor so (assuming you are viewing the same lines in the doc) you can see changes made in real time by all users currently editing the doc. It has a play back/ time slider feature to rewind back and forward in time to allow you to see all edits -- character by character. You may export your document to various formats.

Etherpad

I need to find active example public sites. Not clear, but http://piratepad.net and http://piratepad.nl/ may still run it?

(next gen) Etherpad Lite, rewrite of Etherpad

Apache Software license

This is a free software license, compatible with version 3 of the GNU GPL.

Minutes Milwaukee GP Meeting Sun Oct 11

Mike McCallister, Greg Banks, Adam Kossulke, and Tom Rodman met for about 90 minutes.

Team building by Greg Banks.

The group briefly discussed a hand out from Greg on team development and Consensus

Greg may look into getting a speaker on Fukushima.

Nukewatch is a Wisconsin-based environmental and peace action group, dedicated to the abolition of nuclear power, weapons and continued radioactive waste production.

Nov State Wide GP Meeting to be at UW-Milwaukee on Sat Nov 7

Thanks to team work by Michael McCallister, Bill Breihan, Tom Rodman, and UW-M student Jafar Banda (pres Community Uprise):

We have a room reserved at UWM for Saturday, Nov 7th, 9am-5pm.  It's room #345 in the Student Union. I'm told it's a conference room big enough to hold 30 people. Reserved as "Community Uprise Meeting".

Jafar is very excited about involving his group in the Nov 7th meeting.

At that meeting will be an election for co chairs, and other state offices. Business related issues in the morning, and hopefully a presentation by the Milwaukee riverkeeper Cheryl Nenn in the afternoon.

My notes say "State coordinating council seats are still vacant". Mike -- pls wordsmith/add context to convert above sentence into stand alone paragraph.

Climate Change

Mike promoted the Wed October 14 rally, 4:30-6:00 pm for People's Climate Movement National Day of Action - Milwaukee at Federal Court House (outside Sen. Johnson’s office). Per Mike, 350.org coordinated w/~12 groups for this event.

Greater Milwaukee Green Party is an active part of the Climate Crisis Coalition calling this demo at the federal courthouse Wednesday. I hope we can all make it. Also keep Saturday, Nov. 28 open to be part of the global rallies leading up to the Paris Climate Summit (that begins on Nov. 30)

Per Mike, a climate Milwaukee change rally is planned for after thanksgiving on Sat Nov 28 (before the Paris Climate Summit). Watch events page for 350 milwaukee for details.

~100 Milwaukee Schools had 'walk ins' on Sep 18

Contact MTEA to get "say yes to MPS", 'anti take over signs'.

Coalition for Peace and Justice

Mike announced meetings on Tue Oct 13 6-730pm at Milwaukee Black History Museum, and on Thu Oct 15 6-8pm at All Peoples Church (police body cameras now in budget).

Adam Kossulke [WI Wolf Front](https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinWolfFront) on WI Conservation Congress

Adam pointed out again that for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress the Counties are represented by exactly 5 reps regardless of their population, hence population dense counties are under represented. He urged GP members to run in the April election.

The WCC is still an ineffective body, dominated by hunters an trappers. WCC is disfunctional; committee system is corrupt. "WCC" is a "do nothing" entity, overruled by "DNR Execs" and the Natural Resources board.

State convention held in May annually.

Milwaukee journal on WCC:

snip — In the field of conservation, Wisconsin is unique among states.

In 1927 the state was the first in the nation to establish a commission — now called the Department of Natural Resources — to manage fish and wildlife.

The move was on the leading edge of science-based wildlife management in the U.S., a renaissance that led to recoveries of deer, elk, bear, turkey and waterfowl populations, to name a handful.

But our forebears recognized the public needed a role, too.

"In the final analysis, no matter what the commission or department believes to be in the best interests of the state, if the citizenry are not in accord, any program set up would eventually be doomed to failure," stated a 1927 conservation commission report. "The birds, animals and fish belong to the people of the state."

Just seven years later, the state Legislature authorized a citizen advisory committee to work with the conservation commission.

Thus, in 1934 the group we know as the Wisconsin Conservation Congress was born.

It was the first citizens' group in the nation to be given a state-mandated role in natural resource management.

The hunters and trappers use overt intimidation to stifle environmentalists in WCC.

Adam is aware of active (environmental?) student groups at Alverno, Cardinal Strict, Waukesha Tech, and UW Stevens Point (bear hunter turf).

Support Democrat Senator Fred Risser’s Proposal to Ban Hunting & Trapping in Wisconsin State Parks

State revenue non-consumptive users vs consumptive users

Q. When you talk about huntable species, you're talking about
one-fifth of the vertebrate species in the state, and the DNR's
Bureau of Endangered Resources has to address those endangered and
threatened species. I would like you to speculate on an excise tax on
non-consumptive users and what role that might play in the future.

A. Another great question. Some of the funding for the Bureau of
Endangered Resources does come from hunters and anglers. I personally
think that beyond the excise tax question, hunters need to step
up to the plate and start thinking more holistically about the
environment and ecosystems in Wisconsin. When it comes to an excise
tax on non-consuming equipment – like binoculars, hiking boots or
waterproof pants – it's a great idea but so far it hasn't worked. I
think what it takes for that idea to take hold is for the nonhunting
public to say "we need to start paying for conservation" and pushing
it up the line to the bureaucrats and politicians. In the past it's
been more of a top-down scheme and it hasn't been effective.

Q. Have you ever considered a "nonhunting hunting" license?

A. Yes, it's been considered but never implemented. I still think
there's real value in that. It could be a badge or something you
could display in your window that says "I'm a proud supporter of
conservation." But such an initiative would have to come from the
public as a grass-roots effort. The reality is you can support
conservation now by purchasing a hunting or fishing license and know
that 100 percent of your money will go to scientifically managed
conservation.

Civic Hacking

Tom Rodman reported on a Civic Hacking presentation at barcamp in early Oct.

Handouts from Greg on Sun Oct 11

PREVIEW - Team Development

1. What is not the reason why feedback is kept 2/3 positive?

    a. It teaches team members to identify strengths.

    b. The pleasant start of beginning with empathy or specific praise reduces defensiveness
    that can block or slow progress.

    d. Ending positive, with specific praise, may empower the individual to make an
    adjustment in behavior.

2. The four concepts being developed by team members, in this model, are: (circle 4)
effectiveness, fairness, good hygiene, concern and pleasantness.


3. When giving feedback to each other, it’s more effective if it's: (pick 1)
    a. 1/4 positive
    b.  2/3 positive
    c. is positive
    d. 1/3 positive.

4. if a team development coordinator is prompting the person being reviewed, the team
development coordinator can still be viewed as remaining neutral. T F

5. Feedback is more objective if a. One person gives the feedback b. Many sources of feedback
are used c. One source of feedback is used exclusively.


6. Being specific giving praise or expressing concern will enhance the effectiveness of either
because: (pick 3)

  a. The feedback is typically perceived as more

  b. The length of the letter willbemore irnpressive.

  c. The individual is empowered because specific examples of strengths have been given.

  d. Clarity enhances understanding

7. An alert and oriented nursing home resident is an example of aconsumer for a nurse. T F

8. Which of these is an example of being specific when giving praise or expressing a
concern (pick 1)?

  a. "This report is consie, each sentance gives brief, necessary information. You write
  quite effectively."

  b. "You are quite an effective write. I like your style."

  c. "Your writing is terrific!"

What Is Consensus?

  Any group's goal should be to reach decisions that best
  reflect the thinking of all group members. We call this
  “reaching consensus”-—a phrase used repeatedly
  throughout this handbook. It is easy to be confused
  about what consensus is and isn't, so here are some
  guidelines:

  Consensus is...

      - Finding a proposal acceptable enough that all
      members can support it; no member opposes it.

  Is not...
      - A unanimous vote-—-a consensus may not repre-
      sent everyone’s first priorities.

      - A majority vote--in a majority vote, only the
      majority gets something they are happy with;
      people in the minority may get something they
      don't want at all, which is not what consensus is
      all about.

      - Everyone totally satisfied.

  Aiming for consensus at a meeting requires a much different strategy
  than if you were just going to keep on arguing until you had a
  unanimous vote (or even a majority vote). To reach consensus, the
  team must let each member participate fully in the decision. This
  probably means going through several rounds of the outlined process-
  How do you know when you have reached consensus? Probably no one
  will be com- pletelv satisfied with the decision but evervone
  can live with it. The decision-making processes described in this
  chapter can help you reach consensus, particularly when the group is
  new.  Not every decisionneed have the support of every member—in
  fact, it is impossible to have such agreement in any group. Your
  group should decide ahead of time when you will push for consensus.
  Decisions that may have a major impact on the direction of the
  project or conduct of the team—-such as which prob- lem to study,
  or what ground rules to establish-should belong to the whole tean
  and be supported by consebsus.

  The brainstorming, multivoting, and nominal group technique methods
  described in this chapter are very structured ways to reach
  consensus. Other less-formal methods exist, and a team can explore
  them as mem— ber'$ become more relaxed in working qith each other.

Green party exit survey draft

  1. Did we not connect with you somehow? How?

  2. Are you involved in something instead of the
     Greater Milwaukee Green Party?

  3. Do you vote for Green candidates?

  4. What would get you to join the Greater Milwaukee
     Green Party again?

  5. What didn't you like about the GMGP?

  6. How did the GMGP not meet your expectations?

  7. What did you like about the GMGP?

Project: find a venue for Statewide GP meeting

Goal: make contact w/student(s) at UWM in order to get sponsorship for the state GP meeting room.

Potential Allie Student Orgs

Spent about 25 minutes looking at :

Progressive Students of Milwaukee

Can not find them!

Hints/traces:

Milwaukee SDS

Community Uprise

Public Contact Officer Name:: Jafar Banda
Public Contact Phone:: 4147326772
Public Contact Email:: jmjafar@uwm.edu

Conservation Club

UWM Union 399A 2015-16 (14-15 Union 392) Group Email: conserveuwm@gmail.com

Maia Stack, President <mxstack@uwm.edu> (414) 418-9738

Conservation Club
Union Box 225
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
PO Box 413

Young Democratic Socialists of America - UWM Chapter

New group forming, unfortunately no more info; will have to dig.

Green Party Meeting Sat 12 Sep 2015

Team building by Greg Banks.

May help in our project effectiveness and process fairness. Can build problem resolution team skills.

How would we handle inappropriate behavior in a meeting. The group brought up several options: direct open confrontation ; follow up after meeting ; share own feelings, ask how others feel.

Greg suggested having a check back time or scheduled health check/progress-report.

Greg's background in iteam building is from the human services field; from business and from an academic setting. We got a handout about "upward feedback" titled "new reality check" by Robert McGarvey. We agreed that this team building should be incorporated into our meetings perhaps in a short period at the start; that it would promote a more effective democratic process. Larry has experience with team building in the university setting and as an elementary school teacher. He suggested there are many theories and practices; you always need to be careful about interpersonal dynamics. Jeanette is "looking forward to it; it could be good for us".

The group suggested we do exit surveys (phone or email followup) after people stop coming to meetings.

Greg banks is our historical connection to the former larger Milwaukee Green Party.

Mike's report on Coalition for justice.

There are regular meetings at

| All Peoples Church
| 2600 N 2nd St, Milwaukee, WI 53212
| http://allpeoplesgathering.org/

The Hamilton family had a meeting with Hillary Clinton which went well.

Mike/Citizens Action for Rail Safety (CARS).

Tammy Baldwin pressed railway administration. May / July railroad bridge evaluation. Federal Railroad Commission. Canadian Pacific will reinforce downtown bridge with concrete.

CARS 99th birthday party for a bridge by Brian Chiu's apartment building. TV coverage with lots of kids; birthday party skit; birthday cake.

Railroad cars owned by gas company / energy company. Built to carry corn oil.

Mike/350.org

Global (Paris) climate climate talks November 13th through December 11th. "Power through Paris" workshops September 26th. Climate March November 28th and 29. December 12th mass mobilization. Milwaukee "climate tables" - George Martin?.

Larry: Organization for change is an Obama group demonstration occurred near DNR building signs and speech this was mainly a "social media event". It featured Obama's clean power program.

Larry/TPP

350 committee monthly regarding TPP chaired by Dan Falkmen professor at UWM. Larry is on the committee. What type of organizations are working on this? - demonstration planning mainly. Heard podcast on TPP by Joseph Stiglitz on BBC. My search for Joseph Stiglitz / TPP:

Larry sent certified letters to "Hear and Now" reporters for their fluff piece on TPP. One of those was accepted. Flush the TPP is one organization.

Larry/ Move to Amend.

Nationwide focus on white privilege and anti-oppression. Resulted in a forked off organization called "united to amend".

Need to bird dog legislators. To pass amendment: 2/3 of each federal House and Senate plus three quarters of all states must approve. The local move to ammend group is in focusing on acting more democratic way. Mary Lon(sp?) is in charge of the local group.

Greg on Fukushima

Shinzō Abe botched managment of Fukushima. They hired homeless people to clean up the radioactive waste. Lowered safety standards.

See:

Larry/ schools and community United (SCU)

The SCU organization is schools and community United. They have a facebook and website meets twice a month at MTEA - on 51st and Vliet; very active group. Some sometimes they meet at NAACP building (?). Won a battle: King's Academy Charter was up for authorization and got it however they gave up their charter under pressure. 25 organizations have joined up. No political parties have joined. Gus Ramirez is planning a huge K through 12 charter or voucher school.

At the state level is WPEN which stands for Wisconsin Public Education Network.

There is a community schools committee; an anti-poverty committee. There is a plan for school walk-ins which are non-disruptive demonstration starting at 7 a.m. on Friday September 18th. There is a plan for school defense counsel's: 1 / school defending against privatization. We are up against a new bill which passed allowing 2 schools per year to be taken over by charter or voucher schools in the first year and five schools per year thereafter. Abele is in position to select a zar. The MREA organization is having an open house on October 3rd unfortunately it is at a charter school. SCU is planning to advise MREA...

Spring Elections/Mike

Petitioning starts on December 1st and is due on January 5th then. Offices up for election include the County Board county treasurer city attorney comptroller. We need to consider who to endorse as candidates. Joe Klein did file for city for the county executive post. Marina is now the executive director at Working Families Party. We are looking for Green Party candidates.

Wisconsin has met the 1% ballot status requirement so the Green Party can have a primary candidate. (explain...)

State Council communications conference calls not happening monthly. We have a fall State wide semiannual GP meeting to plan; let's consider Milwaukee. Dave Schwab the State Fair in Madison is suggesting the Milwaukee location. We need a venue for Fall Meeting Mike will not promote alone Let's consider UWM. Tom Rodman will check out the PSM organization aggressive students of Milwaukee to see if we can use that use them to get us a venue at UWM.

Jose is working on a sub domain website for our group, below the state Green Party website.

Jennette brought up Dr. Margaret flowers.

Mike encouraged us to come up with future forum topics and speakers. We discuss but buying gas at CITCO and using GasBuddy to locate Citgo stations.

Next meeting TBD - Oct 10 or 11.

Larry mentioned district 7 City Council candidate David Crawley is worthy of our support also mentioned Martha de la Rosa Delarosa the 18th district candidate.