The Green Party of Virginia

The first item of business was to elect an interim male co-chair to replace Rick Johnson, who recently announced his resignation from the party. Chris Fink, having agreed to serve as co-chair, provided a replacement be found to serve as newsletter editor, was elected by consensus. Tamar Yager was elected newsletter editor by consensus. It was further agreed by consensus to solicit and appoint Robert Burgholzer as webmaster to replace Rick Johnson.

The next item of business was to nominate a replacement for Tamar Yager, who has resigned as GPUS alternate delegate to assume a new position as GPUS fundraising director. Tom Yager was elected by consensus to the position.

The third item of business was the election of a new stand-in candidate for GPVA presidential nominee to replace Jared Ball who recently announced his withdrawal as a GPUS presidential candidate. The group, having been informed that Jesse Johnson (GPWV) had agreed to serve, elected him by consensus to that position.

The fourth item of business was the adoption of the following motion, which was agreed to by consensus:

GPVA hereby authorizes its co-chairs to consense to fill by recruitment vacancies in the slate of presidential electors appearing on the GPVA presidential nominating petition during the remainder of 2008. It further approves the appointment of Mary T. Taylor as presidential elector for CD 10, who volunteered for position recently vacated by Patrick Davenport.

The fifth item of business was approval of the process for conducting a GPVA presidential preference primary. Two proposals were submitted, a point based process previously implemented by Chris Fink in the conduct of the 2004 GPVA primary, and a ranked choice method proposed by Dave Moon and recommended by Charlie Jordan. It was agreed to defer a vote on what process to use until Chris Fink had had an opportunity to compare both methods and make a recommendation to the group.

The sixth item of business was the adoption of the following motion, which was agreed to by consensus:

Insofar as the publication of a non-official nominating petition is inimical to the interest of GPVA in presenting a single valid presidential nominating petition to the State Board of Elections for 2008, GPVA locals are directed to post only the official party nominating petition on their websites. Failure to comply with this directive will subject the local to disaffiliation in accordance with GPVA Bylaws.

The seventh item of business was approval of a process for selection of delegates to the GPUS presidential nominating convention (PNC) in 2008. The following process was agreed to by consensus:

• Delegates shall be selected by means of an STV election for eight seats.Each nominee must agree to attend at their own expense if elected. Any vacancies shall be filled by proxy up to the maximum number allowed under GPUS PNC rules.
• The deadline for nominations is April 5.
• The STV election shall be conducted at the next quarterly business meeting in early May, 2008.

The eighth item of business was the petitioning campaign for the 2008 GPVA presidential candidate. Tom Yager, presidential petition coordinator, outlined a plan that calls for petitioning for CDs 1,2,3, 10 and 11 to be completed during the next 11 weeks and petitioning for the remaining CDs to be completed in the 11 weeks thereafter. Chris Fink advised that he is soon to qualify as a notary public in the state of Virginia and will therefore be available to notarize petitions.

Discussion of the process for conducting a presidential preference primary resumed following the departure of Kirit Mookerjee and Paul Hughes from the meeting and after Charlie Jordan's arrival. Chris Fink proposed to use the same point based methodology employed in the 2004 presidential preference primary modified to apply points forfeited by losing candidates proportionately to surviving candidates. The motion was adopted by a vote of 4-1-0.