[Gpca-votes] Party growth

Fri Oct 6 23:54:08 PDT 2017

To Jeff, and others,

The SGA administrators were able to correct a previous error which excluded
my name from the ballot for open seat (female) Coordinating Committee.
Since this question was addressed to those such candidates, I am taking the
liberty to chime in as my name is now on the ballot.  Thanks, again, for
fixing the error, admins.

*“What can our party do to grow our party’s membership aside from running
candidates in elections? Your ideas?”*

What a great question!  It’s one my County Council and I ponder quite
frequently.  In my own opinion, *the single most important factor in
drawing in more Greens is to set a good example as a Green yourself*.
Seems simple, but this involves having integrity in beliefs and actions,
while still having enough flexibility to recognize when it's time to expand
from existing beliefs or biases.  This means *representing Green Party
according to our Ten Key Values*, and making sure statements reflect this,
whether they are made online, in person, or through other media channels.
What we say and do should be consistent with the Ten Key Values, as well as
our Party Platform. Of course, this becomes possible only by *knowing and
completely understanding the meaning and implications behind our Four
Pillars and Ten Key Values*.

Since helping to re-activate the County Council for Green Party of
Sacramento, I have participated with the other members of our council, in
various events and media spots.  The idea is to *establish a presence*.  We
work together as a team to achieve this, for encouragement and to help each
other avoid burn-out!  If there is a march or rally which relates to our
key values, you can bet a Sac Green will be there, representing with a
banner, or other Green Party regalia.  We have been mentioned in our local
news (Sacramento Bee/ Fox40) for just simply being there!  Whether we are
tabling at events, or volunteering in the community, we are wearing a GP
button, and often have registration forms with us. We are in constant
contact with non-partisan groups and coalitions and frequently place our
endorsement of Green-valued events, in order for others to see "Green Party
of Sacramento County" on different invites. This all helps tremendously
just to *get the party name out there*.

There are typically at least a couple Greens attending City Council
meetings on any given Tuesday, and these meetings are televised.  Speakers
from the council will typically introduce themselves as being associated
with the party, if they choose. Before speaking on an issue, we always make
sure to check the platform to ensure our speech is consistent with the
party's stance.

I had the pleasure of guest hosting three weeks in a row on the student
radio station for UC Davis (KDVS), where I was given the opportunity to
speak as a Green on different issues. This station is a popular choice to
left-leaning people in our area.

We make ourselves available for contact to our county Greens on social
media and through our email list-serve.  I had also recently obtained a
county voter list and am in the process of divvying up the tens of
thousands of names with the rest of the council, so that we can reach more
of our county greens (if you'd like to know how to get info for your
county, contact me).

*Having an active County Council *also seems to help tremendously.  Looking
at older voter statistics from my county, it seems Green registration was
at a high during the count in Oct. 2014 (3,942) and then fell off by quite
a bit in later counts. This might coincide with the timing of the last
council becoming inactive. Please see the images below, gathered from the
California Secretary of State website.  We have seen significant Green
Party growth over the process of last year’s election cycle in our county,
and had almost 10,000 votes for Jill Stein in the General Election!
Although this may or not be attributed to what we have been doing, having
an active council seems to have a positive effect on registration.  We are
proud, regardless, even if we are just playing catch-up for now.

*In sum, I feel having a local presence, letting the community know you are
there, being available for contact, all while presenting a positive and
accurate reflection of the party, is the way to* *grow*.  I, personally, do
not like the idea of recruitment and feel that it seems dishonest to go
“running after people.” People should come to the party by their own accord
when they see we are doing good things and that our ideology reflects
theirs.  I feel that many voters/potential voters see through gimmicks and
the advertisement-like nature behind the "Bernie Movement" and are looking
for more substance. And if they are looking for more substance, we should
be looking for *them*!

*Nicole Castor*

*Co-Coordinator, GP Sacramento County*

*Candidate for GPCA Coordinating Committee (female)*

Sacramento County Greens 2014: 3,942 (0.58%)

*Last Count Before the Primary 2016: 3,111*

*Two Months Before Election 2016: 3,397*

*Most Current Official Count 2017: 3,890 (0.50%)*

*2016 Presidential Election Results Sacramento County: 9,846 (1.8%) Jill
Stein*

On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 10:04 AM, Erik <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Content preview:  Implement Ben Emery's AP Political Science outreach
> program.
>    Go to all your local high schools and set up a day with the AP political
>   science teachers to speak to the classes. Many of the students are
> required
>    to volunteer time for campaign to get their college credits. Make them
> do
>    table and voter registration for the Green party. [...]
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Erik <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com>
> To: GPCA Discussion List for SGA Votes <gpca-votes at sfgreens.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2017 17:04:01 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Gpca-votes] Party growth
> Implement Ben Emery's AP Political Science outreach program.  Go to all
> your local high schools and set up a day with the AP political science
> teachers to speak to the classes. Many of the students are required to
> volunteer time for campaign to get their college credits. Make them do
> table and voter registration for the Green party.
>
> On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 7:03 AM Jeff Lebow <jlebow at socal.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> Deatra,
>> What can our party do to grow our ranks that we are not doing today?
>> Jeff Lebow
>> Orange County GP
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> --
>> gpca-votes mailing list
>> gpca-votes at sfgreens.org
>> https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpca-votes
>>
> --
>
> *Erik Rydberg *
>
> *Green Party of California(GPCA) Spokesperson*
>
>
> *erikrydberg34 at gmail.com <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com>530-781-2903
> <(530)%20781-2903>*
>
>                 cagreens.org
>
>
>
> --
> gpca-votes mailing list
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>
>
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