*Please send your discussion comments to gpca-votes@sfgreens.org <gpca-votes@sfgreens.org>* Discussion has begun for the following GPCA SGA ranked choice vote Ranked Choice Vote ID #137 Ranked Choice Vote *Election: GPUS Delegation, unscheduled vacancy, three alternates, remainder of July 2017 - June 2019* Number of Seats 1 Ranked Choice Vote Administrators: Victoria Ashley, Brian Good, Laura Wells, Eric Brooks, Mike Goldbeck Discussion 02/12/2018 - 03/25/2018 Voting 03/26/2018 - 04/01/2018 Voting ends at Midnight Pacific Time *Background* According to the Delegate Apportionment Formula in Section 8-6 of GPUS Rules and Procedures Article VIII National Committee Size and Delegate Allocation (http://gpus.org/rules-procedures/#08 ), the Green Party of California (GPCA) is entitled to 25 delegates on the 150 member National Committee of the Green Party of the United States. According to GPCA bylaws, the GPCA elects its GPUS delegates and alternates to staggered, two-year terms via the Standing General Assembly, during the same time period as elections to the GPCA Coordinating Committee ( http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-2_Membership ). This election is for 12 alternate seats on the GPUS Delegation, for two year terms running from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019. The election is conducted by Ranked Choice Voting. Ranked Choice Voting is explained here http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/fair-representation-voting/choice-voting • http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/instant-runoff-voting • http://www.sfgov2.org/index.aspx?page=876 • http://www.acgov.org/rov/rcv. Ranking 'No Other Candidate' (NOC) means once NOC passed the approval threshold, no further candidates will be elected, other than those (if any) who have already been elected before NOC reached the threshold. *Candidates* Rodolfo Cortes Barragan Timeka Drew Adam Siegel Jesse Townley No Other Candidate *Bio and Statement - Rodolfo Cortes Barragan* (1) Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, Bellflower, LA County (2) I would like to apply for GPCA GPUS Alternate Delegate because I am committed and involved in growing the Green Party in California so that the Greens may achieve national victory over the two party system. I will collaborate with all Greens who want to help the effort to achieve a Green New Deal. (3) I am the Campaign Manager for the Recall Rendon campaign. I am in charge of making sure we succeed in triggering an election to replace Anthony Rendon, who has blocked SB 562 and thereby deprived Californians of guaranteed healthcare. The recall will be a key test of the Democratic establishment's "blue wall" in the heart of Latinx Los Angeles. Previously, I helped with the campaign to elect Kenneth Mejia to the U.S Congress. Before that, I was involved with the Jill 2016 campaign, joining the Green Party after Bernie spoke at the DNC. *Bio and Statement - Timeka Drew* (1) My name is Timeka Drew and I live in the city of Los Angeles located within Los Angeles county. (2) My vision for serving as an alternate GPUS delegate is to bring my passion for convergence and cooperation to my state Green Party that I have been supporting as a voting member, but am now committed to doing more to help not only build and grow the party by recruiting newcomers, but to also focus on strengthening the party from within. I have been a dedicated member of the party since serving as Media Coordinator for the Cheri Honkala campaign for Sheriff of Philadelphia in 2011 and I look forward to serving this party for years to come. (3) I am currently the National Director of the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, of which many prominent Greens serve as Board Members and Fellows - our mission is to support the grassroots democracy movement. I have been a climate democracy and democracy movement organizer nationally since 2014, beginning with the Global Climate Convergence campaign of which I was the lead organizer. This year, we sponsored and were the lead organizers of the Democracy Convention, which brought together dedicated democracy organizers and activists across different areas of focus, building across conferences to create unity and cohesion within our movement. I am a long time member of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and am a member of the LA Tenant's Union. I am a mother who believes in inter-generational movement building and the importance of integrating the youth perspective and leadership into our organizing and strategies. *Bio and Statement - Adam Siegel* (1) Adam Siegel, Davis, Yolo County (2) I would like to serve as a GPUS alternate delegate because I am passionately committed to continuing to advance the building of the Green Party as a serious political force in the United States at a time when this country finds itself at a true turning point (i.e., crisis). I intend to faithfully reflect the will of California Greens and the GPCA while serving as an alternate delegate, and will be transparent and forthright in representing and expressing the views of California Greens and their party. (3) After decades of registering NPP (despite voting Green as far back as 1996), I re-registered Green in 2016. Since becoming active in the GPCA, I helped reactivate the Yolo County Organization in the fall of 2016, and currently serve on the Yolo County Council. I served as a delegate for the 2017 Kern General Assembly and attended the 2017 Ventura GA. I currently serve as a 2017-2018 SGA delegate. I was appointed to the GPCA Byaws Committee last year, and was recently elected Co-Co. I also currently serve as a GPCA member of the GPUS Platform Committee. As a Green activist, I helped organize last year's Central Regional Gathering in Davis. Outside my Green life, I have been a delegate for a number of statewide organizations over the years: California Federation of Teachers, Sacramento Central Labor Council, and the Librarians Association of the University of California. I have worked for the University of California for many years (as a librarian), and am a dual card (IWW/UC-AFT) rank-and-file shop steward. *Bio and Statement - Jesse Townley* I am applying to continue to be a delegate for the California Green Party. I and 1 other long-time Greens, John Selawsky, was re-elected to the Berkeley Rent Board in a city-wide election in November 2014 and my current term as an elected official ends in November 2018. I was elected as a National Delegate in 2011. Over the past years of serving as a member of the National Committee as a Delegate from California, I have attended the 2012 ANM & Presidential Convention in Baltimore, the 2013 Annual National Meeting. Iowa City, IA, and the 2014 Annual National Meeting in St. Paul, MN I have served on the Coordinated Campaign Committee, and currently serve as a non-NC member of the Platform Committee and the Dispute Resolution Committee. I have also been an active participant on the National list-servs and done my best to be a level-headed participant. I was part of an ad-hoc group who are working on moving the NC to communicate via a message board. I worked with other California Greens in bringing forward a proposed Platform plank that was not added to the National Platform, as well as worked with California and Georgia delegates on Platform planks that were added to the National Platform. On the CCC, we instituted a fascinating series of teleconference trainings for current and prospective Green candidates open to any US Green. I’ve taken part in these trainings and led one about campaign strategy based on my experience as an activist, a candidate and an elected official. I have been a registered Green since 1992. I spent 2 decades volunteering at 924 Gilman Street, the all-ages volunteer-run music and art collective that- in the mid-1990s- suddenly had to learn how to advocate for itself and its mixed use/industrial neighborhood. It was a rude awakening to local politics for all of us Gilman volunteers, and ultimately successful. I realized that I loved the intricacies and details necessary to navigate local government. 17 years ago, Green City Councilmember Dona Spring encouraged and inspired me to jump into local Berkeley politics. I knew her through my work at various non-profits and paratransit companies, including Easy Does It Disability Services where I served as Executive Director & Vice-President of the Board of Directors. (At the time of this application, I am wrapping up a second stint as Interim Executive Director of EDI) My entry into city politics was a combination of her encouragement and my epiphany that, a, no one in power was as young as me (I was 30 then), and, b, that none of them understood how important a counter-cultural landmark like 924 Gilman was in the world-wide punk, indie, & art scenes. (Later on the successes of Gilman alumni Green Day & their Broadway show, "American Idiot" [which started at the Berkeley Rep] clued everyone in on Gilman's importance to music & art, even though the collective has concentrated on more underground acts than Green Day) She appointed me to a city commission, the Disaster & Fire Safety Commission (then called the Disaster Council), and a year later I ran for City Council in 2004. While I lost in a 3-way race for an open seat, I gained a lot of experience and name recognition. I raised $18,000 via mostly non-traditional methods, including on-line and through art, spoken word, and music events. In 2005 I was the Volunteer Coordinator for Green Party member & later KPFA Morning Show host Aimee Allison's first Oakland City Council campaign. Throughout these years I worked with Dona, fellow City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, and many local Greens & clean election advocates on getting Alameda County to implement Instant Runoff Voting, which finally arrived in 2010. I have also served as the Chair & Vice-Chair of the Disaster & Fire Safety Commission and the Chair of the Alameda County Disaster Preparedness For Pets ad hoc group, which we formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to plan for post-earthquake animal care. After a minor 2006 kerfluffle between Berkeley Greens and the Alameda County Council, I helped re-start the Berkeley chapter of the Green Party, which had lain moribund for 12 years. We updated the by-laws, held community events, endorsed candidates, and generally increased public awareness of the Berkeley chapter for 2 years. Eventually those of us who helped rejuvenate the chapter needed to step back, and the chapter took a break until fall 2010, when it again began election work. Since I was running for reelection, I was only slightly involved, serving as the moderator for the Berkeley Greens e-mail list (which I still administer). All of this community work raised my political profile to the point where I was able to join with other tenant-friendly community candidates chosen by the Rent Board Convention to run and be elected to the Rent Board in 2008. The Rent Board Convention is a community-run, grassroots process that allows prospective progressive Rent Board candidates to be vetted by a panel of Green Party, Peace & Freedom Party, progressive Democrats, Grey Panthers, Cal Dems, and other Berkeley groups & activists, and then voted upon by a public convention held each summer before a Rent Board election. All of us incumbents went through the same process in 2010, showing our clear connections to the grassroots. I served as Chair of the Rent Board for 2 years- December 2014-December 2016. I want to continue to bring my grassroots electoral experience and grassroots fundraising expertise (I've also served on the Board of Independent Arts & Media, a San Francisco non-profit supporting independent voices, since 2007) to the state-wide Green Party in an effort to elect more Greens to public office. I strongly believe that to effect political change, we must amass political power at the local level. This will naturally lead to state-wide power, and the ability to apply the Ten Key Values across our state. Since it's one of the largest economies on the planet, this will further Green values exponentially. Thank you for considering my application. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or comments. Full details will be available shortly at: http://www.sjcgreens.org/sga_vote_vacancy_gpus_delegate_alternate *Please send your discussion comments to gpca-votes@sfgreens.org <gpca-votes@sfgreens.org>*