irvwa-minutes-2007
IRVWA
Minutes of Meeting Held on January 23, 2007
Present: Joe Szwaja (chair), Rich Anderson-Connolly, Jerry Cronk, Taryn Gearhart, and Cary Thomas. Rich Anderson-Connolly served as secretary pro-tem.
Treasurer’s Report
Jerry reported that the current balance was $2426.45.
Recent payments:
Citizens for a Better Ballot (Pierce County), $1,000 on 9/11/06
FairVote, $500 on 9/11/06
Citizens for a Better Ballot, $1,000 on 10/5/06
Payment for Animation
Joe reminded the board of our agreement to pay Stefan Gruber for his animation used by the Pierce County Amendment 3 campaign. After a discussion of the agreement Rich moved to pay Mr. Gruber $800. Motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
Voter Database Interface
Taryn reported on the work done by Wally Cuddeford on developing a software tool to facilitate working with the state voter database. Taryn is currently using the tool to develop a list of potential IRV supporters in King County. The tool works with MS Access and shortens the time required to develop such a list. Taryn hopes to have approximately 2,000 names in King County when finished.
Wally is willing to expand the software interface to work with the entire statewide database. The follow motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved: IRVWA will pay Wally Cuddeford $500 after delivering a voter database interface to the specifications established by Taryn. IRVWA will have the right to distribute and use unlimited copies of the software for the purposes of advocating IRV.
Pierce County
Rich gave a report on the Pierce County IRV efforts. Toni McKinley is lobbying the state legislature to expand IRV in Pierce County. Currently she is promoting a bill that would give all local governments, in a county that has ranked choice voting, the option to use ranked choice voting.
Documentary Film Committee
The following members volunteered to form a committee to bring to fruition the documentary film on IRV: Joe, Taryn, and Cary. The abstainers, Rich and Jerry, happily gave the committee carte blanche.
King County
Joe reported that he has tried to get on the King County Charter Review Commission but has not been notified of his status.
Out of a discussion on the King County Charter Review the following ideas were suggested:
1. Mobilize supporters to attend commission meetings and speak during public comment time. Supporters include I-318 signatories, Green Party members, and Libertarian Party members.
2. Send message (email or mail) to IRVWA list members regarding the King campaign. Taryn will look into a bulk mail permit.
3. Put content on www.irvwa.org regarding the King campaign.
4. Mail a packet of information to members of CRC (Charter Review Commission) regarding IRV. Rich did this for Pierce and will get information to Joe.
5. Hold a public forum, perhaps at the UW, on IRV and the CRC. Advertise broadly and seek endorsements from UW groups, including student government and campus Democrats.
6. Contact the Seattle P-I, particularly Ryan Blethen, to get coverage of IRV and the CRC.
7. Use IRVWA as the primary PAC to fund the King campaign.
The King county residents of the board agreed to form a committee to work on this campaign.
Conference Calling
As the hour was late, the board decided to let Brent figure out the best way to proceed. Some members expressed a preference for an 800 number. At least one member was willing to use his cell phone.
Adjournment
Meeting ended at approximately 7:50 pm.
Approved 9/26/2007. – Paul McClintock, Secretary
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IRVWA – September 26, 2007 Meeting Minutes
Jerry Cronk’s Law Office, Shoreline, WA
The IRVWA board annual meeting held on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 was called to order at 6:25 p.m. at the Law Office of Jerry Cronk, 17544 Midvale Ave. North, Suite 107, Shoreline, WA 98133, by vice president Richard Anderson-Connolly, with secretary Paul McClintock (by phone), treasurer Jerry Cronk, Taryn Gearhart (by phone), and Brent White present. Cary Thomas arrived later. The minutes of the January 23, 2007 meeting were approved as amended.
Treasurer Jerry Cronk reported that the period following our January 23, 2007 meeting began with a balance of $2426.45, had expenses of $800 to Stefan Gruber, $10 to the Secretary of State for annual corporation filing, $18.38 to Cary Thomas for web site domain name costs, making the current balance $1598.07.
Election were held for the remainder of the May 2007 to May 2008 term, as we had no annual meeting in May nor since then until now. Elected:
• President – Richard Anderson-Connolly
• Vice President – Cary Thomas
• Secretary – Paul McClintock
• Treasurer – Jerry Cronk
The question was raised as to whether we needed to amend the bylaws to permit teleconference meetings. Paul McClintock read from RCW 24.03 indicating that they are permitted by RCW as long as the bylaws do not preclude, which ours do not.
Jerry Cronk moved to have our next meeting by teleconference and to have Brent White set it up and notify members of how to participate. Adopted.
Discussion ensued on what activities we should next engage in, focusing on the King County Charter Review Commission, and state legislation facilitating local IRV.
Taryn Gearhart moved that Richard Anderson-Connolly use his expertise from the Pierce County IRV campaign to write a letter to the King County email constituents advising them of the process and encouraging them to pursue this in King County. Adopted.
Jerry Cronk agreed to contact Darlene Fairley regarding a local option bill.
The next meeting was set for Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. via conference call.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 p.m.
– Paul McClintock, Secretary
Approved 11/7/2007. // pm
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IRVWA – November 7, 2007 Teleconference Meeting Minutes, Draft
The IRVWA board held a regular meeting by teleconference at 605-725-3600, access code 123321, on November 7, 2007, at 6:30 p.m., with President Richard Anderson-Connolly presiding and Secretary Paul McClintock present. Other members present were Vice President Cary Thomas, Treasurer Jerry Cronk, Joe Szwaja, Taryn Gearhart, and Brent White. The minutes of the September 26, 2007 meeting were approved as distributed. Taryn made the point of order that we have a rule that draft minutes are to be posted on our Yahoo site in one folder, and approved minutes in another, but that these are not current. The point was well taken.
President Rich reported that the November 6 elections in Pierce County had 4 measures of concern, which all turned out as we desired. Defeated was the one which would have pushed implementing IRV from 2008 to 2010, and the one permanently limiting to 3 the number of choices a voter could rank per race. Passed were the measure requiring the auditor to move to full ranking as soon as technically possible, and the equal ballot access for all (rather than skewed rules favoring the major parties). Cle Elum had a non-binding pro-IRV measure that was not passing. Rich also reported on IRV measures in Aspen (CO) and Sarasota (FL).
Secretary Paul reported that email queries to IRVWA still needed some response.
Treasurer Jerry reported that for the period from our 9/26 meeting to this meeting, the balance of $1598.07 had not changed.
Informal discussion regarding how IRVWA can get the public better involved in IRV campaigns included discussing the feasibility of redesigning the webpage to allow easy editing by all board members.
Rich moved that Cary, Taryn and Rich develop a draft new web site using Wordpress.org, with a target date of a month from now. Approved without objection. Taryn encouraged board members to submit ideas on what they'd like in a new web site.
Rich suggested we begin thinking about having a statewide Voting Reform conference/convention/gathering, and a strategy for approval of local option bill (LOB).
Rich volunteered to establish local IRV Yahoo or Google discussion groups (Spokane, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, etc.).
Rich would like a discussion, perhaps at our next meeting, on whether to change the name of IRVWA to reflect emerging use of term RCV.
The next meeting was set to be by teleconference via the same phone number and access code, on Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 5:30 p.m.
The meeting adjourned at 7:42 p.m.
– Paul McClintock, Secretary
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IRVWA – December 16, 2007 Teleconference Meeting Minutes
The IRVWA board held a regular meeting by teleconference at 218-339-7800, access code 123321,on December 16, 2007 at 3:00 p.m., with President Richard Anderson-Connolly presiding and Secretary Pro tem Taryn Gearhart present. Other members present were Vice President Cary Thomas, and Joe Szwaja. The minutes of the November 07, 2007 meeting were left un-approved due to perceived lack of quorum. The Treasurer Jerry Cronk was not present so no Treasurer report was given.
No Decisions where made due to lack of quorum but reports/discussion did ensue.
Please help me out here...I think I got confused between the local option for Pierce co. and King Co. charter topics please review these minutes to make sure they are correct!
[Reports]
President Rich reported that he and Kelly Haughton had recently testified in favor of RCV to the sub-committee of the HomeRule Charter Commission in King Co (or to which committee here in favor of local option?) and he noted that Ralph Munroe & Don Whiting had testified against it. James Williams (rank?) asked for model language to be submitted to the committee (he seemed in favor of the idea). Darlene Fairly (spelling and rank state senator or rep?) is still not in favor of the idea. She is seemingly the only roadblock to passage at this point.
Taryn offered to parse the IRVWA dataset for King Co. for the constituents in Darlene's zip code to send a mailer to.
Also noted was the in regards to RCV in Pierce Co. there was a huge mtg recently of all the PCOs and that Dwight Peltz Chair of WA Democrats had attended and that they had put up 2 viable candidates for ranking in the upcoming November election cycle. This should bode well for a first use of RCV in Pierce Co.
[website]
Cary recommended Bluehosts who charges $7.00 monthly for website hosting. Rich Recommended we have a website retreat sometime after the 1st of the year where Kevin Moore and some of his associates can sit down with us to assess our needs and begin to design what is needed for the future of IRVWA.
[Media Support for King Co.]
Is suggested that there be a concerted effort/buildup through Jan-Feb with a bigger push in March to educate council/voters about RCV for King Co. Charter amendment.
Taryn will pull out mailing addresses for King Co from database (petition drive dataset) for use in a mailer if IRVWA wants to do this.
[Electoral Reform Conference at UW]
Rich brought up for discussion planning an event this coming summer to be a "big tent" presentation of electoral reform using the facility of UW (need to nail down which rooms/halls to be used). Suggested invited Clean Campaigners, Black Box voting people, Proportional Representation people, RCV, and perhaps Krist N. for some entertainment (more of a younger set draw).
[Board member Recruitment]
Rich suggest that if all goes well with the website fellow Kevin Moore that we invite him onboard as new IRVWA board member.
[Name change for IRVWA]
Rich reminds us to be thinking of whether we want to change the name from IRVWA to something else in the future to utilize the words Ranked Choice Voting instead of Instant Runoff Voting.
[Schedule next meeting]
Next mtg Jan 20th 2008 time and conference call number TBA
Secretary Pro tem Taryn Gearhart
Approved 1-27-2008