irvwa-minutes-2008
IRVWA – January 27, 2008 Teleconference Meeting Minutes
The IRVWA board held a regular meeting by teleconference at 218-339-7800, access code 770039, on January 27, 2008 at 4:00 p.m., with President Richard Anderson-Connolly presiding and Secretary Paul McClintock present. Other members present were Vice President Cary Thomas (late), Joe Szwaja, and Brent White. Treasurer Jerry Cronk and Taryn Gearhart were absent. The minutes of the 12/16/2007 meeting were approved as corrected.
The president reported on the King County Charter Review Commission's consideration of IRV / RCV, and that he was working on an Op-Ed piece for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with Rob Richie, and that follow up letters would be needed.
Cary Thomas resigned as board member and vice president due to family obligations, and his resignation was accepted with regret.
Joe Szwaja was elected as vice president to fill the vacancy.
The treasurer reported that there was no change in the finances since the previous meeting, and that there was approximately $2200 in the bank account.
The secretary reported that the minutes for past meetings would be posted on the web this week.
Web update: Kevin Moore, using Drupal content management software, has been developing a new IRVWA web site, which will allow each board member to post information directly to the site.
Paul moved that we go live with the new web site next Saturday at a time convenient to the webmaster. Adopted.
On the local option bill, the president reported that a Fairley staffer said Fairley plans to let it out of committee this year.
Use of animation for promoting IRV for the King County campaign was discussed. Joe estimated that Sefan Gruber could update the animation for the KCCRC issue for about $50 to $100.
Joe moved to approve up to $250 for Stefan Gruber to update the animation. Approved.
Cary joined the meeting.
Joe reported that his niece made a 32 minute video for East Timor for $1500. We asked him to ask her for a proposal for a video for IRVWA.
Cary confirmed that the Paypal link was working on the web.
Rich reported that there were about 17 members of the Yahoo group for RCV in King County, and that the list was useful for notices, requesting letters to the editor and phone calls. The next two months are critical to the KCCRC issue. This effort isn't hopeless, but is a long shot.
Joe reported that the KCCRC meets twice more, in January and February, with April the final public comment period. Joe suggested we seek publicity in the alternative press, Eat the State, and Washington Free Press, and Washblog.
Rich moved that we invite Kevin Moore to the board. Adopted.
Rich asked the board to consider changing the name to RCV.
Motion to purchase the www.rcvwa.org name for $10 was approved.
The next meeting was scheduled for Sunday, March 2nd at 4pm.
The meeting adjourned at 5:22 p.m.
– Paul McClintock, Secretary
Approved 3/2/2008. // pm
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IRVWA – March 2, 2008 Teleconference Meeting Minutes
The IRVWA board held a regular meeting by teleconference at 218-339-7800, access code 770039, on March 2, 2008 at 4:30 p.m., with President Richard Anderson-Connolly presiding and Secretary Paul McClintock present. Other members present were Treasurer Jerry Cronk, Taryn Gearhart, Brent White. Vice President Joe Szwaja was absent. The minutes of the January 27, 2008 meeting were approved as distributed.
The president reported that the local option bill was dead this year, making it out of the government operations committee, but not out of the rules committee.
He also announced that Rob Richie will be in the Washington state about March 20th for several days, and asked that any one with speaking engagement ideas to let him know.
Rich also reported that the King County Charter Review Commission has reportedly moved the public comment period to April. Taryn reported that over 1000 I-318 petition signers in King County are listed on a file in our web site's files area.
The secretary reported purchasing the RCVWA.ORG web name for a year, per the motion adopted at the previous meeting.
The treasurer reported having $1607.48 in the bank currently. The $250 maximum for Stefan Gruber approved at the January meeting has not been paid, nor do we know an exact amount yet.
The president reported that the new web site is up, but that Kevin Moore has not yet accepted or declined the invitation to join the board. He had a job offer out of state which he declined; while pending his decision on this he put the board position invitation on hold. There are still some web site changes Rich has for him to make, including appearance issues, and a form for collecting contact information from those who want to be involved. Taryn would like to get some radio interviews uploaded. Without objection, it was decided that Rich would ask Cary to make a CD backup of all the old web site files and mail it to Taryn, and that she would try to get the radio interviews up on the new site.
The president reported that lobbyist Toni McKinley had done some positive things for IRV with the state legislature, and that a token cash gift from IRVWA might be appropriate. Jerry moved to give Toni $500. After discussing the fact that we may need to do a mailing soon at an unknown cost, the motion was postponed indefinitely.
The president suggested that 2010 might be a good target year for another statewide initiative campaign, and that it might be good to be ready with op ed pieces already written when the top-2 case is decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Someone suggested "We've Got An Answer" as a possible heading or slogan. By general consent, Rich will draft an op ed piece for review. It was agreed to work toward a mailing to I-318 contacts in King County regarding the KCCRC issue, urging them to contact the commissioners and asking for donations. Rich will draft a letter and Taryn will research mailing costs and options.
Rich also suggested an extension to the I-318 provision for both official party nominations and other candidates self-identifying themselves with a party. The extension would allow each party to nominate more than just one candidate for each position. No objection was made to the idea.
The idea of changing our name to something with RCV or Ranked Choice Voting was met with no objection, but no decision was made on the exact name. It was noted that we may want one name for the organization and a different one for an initiative campaign. Further discussion will be by email before the next meeting.
By unanimous consent, the next meeting will be on Sunday, March 30, at 4:30 p.m.
The meeting adjourned at 5:43 p.m.
Paul McClintock, Secretary
Approved 2008-03-30. // pm
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IRVWA – March 30, 2008 Teleconference Meeting Minutes, Draft
The IRVWA board held a regular meeting by teleconference at 218-339-7800, access code 770039, on March 30, 2008 called to order at 4:38 p.m. with President Richard Anderson-Connolly presiding and Secretary Paul McClintock present. Other members present were Taryn Gearhart and Brent White. Vice President Joe Szwaja and Treasurer Jerry Cronk were absent. The minutes of the March 2, 2008 meeting were approved as posted.
Richard reported that Rob Richie was recently in Washington state, at two meetings, including a meeting with the Pierce County auditor. Rob now has a first-hand understanding of the difficulties here. The League of Women Voters in Pierce County is educating voters on RCV. Richard has an editorial pending publication in the Seattle Times expounding how IRV/RCV is better than the Top Two system. King County Charter Review Commission public hearings have been delayed and compressed into a shorter period, four meetings held over 8 days. We need to generate public pressure on the KCCRC for RCV.
Paul gave notice for our next meeting to amend the articles of incorporation and the bylaws to change our name to ______. Suggestions for filling the blank so far are:
* Ranked Choice Voting Washington
* Washingtonians for Ranked Voting
Taryn reported that she has posted some mailer options to the irvwaboard web site, but still needs to get some rate information. Richard reported that with the US Supreme Court decision for the Top Two, we have no urgent need for a mailing.
Richard proposed waiting at least until after the 2008 and 2010 election cycles before launching an initiative campaign. Paul suggested waiting until after the 2008 general election before deciding about 2010. Brent suggested that in the mean time we target home-rule cities and counties for RCV, and support challengers to run against the Secretary of State and problem county auditors. Paul suggested that a Green or Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State might make sense. Bruce Guthrie was mentioned as a possibility.
The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m.
- Paul McClintock, Secretary
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