In attendance: Joe Futrelle, Mike Lehman, Walter Pituc, Mark Mallon, Trey Davis, Don McClure, Kostas Yfantis, M. Short, Susan Rodgers, Tom Abram

1. Slating update

Mike turned in his paperwork, Tom sent the press release, and Mike and Tom were both contacted by the News-Gazette about it.

2. Township update

Multiple referenda are to be proposed or are rumored to be going to be proposed at the township meetings in Champaign and Urbana. Among them are water municipalization, instant runoff voting in Urbana, resolutions against torture, public assistance funding in Champaign, and a pro-Chief resolution. With referenda limited to three, these are likely to be contentious meetings so all interested people should show up early.

3. Treasurer's report and expenditures

Approximately $1,900 in our accounts. We approved a $107.51 reimbursement for the post-primary mailing, up to $300 to reserve Farmer's Market space for every other Saturday from June to July and every Saturday from August-October. Mike will look into a sturdy tent and advise on prices.

The County Fair is $250/wk inside and $400/wk outside, and we must be at our table from 10am-10pm every day. $1mil liability insurance is extra, and there's a penalty for not showing up for any of the time. Tom will get more details about if it would be possible to do something for one or two days without paying too much.

We approved up to $100 to cover the unlikely situation that Campus Greens cannot recoup its share of Cliff Thornton's honorarium at the fundraiser on Sunday.

4. Green Tea planning

The April Green Tea will be focused on candidates and the public discussing issues together in the context of identifying campaign issues and building a local Green platform for the county. Candidates will introduce themselves and exchange ideas with anyone who wants to attend. In May Kostas is inviting professor Evan DeLucia to speak about biofuels and carbon sequestration.

5. Officer nominations

None were brought forward at the meeting, so members are encouraged to send nominations to Joe Futrelle (futrelle@prairiegreens.org). Officer elections are in May. All officer positions are up for election: convener, web manager, press officer, secretary, treasurer, membership steward, and four state party delegates ("cc reps").

6. Campaign planning

With slating over we can focus on county campaigns. Kostas encouraged everyone to attend county board meetings and Joe mentioned county board committee meetings. Susan offered advice and help with fundraising, accounting, budgeting, and campaign finance disclosure. We discussed planning advertising purchases like flyers, signs. We discussed focusing on electability. Susan agreed to help with volunteer coordination and proposed to include volunteer forms in the next fundraising letters. Tom proposed a multi-phase canvassing plan. Trey offered to help with voter registration and we discussed combining that with volunteer and membership drives.