The Illinois Green Party is pleased to announce its Spring Membership Meeting, which will take place Saturday, April 17 in the Library at Chicago State University. This meeting will primarily be a business meeting, focusing on internal elections, bylaws amendments, and platform updates, but will also feature addresses from Rich Whitney and LeAlan Jones among other Green candidates.

REGISTER NOW so we can get an accurate count of who will be attending. We would like to see all of our members come to Chicago's South Side!

Tentative Agenda

9:00 – 9:30 Registration and continental breakfast

9:30 – 10:30 Welcome, Introduction, Announcements, Agenda Approval, Reports

10:30 – 12:00 Bylaws Amendment Proposals

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (on site)

1:00 – 2:00 ILGP Officer Elections (Vice-Chair, Treasurer, and Green National Committee)

2:00 – 3:00 Platform discussion (final amendments will be made at the following meeting)

3:00 - 4:00 Getting ready for the 2010 elections; planning for the State Convention

4:00 – 4:30 Conclusion

(A more thorough preliminary agenda will be posted when it is available.)

Cost and Registration

The requested donation for the Meeting is $20 per participant, or $10 for low-income and students. Nobody will be denied entry due to inability to pay. This does not include lunch; lunch details are still being ironed out but will likely involve catering in.

Lodging and Other Events

Rooms have been reserved at the Amber Inn Hotel, 3901 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago, for Friday night. 773-285-1000 or www.amberinn2u.com to contact the Amber Inn. Limited home stays may also be available.

A social function is likely to be held Friday night; we are discussing with the Amber Inn about using their space for that function. There may also be a social function added for Saturday night. Look for further information in the near future.

Contact

Jack Ailey for house stays and accessibility questions: jjailey@comcast.net or 312-802-9004.

Rita Maniotis for information about the Amber Inn: rsand@mc.net or 708-955-6964.

Phil Huckelberry for questions about the agenda: phil.huckelberry@ilgp.org or 309-268-9974.

Transit and Directions

Chicago State University is about a half mile east of the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate 94) at 95th Street. If you are approaching from the north on Interstate 94, exit at 95th Street (U.S. 12 & 20) and go east. If you are approaching from the south on Interstate 57, exit at Halsted St. (Illinois 1), go north to 95th St., and turn right. There is an entrance off of 95th St. just east of Martin Luther King Drive, and the parking lot there charges $4 for the day.

If taking public transportation, the CTA Red Line ends at 95th St. From there you can take the 95E bus east to Martin Luther King Drive.

There is a map of the campus available at www.csu.edu/locator/campusmap/index.htm - the Sun Room is on the 4th Floor of the New Library, which is one of the buildings closest to the intersection of 95th and King.

Platform and Officer Elections

Amendments to the ILGP platform will be voted on at the State Convention, expected to be held in July. At this April meeting, there will be some preliminary discussion on amendments, including the ability to make recommendations to the Platform Committee.

At this meeting, elections will be held for the offices of Vice-Chair and Treasurer of the Illinois Green Party. Each are for two year terms. Also up for election are numerous delegate and alternate delegate seats to the Green National Committee. The exact number is to be determined as the National Committee is in the process of reallocating state delegate size. Nominations for any of these offices can be sent to David Black, ILGP Secretary, at secretary@ilgp.org.

Bylaws

Three proposals to amend the ILGP Bylaws have been approved for the agenda of this meeting:

· Amendment of Articles 2 and 4. This proposal would allow for the making of decisions by the Membership outside of Membership Meetings; allow for meeting notices to be sent by email instead of US Mail; and eliminate the 15-day window between approval of a meeting and when notice can be sent out.

· Amendment of Article 10. Currently a candidate can automatically become a "recognized" Green Party candidate with no formal action being taken at the local level or by the state party Coordinating Committee (consisting of representative of the various locals.) This proposal would make it so that instead of such recognition being automatic, it would have to at least be approved by the state party Executive Committee.

· Amendment of Article 8. At present, all 11 standing committees of the party are delineated in the party bylaws. This proposal would remove that delineation and give power of creating, modifying, and removing committees to the Coordinating Committee. It would also task the Executive Committee with primary oversight of standing committees, and specifically authorize the Executive Committee to create limited-scope Working Groups.