You are welcome to join us at the SHAPE Center's Harambee Building on Almeda Tuesday evening from 7 to 9. This will be the inaugural public meeting of Green Party Houston, a new organization with a different mission and different responsibilities from the Harris County Green Party.
Yes, the GPH website is still a work in progress.
The meeting is free to attend, but that doesn't mean we won't ask for donations to cover room rental and other expenses.
Yes, the GPH website is still a work in progress.
The meeting is free to attend, but that doesn't mean we won't ask for donations to cover room rental and other expenses.
There are also no criteria for attendance, but GPH it's best if you're a progressive resident of the Greater Houston area who wants to help build the Green Movement locally. This can take the form of injecting Greenness into municipal politics or organizing in the neighboring counties. In fact (minor spoiler), a soon-to-be candidate for Mayor of Houston is scheduled to attend. No, it's not Tony Buzbee. This candidate will be looking for some volunteers for a campaign team.
What We're Not
Unlike Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, et al., this is not a group designed to sheepdog progressive voters (back) into the Democratic Party. If you come to our meetings, please leave your Bernie talk at home: We have too much on our plate to focus on the presidential primary circus.
Unlike the Harris County Green Party, GPH is not subject to the same legal requirements, such as accepting filings to run for office in partisan elections. However, part of GPH's mission is to recruit and develop candidates for public offices at all levels, partisan or not, from school boards and city councils to the United States Congress.
It's also worth noting that GPH is not established as competition for HCGP. Think of GPH as something like the neighborhood Democratic or Republican groups—Meyerland Democrats, River Oaks Republicans, etc.—except that our neighborhood is larger than some entire countries. We will have overlapping membership with HCGP.
We're also not willing to tolerate behavior that disrupts our proceedings. There is a nationwide phenomenon affecting progressive groups, wherein one or more persons show up, exhibit great passion for the group's stated intentions, and try to interject their own individual agendas to derail the group's forward progress. COINTELPRO-type tactics invite ejection from the meeting.
What's in It for You
What you get out of this meeting and this organization depends greatly upon what you put into it. The main benefit is that you will have an outlet for your progressive passions for peace, justice, democracy, and ecological wisdom, in a group of friends and comrades with a similar mindset.
Is partisan organizing fun? It certainly can be. We believe that this work is hardly worth the effort if we can't enjoy it. Adult beverages certainly help some participants in the enjoyment: SHAPE has a strict no-alcohol-or-substances policy, but there's a beer garden a block away.
We do plan to provide opportunities for members to participate in nuts-and-bolts organizing, if that's their thing. We will keep track of social and environmental justice events in the area and communicate with the membership about them. But the dozen or so Greenies in the GPH organizing team cannot do everything. All members are encouraged to take on duties individually or with workgroups and ad hoc task forces.
There are also opportunities for leadership within the group: We will have spots on the Steering Committee to fill, as well as the duties of facilitating meetings down the line. Anybody with some graphical talents is welcome to come up with a suitable logo to replace the chunky Green Party Houston banner on our Home page. Anybody we can trust with the keys to the website can add content to it or otherwise spruce it up.
Anyone who shows up at the first three membership meetings will have full voting rights for any issue that requires a vote, such as electing members to the Steering Committee. After those first three meetings, when GPH has a full Steering Committee in place, and attendance at two or more previous meetings will be required for voting rights. We will be diligent in keeping attendance records.
All attending are permitted to participate in the consensus process:
See you there!
What We're Not
Unlike Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, et al., this is not a group designed to sheepdog progressive voters (back) into the Democratic Party. If you come to our meetings, please leave your Bernie talk at home: We have too much on our plate to focus on the presidential primary circus.
Unlike the Harris County Green Party, GPH is not subject to the same legal requirements, such as accepting filings to run for office in partisan elections. However, part of GPH's mission is to recruit and develop candidates for public offices at all levels, partisan or not, from school boards and city councils to the United States Congress.
It's also worth noting that GPH is not established as competition for HCGP. Think of GPH as something like the neighborhood Democratic or Republican groups—Meyerland Democrats, River Oaks Republicans, etc.—except that our neighborhood is larger than some entire countries. We will have overlapping membership with HCGP.
We're also not willing to tolerate behavior that disrupts our proceedings. There is a nationwide phenomenon affecting progressive groups, wherein one or more persons show up, exhibit great passion for the group's stated intentions, and try to interject their own individual agendas to derail the group's forward progress. COINTELPRO-type tactics invite ejection from the meeting.
What's in It for You
What you get out of this meeting and this organization depends greatly upon what you put into it. The main benefit is that you will have an outlet for your progressive passions for peace, justice, democracy, and ecological wisdom, in a group of friends and comrades with a similar mindset.
Is partisan organizing fun? It certainly can be. We believe that this work is hardly worth the effort if we can't enjoy it. Adult beverages certainly help some participants in the enjoyment: SHAPE has a strict no-alcohol-or-substances policy, but there's a beer garden a block away.
We do plan to provide opportunities for members to participate in nuts-and-bolts organizing, if that's their thing. We will keep track of social and environmental justice events in the area and communicate with the membership about them. But the dozen or so Greenies in the GPH organizing team cannot do everything. All members are encouraged to take on duties individually or with workgroups and ad hoc task forces.
There are also opportunities for leadership within the group: We will have spots on the Steering Committee to fill, as well as the duties of facilitating meetings down the line. Anybody with some graphical talents is welcome to come up with a suitable logo to replace the chunky Green Party Houston banner on our Home page. Anybody we can trust with the keys to the website can add content to it or otherwise spruce it up.
Anyone who shows up at the first three membership meetings will have full voting rights for any issue that requires a vote, such as electing members to the Steering Committee. After those first three meetings, when GPH has a full Steering Committee in place, and attendance at two or more previous meetings will be required for voting rights. We will be diligent in keeping attendance records.
All attending are permitted to participate in the consensus process:
- All proposed actions should be taken only if consensus is reached and there are no principled objections based on the Green Movement's Ten Key Values.
- Anyone raising an objection is asked if an amendment to the proposal might better meet the standards of the Key Values.
- In the event that an objector is not willing to "stand aside," the proposal may be brought to a vote, usually requiring two-thirds approval to pass.
See you there!
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