1. What do you look forward to the most for the coming year?

A – This year is going to be a significant challenge for GPUS in many ways, almost all directly related to fundraising. One of the challenges I look forward to taking on over the next year, should I be re-elected, is working with our National Delegates and members to coordinate fundraising utilizing our phonebank. It's a fun and impactful way for Greens to make a difference in our Party, which can be easily measured.

2. What is an area you see that GPUS makes a great impact?

A – We're the only electoral anti-war party in the United States and the only party that has a way out of the current climate catastrophe we see unfolding around us. We are clearly the leading voice on the Left and in progressive circles advocating for peace and immediate, drastic action to address climate catastrophe, an increasingly wide wealth gap and a citizenry which regularly falls into medical bankruptcy. The Green New Deal expresses and explains our way out in a clear and optimistic way.

3. What's a committee collaboration that you would like to see?

A – Some committees need to be combined; that's the simple truth of it. We have a lot of committees who duplicate work and are very, very understaffed. The sorts of collaborations between our committees can be multiple and myriad since one impacts and effects the others, however many committees are staffed with the same members who sit on multiple committees for their states. We need to rethink our National Committee System in a very serious way and develop a more efficient way for our members to participate.

4. What's an area that you would like GPUS to make a greater impact? What tools or resources would you like to see GPUS to use in order to do so?

A – Frankly, raising our voice in the public sphere is very, very difficult when our opponents have a vested interest in keeping our perspective from being heard. Still, it's the area that we need to focus on to make a greater impact. Colleagues, we are a largely inward facing party, which is understandable given how new we are. GPUS is only 22 years old and we're still sorting out Bylaws, Rules and Regulations for how we do things, which is all inward facing. Yet party-building is inherently an outward facing activity, which is where we need to make a greater impact. We need to try to find more opportunities to have interviews, press releases, letters to the editor, and opinion/thought pieces in as many media sources as we can. This is a time consuming task unless we have developed contacts we can leverage. Now's the time to do so.

We need to continue our engagement in new media e.g. tiktok, twitter, Instagram and facebook while also continuning our engagement with traditional media sources who are friendly to us or at least willing to give us a neutral place to advocate our position.

5. What do you think is a good fundraiser?

A – How does one measure 'good' in this sense? Return on Investment seems to be an easy, though incomplete, way to think about these things. Based on that, it's clear that phonebanking, text banking, email blasts and direct mail bring the most return for our money. Barring those traditional methods, it's hard to say. Our ANM does a good job of covering it's own expenses and even generating some revenue to replenish our General Operating Budget. In the time of Covid, economic recession and hesitancy for large indoor gatherings, it's hard to say what could be good.

6. What are your thoughts on building sustaining relationships?

A – Sustaining relationships of any sort can be difficult even under ideal circumstances, and the political world certainly aren't those. I think the foundational quality needed to build a sustainable relationship is the presumption of goodwill, without which every disagreement tends to become personal and deteriorates beyond the point of reconciliation. These long term grudges can be seen clearly in the factions within the Green Party today. We have to big factions within our Party right now, the Eco-Socialist's and the Deep Greens and it's imperative that we learn how to resolve this inner conflict so we can proceed in a collaborative way. We're winning elections even though we're often divided as a National Party. I'd like you to imagine how much better we could be doing if we were able to set aside these long term petty grudges and work together.

Being on the SC the last two years has been a humbling experience and one which has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I'd be grateful if you'd rank me #1 on your ballot.

~Margaret Elisabeth
Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Green Party United States
BMRC/BAC/DRC Liaison
They/Them