At our December meeting, I was “elected” to chair the local New Orleans chapter of the Green Party of Louisiana. (See also: Brett Thorne’s coverage.)

I put the word “elected” in quotes because no one else was nominated for the position. It’s a reminder not to get ahead of myself.

I’m not alone. We also have a new secretary and treasurer. We’ve already gotten together once to discuss immediate organizational priorities, and I’m hopeful that we can get together once more before our next membership meeting.

As chair, I’ll be facilitating our meetings. Anybody who’s been to a poorly organized meeting (haven’t we all?) knows how painful and exhausting they can be. But a well-run meeting can leave people energized and empowered. That’s my task.

So it is that I face the New Year with a greater sense of responsibility, and more clearly delineated scope of work. It’s time for this organization to get organized — to move past the informal, ad hoc phase, to set some tangible goals, and to get on with advancing our mission.

Ah, setting tangible goals. As I’ve noted previously, focus can be tricky for Greens. Our agenda is broad, but our capacity is limited. Setting specific goals can be painful, because it always means excluding a host of others which may be worthy.

Here are some things we’ve been talking about.

Campaigning for grassroots democratic reforms. Democracy means rule by the people. It’s a great idea — we should try it some time. There are a number of simple reforms which would make our city more democratic. For example, ranked-choice voting has numerous benefits, such as minimizing the role of money in politics and discouraging excessively negative campaigns. Another example: smaller city council districts would increase accountability. I see a couple strategic reasons to pick one such reform and actively campaign for it. For one thing, there aren’t a lot of other groups working in this area. For another, it would serve as a counter to the common misconception that the Green Party is focused solely on environmental issues.

Advocating for a municipal compost program. Or maybe we should embrace our “brand identity” as advocates of ecological wisdom. One of our members has spearheaded a very successful program (Compost NOW) that collects household food waste at local libraries for composting. You can’t get much greener than that. It seems like the time is ripe for the city to do something in this area.

Tracking activity at City Hall. Recently a prospective member asked if we send delegates or observers to City Council meetings. No, we don’t. We should, but we lack the capacity. (See below for more thoughts on this.) At the very least, we should be keeping track of the major actions taken and decisions made by the city government that is supposed to represent us. Most of this is public record, so even if we lack the capacity to attend every meeting, perhaps we could review minutes of council meetings, and keep track of how various council members vote.

Devising a Green Plan for New Orleans. We don’t just want to make minor change around the periphery. We aim to transform society in a fundamental way. It’s part of our Green ethos. We know the current structure of our society is untenable and unsustainable. Deep change is essential to our survival. This should be a source of energy and empowerment, the core principle for organizing our communities politically. A first step might be to get people thinking about what those changes should look like locally. We could do this by writing out a comprehensive Green vision for our city. Such a creative endeavor would only succeed if it were truly community-driven, so we’d need to convene a series of community workshops. And then, of course, someone would have to actually do the work of writing it all down.

Growing and diversifying our membership. This is bedrock. We are a people-powered party. There are no monied corporate interests in the background, propping us up. We will succeed or fail based on how effective we are in getting the word out and getting people actively involved. We need to let people know that we’re here and that we stand for ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and peace. I believe this bedrock goal is best served by engaging a substantive campaign such as those outlined above. We have to be about some real activity, not just abstract ideas. Along the way, we have to be savvy about using all the tools at our disposal to let the broader community know what we’re doing and how they can join the effort.

This list is by no means exhaustive! If you have further ideas, I encourage you to join us. We are meeting to plot strategy on the 30th of January — details on our website.