UPDATE: October 24th, 2018

The SGI EDA Executive and I are pleased to announce that we are entering a new phase in preparation for the 2019 campaign!  On behalf of the SGI EDA executive committee, I submit this open letter to my colleagues in the Green Party of Canada, to announce some changes in our EDA.

Since joining the SGI executive 5 years ago, I've always know this committee to demonstrate an unwavering loyalty to our MP and leader as well as a deep commitment to the pursuit of excellence for our party as a whole. During the 2015 campaign, thanks especially to our incredible co-campaign managers and Elizabeth, our EDA raised an enormous amount of funds for the election. It was more than we needed locally and we were happy to financially support the national campaign and various campaigns across the country.

The disappointing results of the last federal election strengthened our resolve to support Elizabeth. Locally, our volunteers simply refused to go home. We all realized that we had a responsibility to innovate ways to offer our capacity in service to the rest of the party. We recongnized that it takes more than money to win campaigns. Our hope was that we could support our fellow EDAs and build capacity to elect more MPs by helping to build a culture of inclusion and collaboration that inspires innovation and excellence.

The most important next step we took was to identify our own purpose, our collective answer to the questions: why is it that we as a group care? and what is the vision that we are striving to achieve? This 3-month process of inquiry resulted in our 4 vision and values statements, and literally transformed our EDA from a somewhat reactive to a profoundly proactive body.

SGI's Visions and Values:  
- We see the Green Party of Canada as a highly effective democratic organization.
- We believe that strong, engaged and interconnected EDAs play a pivotal role in the success of the Green Party of Canada
- We hold honesty, integrity and authenticity as the highest values in politics.
- We see Greens as powerful agents to build and maintain citizen engagement.

And so we made a choice. Instead of focusing solely on fundraising for the next campaign, we would apply our efforts to building capacity beyond the boundaries of SGI. Thankfully we had residual funds from our 2015 rebate and our supporters contributions remained strong. This allowed us to be the only EDA in the country, of any Canadian party (to our knowledge), to employ a full time coordinator/synergist on contract.

The expanded capacity not only proved to be very much appreciated by other EDAs, it allowed us to play a major supportive role in certain highly significant grassroots endeavours such as the Unity Tour leading up to the SGM in Calgary, the Committee for Motion Development (CMD), EDA 2.0, the Kevin Taft Tour and the weekly Good Sunday Morning blog, to name just some of the highlights.

But now, a year out from the election, like many of our fellow EDAs, SGI is on the cusp of transitioning into campaign mode and the time has come to reassess our priorities and make some important changes. One of these changes is to apply our financial resources to assembling a campaign team to re-elect Elizabeth.

As our coordinator/synergist, Thomas Teuwen's steadfast commitment to Green Values has both supported and complemented our EDA in all its endeavours, both within the constituency and nationally. We feel that he continues to have much to offer the party as a whole. And, after careful consideration and discussions with Thomas, we jointly concluded that his skillset (and his passion), reaches beyond the campaign needs for SGI. Therefore, we have agreed to phase out his contract over the next two months. We are confident that whatever he decides to attach his enthusiasm, he will help build hope for a bright, bold and sustainable future.

With gratitude,

Michael Strumberger
CEO SGI EDA