The 2001 Congress of the Greens/Green Party USA, held at Carbondale, Illinois, was a critical event in the history of the Green Party in the United States. At the Congress, occurring July 20 to July 23, at which the G/GPUSA was to consider the Boston Proposal [1], a tentative "merger" agreement between it and the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP). After an intense internal organizational struggle, most of which revolved around whether or not to "accredit" various delegations (and thus grant the individuals within them voting privileges), the proposal was rejected; although 55% of the members in attendance voted to approve it (99 in favor, 81 against), the organization's bylaws required yes votes from a "super-majority" of 66.7% of the delegates in attendance to pass.

This result was very controversial, as many Carbondale participants who supported the Boston Proposal felt that a portion of the national G/GPUSA leadership who opposed it had illegitimately manipulated the accreditation process to reduce the level of support for the proposal and thus ensure its failure. This (and other subsequent events[2]) ultimately led to the exodus of a large number of G/GPUSA activists, many of whom later went on to found [3] and/or participate in The Green Alliance (an organization intended to bring "movement" politics in the style of the G/GPUSA into the Green Party of the United States, which they felt was overly focused on "electoral" politics, and relatively conservative).[4]

The terms party conference (UK English), political convention (US English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party membership. In most political parties, the party conference is the highest decision-making body of the organization, tasked with electing or nominating the party's leaders or leadership bodies, deciding party policy, and setting the party's platform and agendas.

The term conference or caucus may also refer to the organization of all party members as a whole.

The definitions of all of these terms vary greatly, depending on the country and situation in which they are used.

The term party conference is used in the United States to refer to the equivalent of parliamentary groups in other countries.

Rich Whitney (born April 21, 1955) is an Illinois politician and civil rights attorney who was the Illinois Green Party's nominee for Governor of Illinois in the elections of 2006 and 2010. During the 2006 campaign Whitney received endorsements from several newspapers, including the Rockford Register Star,Southwest News-Herald, and State School News Service. In that year's election Whitney received 361,336 votes for 10.4% of the vote, a relatively strong finish for a third party. In the 2010 election his share of the vote was 2.7%.

Whitney was born in Connecticut in 1955 and lives in Carbondale, Illinois. He is a civil rights attorney with degrees from Michigan State University and Southern Illinois University's School of Law. He was a member of the Socialist Labor Party from 1975–1993 and at one point edited "The People," the party's national newspaper. He resigned from the party in 1993 and no longer identifies with socialism. Whitney was involved in nationwide legal battles to regulate tobacco advertising, on behalf of the public health community, including the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and Public Citizen. Whitney also is one of the founding members of the Illinois Green Party and wrote a significant portion of the Party's platform.