Green Parties continued to form, a highly competitive environment between the ASGP and the Greens/Green Party USA (G/GPUSA) began to develop in terms of who would affiliate with which organization, and ultimately who would become the definitive national Green Party. To some extent this divide reflected philosophical differences within U.S. Greens that went back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, around how a Green political party should be organized - based upon state parties, or upon dues-paying local Green groups. In December 1999, Santa Monica, California, Green City Councilmember Mike Feinstein and New York Green Howie Hawkins met in New Paltz, New York, during the state meeting of the Green Party of New York State and crafted the 'Plan for a Single National Green Party, which was more generally known as the Feinstein/Hawkins Proposal, meant to create a single national Green Party from among the ASGP and GPUSA by Earth Day, April 2000. The proposal found quick support within the ASGP, but not within the Greens/GPUSA in time for Earth Day. Boston Proposal Instead it would be in October 2000 that the Feinstein/Hawkins proposal was revisited, negotiated further and renamed the 'Boston Proposal' or 'Boston Agreement' (so named because it was negotiated in Boston on October 1–2 in the days before the first 2000 presidential debate). The negotiators for the Association of State Green Parties were Tony Affigne, David Cobb, Robert Franklin, Greg Gerritt, Anne Goeke, Stephen Herrick, and Tom Sevigny; and for the Greens/Green Party USA: Starlene Rankin, John Stith, Jeff Sutter, Steve Welzer, Rich Whitney, and Julia Willebrand. The Boston Proposal was approved by the ASGP at its December 2000 meeting in Hiawasee, GA, but did not pass at the July 2001 G/GPUSA Congress in Carbondale, CO. This caused a schism in G/GPUSA membership from which it never recovered. The next week on July 29 in Santa Barbara, CA the ASGP voted to become the Green Party of the United States, held a press conference in Santa Monica on July 30 to announce it, and was subsequently recognized as having National Committee status by the Federal Election Commission. Text of the Boston Proposal: JOINT PROPOSAL OF NEGOTIATING COMMITTEES OF THE ASSOCIATION OF STATE GREEN PARTIES and THE GREENS/GREEN PARTY USA The Negotiating Committees of the Association of State Green Parties and the Greens/Green Party USA, meeting on October 1–2, 2000, have agreed unanimously to recommend to their