Minutes of the 34th District Democrats Board Meeting
June 21, 2023, held virtually on Zoom.
Attendees:
Graham Murphy, Rachel Glass, Jordan Crawley, Chris Porter, Bunny Hatcher, Ted Barker, Julie Whitaker, Steve Butts, Carla Rogers, Gina Topp.
7:06 pm – Call to Order by Chair Graham Murphy
- The agenda was reviewed and approved by unanimous consent.
- Minutes from the April board meeting were presented and approved by unanimous consent.
July Fundraiser Update, Gina Topp
- As of the meeting, there are 17 RSVPs; 70 would be desirable.
- There was to be a meeting Tuesday June 27th to nail down particulars. Tacos will be part of the food offering; the location will be in the back garden area of C&P Coffee.
- Carla Rogers will be actively promoting the event in correspondence to members.
- Rachel Glass will be managing the volunteers.
- Executive Board Members are expected to buy tickets and/or volunteer at the event.
KCDCC Review, Bunny Hatcher
- Bunny has been spending up to 20 hours a week with the KCDCC Endorsement Committee, which will be concluding its work soon. Endorsements and agenda items from the May meeting were published in the June Newsletter.
Outreach Events, Steve Butts
- We will do 2 parades in July: The Burien Independence Day Parade and the West Seattle Grand Parade.
- We have a booth at the Vashon Strawberry Festival.
- We hope to participate in the Duwamish River Festival in South Park in August.
- White Center Jubilee Days events have not reappeared since the pandemic.
- Except for Presidential Election years, we have not been accepted to West Seattle Summerfest since 2013.
Endorsed Candidates Support
Carla Rogers spoke about encouraging PCOs to walk their precincts, and that we should concentrate on the 3 Burien City Council races, both for the Primary and the General Elections.
We will decide in August on donations for the General Election.
Gina Topp believes it is important to track “doors knocked”, given that PCOs can utilize MiniVAN to input their voter contact information.
Chris Porter noted that problems with Bylaws in other district organizations hindered his ability to secure endorsements in his re-election run for the King Conservation District earlier this year. We need to ensure that that our Bylaws don’t impede our ability to elect Democrats…our main organizational objective.
Endorsements
Ted Barker expressed disappointment that we were unable to endorse in King County District 8 in our June meeting, as we fell a vote shy of a 60% outcome to support Teresa Mosqueda.
Graham stated that he sees things in our Endorsement Rules that we may want to review. He also posed a question about whether the Executive Board could make donations by itself in an emergency. Others noted that it should be up to the membership to give authority on how much and to whom donations are to be given.
Graham said we will do additional endorsements for the General Election in August:
- Burien Council Positions 2 and 4
- King County Council District 8
- Highline School Board
Bunny stated that she feels that Brittany Williams in Burien Position 2 is a strong candidate but has not been able to campaign recently due to a death in her family. Patricia Hudson in Burien 4 is impressive and can mount stiff opposition to Kevin Schilling.
It was decided that the Executive Board will need to meet in July, however there will not be a Membership meeting that month.
Good of the Order
Carla Rogers informed us that the Bite of White Center is Saturday, June 24th, and that the Seattle Pride Parade is Sunday June 25.
Chris Porter was in the process of making “24-hour cookies” in recognition of Summer Solstice which occurred the day of the meeting.
Ted Barker had the opportunity to watch the forum held by the 43rd District Democrats, hosted by Erica C. Barnett. Ted said “it was really bad” in comparison to ours on June 10th.