Minutes of the 34th District Democrats Board Meeting
April 19, 2023, held virtually on Zoom.
Attendees:
Graham Murphy, Rachel Glass, Roxanne Thayer, Chris Porter, Bunny Hatcher, Ted Barker, Preston Anderson, Julie Whitaker, Steve Butts, Carla Rogers, Ann Martin, Dorothy Gesick, Gina Topp
7:05 pm – Call to Order by Chair Graham Murphy
- Agenda reviewed and approved by unanimous consent.
- Minutes from March board meeting presented and approved by unanimous consent.
- A reminder of the Code of Conduct was given.
May Membership Meeting Agenda
- May membership meeting to potentially feature a session with our state representatives.
- To date, Senator Nguyen has indicated his availability.
- Jordan Crawley will moderate a Q/A session; others were invited to provide questions.
- Attorney General Bob Ferguson may be available to attend to speak and take questions.
- Chris Porter will facilitate AG Ferguson’s visit.
Executive Board Strategy Guidance Document
Chair Murphy presented a distillation derived from the Executive Board Retreat that took place on March 18th based on input from the brainstorming of those present there. It will serve as a touchstone as we move forward to appraise our effectiveness regarding these strategic commitments:
- Community Engagement.
- Diversity, Belonging, and Social Justice.
- Voter Care.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BC3ixtCIkQ6HJ9C824ogXbdZvAG0myG4J3OE0xooohg/edit?usp=sharing
Burien Minimum Wage Resolution
This resolution would ask the Burien City Council to pass a minimum wage ordinance in that city to raise the current minimum wage and structure it to be comparable to neighboring jurisdictions.
- Resolution was introduced by Katie Wilson, General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union
- Sponsored in the 34th LD by Chris Porter, PCO
- Ann Martin moved to submit to membership as “Do Pass”; Seconded by Chris Porter.
- Resolution is approved via voice vote.
Lapsed Membership Renewal Outreach and Increasing Meeting Attendance
- Chair Murphy shared a list of 2022 members who have not renewed for this year. He was to divide it between board members to make calls encouraging people to renew their membership for 2023 and remind them they need to do so prior to the June 14th endorsement meeting.
- We have been getting new member sign-ups recently, perhaps due to a surge of supporters of candidates looking for our endorsement.
- Some Ideas to increase turnout at meetings were put forward included:
- Have a continuing presence at the farmers market.
- Extend invitations at the meetings of other groups.
- Continue with the standalone pre-meeting programs.
- Seek members in the new areas of the LD to make up for those we lost in Burien.
- Programs of interest with prominent elected officials.
- Gina Topp reported from an ad hoc committee which met to discuss ways of conducting hybrid in-person/virtual meetings at which those attending remotely had equal access to participation.
- A trial run for such was debated for August.
- Concerns were raised about our staffing ability for an ongoing hybrid meeting scenario.
- The committee will reach out to the State Party for guidance and re-meet.
State Committee Report
- Roxanne Thayer gave a report from the State Modernization Committee at which the subjects of how to increase attendance and hybrid meetings were discussed.
- The State is favorable to hybrid meetings which could increase attendance.
- Meetings should be issue-driven, less procedural.
- There was discussion regarding comments in the media made by Maria Gluesenkamp Perez in which she lamented the lack of appeal the Democratic Party has in rural areas among non-college educated people, who favor the GOP at a 2:1 ratio and consider the Democratic Party as elitist.
June Candidate Forum
- The candidate forum will be on June 10th at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and will proceed as follows:
- 1:00pm to 1:45pm – County Council District 8, moderated by Chris Porter
- 2:05pm to 4:00pm – Seattle City Council District 1, moderated by Rachel Glass.
- Several people are needed to prepare/select questions.
- Volunteers are needed at the beginning and at the end to set up and clean up.
July Fundraiser
- The event will be from 5pm to 7:30pm at C&P Coffee, pending a contract.
- There will be a “Raise the Paddle” donation opportunity.
- We will try to collect “experiences” for a silent auction.
- Working title for the event (since it follows the West Seattle Parade) is “Keep on Marching.”
- We will use dynamic ticket pricing.
- Planning a pre-VIP reception at a nearby winery.
- Volunteers are needed for set up/take down.
Review of Governing Documents
- Discussion and approval of the revised documents for submittal to members/PCOs was postponed until later in the year.
- We will use existing bylaws and rules for the June 14th endorsement meeting.
Good of the Order
- Chris Porter rose to say he feels that our organization is “too vanilla”, and if we wish to grow, we need to take more direct actions such as marches and other activities to draw activists in.
- Carla Rogers announced that the 34th is signed up of the One Seattle Day of Service by assisting at the White Center Food Bank.
- Roxanne Thayer said we should work with other organizations to achieve common goals.
- Steve Butts mentioned that the 34th will have a booth at the White Center Cambodian New Year Festival on April 29th.
Meeting Adjourned at 8:45pm