05-19-21 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

400 300 34th Democrats

34th Dems Board Meeting Minutes

May 19, 2021 – Virtual meeting held via closed ZOOM

7:07pm – Call to Order by Chair Carla Rogers 

Attendees: Carla Rogers, Rachel Glass, Sarah Koch, Steven Butts, Jeff Sbaih, Colleen Hinton, Karen Richter, Gina Topp, Bunny Hatcher, Jordan Crawley, Julie Whitaker, Estey Chen, Trey Lykins, Leah Griffin, Norman Sigler, Richard O’Neill, Nick Bonazza, Chris Porter, Janine Anzalota, Dawn Rains.

Call to Order

  • Welcome & Reminder of our social contract
    Carla noted that this was the first Board meeting attended by our newest Board member, Sarah Koch, Bylaws and Rules Committee Chair.  Welcome, Sarah!  Carla noted that the social contract values of Big-Tentedness, Patience, and Coordination are especially important right now during the hectic season of forums and endorsements, and thanks Jordan, Rachel, Trey, Chris and Ann Martin in particular for their hard work in this endeavour over the last month.  
  • Review of Agenda and Minutes 
      • April 21 Board Meeting: Karen Richter has an amendment – please add the link for Green New Deal WA – www.passthegndwa.org 
  • Announcements
      • Carla regrets the problem with the link for the May Membership meeting last week.  Upon investigation she discovered that with the new Zoom registration process, we will NOT be able to send out a generic link for people to click on to attend (which is what happened in May).  Some people used that link and had problems, others used the link they got with their registration confirmation, successfully.  All attendees will have to use their unique link which Zoom provides immediately after registering for the meeting, on the web page that you use to register.  Carla suggests that people copy and paste that link into wherever they access their meeting links.  Carla encourages everyone to also add the Zoom auto-reply address to their safe senders list so that emails from Zoom do not go to spam.  
      • Discussion clarified several questions about registration and how to help members access meetings:
        • To invite members to a meeting, the best way is to send them the link to register for the meeting.  Once they register, a link will immediately show up on their registration confirmation on the Zoom page.  They will need to save that link.
        • There is no deadline to register for a meeting.  People can register right before the meeting, or even during the meeting.
        • We require registration for meetings as we don’t want interlopers voting in membership meetings.  The forums, on the other hand, are open to non-members of the 34th, and do NOT require registration – hence we provide a generic link to attend those, on our website.  
        • Janine Anzalota thanks Carla and Jordan for managing the complicated technology required for these remote meetings, which involves way more work than for in-person meetings.
        • Trey Lykins noted that he has been working with various members who have had problems not getting 34th Dems emails, and for some people if they marked our emails as spam at any time in the past, their email blocks us.  Have members contact him for assistance if we hear about any problems. 
  • Upcoming Dates
      • Candidate Forums – 
        • May 22, 11-4pm:  Seattle City Council and King County Executive
        • May 25, 7-9pm:  Burien City Council
        • June 5, 11am:  Seattle Mayoral
      • Endorsements Meeting – at our June Membership meeting, Wed June 9.
      • Fall Picnic – the fundraising group met briefly to plan a fall in-person picnic, likely at Lincoln Park, waiting for reservations for the picnic shelters to open up and hope to secure a date soon.  This will be a reunion for members to get together for the first time in person, there will be some fun activities, and we hope to get some candidates to come.  
  • Review of May Membership Meeting
      • Aside from the access issues with the faulty link, the Board agreed the meeting went very well.  Unfortunately the pre-meeting presentation on the uptick in AAPI Hate Crimes was not recorded in the flurry to resolve members’ access problems, but Carla will post the slides from the presentation on the Programs Hub page on our website.  
  • Platform Review
      • Jordan Crawley presented a summary of work on the 34th Dems Platform for 2021 and provided a link to the draft put together by Carla, Rachel and Jordan.  Please review in preparation for discussion during the June Board meeting, when we will vote on whether to approve this Platform: 
        [Draft] Platform 2021 – Google Docs
      • For the first time, the 34th LD initiated meetings with representatives of local tribes – a positive and meaningful step forward.
  • Resolutions for Consideration
      • Resolution Supporting Whole Washington Health Trust  Resolution Supporting Whole Washington Health Trust – Google Docs
        • Janine Anzalota noted that pronouns used throughout the document should be changed to they/them.
        • Norman Sigler presented that this resolution has been adopted by Kitsap Dems and the 33rd LD; Joe Fitzgibbon supports it, Eileen Cody does not – has to do with funding which can’t happen unless we get a federal waiver – Rep. Jayapal confirms this is the case.  All stakeholders would need to agree.  
        • Norman Sigler motioned, and Bunny Hatcher seconded to recommend approval to membership, inclusive of any changes desired by the Board.  Motion passed by voice vote.  Carla requested flexibility regarding which membership meeting this will be presented at, as June is endorsements and July will be a full agenda as a result.  
      • Resolution in support of a Select Committee for Climate in the Seattle City Council  Resolution in Support of a SELECT COMMITTEE FOR CLIMATE in the Seattle city Council.4.30.21 – Google Docs
        • This was drafted by the 43rd LD Dems and they are asking all LDs located in the City of Seattle to support this.  Our 34th EELU Caucus is asking the Board to consider it.  The idea was that having a Select Committee would force the Council to really focus on climate issues, which they are not doing now.  Janine Anzalota would like to see King County included in this resolution.  In discussion, it was noted that this resolution is purposely very specific to the City of Seattle and appropriately left as such.  Colleen Hinton will take this feedback to the EELU Caucus.
        • Karen Richter motioned, and Norman Sigler seconded to recommend approval to membership, inclusive of any changes desired by the Board.  Motion passed by voice vote.  
      • Resolution urging Governor Inslee to sign “Equity Now!” Executive Order  
        • Chris Porter provided background info on this resolution.  This Executive Order has been sitting on the Governor’s desk and would reverse effects of the 1998 decision that race could not be used as a factor in affirmative action decisions.  Chris notes that although the resolution calls for the Governor to sign it by June 19 (symbolic for the commemoration of Juneteenth), the organizers are not expecting that the resolution be passed by that date given the short time frame.  Norman Sigler advocated to try and fit it in at the June Endorsement meeting.  Carla suggested we could fit it in during the natural break that occurs while votes are being tallied.  As an exception because of the time sensitive nature of just this resolution – does not want to do this for all resolutions.  
        • Janine Anzalota motioned, and Nick Bonazza seconded to recommend approval to membership, inclusive of any changes desired by the Board.  Motion passed by voice vote, and resolution will be on agenda for June 9 membership meeting.  
    • T3 Presentation
      • Colleen Hinton presented a brief summary of the “Train the Trainer” program offered by the Best Practices Institute of the Democratic National Committee from late March to early May.  The 12 webinars were presented twice weekly for 6 weeks and the different ways offered for completion of the material based on the needs of the individual made it easy to complete.  Good overview of democratic organizing.  Several Board members attended and found it very useful – strongly recommended for others when this is offered again in the future.  
  • Endorsements Meeting
      • Carla noted that while we do have some non-Democratic candidates invited to/attending our Candidate Forums, we only consider Democrats for Endorsements.  There was some discussion about why we have non-Democrats able to attend forums – for the races that are non-partisan, the candidates don’t declare a party affiliation and we don’t necessarily know where they stand on the issues.  
      • Slate:  we have a proposed slate of candidates who are either running unopposed or are the only Democratic candidate in a partisan race.  Currently these are Pete Holmes (City Attorney), Ryan Calkins (Port of Seattle), Jimmy Matta (Burien City Council/Mayor), Hugo Garcia (Burien CC), Jennifer Fichamba (Highline School Board), Andrea Robertson (King Co Superior Court judge).  We have added the Levy that will be on the ballot, to the slate.  Carla would like us to vote on proposing this slate for endorsement as a block.  We would not be able to add any names to the slate, but we could remove a candidate if a new candidate files to run between now and the filing deadline on May 21.  
        • Sarah Koch motioned, and Rachel Glass seconded to accept the slate.  Motion passed by voice vote.
      • Leah Griffin proposed a dual endorsement for the King County Executive race, given how contentious this race between two competing 34th LD Democrats is expected to be.  Gina Topp noted that per our bylaws, the membership has to vote on an endorsement and the Board cannot circumvent that.  Sarah Koch clarified our rules/bylaws that if neither candidate gets 60% of the vote by members, a dual endorsement can be considered at that point.  
  • Good of the Order (GOTO) & Announcements 

None raised.

9:05 pm – Meeting Adjourned by Chair Carla Rogers