Monthly Meeting Minutes

08-12-20 Monthly Meeting Minutes

 150 150 34th Democrats

August 12, 2020 – Virtual meeting held via closed ZOOM

6:30 pm – Virtual Potluck hosted by 2nd vice chair Jesse Greene.

7:01pm – Call to Order

Opening Ceremonies 

  • Jeff Sbaih led us in a land acknowledgement. Jeff shared some history about Alki. We honor with gratitude the land and tribe of the Duwamish. 
  • Chris Porter shared a slideshow honoring Representative John Lewis.
  • A statement about the process for the meeting was made by Gina Topp.
  • Carla Rogers provided Zoom tips. 

VIP Acknowledgements

  • Eileen Cody thanked everyone for support during the Primary and looked forward to the general. 
  • Joe Fitzgibbon spoke about the opportunity to flip the 34th. 
  • Hillary Madsen thanked the 34th for the endorsement for Superior Court position 13. 
  • King County Councilman Joe McDermott was recognized. 
  • King County Councilman John Upthegrove was recognized and mentioned how having our meetings on Zoom allowed him to attend.

The July Meeting Minutes were presented and Jesse Greene made a motion to approve the minutes. Rachel Glass seconded. Motion carried, minutes were approved as presented.

The August Agenda was presented. Ann Martin made a motion and a second was made by Marcee Stone to approve it as presented. Motion carried, minutes were approved as presented. 

Virtual Phone Bank – Max Brown spoke about the 2 phases of voter contact during election season. Pre-primary, the 34th made a pass and a half through our GOTV universe. The size of the GOTV universe in the general election will be doubled. We need everyone who is comfortable with phone banking to participate in the 34th phone bank program. See our website for links to sign up.

7:31 – New Precinct Committee Officer Appointments 

Nick presented 6 PCOs for consideration. 

  • Jordan Crawley 1435
  • Hannah Cameron 1456
  • Laura Goodsell – Stocki 1463
  • Erica Brody  1476
  • Richard Bartlett 1486
  • Sarah Koch 34 – Glasgow

Ann Martin moved that we welcome and approve all PCO candidates. Jesse Greene seconded. Motion passed unanimously. There are now 126 PCOs elected.

Turnout for King County was 54% (approximately). There were 12 contested PCO precincts. 

7:35pm – Endorsements

Leah Griffin made a motion to endorse Referendum I-90. Karen Richter seconded. Leah spoke on behalf of the initiative for comprehensive sex ed in schools. No one spoke against the endorsement. Les moved that we vote by acclamation. Vote passed, the 34th officially endorsed I-90.. 

7:48pm – King County Charter Amendments Regarding the Criminal Legal System

Rob Saka, who served on the charter review commission, spoke about the police accountability amendments. The presentation will be placed on the homepage of the website after the meeting.  Rob’s informative presentation is available on our website. Rob took questions and shared the final report link: https://www.kingcounty.gov/~/media/independent/charter-review-commission/2020/Approved_KC_CRC_Report_-_Full.ashx 

8:18 – Postcard Writing Presentation

Rachel Glass introduced Kathy Rawle who gave a short overview of the Postcards to Voters initiative. Kathy shared various groups who are doing postcards and text banking as an alternative to phone banking. Opportunities are available on the website: https://34dems.org/6167-2/.

8:29 – Resolutions: Jordan Crawley

Three resolutions have been considered by the Executive Board and moved to the General Membership with a recommendation to approve.

  1. Commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peace & opposition to further occupation, settlement expansion, or other unilateral annexation of West Bank territory.

Jordan Crawley provided a summary. Ann Martin moved to pass this resolution. Annie Phillips seconded.  Katie Harris spoke in favor of the resolution. Moti Krauthamer spoke against the resolution. Dean Shuey made a motion to table the resolution due to inconsistencies with the language and changes suggested by VP Biden. Marcee Stone seconded the motion to table. Chris Porter spoke against the motion. Marcee Stone mentioned that motions to table are not debated per Robert’s Rules. Katie Harris spoke against tabling the resolution. Motion to table did not pass. Resolution passed with 87%. 

  1. Defending immigrant rights

Jordan Crawley provided a summary. Ann Martin made a motion and Chris Porter seconded to pass the resolution. Chris spoke in favor of the resolution. No one spoke against the resolution. Resolution passed unanimously. 

  1. Equitable hiring and spending processes for political consultants of color.

Jordan Crawley provided a summary. Ann Martin moved and Sara Koch seconded that we pass this resolution. Ann spoke in favor. Chris Porter spoke against the resolution. Moti Krauthamer made a motion to table the resolution for updates.  Layne Bautista seconded. Motion to table passed. Resolution will go back to the author.

9:13pm – Policy Discussion Group

Michael Epton is forming a policy discussion group and will be hosting groups to discuss policy ideas and campaign talking points. Please contact him at epton@drizzle.com if you are interested in joining this group. Ideas for the policy discussion group are available on our website. 

9:17pm – Adjourn

 

Executive Board Meeting

07-22-20 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

 400 300 34th Democrats

Held via Zoom conference due to COVID-19.

Attendees: Carla Rogers, Steve Butts, Gina Topp, Rachel Glass, Les Treall, Dawn Rains, Jordan Crawley, Art Chippendale Jeff Sbaih, Ben Reilly, Ted Barker, Ann Martin

7:04 Gina called the meeting to order.

Updates from Gina

  • Gina notified the Hall at Fauntleroy that we will not need the hall for the rest of the year. We do have the option to get the hall if we change our direction. 
  • PCO report will be submitted by Nick via email as he wasn’t able to attend. 
  • Carla gave an update on the success of our Phone Banks. We have 31 people signed up as interested in phone banking. We are continuing to Phone bank on Thursdays and Saturdays. Aug 6 will be our 26th LD focus phone bank and Aug 15 we have added a phone back for NC, via Sister District. All board members are expected to phone bank at least one shift a month. The PCO leads are doing a great job. 

Leadership Development

  • Les is spear-heading an initiative to contact new people interested in or just joining the 34th..
  • Les drafted a letter and sent it to the Exec Board and posted it in Slack. 
  • Jordan has created a second draft. 
  • This would be sent to interested parties and anyone visiting a meeting for the first time. A different version would be for new members.
  • Les is willing to make phone calls to these same people to follow up on our letter.
  • Dawn is willing to identify visitors and new members. 
  • Who are we mailing to? – 4 groups: mailing list sign ups, new attendees at meetings, new members, caucus attendees/delegates
  • Board comments on Jordan’s letter are due by Saturday and then we will vote on Slack since the letter comes from the board.
  • Dawn will help get letters out after the meeting. 

Bylaws

  • We made some small changes already to the Bylaws in February.. Art has added language from the state for emergency meetings. 
  • Les noted that section 7 needs to be updated. 
  • Art is proposing additional changes to be voted on in our September meeting. 
  • Board is to review the proposed Bylaws and bring any comments, updates to the August Board meeting. We will present to the general meeting in September or October. 

 Announcements

  • Carla asked that everyone try to make progress on your committee goals without relying on a board meeting. Work in sub-committees and try to accomplish tasks. 
  • Have we gotten reimbursement from SPS? No. 
  • Karen asked about communicating with Jayapal’s office regarding the GND. Gina provided a name of who to connect with at her office.

8:07 Adjourn

Executive Board Meeting

07-15-20 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

 400 300 34th Democrats

Held via Zoom conference due to COVID-19.

Attendees: Carla Rogers, Steve Butts, Gina Topp, Ann Martin, Rachel Glass, Leah Griffin, Les Treall, Max Brown, Dawn Rains, Nick Bonazza, Jordan Crawley, Art Chippendale, Jesse Greene, Jeff Sbaih, Chris Porter

7:03 Gina called the meeting to order. 

7:04 Rachel Glass introduced guest Kathy Rawle who spoke about the Postcards to Voters program. This is a great alternative to phone banking if folks want to help but don’t want to make phone bank calls. Campaigns are selected based on those which need high voter turnout to win. Sign up by texting JOIN to 484-275-2229. 

7:20 Carla provided updates about the 34th Virtual Phone Banking program which started on July 9. We will be supporting the 26th LD once per month (August 6th is the first date) and the NC Legislative races once a month via Sister District. The latter starts on August 15th. Sign up links on Facebook and on the events calendar. More dates will be added soon for August phone banks. Every board members encouraged to sign up for at least one shift a month.

7:30 Committee Updates

Carla provided the Communication Committee report. Sheila Ghiabi has created a cross-platform social content plan and we will start with ‘Meet Us Monday’ on 7/27. The board and electeds will respond to a questionnaire to provide the content. Board members are asked to respond to the questionnaire by the end of week.  

Chris and Ann gave the State Committee updates. Ann noted that the state is starting to draft rules for ‘virtual’ meetings. Chris was very unhappy with the actual results of the diversity and inclusion efforts from the delegate process. Chris also shared how the National Convention will be held. 

The King County update was provided by Max. Endorsements were made for Kreidler and Pat McKarthy. BLM speakers gave updates. I-940 (criminal justice de-escalation and training) representatives spoke. 1776 resolution was passed (regarding the Ahmaud Arbery killing), defunding police/investment, a resolution was passed to support equity and inclusion of Political Consultants of Color (PCC). 

Steve gave the Outreach report. Committee is unable to do much due to COVID. Steve and Karen are working on a Voter Registration training meeting on Zoom. Tina Eck may help – she did the program currently on the website. 

Dawn gave the Finance/Membership updates.  We got a nice increase in membership for the endorsement meeting.

Jeff provided the Diversity and Inclusion committee report. Next meeting is 5:30 at 7/28 via Zoom. Committee has met twice. The committee would like to change the name to Social Justice and Equity committee. Jeff shared that this change was in response to the current goals of the committee. They have worked on a mission statement and new goals. The group asked questions and made comments. Leah made a motion to change the name of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee to Social Justice and Equity Committee. Chris Porter seconded. Ann amended the motion to change the name to Social Justice and Equity Caucus. Carla seconded. Jeff spoke against the amendment. Amendment failed. Original motion came to a vote and it passed. 

Jeff also mentioned the incident at the Endorsement meeting last week where a member called out Jesse. Discussion was held.  

Jordan gave the Legislative Action Committee report which included his work on Resolutions currently in front of the board/membership. We have 9 outstanding resolutions. 

Three resolutions have been considered by the Executive Board and moved to the General Membership:

  1. Re: Commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peace & opposition to further occupation, settlement expansion, or other unilateral annexation of West Bank territory.
  2. Re: Defending immigrant rights
  3. Re: Equitable hiring and spending processes for political consultants of color

Three resolutions have been submitted to the Chair and are pending consideration by the Executive Board:

  1. Re: Valuation of Seattle’s green space and subsequent use as an asset in the budgeting process.
  2. Re: Police accountability, reappropriation and investment of SPD budget dollars to other uses, redesignation of city-owned parcels for public use, and other related causes.
  3. Re: Supporting the proper and efficient stabilization and repair or replacement of the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge, commonly referred to as the West Seattle Bridge.

Two resolutions were previously intended for consideration by the 34th Dems, but have since been withdrawn:

  1. Re: Referendum 90
  2. Re: Taxing Amazon

One resolution has yet to be received, but is reported as remaining an issue area for conversation:

  1. Re: I-1776; expansion of the prohibition on discrimination, ensuring no-cost vaccinations, and other related causes.

Gina shared that we can only bring in 3 resolutions to the August meeting, based on the current agenda. Chris made a motion and Leah seconded to include the PCC resolution with a recommendation to pass at the August meeting.

Ann moved that we use the remaining 2 slots for the Israel – Palestine and Immigration resolutions. Motion was seconded by Leah Griffin. Motion passed. 

Steve stated that the Newsletter deadline for August is July 30.. 

8:57 Proposed General Membership August Agenda was shared by Gina. Board agreed on the agenda.

Les made a motion to have an additional Executive Board meeting. Bylaws, Newsletter, PCO, LD, Hospitality, Treasurer, Fundraising committees did not get to provide their updates. We could also cover more of the resolutions as well. Gina stated the meeting will be held next Wednesday at 7pm via Zoom.

9:05 Good of the Order

Rachel mentioned that Tamsen Spangler had a house fire and needs to rent a home while repairs are being made. Her and her husband are safe. Please contact Rachel if you know of a home for rent.

9:08 Adjourn