01-15-20 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

      150 150 34th Democrats

      Attendees: Carla Rogers, Steve Butts, Gina Topp, Nick Bonazza, Ann Martin, Rachel Glass, Art Chippendale, Ben Reilly, DeLancey Lane, Ted Barker, Leah Griffin, Les Treall, Jesse Greene

      7:04 Gina called the meeting to order 

      The newest version of the calendar was reviewed.

      The group discussed the February Program. 

      • Endorsements – Governor, Senator, Attorney General, Public Lands
      • Code of Conduct/By-Laws
      • Budget
      • Program
      • Primary
      • 2nd Vice Chair Election

      (The endorsement meeting is in June.)

      We will wait on the endorsements until Gina hears back from the campaigns. We may move to a future meeting.

      7:17 Budget/PDC Complaint – Gina informed us of the latest lawsuit from Glen Morgan. The filing is online – the gist is that we missed a couple filings. The budget includes a line item that will fund a compliance consultant at $200/month. This person will be responsible for all of our filings. This will be an asset for us from the PDC perspective and also may hold off future lawsuits. 

      Ben presented the proposed budget. We are carrying over about $10K from last year which was beyond the goal. Discussion points:

      • Concern about the cost of the caucus site
      • Increased election expenditures
      • Same $20K fundraising goal
      • Added to PCO budget to cover stamps for PCO mailings

      Additions based on discussion included adding $500 for Outreach. 

      Motion was made and seconded to take the amended budget to the membership in February. Motion passed unanimously.

      7:41 Caucus Update

      Rachel presented updates from the caucus committee. We are on track for planning and communications. 

      7:50 Communications Committee updates were provided by Carla Rogers. We are creating communications including a mailer for recent Democrat volunteers, a walk piece, web page “2020 Election Headquarters” and a social media plan. The West Seattle Blog is also going to do a story on the election process change. 

      We are also ordering stickers and a t-shirt to sell at caucus and our meetings. 

      We are having issues on the website with Visual Composer that may need high level technical support. 

      Carla is going to serve on the state Digital Communications committee. 

      7:57 Ben shared the agenda for the Immigration Program

      • An update on the immigration and refugee crisis we’re currently experiencing
      • Highlighting the administration’s tactics for expelling and punishing immigrants and refugees
      • Several efforts underway to help our most vulnerable communities
        • Expanding the WA State Clemency Board and urging Governor Inslee to review more cases where people are at risk of being sent to countries they’ve never lived in.
        • New Way Forward ACT.
        • Unnamed Legislation supported by the ACLU to stop targeted courthouse arrested for undocumented people
        • Encouraging donations for the 30 people who were flown to Cambodia on Monday (01/13/2020)
        • More support for legal defense groups like Seattle Clemency, NWIRP, ACLU, ect.

      Ben has 2 speakers confirmed and is trying to lock down a representative from the ACLU.

      8:05 Bylaws/Code of Conduct

      Gina proposed that we submit minor changes to the Bylaws in February and then Art has a newly proposed version of the Bylaws for us to consider at a later time. 

      Most of the updates were agreed upon with no issue. However, there was much discussion on Article VII, endorsements. 

      1. Dems only (current language)
      2. Non-partisan race, no Democrat running, we can choose a non-Democrat with our values, 
      3. We can chose a non-Democrat with our values

      Motion was made and seconded to take the Bylaws as submitted to the general membership. 

      We will have table discussions for the Bylaws, endorsements section. 

      Carla raised the point that our endorsements should mean more and that we seem to give them out with no research or due diligence. We should have a process in place to get an endorsement. Much discussion followed. We will create an ad hoc task force to develop a process for endorsements. Jesse will chair the task force. 

      8:52 PCO Committee Update

      Nick gave the PCO report. There will be a phone bank on February 17th at Nick’s house on Vashon. Feb 22 will be the PCO Training meeting at Kenyon Hall. This will be an interactive meeting with the goal of 25-40 attendees. Monday, March 2 will be another phone bank for the final push for the Primary. March 7 will be a canvass event.Nick is also meeting with the coordinated campaign. 

      8:59 Code of Conduct The goal is to present the code of conduct at the February meeting. Discussion about the voting threshold for censure and suspension are not in alignment. A motion was made seconded and passed to align the vote threshold for both censure and suspension (3/4). 

      9:11 Committee Updates/Good of the Order

      WSDW will host Ron Sims at the next meeting. January 23rd at the West Seattle Golf Course. Registration at 6, dinner at 6:30. 

      Les brought sweatshirts to share. T-shirts must have the union bug.

      9:20 ADJOURN