Giving Voice to Progressive Democrats for Over 60 Years
Here’s your fresh February ECDC newsletter, in all its twelve-page glory! We know you’ll want to keep up with the Club’s doings as local Democratic political activism becomes steadily more active. Download your copy, in PDF format, from here.
Most Web browsers will read PDF files, but if yours has any trouble, you can read the newsletter with the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available here.
Nine candidate statements were submitted for the forthcoming election in Assembly District 15. These are the statements, in alphabetical order by last name and in PDF format; click on the links to open the statements:
Judy Appel
Ben Bartlett
Jovanka Beckles
Dan Kalb
Andy Katz
Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto
Owen Poindexter
Cheryl Sudduth
Buffy Wicks
These are the essay questions that were included with the questionnaire, together with the answers of all candidates:
These candidates will speak at our forthcoming endorsement meeting, to be held in the cafeteria of Harding Elementary School on Tuesday, February 27, 2018. Check-in will be at 6 PM and call to order will be at 6:30. We urge all Club members to read these statements carefully before that time, then to attend the meeting so that your vote can be counted. See you there!
Attendees: Peter Chau, Gabe Quinto, Tom Cesa, Greg Lyman, Hilary Crosby,
Kip Crosby, Marlene Keller, Mister Phillips
Absent: Mollie Hazen
1.Budget item for vote at the Jan 23 meeting:
Greg indicated that we received a check for $250. from an SEIU local. Do we want to keep it? After discussion, the board voted unanimously to return the check.
Greg will publish the proposed budget by the publication deadline of Jan 13. The budget will include $2K for a website contractor (contract ending Dec 31, 2018) that we voted on at the last E-board meeting. Following discussion and a vote, the board agreed to propose a budget item of ~ $150 for QuickBooks to help us manage our membership data. Vote was 7 Yes, 1 absention.
After discussion, the board voted unanimously to propose increasing the membership cost of hardcopy newsletter to $12 ($1/month).
Greg will pick up first-class stamps before Jan. 26.rate increase.
2. Jan 23 meeting vote on officers and program agenda for 2018:
Tom will create a list of current members and a list of those not yet paid for the meeting (since we may have a lot of people showing up to pay that night) for use on Jan. 23rd.
Peter/Hilary/Gabe: We still have a candidate gap for 2 offices. President and Programs. The board unanimously proposed Paul Fadelli for President and Joann Steck-Bayat for Programs.
3.. AD 15 candidates at Tues Feb. 27th 7:30pm meeting
at Harding Elementary School Auditorium:
Greg will review e-board suggested changes to his candidate questionnaire and email to the full board.
Gabe texted Jovanka to encourage her to attend, but she declined because of the conflict with the Richmond City Council meeting. Gabe indicated that Dan Kalb will try to attend, but arrive late via BART. Gabe will encourage any candidate to send a proxy if they can’t make it.
Peter will send a reminder to the candidates, a Save the Date reminder to members about the meeting’s importance & new location, and confirm our emcee.
4. January publication articles (by Jan. 13):
Greg: budget
Peter: Save the Date Tues Feb 27 at Harding
Peter: Program topics in 2017 and some options for 6 meetings in 2018
2018 Programs:
January (officers, budget, program), Feb (AD 15 endorsement), July/Aug (endorsements), Oct (dinner), Dec (holiday party. Thus, we have only 6 meetings for program: March, April, May, June, Sept, and Nov.
Following discussion, e-board members think that Housing would be an excellent topic for one meeting (Greg mentioned that Howdy Goudy could help with this) and Immigration/DACA for another meeting.
Marlene/Tom C: Income inequality and GOP-enacted Tax Plan (and per our discussion: yes, the NY Times 12/21/17 reported that the enacted Tax Plan allows taxpayers to deduct $10K/year for private school K-12 tuition via their 529s)
Hilary: Jan 23 meeting’s importance (vote on officers & proposals for programs in 2018)
Marlene Keller
VP-Records