Agenda

6:30 Call to order
6:35 Minutes
6:40 Treasurer’s Report
6:45 January Election of Officers
6:50 Recap of Precinct Walking and Suggestions for Next Year
6:55 Holiday Party on December 11 at 7-9 pm at 7 Pomona Avenue in El Cerrito, bring casserole or dessert to share, wine if you want.
7:00 Announcements – December Meeting will have voting items
7:10 Program – Recap of November Election
7:45 Suggestions for Programs for 2019
8:30 Adjourn

General Membership Meeting Minutes

MOTION UNANIMOUSLY PASSED
1. Dwight Merrill makes motion to vote in the December meeting to:
  1. Elect both a representative and backup to the central committee,
  2. Accept proposed bylaw change regarding the election of this representative (Bylaws attached below).
2. Questions regarding this motion:
  1. The goal is to have a club representative at the January Central Committee Meeting.
  2. There was a first motion to waive the ten-day announcement rule and to have the vote in the November meeting, but after Al Miller asked if we could vote as a business item in the December meeting, then the motion was modified to vote in December.
  3. The central committee meeting is the third Thursday of the month.
  4. Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto is interested in the position.
  5. Joey is also interested and she thanks the club for being considered for the role but she is already a representative for another club.
  6. Champagne would not mind being the club’s alternate representative. She is already the alternate for Mister.
3. Dwight requests that we add this item to the Newsletter.
4. Greg seconded this motion.
Last Month’s Meeting Minutes
1. Betty moves that the meeting minutes be approved and Greg seconds.
2. Motion carried with two abstentions.
Treasurer’s Report
1. Balance is $8,000.
2. Dinner was not intended to be a fundraiser and it was a $400 drain on the budget.
3. Club is solvent for now.
4. Don’t forget to renew your 2019 membership, pay online or signup with Champagne.
Officer elections will be held in January
1. Incumbents interested in running again for the same position:
  1. Janet Abelson, President
  2. Greg Lyman, Vice President – Treasurer
  3. Hari Lamba, Vice President – Media
2. Open positions (see Club bylaws for role descriptions)
  1. Executive Vice President
  2. Vice President – Programs
  3. Vice President – Records
  4. Vice President – Publications
  5. Vice President – Membership
    - Open if Champagne is nominated as Executive Vice President
3. Self Nominations to date
  1. Executive Vice President
    - Champagne interested in this position unless nobody is elected to do Membership
  2. Vice President – Publications
    - Rosa Esquivel, self –nominates unless another member is interested
4. Cheryl wants to know more about open positions. She seems interested in either filling or nominating a friend to a position.
5. Job-sharing was mentioned and we reviewed the bylaws for understanding the procedure.
  1. See bylaw sections VII and VIII (3).
  2. Officers may appoint Committee Chairs and chair-people do not get a vote.
  3. Only one person officially holds office but they can appoint committee chairs.
6. “Teamwork makes a dreamboat” – Champagne Brown.
Precinct Walking
1. The following suggestions and comments were made in order to improve future precinct walking activities:
2. Getting materials done on time to avoid a disaster.
3. What did we lose by not having a central committee flyer?
  1. We need the material by a certain time or else it’s not done.
4. Central Committee flyer was paid for by Measure B funds.
5. In election years, the club prints the blue flyers that carry our endorsements. We pay for printing the door hangers in non-election years.
6. We did not get the printed materials from the committee because it got submitted late.
7. Michael states that the “state party did not get the stuff out in time and it put us back. That is what happened.”
8. Janet is saying that she is talking about an election year. The central committee did not hurt the club financially.
9. Hilary points out that we donate money to the central committee in the non-election years.
10. Rosa mentions that we might consider holding some money back in order to print a better club flyer in 2020 because the central committee seems to be in disarray at the moment.
11. Al asks if we are limited to what we can put on the door hangers. What if we endorse a member that central committee does not?
  1. For the first year of the door hanger, we endorsed differently for the school district and we got in political trouble, because central committee paid for front piece and we paid for the back.
12. If we pay for all of the printing, then it’s not a problem. But we must keep the total cost below $2,000 per year.
13. Al mentions that club’s reputation is not based on distributing materials but built on club’s endorsement and club distributing our own runs and our own endorsements.
14. Walkers would like to see party affiliation and name of homeowner to have more information while delivering flyers.
15. “MOE” system provides information on address affiliation.
16. Walkers are interested in downloading application that provides information about voters.
Holiday Party
1. Party is whatever people bring.
2. Michael has two ice cream makers at home and his favorite flavors are Mexican chocolate and French vanilla.
3. Janet is concerned about making coffee. She is great at providing tea but not too good at coffee.
Announcements
1. Renew Membership at $20 for single or $30 for two same household members; add $12 for mailing of newsletter.
2. The Central Committee is hosting an event on Friday, December 14, at the IBEW Local 302 Hall, in Martinez. Purchase tickets ahead of time.
Recap of November Election
1. Most of our endorsements won
2. All state endorsements won
3. Members are interested in local results to see if El Cerrito carried the slate
4. Gabriel Quinto and Janet Abelson won their races
5. Al Miller is starting his last term in the Stege Sanitary District
6. Measure V passed
7. AC Transit
  1. Joel Young got re-elected in a very close election.
  2. Dollene Jones won Contra Costa but lost the election.
8. Summary of State Propositions results are as follows: number, our endorsement, final results:
  1. 1: veteran housing: yes, passed
  2. 2: homeless: yes, passed
  3. 3: $9B water bond: no, lost
  4. 4: hospital bonds: yes, passed
  5. 5: tax over 55: no, lost
  6. 6: repeal fuel tax: no, lost
  7. 7: daylight savings: no, passed
  8. 8: dialysis: yes, lost
  9. 10: local rent control: no, lost
  10. 11: ambulance: no, passed
  11. 12: bans sale of meat if confined: yes, passed
Other election comments
1. Interested in seeing how precinct data is broken down by area.
2. Proposition 6 to reverse the gas tax was a confusing way to vote; yet, we got the message out. We were able to reach voters on what it means. Maybe there was confusion and it was interesting about how some measures won and others lost.
3. Janet pointed out that today; the League of California city is working on our side. It is sometimes our partner and sometimes we have not won together.
4. Michael recalls waiting for election results and he remembers getting different updates each hour.
5. The California Democratic party did spend around $2.8 million for running ads in support of Tony Thurmond. This support made it easier for Tony. On the other hand, keep in mind that Tony was personally attacked for coming from a low-income school district.
6. Al Miller mentioned that we should prioritize walks and we would be more effective if we focused on areas that have higher voter turnouts.
  1. We should know which precincts support measure V.
  2. Would these precincts be in support of a Library bond?
7. Champagne mentioned that we should work on higher voter turn out as Californians will have their postage covered when they vote by mail.
8. Electorate is getting younger and we would like to encourage younger voters to be more politically active.
9. We should file to campaign for 2020 and get new voter registration rolls now.
10. Sixteen year olds can start getting registered now. Tap into young Democrats.
11. Get other young people to get young people to vote.
12. Get young Democrats into our club. Are they the largest voting block (even if their voting results are not as high)?
California Democratic Party Adem Program
1. Paul reminded us of the new coming political year.
2. Members should participate in the California Adem program.
3. Meetings start in January.
4. Joey D. Smith is running again and wants our club’s endorsement for Assembly District 15.
5. Champagne Brown is also running.
6. Comments made to include endorsing Club members to be an ADEM representative in the December meeting.
Suggestions for Programs for 2019
1. The following are suggestions for next year’s programs. They are in order of how they were mentioned at the meeting. Expect to vote on which topics we should focus on in future meetings.
2. Nancy Skinner and Buffy Wicks offered to speak at our club as soon a possible
3. Invite Presidential Candidates
4. February 2020 Primary
5. Healthcare
6. Single Payer in California
7. Medical for All in the Nation
8. School Board in School District
9. Ecology Crisis/Climate Change (organic food & community supported agriculture) / Environment / Food First / Industrial food production
10. Agricultural industrial runoff and effect on water sources / Organic food
11. Elected Officials
12. Youth to Youth Outreach
13. Presidential candidates: mini convention similar to the 2017 October Dinner in which Betty Yee championed John Edwards for President
14. How does single payer intersect with Veteran health care benefits?
15. Diana Becton
16. Tony Thurmond
17. Beto O’Rourke
18. Library/El Cerrito Technology Center
19. Young Dem club organization
  1. Have a board member at large that reaches out
20. Work with the East Bay and Contra Costa Young Dem clubs
  1. Invite them to visit our club
  2. Where do their older members go?
  3. Reach out to them
  4. Co-sponsor to get to know each other and have them think of us as the next place to go
21. El Cerrito Democratic Club & Contra Costa Community College Dreamers Alliance (COPA) political science group participation
22. Voter Registration
23. Voter Roll Verification
24. Get out the Vote initiatives
25. Send letters to elected officials as a club
26. Postcard drives
27. Provide more debriefs on elections
  1. Sponsor town hall meetings
  2. Sponsor feedback events to the general public
28. Co-sponsor activities with young democratic clubs
29. County services
30. Create Action Committees (reactivate)
  1. transportation, health, resolutions, open resolutions
  2. mineral rights, environmental
  3. for example, send Animal Rights Letters to influence public and officials
31. Survey of members on what they care about
  1. Include logistics such as meeting location.
  2. Online Surveys
  3. What percentage of members have versus do not have online access.
    1. It is believed that 80% of club members have online access