Meeting Minutes – January 24, 2018

31st L.D. Democrats General Meeting
January 24th, 2018, 7pm
Edgewood Fire Station 

Meeting was called to order at 7pm by Chair Brian Gunn followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. M/S/P to approve agenda, as amended.

Approval of Minutes: (Brian Gunn, on behalf of Britt Kauffman)

Treasurer Report: (Brian Gunn, on behalf of Rudy Adams)

  • Review of 2017 closing report
  • Minor discrepancy was corrected with the PDC
  • Review of 2017 budget
  • M/S/P to approve as submitted.

Speakers:

Officer Reports:

Chair:

Talked about where we left off in 2017, and what 2018 will look like. Enormous steps forward in 2017: built up membership, exceeded our ambitious donation goals for our candidates. Brian will be hosting office hours at Auburn Office this year. First focus for 2018: Canvass event out of Auburn office. Turnout will be key for 2018, and was the big challenge in 2017. Big fight in the 8th CD. Lots and lots of attention on these midterm elections. Chance to turn the tide! State party will be focusing on 47th, 5th, 31st. Brian encouraged members to canvass, and when canvassing, to take voter registration forms.

Vice Chair (King County):

George: Desire for more Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs) and get more people in the field.

Brian: 155 precincts in the 31st legislative district. PCO is the point person in their precinct. Build a network, talk to your neighbors. 31st has 52 PCOs right now out of 155 precincts.

PCO coordinators: John Westland for Pierce County and Marina Hiles for King County. Talk to them if you want to become a PCO!

Committee Reports:

Committeepersons:

Kirby (State): Looking forward to representing the 31st in Bellingham and all around WA state this year. Opportunities to meet people from all around WA state, bring forth resolutions. Every LD and every county in WA state is represented in these meetings.

Sarah (King): King County Democrats Lobby Day coming up on 2/19 in Olympia. $20 for lunch if you want to go with the KC Dems and get lunch. They are organizing carpools. Keynote speaker will be Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib. King County Dems Committee for Diversity and Inclusion needs volunteers for a number of events throughout 2018. Contact Orchid at 3rdvicechair@kcdems.org. Resolutions passed: Opposing the Tacoma Liquified Natural Gas Plant, Urging Our US Senators to Co-Sponsor S. 1804, Single-Payer Health Care, Repeal & Replace I:200: Diversity Resolution, and Ban Source-of-Income Discrimination in Rental Housing.

Kirby (Pierce): Pierce County dealing with PDC fine. Will also be electing members for rules, platform, credentials. Trying to schedule some fundraising events and membership recruitment events. Special meeting is tomorrow night.

Member Outreach (Fairs):

Donna: No update yet for summer fairs (too early). If anyone wants to help volunteer, come to booths, register voters, come talk to Donna! Probably going to Buckley Log Show, Wilkeson, Bonney Lake, Edgewood, Auburn 4th of July.

Candidate Recruitment:

Brian: Working on it. If anyone wants to help, talk to Brian!

Event Planning (Fundraising):

Brian: We will be scheduling an event this year, which we’ll talk about when we get to the budget. Would love to see if we can get Maria Cantwell to come speak. Need to pick a date and a venue. The challenge is to organize that at the same time as we’re doing the caucus organization. If anyone has experience with organizing events and doing fundraising, Brian would love help.

We do not have an event planning committee but we could establish one.

Motion to create a fundraising event subcommittee. Robin has volunteered to be the co-chair, along with Brian. M/S/P to form the committee. Other committee members: Ingrid, Stephanie, Alli, Kathy, Donna, George, Lucy.

Caucus for March, so shooting for a fundraising event in May.

Membership:

Sarah: 18 members for this year so far. Let’s get those renewal numbers up! Remember that you need to be a paid member to vote on things like endorsements, or be a PCO.

Programs/Public Relations:

Brian: Doing pretty well. Have done well so far at getting an agenda and getting things posted on the website ahead of time.

Voter Registration:

Ann Percival & Renee Rich: Not active right now. Sometime this month there will be one million people eligible to register to vote in WA but they have not registered. If you would like to get voter registration forms, Ann and Renee have them available! (As well as instructions)

Newsletter/Communication:

Alli: Information and enthusiasm chair. Always looking for articles/input, content sourced from the community. If anyone wants to talk, send an email to newsletter@31stdistrictdemocrats.org.

Website:

Dan: No major updates. If anyone wants to get content on the website (e.g. the blog), contact us at webmaster@31stdistrictdemocrats.org.

Old Business:

None.

New Business:

Approval of PCO applications:
  • Jean Hoiland for Enumclaw 31-0418.
  • Michelle Rylands is asking to be an Acting PCO with the Precinct to be determined. (An acting PCO is tasked with finding a PCO for the precinct)
  • Tina Lee Johnson for Pierce 31-806
  • Immaculate Ferreria-Allah for 31-829.

M/S/P to approve all PCO applications.

2018 Budget:
  • M/S/P to amend the proposed budget to increase the web/email budget from $10/month to $30/month ($360/year), which includes the monthly email from SendInBlue, dedicated IP Address for sending email from SendInBlue, and yearly web hosting from Dreamhost.
  • M/S/P for passing the budget, as amended.
Election/appointment of 2018 State Convention Committee members:

State Convention Committees for the 2018 Washington State Convention.

  • Credentials Committee Election:
    • George McKay nominated and seconded.
    • Dan Pincas nominated and seconded.
    • Voting Results: 14 for George, 15 for Dan. Dan Pincas was elected to the Credentials Committee.
  • Platform Committee Election:
    • John Westland nominated and seconded.
    • Allison Pincas nominated and seconded.
    • Voting Results: By acclimation, Allison Pincas was elected to the Platform Committee.
  • Rules Committee Election:
    • George McKay nominated. Nomination was seconded. George has declined the nomination.
    • Stephanie Hagen nominated. Nomination was seconded.
    • Marina Hiles nominated. Nomination was seconded.
    • Voting Results: 18 for Marina, 13 for  Stephanie. Marina Hiles was elected to the Rules Committee.
Planning for 2018 LD Caucus:
  • Need to close on State insurance for the event by Feb 16. Need to close on a venue by then – planning for about 70-100 people. (School? Library with a large room?) We will need to communicate out and make it very public as to where the event will be located. Email/web/etc. We will need credentials for the event.
  • M/S/P to create a Caucus Planning Committee.
  • Members of the committee: George McKay, Donna De Prospo, Kathy Lorimer, Marina Hiles, Marc Dunning, Renee Rich, Mark Boswell, Monika Warner.
Platform Committee
  • M/S/P to create a Platform Committee. Create the very first 31st Democrats Platform.
  • Committee Members: Alli Pincas, Immaculate Ferreria-Allah, Linda Rutenberg, Sarah Edwards, Stephanie Hagen, Kathy Lorimer.

M/S to adjourn at 9:00 PM. Motion was voted down to finish new business.

Resolution in Opposition to the Tacoma Liquified Natural Gas Facility
  • M/S/P to approve the Resolution in Opposition to the Tacoma Liquified Natural Gas Facility, after discussion.
Request for financial support from 2nd LD Democrats

Good & Welfare:

M/S/P to adjourn at 9:19pm.

Submitted:  Dan Pincas, Alternate Secretary

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