Agenda

All times are approximate, and Chair may change the order of items as appropriate

Meeting Minutes

Chair: Anthony L.
Notetaker:  Minnie W..

• Presentation/Introduction from Sin City Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
• Call to order at 7:23pm
  • Review community agreements
  • Ephraim motions to adopt the agenda, Tamara seconds. No one opposed, the agenda is adopted at 7:28pm
  • Erika B motions to adopt last meeting’s minutes, Aaron R seconds, no one opposed, the minutes are approved at 7:29pm
  • Land acknowledgement by Mercedes K.
• Treasurer’s Report
  • Email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com for the report
• Housing Justice Priority Reflection
  • This is a time for members to reflect on their experiences with the priority this year.
  • Shaun: I was part of a lot of canvasses. Our coalition partners have praised our door-to-door efforts.
  • There is a housing justice priority meeting on the calendar for early next week.
• Community Aid Priority Reflection
  • Tamara: I stepped in as the community aid steward mid-year. It was very successful. One of our largest events every month is Sunday Solidarity. We get a lot of new volunteers/members and serve 25-40 folks in the community with hygiene items, clothing, tents, etc. Then we increased from this one event in Historic Westside to also our Hendershare in Henderson. We see at least as many folks there in Henderson too. I hope that we can protect these events in the future. If we want to be serious about strengthening our leaders, we have to think about how we keep and enhance these connections.
  • Tamara: But the priority didn’t really achieve anything outside of putting these events together. Because of the interest and new faces showing up, we could use our volunteers better. In the future, I hope to include a compulsory community aid component in each strategic priority campaign. Will consider a resolution. Or maybe we could consider a Mutual Aid Caucus. Reach out to me on the slack to connect.
  • Shaun: We just passed one year of doing Sunday Solidarity. We used to have 12-13 people and now it’s more and more. We’ve created connections with people in the community who know we’re coming. Please come so we can start a little earlier about 9:30am. We could always make it bigger and better, more services (free haircuts, showers), more coalition partners. I agree we could tie Mutual Aid to any priority.
  • Aimee: As you work on priority resolutions, mutual and community aid work can be built into those in all sorts of ways. For better or worse, it’s how we pull a lot of people into our org. These events/shares do really ground us. People can always find us there every month. Thank you to everyone who helps/has helped with all of our mutual and community aid efforts this year.Thanks to Shaun for bringing us to this work and Tamara for picking up the torch this year!
  • Anthony: I appreciate the call to include mutual and community in other priority campaigns. Not just because of the harm of capitalism and corporate greed but because it really connects people to the org.
• Electoral Priority Reflection
  • Wishing Roy a quick recovery. He is sick today.
  • Anthony: In the first six months – Two major reasons that I think the electoral priority won. People were riding the high of winning the progressive slate for the NV Dem Party. Some members organized to specifically have this priority win. Some members were told that if we selected this priority we could endorse a particular candidate. Not true! As we have an endorsement process. Some work had to wait until redistricting was done. We researched members who could be potential candidates and reached out to members. Five members wanted to run but 4 of 5 wanted to wait until next cycle. Shaun explored a run but will wait until next cycle. Looked at zip codes of the member lists. Also coordinated the details of how we conduct our endorsement town halls. We had four people apply for our endorsement. Two didn’t qualify because they wouldn’t identify as democratic socialists. One dropped out, Shaun N. One did not participate in our town hall.
  • Anthony: Roy became the sole steward and then we researched the voter guide. Meetings every week. Research wasn’t engaging enough to keep people coming to meetings. A few people helped with the voter guide extensively: Tiffany, Minnie, Rahman, and Farrah. Put together reports on every candidate.Sent out survey to members to nail down criteria: no police funding or endorsements; no money from harmful industries; no history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions or harmful positions on any vulnerable groups; no recommendation if no semblance of a campaign. 90% of members surveyed agreed with the criteria. 7 members wanted changes in the voter guide. SC voted to approve it due to timing. It has been viewed over 1,700 times.
  • Anthony: We have good opportunities to win seats in East LV and NLV. Also good opportunities to win city council seats in NLV. We need member candidates. We have four LVDSA members running for office but only one identifies as such. We need to help candidates prepare at least one year in advance. We won’t outraise the opponent, so we must run candidates who people are willing to volunteer for. There aren’t enough qualified campaign staff in Nevada. We are seen as a stable and credible org in local politics but most of our non-profit partners will not support a candidate of ours in a primary race. It’s a hard truth.
  • Anthony: Strategic campaigns should have a clear, achievable goal. This campaign didn’t have that. Priority campaigns should have leaders willing to step up and shouldn’t be continued if they don’t. We should continue electoral work but it should be in the form of a caucus
  • Brian: Q – Who were the candidates who didn’t want to identify as democratic socialists? Anthony – A – Jesse Addison III (see voter guide for more details), Jovan Jackson
  • Shane R:  Q –  Any plans to distribute it through virtual means like textbanking? A – No plans at this time. We budgeted to print and we didn’t print anything. If you want to do a text bank, we can do that too. I’ll follow-up with Shane.
• Voter Guide
  • On May 27th, the SC passed the voter guide with ⅔ using the stipulation on urgent matters. 7 in favor, 2 opposed, 1 abstention. A few edits were made – Amy V line added. Adjustments to sheriffs. They’re all horrible. Recommended Karl Catarata and Hieu Le to for Regents. Changed to “no recommendation” for Deborah Westbrook because of boosting her police endorsements. We added a bunch of races that we missed: judges, Public Administrator. The voter guide  must be ratified by the general body. Asking to agree to 1) That the content of the voter guide is released on the website and represents the will of the members  2) that the SC can make grammatical changes 3) that if factual changes are made we can adjust them 4) If a candidate requests that we don’t include them, we can change to “No Recommendation.” Questions?
  • Mercedes: Can you send an email if changes are made? Anthony: Yes
• Motion to ratify the voter guide: 34 in favor, 2 opposed, 13 abstentions, motion carries.
• Upcoming 2nd Annual Local Convention
  • Our 2nd Annual Local Convention is next month, July 9th here at The Nunnery! At our Local Convention we will elect a new Steering Committee, vote on new priority campaigns, and deliberate any other resolutions that members bring forward.
  • To be eligible to vote or present resolutions at the Local Convention, you must be a member in good standing for 30 days. This means that you must check that your dues are up to date by June 9th. A dues waiver is available to anyone who needs it. If you are unsure about your membership status, email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com.
  • Shaun – Q: Can we do a bylaw amendment at convention? A: Yes. Only needs to be passed once at convention. Write it and have 10 member-signers.
• Call for Steering Committee Nominations
  • As mentioned, during our local convention, we will elect a new Steering Committee. Per our bylaws, the Steering Committee will be comprised of 11 voting members of LVDSA containing no more than six cis-men and containing at least three people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
  • Nominations will be open until June 20th. Candidates will need to accept their nomination and must receive at least five nominations (excluding self-nominations) to be included on the ballot.
  • Candidates who receive the required number of nominations will be asked to answer a candidate questionnaire and participate in one of two Steering Committee Town Halls, on June 23rd and 29th, to answer member-submitted questions.
  • The questionnaire responses as well as recordings of the town halls will be distributed to members ahead of the election to help them make their decision.
  • All of this information will also be emailed to members in the next few days.
• Discussions: Future Priority Campaigns
  • Priority campaigns are where the chapter intends on focusing its resources and efforts. We can have up to 3, and they can run for up to 12 months. All priority campaigns should have a specific goal, specific actions to achieve that goal, and a specific timeline with an easily identifiable endpoint.
  • To help members brainstorm for future priority campaigns, we released a survey and held two brainstorming sessions. Here are some of the popular ideas that have been discussed:
    • Canvassing for the Culinary Union’s Neighborhood Stability ballot measure, in addition to continuing to distribute information to tenants about their rights and how to fight evictions
    • Many environmental-related demands, such as efforts to fight sprawl, expand renewable energy, reduce heat islands, or conserve water
    • A campaign to defund police and fund specific services; this could be calls to fund 988 or other hotlines that send mental health responders, not cops, or  calls to defund CCSD police and use the funds for services for students
    • A ballot measure for a mining dividend
    • Organizing a socialist presence on college campuses
    • Calling for legislation to expand Medicaid coverage to include abortion and expanding abortion providers to include nurse practitioners
  • All resolutions must be written and supported by at least 5 members in order to be presented. Resolutions must be submitted no later than June 25th to be considered.
  • To help you with this process, we’ve compiled some guides and resources. The link is being added to the Zoom chat now, and members can also access it by looking at the agenda that we emailed for this meeting. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mmhf-bNmBMRIk5SM7FHz_pBbW2-fZnZg?usp=sharing
  • With this in mind, we would like to help members gather together to work on these priority proposals.
    •  Housing
    • Environmental demands
    • Defund and abolition of the carceral state
    • Abortion access
    • Consent/Protection of Inidigenous Lands
    • Names are gathered in the room and on zoom for people who are interested in working on priority campaigns
    • Any member can email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com or contact Angel Lazcano if they would like to set up a meeting with the chapter Zoom account.
• Guest Presenter – Paul C – Culinary Union, Head of Political Department
  • I grew up in NLV. My Dad is in culinary. Having union insurance was really important to me.
  • Working on a ballot measure in NLV to cap rent increases. Tied to inflation. Will be on the ballot in November.
  • Don’t need help with gathering signatures.
  • We will need help getting this thing to win!
  • 20% of our members said they got a $500 rent increase. To deliver benefits for our workers, we need to work on housing.
  • After we win, we’re going to pass it at the County and in the other cities.
  • It will likely be challenged in court because of Dillon’s rule. We’re confident that we’ll prevail. We think localities can already do this under the current law.
  • NV has basically no tenants’ protections
  • We will need help in the fall. We will have a ton of opposition.
  • We have a team of 40 working-class people out in the community working on this. Three housekeepers, a baker and a cook are leading this effort.
  • Paul’s work number: [REDACTED – email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com to be put in touch]
  • Exempt if you own one unit, fourplex if you live in it, exempted new buildings for the first 15 years. We don’t want to stop new housing because we need affordable housing units.
  • People are very excited! Coming out of their doors to ask to sign the petition during canvasses.
  • Hiring people too! Let Paul know if interested in a full-time gig until November.
• Upcoming Events
  • Find all the events by visiting https://lvdsa.org/events
  • Notable events include:
    • A chapter reflection meeting on Monday June 6th at 7pm on Zoom; led by Paul John, this will be a space for members to reflect on the last year and share any feedback that they have about their experiences in the chapter
    • Socialist Feminist Section’s book club every Tuesday at 8pm on Zoom, where they will be reading Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now by Jenny Brown
    • Socialist Night School on The History of Abortion on Thursday June 9th at 7pm on Zoom
• Open Comment
  • Aimee: Please support the Wild West Access Fund. Or our Fund-a-thon for them. Pregnant people are in great need: have children already, mental health issues, out of state. The need is really great.
  • Shaun: We crushed our first $6500 Abortion Fund-a-thon goal. We are nearing our second goal of $10,000. We are at about $8,700. We also have a huge demand for tents for Sunday Solidarity.  We give about 8-12 tents per month.
  • Anthony – Thank you to the Sisters for space, set-up. Thank you Tiffany/Josh for selling merch. Minnie is taking notes. Mike is taking stack. Casey is running our camera. I hope you all agree that our first hybrid meeting went great!!!
• Meeting is adjourned at 8:47pm