Agenda

Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Minnie, Tiffany, Anthony, Aimee, Jesser, Paul John, Shaun, Jackie, Alvin, Lorenzita, guest: Andrew L
Notetaker: Minnie

• 7:04 – Call to Order
  • Review Steering Committee rules
• 7:07 – Motion to adopt agenda Tiffany, seconded by Alvin, no opposition
• 7:08 – Shaun motions to adopt the last meetings minutes, Alvin seconds
• 7:09 – Review of Previous SC Meeting Action Items
  • Aimee is working on 501(c)4 filing. Has what she needs from Tiffany.
  • Everyone is supposed to complete 1-2 sentences about their portfolio for general meeting. We will discuss later in the agenda.
  • Anthony finalized general body agenda and send to membership
  • Aimee notified mutual aid stewards, Anthony notified electoral stewards. All accepted their appointments.
  • Anthony reached out to HGOs and worked on resolutions. Here for our review today before going before the general body for vote tomorrow.
  • Tiffany set up standing SC meetings and general body meetings  on zoom
  • Minnie reached out to Garrick to reschedule standing field organizer meeting
• 7:10 – Resolution to Address Code of Conduct Violations and Political/Interpersonal Conflict
  • Must be presented to general body tomorrow for their vote
  • Tiffany – question about ⅔ vote needed at two consecutive general body meetings. This is the process used to amend the bylaws. Would this be better in the bylaws?
  • Anthony – this was intentional. If accepted, this would have a higher threshold than other resolutions. Was already written in the sample that was provided.
  • Floor opened for any proposals to change. None are received.
  • Anthony reviews the provisions of the proposal – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jnRDq5nxzZs-M3dOhopKvulD6tdsHfzRPmfgqcB3QKE/edit
  • Minnie suggests that we modify the language about training  to keep in mind that the National Grievance Committee may take awhile to get up and running.  There is no objection to this.
  • Shaun asks about how many Harassment and Grievance Assistants (HGAs) the HGOs would like to have. Anthony says the HGOs would like as much help as they can get. There is no minimum or maximum in the resolution.
  • Tiffany moves for “x days” for SC response to be 7 days, Minnie seconds. Discussion: Anthony says that this may be long for a SC member. Tiffany says that the SC member with a grievance would be recusing themselves from the process. Alvin emphasizes that it could be sooner–even within 24 hours–but the 7 days could be max. There is unanimous agreement for 7 days.
  • Anthony asks how many days the SC should have to inform the HGOs of how they will proceed. Jackie suggests one day. The language is unclear. Anthony will make it clear. Jackie motions for  7 days, Tiffany seconds. 7 days passes unanimously. Tiffany motions, Shaun seconds, that we change 5 to 7 days for HGOs to inform the grievance filer. Passes with unanimous consent.
  • Tiffany comments what if people don’t know that they have to report a grievance against an HGO to the SC? Is this punitive? Anthony asks if we all have access to a SC committee email? Tiffany says no but we could.
  •  Anthony motions to amend the resolution to establish a dedicated steering committee email for any grievances filed against an HGO. Anthony’s motion fails. Jackie instead proposes that a member would approach a SC member directly. Anthony says it’s important to have it in writing. Tiffany says it could be the main chapter email. Only SC members have access to this email. Aimee mentions that we should have a grievance correspondence folder in the general google drive. Tiffany agrees. Jackie motions to include “or email/in writing to an individual SC member.” Shaun seconds.  No objection to the revised language.
  • Alvin motions to amend the language to include that SC and non-involved HGOs will follow the timeline and processes as outlined above. Anthony seconds. No objections.
  • Tiffany – how would HGOs notify the general body if the SC is derelict in its duties? They don’t have access to the general membership. Slack can’t fulfill the requirements of notification. Anthony says that if things got really bad, they could use slack or any methods that they wanted to.
  • Jackie – wouldn’t the national grievance process be involved if the SC failed to do its job? Anthony agrees but says HGOs don’t want it to be discreet, want it to be advertised widely in this circumstance.
  • Alvin – “then HGOs have the right to notify national DSA”
  • Minnie – but the national body has not always resolved these issues. Thinks that HGOs would like to have a voice and be able to notify people locally if national doesn’t do anything.
  • Tiffany – concerned about the ⅔ vote. The resolution will pass through a lower threshold and then be harder to overturn. Would rather see an amendment added to our bylaws that the grievance process needs to be amended through ⅔ vote. Jackie seconds. Anthony suggests that we just let the membership decide tomorrow. Minnie says that they haven’t seen the resolution yet and it doesn’t seem like a good process. Anthony calls the question. The motion is to remove the paragraph that outlines this process. Motion passes 9-1.
• 7:58 – Relevant Convention Updates
  • Shaun – recommend Eshaan may talk about IC updates
  • Tiffany – resolution passed that would allow chapters to request matching funds to get office space and hire staff
  • Shaun – motions, Jackie seconds that we move on and just determine what gets talked about at general meeting.
• 8:01 – General Meeting Script & Facilitation Assignments
  • General meeting roles are discussed and assigned here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ngty7FNuEB9LHSp9Abug896RxdeVHWFA4_nzOt1xSi0/edit
  • Jackie recommends that the meeting be called to order by a BIPOC SC member. Jesser nominates Paul John, who accepts.
  • Tiffany motions that we have resolutions with 3 v 3 and  with 2 minute limits, Jackie seconds. Anthony votes to amend to set a time limit for debate instead of a limit  for speakers. Anthony’s amendment/motion fails. No opposition to adopting by unanimous consent.
  • Jackie suggests that as part of the welcome we introduce people to Robert’s Rules and how we do this.
• 9:46 – Minnie motions to table Expectations of Working Groups/Priority Meetings. Seconded by Paul John and passes with unanimous content.
• 9:48 – Tiffany motions to table all remaining items. Paul John seconds. Motion fails.
• 9:50 – Jackie would like YDSA recruitment to be part of the general meeting. Tiffany says we can’t really recruit unless we know who is running the YDSA chapter. Jesser resigned as co-chair and Michelle T remains as the point of contact. They usually do their election in the fall. Agreed that Jackie will say a goal of member engagement will be to strengthen the connection to YDSA.
• 9:53 – Move to table Releasing SC Election Result Totals by Minnie. Tiffany seconds. Passes 7 to 3.
• 9:54 – Tiffany moves that we put the SC Election Result Totals item at the top of the agenda for the next meeting. Motion passes.
• 9:54 – Propose Agenda Items for Next Meeting –Tabled and will be discussed in Slack.
• 9:55 – Tiffany moves to adjourn.