Agenda

Times are approximate and subject to change at the Chair’s discretion.

Meeting Minutes

Chair: Anthony L.
Notetaker: Tiffany S.

• Called to order at 7:08
  • Minnie motions to adopt the agenda, Angel seconds, none opposed. Agenda is adopted at 7:12
  • Minnie motions to adopt last meeting’s minutes, Angel seconds. None opposed. Meeting minutes are adopted at 7:13
  • Review last meeting’s action items
• Storage Unit
  • Minnie: Anthony and Minnie visited units, agreed that we need at least a 7×10. Many of the units available do not meet all of our criteria. Units are constantly turning over, Minnie’s suggestion is to keep checking until something that meets our criteria becomes available.
  • Anthony: So if we want something now we can’t have everything in our criteria
    • Minnie: Correct. There is a unit that might work but it is on the second floor. There is elevator access.
      • Tiffany and Natasha agree that 1st floor is less important if there is elevator access
  • Aimee: We need to be mindful of accessibility and gas prices. Would like the location to be close to where we usually hold events.
  • Minnie: If the general consensus is that Charleston/Jones is not too far, that is probably the best bet.
  • Natasha: Both charleston/jones and okey/decatur are close to highway access so they should be easy to access. We can also get a foldable dolly for $50
  • Minnie: In order of priority, Minnie will look into acquiring the unit on charleston/jones, and if that is unavailable she will look at the one on decatur.
• Convention Venue Update
  • Anthony: Visiting the West Charleston Library to look for a convention venue. Talked about logistics regarding tech – they have not done anything on the scale that we would need. They are willing to try it. The difficulty is related to audio. Will keep Anthony in the loop and will get Anthony to come in and test it.
  • Tiffany: We had someone volunteer to handle tech for the June hybrid meeting – could we have that person help with tech instead?
    • Anthony: We cannot do that if we use their equipment we need to use their tech people
  • Minnie: Did we look at any coworking spaces? They might have better tech on hand
    • Anthony: Only looked at library spaces so far.
  • Anthony: There is a gallery in front of the lecture hall doors, we will be allowed to serve refreshments in that area. We can also sell merch. There is a ramp to get up to the stage as well as stairs, a side door, drop down screen.
• June General Meeting Venue
  • Anthony: Reached out to Victoria to see if she could work on that, Victoria said she would look into it. There was a suggestion of SEIU, not sure if anyone reached out to SEIU.
  • Minnie: Kara suggested SEIU, will reach out to see if we know someone there.
  • Angel: Asked Jackie but she is national staff so she doesn’t have the ability to ask for that.
  • Anthony: We can also look at professional venue spaces which might cost more.
  • Who will bottom line this task?
    • Anthony will look at professional venue spaces
• Treasurer’s Report
  • In the drive
• Priority Brainstorm Sessions
  • Anthony: Virtual one on Thursday, in person on Saturday.
  • Minnie: Would be happy to facilitate additional brainstorming sessions – maybe we can establish a framework for them so they’re easy for others to facilitate
  • Aimee: Suggests that we also post on our social and Slack to invite feedback on certain topics, try to get folks to want to participate more and help them feel empowered
    • Anthony: Has set up a spoke campaign about the brainstorming sessions, will also send a weekly email to update members on upcoming sessions
    • Minnie: Suggests an email that says something like “SC picked next year’s priorities… just kidding! That’s up to the members” to really emphasize that the power is in their hands
    • Aimee: Members may not really understand what priorities are, may need to do some education about how the chapter is structured
      • Natasha: Suggests IG infographics
    • Mike: Agrees, messaging should include some information about what priorities are, what convention will be like.
• Year-End Debrief Event
  • PJC: With a lot of the social events and brainstorming events we have planned, thought that it would be good to have a space for members to share what their experiences have been the past year, things they enjoyed and hope to continue on as well as things they did not enjoy and hope to see change. Feels like we had our own SC conversation that allowed us to express a lot of things, gave us a chance to know each other better and brought us together. Would be nice to have that together as a chapter. Could be called a debrief, end of the year talk, whatever we want to call it. Ideally before the end of our terms.
    • Anthony: Likes the idea, wants it to happen. If it feels like a social event with space for thoughtful reflection it might enable more open discussion. Not sure about calling it year-end because it might not be obvious to everyone. Who do you think would come to this event? Will it end up with just the 8 usual suspects?
    • PJC: Feels that the language of it is important. Should not feel like a meeting, should feel like anything can be talked about. An opportunity for everyone to share what they feel.
  • PJC will host and start thinking about format and how to present it to members
• Merch Update
  • Tiffany: Sold almost $500 of merch so far. Sold as much as Springtime Solidarity as we do with a month of online sales, so looking for more opportunities to sell in-person. Kara is able to make us some merch with her cricut machine. Tiffany can start taking suggestions if people have any.
    • Aimee likes the tax the rich themed items, and very simple phrases like that, also loves fanny packs and keychains
  • Tiffany would like us to purchase two flags and a banner, showed some sample designs
    • Anthony likes the idea of getting more banners, but didn’t like the ring around the logo
      • Many other members liked the ring, but Tiffany will post a few design options in the Slack for further discussion
• Abortion Rights Actions
  • Tiffany is working with WWAF,
  • Wanted to check with SC if we feel comfortable with Soc Fem taking the lead on certain actions
    • Minnie would like this because it helps ease our capacity, plus Tiffany and Minnie are active in Soc Fem
    • Anthony is not worried about this specific group or actions, but would like to use this opportunity to set a precedent for how we maintain oversight, accountability, and communication with our sections/caucuses
    • Minnie sees the value in this in the future, but worries about how cumbersome this might come from a process perspective, asks if we feel the need to approve every action they want to take
    • Anthony clarified that he’s not intending for SC to approve every action, but to approve broad scope of work that the section can take the lead on, for example letting Soc Fem lead on all abortion rights/access events and messaging. Anthony also points out that the bylaws seem to say that the sections/caucus can do whatever they want, unless SC finds an issue. But if we want to say that they can have the power to plan actions and events and write our messaging as the chapter, then we need member approval or an urgent vote to allow that.
      • Questions and discussion from Mike, Paul John, Minnie, Tiffany, Anthony
    • Tiffany proposed motion “Motion to allow the Socialist Feminist Section to take on a Defend Abortion Rights campaign with a variety of tactics. Anything that requires expenses will be brought to the Steering Committee for individual votes.”
      • After discussion, retracted the motion
    • Paul John likes that Soc Fem wants to lead and wants more of that to happen from other members, appreciates these actions, expresses appreciation to Tiffany for bringing this forward, and he would like to see this pass
  • Tiffany points out that the SC has the ability to create a new campaign
    • Anthony agrees, points out that this mechanism would be a little different than allowing a section to control a chapter-wide campaign, which he believes would need to be a chapter vote or urgent vote that is ratified later
    • Minnie points out that we need to simplify this explanation though so we can make it more understandable to members in the future
    • Aimee says that this is complex and is continuing to think on it and consider future implications
• Meeting with Tick
  • Anthony: Tick has made some statements lately with very aggressive language towards houseless people. The electoral group would still like to be able to recommend him in the voter guide so electoral has set a meeting with Tick to ask questions to be able to use that to inform our voter guide recommendation. Anyone is welcome to attend.
    • Minnie: Would like to know if there is anything at the county level that we could work with him on – like rent control or moving police money into mental health services. Also suggests asking to meet with him regularly
  • PJC: Had not seen those comments about unhoused people, but does not have any tolerance for those kinds of comments. Sick and tired of wasting time, energy, and resources on folks like Tick just to try and compromise on a few things to work with them. Needs to be a fearless approach at this meeting.
    • Mike: We have to be clear that anything that involves increasing interactions with the police is not something we support.
    • Tiffany: Thinks Tick’s comments about houseless folks were completely disgusting and does not want to see him recommended unless he’s willing to publicly apologize for it. Believes he crossed a line and does not want to be associated with him if he’s going to speak like that.
• Open Comment
  • Minnie: We need to start really focusing on convention. Do we have a target date
    • Anthony: July 9th
    • Minnie: A group of us should start working on convention planning.
  • Tiffany: Family in town, will be slow at responding to messages for the next week
  • Aimee: Put a pause on starting to AfroSoc section and instead will be engaging more with national AfroSoc
• Adjourned at 9:23