Agenda (All times are approximate)

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Meeting Minutes

Chair: Skyler S.

Secretary: Sarah L.

1. Community Agreements – Sean Y.
2. Land Acknowledgement – Sean Y.
3. Call to order 7:08 PM
4. Nevada Legislative Session Training – KPop themed! – by Lorenzita S.
   1. NELIS is the website for tracking all the bills
   2. NV has three branches of government: executive, judiciary, legislative
   3. Every two years our legislators (NV Assembly and Senate) meet to go over budget and potential bills. Next legislative session starts Monday! Feb 6 – Jun 5, 2023
   4. A bill starts as a Bill Draft Request, then becomes a bill in one of the houses (Assembly or Senate), goes for amendments, then to the other house, if passes it goes to governor for approval
   5. To get a bill passed you have to talk to someone in the relevant committee. If you talk to someone outside the committee it is not the best use of time.
   6. A bill doesn’t get a hearing (where legislators actually vote on it) unless the people sponsoring it know it will get enough votes. Otherwise they make sure the bill doesn’t get heard because losing is embarrassing.
   7. Currently Governor is Lombardo, so a lot of things might not pass. When it comes to them, the Governor can approve, let it pass without approving, or veto.
   8. Currently Democrats have a supermajority in the Assembly and a majority in the Senate
   9. Ways and Means Committee controls the budget. Anything going through needs a supermajority (two-thirds) to pass.
   10. LCB = Legislative Counsel Bureau. A non-partisan entity that makes the legislature happen.
   11. If you have any questions about terminology, Lorenzita is a resource!
   12. How to give your opinion on legislation
       1. Email in testimony
       2. Testify during a hearing – can be difficult to know when things are being heard
       3. Submit your opinion on NELIS (legislators pay attention to how many people are for or against)
       4. Start by working on your elevator speech – short version of who you are, what you care about, why it matters to you
   13. What is lobbying? In general, influencing legislators. But if you are trying to influence your own legislator it does not count as “lobbying” in a legal sense.
5. Abolition & Community Safety Priority Update – Ephraim Z.
   1. We will be working with NV Leg Priority to rally resistance against any increases in police budget
   2. Priority meeting Weds Feb 15 at 7:00 PM
   3. Reading group is ongoing, we are studying authors such as Angela Davis. Next session 
6. NV Legislative Priority Update – Val T.
   1. We have our first event in the works – we will be hosting a kickoff for the opening day of leg session at the NV Dems office, likely in partnership. we’ll be hashing out the details tomorrow 
   2. We have looked through every Assembly Bill available & most Senate bills, and each one has been summarized in a tracker 
   3. We will be supporting Lisa Ortega’s tree bill, which is still a BDR. We also chose a few other bills, including baby bonds, healthcare worker loan forgiveness, and Juneteenth as a federal holiday. No other bills are for sure until we have a full list to work with.
   4. We held a story training on zoom where I gave out resources on how to tell a good story to lawmakers/the public and I plan to integrate story telling trainings throughout all of our events. We also sent out a survey to collect stories and so far all of the stories that we’ve received have identified housing as their main issue 
   5. The Grad student stipend has been adopted by Joe Lombardo, and the union drive at UNLV has apparently 1700 potential grad students 
   6. To summarize what we have in the works – we will be hosting our first kickoff phonebank, we will be sending out emails & calls for the tree bill to the natural resources committee
   7. We are continuing to work in coalition with NV Dems
7. Member Engagement Working Group Update – Skyler S.
   1. MEWG meeting coming up! We will discuss membership drive, plan monthly socials, and talk about how to get and keep people involved
   2. New Member Orientation Thursday, February 9
      1. Great for new members or anyone who has never attended
   3. Board Game Social at Meepleville will take place Saturday, February 18
8. Mutual Aid Working Group Update – Justin N.
   1. Meeting will discuss adding any events in addition to our monthly Sunday Solidarity. If you have ideas for mutual aid please come to the priority meeting Wednesday 2/8!
   2. Sunday Solidarity February 26. Event link, wish list, and most needed items: https://lvdsa.org/events/sunday-solidarity/
9. Socialist Night School on Anti-Colonial Struggles – Sean Y.
   1. Every month we have a night school related to socialism. This month is on decolonization and how peoples have been able to gain their independence. Tuesday, February 28
   2. We will have some other events where we read and discuss a paper but they aren’t on the calendar yet, stay tuned.
10. General Body Meeting – Skyler S.
    1. These are our monthly business meetings. Everything in our chapter is done democratically by members. If there’s something you want to do or see happen, contact Steering Committee and we will help you organize it.
    2. Next GBM Thursday, March 2, currently being planned as a hybrid meeting.
11. Steering Committee Special Election – Ash M.
    1. There were two members nominated and accepted nomination: Tyler C., Kara H.
    2. Candidate introductions (two minutes each)
    3. Question & answer with candidates
    4. Ballot link distributed. Attendees have one hour to vote electronically.
12. Open Comment
    1. Austin K.: Nevadans for Palestinean Liberation held a vigil earlier today, asked UNLV to divest from Israeli government, they claim UNLV cybersecurity is connected to Israel. They are hosing a movie night later this month. If interested follow in Instagram @NPL_UNLV or visit www.lajee.org or email info@lajee.org. You can also sign up for your Amazon Smile charity to be Playgrounds for Palestine.
13. Meeting adjourned at 8:07 PM