Agenda

All times are approximate

Meeting Minutes

Chair: Anthony

Notetaker: Minnie

Opening music–chosen by Anthony–is Rise Against. Several members are rising against this choice.

Called to order at 7:11pm

Community agreements reviewed

Adoption of agenda

• Anthony moves to strike SC updates and make part of open comment period. Jakub seconds. No opposition.
• Rahima motions to adopt, Sarah L. seconds. No opposition. Agenda is adopted.

Adoption of October minutes (Rahima motions, seconded by Gordon). Minutes adopted.

Land acknowledgment

• Associated action: https://www.stopline3.org/take-action
• Venmo for the Water Protectors at camp is @CampMigizi

Treasurer’s Report – Anthony

• $13,225.46 in America First credit union. $100 in Venmo. Up about $4k from end of September.

Upcoming Social Events – Rahima

• Comrade Cookout, Sunday November 7th from 12-2pm at Bruce Trent Park. Video of the park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymnBs1s95xM.
• Sign up link: https://lvdsa.org/events/comrade-cookout-2021-11-07/
• You can bring food, outdoor games, blankets, chairs, etc.
• Pets are welcome but make sure they are comfortable around strangers.

Housing Justice Priority Campaign Update – Angel

• Have been canvassing properties of Progress Residential. Hit about 100 houses. Talking with tenants about the raise in fees, rent, ignoring repairs. Rent raised from $200-$300 per month. Increasing repair fee
• Connecting with tenants during lit drop with resources to prevent eviction.
• 2nd and 4th weekend of every month. Next one is November 13th. We need all hands on deck. Sign up here: https://lvdsa.org/events/eviction-defense-canvass-2021-11-13/
• We want to hit all 1,000 properties. We provide a script, training. Easy, natural conversations.
• Housing Justice meetings are the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Next one is 11/9. Sign up here: https://lvdsa.org/events/housing-justice-campaign-meeting-2021-11-09/
• Coalition work
  • We participated in a roundtable with community partners with Gov. Sisolak’s office. Thanks to Ahmad for speaking and sharing his experience with Vice Realty. Powerful event with lots of good connections made.
  • We’ll be helping Make it Work by working with parents from a school called NV Prep because it’s a hot spot for eviction. Sign up here: https://airtable.com/shr0CHChd4zAjXHnc
  • Klaire has stepped down as co-steward for personal reasons. We need a second co-steward to assist, especially with helping out with the research stuff. Reach out to Angel at angelglazcano15@gmail.com if you’re interested in helping out.
  • Donate to Venmo @LasVegas-DSA-2 with Housing Justice in the memo.

Electoral Research and Recruitment Priority Campaign Update – Anthony

• Elections across the nation this week. 26 out of 38 DSA endorsed candidates and ballot measures won!! Almost all were city council races. Richie Floyd in FL. Several ballot measures related to rent control/housing justice. Lots of lessons to take away as we strategize our best path to success.
• Electoral Priority overview and the direction of the campaign
• Currently discussing opportunities with DSA members who are potential candidates. Meeting with three potential candidates.
• Once a candidate applies for endorsement, we need members’ help to do some research on the candidates. This is the form we use for research. We use this to inform the general body and make recommendations.
• Meeting this Saturday to do some of this work. Sign up here: https://lvdsa.org/events/electoral-priority-meeting-2021-11-06/ or let us know in the slack that you can help.
• Amy Vilela has applied for endorsement. She is running for Congress. We will have a town hall with her in December based on the availability of the campaign and then an endorsement vote  after that.
• Electoral campaign kick off to our email list/social media. When should be the kickoff? We’ll discuss this weekend. Come to the meeting!
• Future training to help members understand the logistics for running for office to encourage recruitment of candidates.
• Q  from Tony, are there other applications for endorsement besides Amy? Anthony: No, not right now. We are discussing three potential other candidates’ races now for potential seats in State assembly, North LV City Council, LV City Council seat may wind up being assembly.
• Kris: Amy Vilela campaign signaled availability in late September. It will be four months if we go to mid December and vote in January. Anthony checks if misspoke. Kris: If campaign is available for earlier, can we do it then? Anthony: of course.
• Jeff M: What were some previous endorsements that we’ve done? Do only socialists get endorsed? Anthony: we have endorsement criteria. In the past, Anna Albertson – judicial seat, Erika Ballou – district court seat, Lola Brooks – school board, Rhadika Khunel – did not win her race. We also did a voter guide for primary and the general.  Candidates do have to be DSA members to get our endorsement.

Mutual and Community Aid Priority Update – Justin and Brendan

• Mutual Aid priority – Finally released the mutual aid request and offer form! https://airtable.com/shr6Yv63jYrvJ2NvI Please use this form to notify us of requests and offers of mutual aid. Mutual aid priority is focused on internal aid to members within LVDSA. We can connec t members with other members who can help.
• Community aid priority – Aid to over 395 people since we passed the resolution! Most aid given at our last Sunday Solidarity event. Last week on 10/26 we reached out to Henderson for a mini Sunday Solidarity event. 5 comrades attended. Provided aid to 45 people at our first event in Henderson. Photo: ​​https://www.instagram.com/p/CVg8ShaFHnO/ Friends of the desert is who we worked with: https://www.friendsinthedesert.org/. Next community aid meeting is 11/10 https://lvdsa.org/events/community-aid-meeting-2021-11-10/. Sunday Solidarity is in historic westside of LV to provide food, clothing, hygiene items, warm weather items for our houseless community. Sunday solidarity is last Sunday of the month: https://lvdsa.org/events/sunday-solidarity/. Now must register in advance.
• Holiday Solidarity planning is happening every couple of weeks. If you have ideas and want to volunteer. Shoutout to Sarah for stepping up! Next meeting is 11/9 https://lvdsa.org/events/holiday-solidarity-planning-meeting-2021-11-09/

Holiday Solidarity Phonebanks – Brendan

• Second round of phonebanks to engage with LVDSA members to see if they want to volunteer to help with Holiday Solidarity on 11/20 or if they want to request a holiday meal. First one is 11/8 at 6pm. Sign up here: https://lvdsa.org/events/lvdsa-phone-bank-2021-11-10/

Coalition Corner – Shaun

• This past Saturday, Las Vegas Animal Save Halloween event. We tabled there. Shoutout to Paul John and Lorenizta for tabling.
• Nevada Housing Justice alliance event already described by Angel.
• Talking about education events with Sierra Club – if you’re interested in doing events around GND, let us know and we’ll get you connected!
• Awful coyote killing events. We’ll be signing on to a letter to ban these.
• This Saturday, Masjid As-Sabur mosque is having their mutual aid event Day of Dignity
• Outside all week supporting our comrades on immigration asking for a pathway to citizenship. Call your congressperson now! https://plana.salsalabs.org/20211103immigrationreconciliationclicktocall/index.html

Mental Health Crisis Procedures Resolution

• Brendan motions to adopt the resolution. Malcolm seconds. This resolution and procedures mean a lot to someone like me. I’ve dealt with a lot of mental illness before. I still live with it and I’m autistic as well. Mental health has played a huge part in my life. When I first joined LVDSA I was a really shy person. You often feel like you can’t speak about it to others. And our society has stigma around mental health. It means a lot to me that the leaders of our chapter are thinking about people like us who have harmed themselves. The resolution provides a list of phone numbers, procedures to go through. We can’t provide direct help but I hope this is passed so that our comrades can support each other.
• No opposition noted.
• Malcolm: We’ve been working on this resolution for a few weeks now. Started out with a question of how to deal with a situation when a member is going through something. We don’t want our members to be in danger so we want to give them resources, talk it through and find out what’s good for them. I’m also a psychology student at CSN so I understand these issues very well. We need to pass this!
• Sarah: Q, want to know what the process might be for adding to this list. Especially because of AA because some people are turned off by the God focus. Anthony: can propose an amendment today or introduce another resolution. Sarah: I’m not opposed at all.
• James A: Include the question “Are you considering hurting yourself or others?” Brendan: want to include harm reduction. Don’t want to involve the police if not needed. Don’t want to endanger someone. James A: I may be looking at this from the position of emergency response. Anthony: there was a member who was experiencing a mental  health crisis. We’re not equipped to handle a mental health crisis from a medical or professional capacity. Just want to encourage members to offer resources. We simply can’t do it all and we’re not trained to do it all. Gordon: Call the question.
• Motion passes

Membership in UMOK Resolution

• Shaun motions to adopt the resolution. Hosted our Back to School Solidarity event. Across from Nuwu on Main Street. Want to  join as a member. Slam dunk they have a great space, assist with houseless community.
• Tony asks about their politics. Replies include info about current members and users including Food Not Bombs, Fifth Sun Project and New Leaf.
• Anthony calls the question.
• Motion passes

Upcoming Events – listed above in agenda

Open Comment Period 

• Travis – HGOs will do a restorative and transformative justice training. Harm reduction and different ways to reduce harm in the organizations as well as introduce themselves as HGOs and the work they do. This will be the first of a three part series on 11/11. How we can improve how we interact with each other in the chapter: https://lvdsa.org/events/intro-to-transformative-and-restorative-justice-2021-11-11/
• Shaun – Wild West Access Fund – the only abortion access fund in NV. Raised $12k in the last month. They are looking for volunteers to drive callers to abortion appoitnemtns. https://www.wildwestfund.org/volunteer/
• Brendan – Community aid priority wants to work on a Brake Light Clinic. Super excited to plan our first one for January/February. We’ve been looking at the work that other chapters have been doing. Brake Light Clinic clinic if you want to learn more: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/dsa-mutual-aid-working-group-training-series
• Lorenzita – Since September I’ve been doing Pokemon Go park cleanups! This Saturday Lewis Family Park on the east side. Come get a Pokemon sticker. Sign up! https://www.mobilize.us/oneapianevada/event/421661/
• Shaun – does a ridiculous  impersonation of Tick Segerbloom

Adjourned at 8:30pm