Steering Committee Meeting

August 2, 2021

Steering Committee Meeting

Agenda

7:00 Call to Order

Sign in link distributed

Review Steering Committee meeting rules

Confirm notetaker

Adoption of agenda

Adoption of last meeting’s minutes

7:05 Thacker Pass Update

Shaun will provide an update regarding Thacker Pass

7:10 Review of Previous SC Meeting Action Items
7:15 Review Harassment & Grievance Officer Candidates

Review candidates and vote to appoint

7:30 Continue Discussion of Priority Campaign Stewards

Electoral Priority has no Stewards, Mutual Aid has one Steward

7:45 Determine Process for Reassessing and Reassigning Portfolios

Discuss proposal and approve a process

7:55 Resolution to Address Code of Conduct Violations and Political/Interpersonal Conflict

Article 10 of Bylaws for reference

Discuss proposal and approve a process

8:15 Financial Resolution

Discuss proposal and approve a process

8:20 Proposal for SC Special Election

Article 4.2 of Bylaws for reference

Discuss proposal and approve a process

8:25 General Body Agenda & Facilitation

Determine agenda and facilitation roles

8:45 Proposal for SC Forums

Discuss proposal for regularly scheduled forums between SC and general body

8:50 Proposal for Standing SC Meetings

Discuss and vote to approve a standing SC meeting time

8:55 Propose Agenda Items for Next Meeting

Minutes

  • 7:03 – Call to Order
    • Review Steering Committee rules
  • 7:04 – Alvin motion to adopt agenda, minnie second, no opposition
  • 7:05 – Anthony motions to amend the last meetings minutes, Alvin seconds, adopted unanimously
    • Includes that Anthony declined chair nomination
  • 7:06 – Thacker Pass Update
  • 7:17 – Review action items from last meeting
    • Shaun has reached out to coalition partners for Back to School Solidarity.
    • Aimee has not updated 501c(4), adding to action items
    • Anthony reads out completed items
  • 7:18 – Review Harassment & Grievance Officer Candidates
    • Minnie motions to appoint all three candidates (Tamara, Ahmad, Travis), Jackie seconds
      • Motion passes, all three applicants are appointed.
  • 7:25 – Continue Discussion of Priority Campaign Stewards
    • Tiffany motions to move to executive for the Mutual Aid discussion
    • Exiting executive session
    • Anthony: motion to appoint Valerie T. as Electoral Research & Recruitment Priority  steward, Alvin seconds
      • Passes by unanimous consent
    • Alvin: motion appoint Cody H. as Electoral Research & Recruitment Priority  steward, Jackie seconds
      • Passes by unanimous consent
  • 8:02 – Voting on Priority Stewards
    • Minnie: Motion to appoint Sebastian as Mutual & Community Aid Steward, Shaun seconds
      • Motion passes
    • Minnie: Motion to appoint Lillian D. as Mutual & Community Aid Steward, Shaun seconds
      • Passes unanimously
    • Tiffany: Motion to appoint Justin L. as Mutual & Community Aid Steward, Shaun seconds
      • Passes by unanimous consent
    • Alvin: motions to appoint Lillian and Justin as internal aid stewards, Brendan and Sebastian as the external aid stewards, Jackie seconds
      • Passes unanimously
  • 8:03 – Determine Process for Reassessing and Reassigning Portfolios
    • Anthony motions to adopt the proposal
      • Jackie motions to amend by striking the paragraph that starts “Unless a vote of the Steering Committee or the General Body is required by the Bylaws…”, Minnie seconds
        •  Jackie: we need a process for partnering with other organizations
        • Minnie: If there are actions that are unprecedented we should discuss as a body
        • Anthony calls the question, motion passes, paragraph is stricken
      • Jackie motions to amend the proposal to have Steering Committee members provide reports monthly, Tiffany seconds
        • Alvin: point of clarification, we would be giving monthly updates on our portfolios, and if we need to reassign we do that on an adhoc basis, and we are striking September, December, and March.
        • Jackie confirms
        • Alvin: point of clarification, do we need to describe how we would reassign on an adhoc basis?
        • Anthony: We just need to present something to the body, this is not a resolution
        • Anthony calls the question, motion passes through unanimous consent
      • Jackie motions to present the proposal as amended to the general body as our method of assessing portfolios, passes through unanimous consent
  • 8:10 – Resolution to Address Code of Conduct Violations and Political/Interpersonal Conflict
    • Jackie: motions to table this until we receive input from the newly appointed HGOs and national DSA convention ends and we find out whether the resolution to reform Grievances at the national level passes, Tiffany seconds
      • Minnie: point of clarification, will we have enough time to do that?
      • Tiffany: Convention ends on the 8th, our general body meeting is on the 10th, so we would need to finalize on the 9th
      • Jackie: point of clarification, why do we need to do this now?
      • Tiffany: Shares link to bylaws section that outlines we need to pass this within the first 30 days
      • Anthony: Thinks we can pass this as a foundation and add to it later
      • Minnie: Motion to amend “to take place at least twice annually” to “to take place at least once annually”, Jackie seconds
        • Minnie withdraws her amendment
      • Minnie: Motion to amend by striking that the Steering Committee will provide the training
      • Anthony: motion to table, we will ask HGO for recommendations and provide suggestions by Saturday, Alvin seconds
        • Passes unanimously
  • 8:21 – Financial Resolution
    • Aimee: motion to procure and pay for accounting software, Quickbooks $25/mo, Alvin seconds
      • Tiffany: on the record to say that Quickbooks is good, integrates with software we may use for merchandise in the future
      • Anthony calls the question, passes through unanimous consent
    • Minnie: motions to adopt the financial resolution will all comments in the document, Anthony seconds
      • Aimee: Do we need to add accounting software to the resolution? Should we be that picky?
      • Tiffany: The resolution says “monies have to be tracked in an organized way”, for me that’s enough
      • Alvin: Yes, I think we should, but happy to defer if others think “organized” is enough
      • Anthony: Agrees that “organized” is enough, it’s possible to have a well-managed way of doing finances without software. Supports getting quickbooks but doesn’t think the resolution needs to include it.
      • Anthony calls the question, passes unanimously
  • 8:30 – Proposal for SC Special Election
    • Anthony: motions that we announce Margot’s resignation at the general body meeting and immediately open for 7 days of  nominations, announce candidates and voting takes place at the following general body meeting. Minnie seconds
      • Anthony calls the question, passes through unanimous consent
    • Alvin: Do we want to consider the proposal to have separate voting meetings? Last SC meeting we discussed having general body meetings that are more content focused and having more voting focused meetings. Would the SC election be a solid test run of that?
    • Jackie: We discussed this briefly on Slack, leaned toward having the open forums and biweekly email newsletters as alternatives to trying to split the  meetings each month. No longer in favor of splitting them if we can avoid it.
    • Anthony: Managing special elections falls under his portfolio. Will come up with some proposals for how to handle the election and post them in the Slack. Would like to see who the nominees are before determining process. If it’s all the same people as in the last election vs different people process might be different.
    • Tiffany: suggests using the same questionnaire from local convention, if someone is rerunning we can use their answers from a month ago, if there are new people they answer the same questions
    • Anthony: maybe we give people rerunning a chance to amend their answers. Wait and see if we do a town hall based on the candidates running
    • Anthony: We have an extra week from what the bylaws require between two monthly meeting so we have time to determine process
  • 8:38 – General Body Agenda & Facilitation
    • Group is collaborating on agenda
    • Tiffany: motions to schedule standing General Body Meetings on the first thursday of the month at 6:30pm, Anthony seconds
      • Jackie: PLAN monthly housing meeting is first thursday 6-7
      • Tiffany motions to amend to 7pm, Anthony seconds
        • Passes unanimously
  • 8:58 – Proposal for SC forums
    • Anthony motions to have a biweekly, alternating between weekday and weekend, for at least one hour, open SC forum
      • Jackie: wants to know if people have capacity/interest in doing these weekly
      • Anthony: Once he hopefully no longer has comms, this can be his standing responsibility
      • Aimee: not okay with attending these weekly personally, can be present twice a month
      • Anthony: point of information, only 1-2 steering committee members need to be present at each. Anthony is against a minimum commitment requirement from SC members
      • Shaun: it should be low commitment if we only need 1-2 members
      • Tiffany: motion to amend to weekly Steering Committee forum alternating between weekdays and weekends, Anthony seconds
        • Passes unanimously
  • 9:06 – Standing SC meeting
    • Alvin: motions for a weekly standing Steering Committee meeting on Mondays from 7 – 9m, Jackie seconds
      • Anthony motions to amend to biweekly 7-9, Minnie seconds
        • Jackie: Against biweekly, things are already moving very slowly and we’re having weekly meetings. Wants to maintain weekly to start.
        • Anthony: mentions things we want to go through soon: social media policy, vetting partner process, vetting political education materials
        • Antony calls the question, motion fails
      • Anthony calls the original question
        • Motion passes
      • Alvin: point of information, our regional field organizer check in is on mondays, will need to be changed
        • Minnie: Will take care of getting that changed
  • 9:15 – Propose agenda for next meeting
    • HGO resolution review
    • Working Group/Priority meeting expectations/frequency
    • Releasing convention vote totals
    • YDSA
  • 9:16 – Anthony motions to move to executive session for an update on grievances
  • 9:20 – Releasing election vote totals
    • Minnie: reached out to Sarah about writing a resolution to release the voting results, Sarah expressed that they did not have time to take that path. We will continue to discuss it at future meetings.
    • Jackie: In favor of releasing vote totals
    • Anthony: will add to agenda for next meeting
  • 9:24 – Alvin motions to adjourn, Minnie seconds, no opposition
  • 9:24 – Meeting adjourned