Agenda

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

Meeting Minutes

Attendance: SC: Tiffany S., Minnie W., Anthony L., Lorenzita S., Aimee H., Shaun N., Mike Y., Jackie S., Paul John C.; Guests: Brendan B., Justin L.
Chair: Minnie
Notetaker: Tiffany S.

7:03 – Call to Order

• Lorenzita motions to amend the agenda
• Anthony motions to adopt the agenda as amended, Lorenzita seconds, no opposition, agenda is adopted
• Shaun motions to adopt last meeting’s minutes, Anthony seconds, no opposition, last meeting’s minutes are adopted

7:07 – Review of last meeting’s action items

• There were no action items

7:08 – Treasurer’s report

• $13225.46 in America First
• $100 in Venmo
• We were not able to comply with national DSA’s request for past accounting, there was some information missing from a closed bank account that the past treasurer does not have for us. Aimee has let national know and Lourdes has requested all of the statements from the old bank account. We should have them in about 10 days.

7:13 – Coalition Corner

• Event with All Friends Animal Sanctuary happened on Oct 30
  • PJC: excited about building the relationship and having more community events
  • Lorenzita: potential to plug them in to the vegan portion of holiday solidarity, also we could volunteer there as a member social
  • PJC: Reached out to All Friends about Holiday Solidarity, also reached out to Las Vegan Food Pantry
  • Minnie: National event next week about socialism and animal liberation, comes from the national animal liberation working group. Maybe PJC can share that with All Friends & Las Vegan Food Pantry
• Shaun and Brendan attended a PLAN meeting to talk about mutual aid
• Shaun attended a meeting with progressive orgs and the governor’s office to build relationship in the community.
  • This might be a recurring event
  • Progressive orgs are pushing to have an indigenous person on the mining oversight board
• Shaun attended a vigil with immigration justice coalition partners

7:26 – Back to School Funds

• Tiffany: Mariame Kaba has a children’s book aimed at children with an incarcerated parent. Haymarket will give us a 50% discount, we can bulk purchase and donate to school libraries, community centers, etc.
• Shaun: Wants to help, might be a good opportunity for coalition building
• Aimee: Wants to check in with educators to see what they need, maybe we can also include other books that address antiracism or growing up as a BIPOC child

7:29 – Member Engagement Update

• Jackie: Round 1 phonebank extended to Nov 6, phone bank is going well but there are still lists available. Round 2 will start on Nov 8 assuming Holidarity forms are ready.
• Next social is on Nov 7, please make 3 direct asks for people to come to the social.
• Wants to cancel new member orientation and switch to every other month. There were only 3 members at the last orientation. Wants to reassess assessment scale in action builder as well.
• Minnie: Can help with the spoke texts for general body meeting
• Anthony: There is a national training series on Nov 18 that leaders in our chapter should attend, so canceling november nmo will work nicely to allow folks to attend. Is also writing something about our structure for our members.
• Minnie: A good time to do every other month nmo now that we have the 1:1s going well.
• Shaun: We will probably get a lot of new members with holidarity so we can take a break now and have a larger orientation after holidarity

7:41 – Holiday Solidarity

• Aimee: We’ve secured a location, UMOK, for Nov 20th. Would like us to prepack which means we need supplies the night before. Spoke to Winco, it’s not good. They have been asked not to make any special orders including bulk orders. Aimee will be calling other stores to secure the food items.
• Lorenzita: No flyer yet
  • Mike: Kara was assigned the flyer but Mike can work on it as well.
• Anthony: Concerned about getting the meats, maybe consider other options.
  • Tiffany: Maybe we do gift cards for protein, the event is a full week before thanksgiving.
  • Aimee: Stores are being encouraged to do gift cards for folks like us trying to make bulk purchases.
  • Anthony: Benefit to not having cold items in terms of storage.
  • Minnie: Gift cards are a good contingency plan
  • Shaun: Gift cards are easier logistically. There is a concern about food deserts though.
• Minnie: Brings up that Clark Dems in person meeting is on the same day
  • Tiffany: Chris Roberts is aware. Now that we have the location confirmed not sure that there is anything to do.
• Anthony: Wants to make sure we are ready to engage with people immediately following holiday solidarity and other wrap around logistics.
  • Shaun: follow up phonebank? Maybe use whatsapp to communicate with immigrant community members, they use whatsapp a lot.
  • Anthony: wants to know what the 30 days after holiday solidarity look like, make sure we can tell people what’s going on.
  • PJC: Is there an event that connects with holiday solidarity?
  • Jackie: We do have events in between, Sunday Solidarity as well as a social that Rahima is planning. For the phonebanks, writing the script is not the heavy lift but getting folks to make calls. Doesn’t want to plan more phonebanks until we know that more people are making the calls.
  • Aimee: connecting struggles is important, so lit that makes that connection is important
  • Shaun: Virtual online info session with groups we are partnering with
  • Anthony: what if each priority wrote a paragraph call-to-action, and we throw all three on one piece of lit.
    • Tiffany: Rahima has modified an existing one-pager about our chapter to have information about each priority. We can include that in the bags and add upcoming events
  • Aimee: Not sure that talking about our priorities is enough to engage folks.
  • Mike: Rahima’s lit is more member-focused.
  • Anthony: Perhaps on the day of we can do some training with folks to engage in some conversation as they do deliveries/give out pickups
  • Shaun: We should tell all volunteers to really engage with folks about socialism and what we’re trying to do

8:09 – Process for discussing old business

• Minnie: We have the potential to lose old threads. Suggests doing old business in the agenda and having a structure to our agendas.
• Anthony: suggests that the next chair commits to putting an effort to structuring the meeting this way and we will see how it goes

8:17 – General Body Meeting

• Anthony will chair
• Aimee is link dropper
• Minnie will take notes
• Mike will do community agreements
• Aimee will do land acknowledgement

8:30 – Solidarity Fridge Book Drive

• Aimee: Spoke with Victoria of Solidarity Fridge. She wants to do a book drive and wants our input. Both kids and adult books, antiracist, anticapitalist books. Not just physical books but our recommendations.
• Lorenzita: Victoria wants to get LVDSA more involved in making donations to the Solidarity Fridge.
• Shaun: Victoria wants a list of books, we could really engage people with making a list for a socialist library.

8:36 – Brake Light Clinic & BBQ

• Aimee: Has spoken to Brendan and Sebas a little bit about it. Good opportunity for us to engage with people. Wants to make sure this is on the radar for next year.

8:46 – Incident at Sunday Solidarity

• Lorenzita: There was an individual with a bat and a person running away, the situation de-escalated itself with no one hurt. A non-member was present and called the police despite being repeatedly asked not to.
• Mike: We should find a way to inform participants on how to respond to these situations.
• Minnie: There are two pieces, how do we make sure that people who attend our events are aligned with our abolitionist principles and understand that increasing a community’s interactions with the police is unsafe, and some training on de-escalating situations.
• Anthony: three needs – de-escalation training, legal rights training, expectations for participants about not bringing police into a situation
• Tiffany: Maybe a form when people sign in with our policy so they can acknowledge that they have read and understand it.
• Jackie: East Bay DSA has a training that has a lot of about de-escalation and interacting with the police.
• Aimee: Maybe we can have guest speakers from other chapters
• Anthony: motion to suspend the rules and allow Brendan and Justin each two minutes to speak, Lorenzita seconds
  • Justin: fears that de-escalation training will just make people intervene when they shouldn’t. It’s someone’s right to call the police if they feel unsafe
  • Brendan: Education is important so people understand why calling the police is not a good idea

9:26 – Choosing the next chair

• Lorenzita with Aimee as backup

9:28 – Open floor

• Candidate town hall: Amy Vilela campaign wants to do the town hall in December, the vote will take place in January.
• Next training: Introduction to transformative and restorative justice, being put together by the HGOs and Jesser.
• Aimee shares https://standwith.collegefund.org/resources/
• Justin: Mutual Aid form is now ready

9:34  – Meeting adjourned