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 7:34
  • Minnie motions to adopt the agenda, Anthony seconds, no objections. Agenda is adopted at 7:35
  • Mike motions to adopt last meeting’s minutes, Angel seconds. No objections. Last meeting’s minutes are adopted at 7:36
  • Reviewing action items from last meeting
• Treasurer’s Report
  • Treasurer’s report is in the google drive.
• Storage Unit
  • Minnie: Talked with Aimee about where we’re at with the storage unit we budgeted $100/mo for. Minnie put together a spreadsheet of locations with available units. Posted on the DSA forums to see if other chapters have storage units and how they manage them. Most use keypads with a few people having access. Recommends that a few people from Steering Committee and Tamara for mutual aid have access. Also recommends climate controlled if we’re keeping hygiene products in there.
  • Aimee: Thinks we should view a 5×5 to make sure the size works for us. Concerned we may need a larger unit than we budgeted for. We should also set up a form for people with access so we can keep track. Probably requires a few SC members to stay really dialed in to keeping track of inventory and access. Location should be central.
  • Anthony: One of the locations has a 7.5×10 that is within our budget.
  • Minnie: Not included in the spreadsheet is security, hidden fees
  • Tiffany: There’s another budget item we haven’t used either, the zapier line item. so we have extra budget money that we could “use” if we amend the budget
  • Aimee: Also thinking about accessibility for the unit so that all our comrades can access it equitably
  • Anthony: We could vote on it as an urgent vote and have it ratified by the general body.
  • Minnie: Would like input on temperature control and whether it’s unwieldy to have to go inside/use an elevator or if we want a drive-up unit.
    • SC is split on climate control
    • Yes to ground floor
  • Tiffany: I have DSA things at my house that would basically fill a 5×5
  • Minnie will take next steps as this is in her portfolio.
• General Meeting Turnout
  • Anthony: How will we turn people out for General Body meeting. Anthony volunteering to set it up.
    • Tiffany will send Anthony spoke request form, Minnie and Tiffany will help with textbanking
• Priority Wrap-ups
  • Anthony: Last time we discussed asking the priority stewards to prepare a debrief on the priorities for the June meeting. Should be informative and critical of what didn’t work. Goal is to help people working on the new priority resolutions.
  • Aimee: Can’t promise things from other people but will talk to the stewards about it.
  • Tiffany: Thinks it would be useful to have clear expectations from the stewards about what should be in the reports. Suggests the following clarifying questions:
    • Whether the campaign objectives were met, and how.
    • What was learned from the campaign.
    • What relationships were built through the campaign
    • How the campaign strengthened LVDSA
    • Areas for LVDSA to improve that were identified through the campaign
  • Anthony: Suggests that priorities dedicate meeting time to discuss as a group the questions to formulate the reports. We have to be really honest about the issues our priorities encountered so we can learn and have stronger campaigns in the future
  • Angel: Likes the clarifying questions. Capacity issues in housing priority may mean Angel writes the report.
  • Aimee: We need to acknowledge the cycles of the pandemic and how they have affected our organizing. It informs how we think about convention, how our priorities have played out, and in our personal and work lives too, affecting our capacity.
• Possible Convention Venues & Format
  • Anthony: At the May general meeting we will discuss with members the option of doing a hybrid June General Body Meeting
    • Minnie: Will this be a vote?
    • Anthony: Not a vote, just a vibe check. SC ultimately makes the decision
  • Anthony: Has looked at some possible venues for a hybrid local convention. Looked into performance rooms at the library but none are available. There are some large library rooms available that we could use.
    • Minnie: Union hall maybe?
    • Angel: How creative are we trying to be? What if we get a quince hall.
• Calling for New Priority Proposals
  • Anthony: Next week we have a Strategic Campaigns Training on the calendar. Trying to think of creative ways to get people engaged in writing the new priority campaign resolutions. Suggests scheduled meeting times with both in person and and virtual options.
  • Tiffany: Would be nice to survey the membership to understand what they most want to see in terms of priorities next year
    • Angel: Likes the survey idea, once we have survey results we could provide some guidance on the popular options in terms of what is going on locally already that could be built on
    • Minnie: Should phrase it as what would you be willing to commit your time as a member
    • Tiffany: Maybe we set the survey up as a matrix? So people can mark the kind of participation they are willing to engage in for each topic/issue. Or maybe that is too granular
      • Anthony: Might be too granular
    • Angel: Suggests a second question where people can indicate how committed they would be to the topics they chose
    • Mike: Would it be useful to ask if they have experience organizing in that area so we can reach back out to them
    • Angel: Thinks we can wait on asking how they can be involved for convention. But we could ask if they’re interested in writing the priority resolution
    • Anthony: Suggests adding an open comment field where they can flesh out specific ideas for that topic
    • Minnie: Once we have the survey results, we could have guided brainstorming sessions.
  • Aimee: Priorities are not just about the vision but also who can implement them. If we are a working class organization, we need to be a little more mindful of what people can have capacity for. We have to be realistic about what can be accomplished in the course of a year.
    • Anthony: June 18th is the last day priority resolutions can be submitted. 6 weeks from now.
    • Minnie: Can’t remember if we discussed the bylaws saying min and max priorities is 3
    • Tiffany: Yes. Suggests we propose a bylaw amendment at convention before we vote on the priorities so we could have only 2
    • Anthony: Wants to roughly schedule some time to get priority brainstorms on the calendar. Would like to reserve a library for a few hours one day, as well as holding a virtual session.
  • Steering Committee elections – anyone running cannot help run the election.
    • Tiffany: Not running, I can be the point person
• Open Comment
  • Minnie: We got an email from Glenn, will respond to him about whether he needs to meet with all of us.
• Meeting adjourned at 8:59