Agenda

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

Meeting Minutes

Chair: Anthony L.
Notetaker: Mike Y.

• Called to order at 7:12
  • Minnie motions to adopt agenda at 7:15, Angel seconds. None opposed.
  • Angel motions to adopt last meeting minutes at 7:17, Minnie seconds. None opposed.
  • Review last meeting’s action items.
    • Paul John proposes Mon June 6th for member reflection discussion, and 7 p.m. is up for discussion
      • Angel confirms that day & time is available. Also mentions he will need to confirm Housing Meeting is going to happen the following day.
• General Body Meeting prep
  • Anthony, Sarah L. and others visited The Nunnery to test audio and preview the space for the General Body Meeting on Thurs
    • Sarah L. on hand to confirm it is an accessible space
  • Sin Sity Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence  will present on their  LGBTQIA+ organizing and AIDS drug outreach program
  • Angel proposes a written reflection for the Housing Justice Priority Reflection, which Anthony confirms is OK
  • Voter Guide needs to be ratified by members
    • Anthony to leave time for questions and discussion about Voter Guide
  • Upcoming 2nd Annual Local Convention discussion
    • Still need to pick time for Sat July 9th
    • Tiffany proposes moving timeline back so nomination period doesn’t  close so soon… will be ready for Thurs GBM
    • Minnie asks: how long will state convention go? June 25th is second day of convention (possible conflict for Town Hall)
    • Tiffany has forms for nominations, collecting Town Hall questions
    • Future priority campaigns
      • Anthony will remind members about priority structures and framework for building future priorities
      • Wants to use space to inform how process works and make connections for members  so they can  help each other write them
    • Anthony reminds that priorities don’t have to run for 12 months, they can be written to have an end date before 2023 Convention
    • Minnie: what is the mechanism to pair people together? Concrete steps; need to be clear that actions will follow this meeting and emphasize that it is collaborative
      • Angel: tell people they can reach out to me to set  up a zoom (from LVDSA) for a priority brainstorm
  • Tiffany: who from steering will be there?
    • Anthony, Mike  Y & Natasha raise hands
    • Minnie is a strong maybe
      • Will be in Zoom if not in person
    • Need help for sign in and merch
• Work on details for convention (venue, format, etc.)
  • Will need more time to set  up for convention but Anthony hopes we can still pay the standard rate,  and a lower rate if committing to doing the GBM every month
  • Saturday, July 9th… time TBD
    • Tiffany:  want it to be earlier… noon? Chance to mingle and get ready and call to order at 1 p.m.
      • Minnie: would offer 1-5 p.m. –  in between meals is a good time
      • Natasha offers 2 p.m.
      • Anthony suggest we do a social afterwards
        • And there’s a bar at The Nunnery (plus coffee shop and bakery)
  • Minnie would like to lead a year in review process
    • Best tweets, random fun stuff
    • Mike Y can help
  • Tiffany: we have to present and pass a budget, we should to this last so we can adjust based on priorities
    • priorities, sc elections, budget in that order
  • Minnie: need something inspirational… who can be guest speakers?
    • Tiffany mentions we had IC at last convention
    • Aimee: we have $375 budget line item for guest speakers! And can ask for an increase, if needed
    • Anthony we should think about this and make a decision next SC meeting
    • Minnie: Venezuela women’s delegation, maybe someone from the DSLC – Laura Gabby
  • Anthony: I hope we can a round of voting so we can pick a #1 priority and then decide if we want to do a second (and third)
    • Worried about allocating resources. Knowing what will pass will change my opinion
    • Tiffany: not sure we can do this via STV
    • Natasha: that’s always a potential effect of using STV
    • Minnie: if there are 9 campaigns proposed, are the instructions to rank no more than 3?
      • Tiffany: they can rank all of them but only 3 win
        • Anthony: can leave priorities off as well
      • Minnie: don’t want to withhold info about this voting process so we should have a brief educational section before we launch into the process
        • Tiffany: we could probably find a video to play related to STV
  • Tiffany:  anyone can submit resolutions as well
    • Anthony: deadline is June 25th
  • Tiffany: can we start a slack channel for convention? there’s going to start being a lot of stuff soon
• Voter Guide Edits
  • Discussing edits to voter guide, police association endorsements and adding context from member feedback
  • Natasha: To be clear, FOP is part of the nevada association of public safety officers, a coalition of police unions who endorsed her
  • Vote on the floor: Anthony motions to make the following edits to the Voter Guide at 7:58… (seconded by Lorenzita)
    • Update Fabian Donate’s recommendation to “No Recommendation”, adding information to the text that he supported the stop and frisk bill and is proud of a police endorsement.
    • Update Pat Spearman’s section to include that she was endorsed by a police association and voted in favor of the stop and frisk bill, but don’t change her recommendation because the other competitive candidates are worse.
    • Update James Ohrenschall’s section to include that he supported the stop and frisk bill, but don’t change his recommendation because his opponent is a QAnon Trump supporter.
    • Motion passes: 9 in favor, 0  opposed, 1 absent.
  • Tiffany mentions Voter Guide  has been viewed over 1,500 times already
• Merch Updates
  • Tiffany mentions that we got a quote on 2 flags and a banner for purchase – $222.18
    • Would fit under our already budgeted line item…
  • Aimee: mentions that we could use the appropriations form (from DSA National?) for this but all good procedurally we can move forward with this purchase
  • Tiffany: will move forward with flags & banner; will donate PVC since flags don’t come with poles
  • Tiffany: priced out items with Kara…
    • Additional items for store: shows off keychain logo, totebag with DSA font, coozies, ACAB fanny pack
  • Vote on the floor:  Motion to reimburse Kara for supplies to produce merch for convention.
    • Tote Bags (canvas color with black or red glitter) – $200 for 24, sell @ $15
    • Keychains (clear disc with black/red) – $80 for 40, sell @ $5
    • Koozies (black with red glitter) – $62.50 for 25, sell @ $5
    • ACAB Fanny packs (black with single color) $125 for 10, sell @ $20
    • Total: $467.50
    • Motion passes: 9 in favor, 0  opposed, 1 absent.
    • Aimee: FYI if all above merchandise is sold at Tiffany’s pricing, it’s about $885 back to the chapter, which is a great profit margin!
• Dr. Iqbal’s idea for Muslim Outreach
  • Anthony: Goal, from their end, is to bring local Muslims who aren’t generally politically active into  the “left” and engage with DSA.
    • They want to put our recommendations on flyers, print them, and for LVDSA to help them from a canvassing/labor perspective – outreach after prayer services at mosques (already previously identified, 5 or 6) by handing out these recommendations or dropping off at cars
  • This organizing arm is not the NV Dems but is sponsored  by the NV  Dems
  • They  believe it’s important to recommend Reuben D’Silva despite the LVDSA Voter Guide not providing a recommendation in this race… Anthony: they want to clarify and say they recommend in races in which we don’t recommend. As long as we approve.
    • Tiffany: he’s a landlord
    • Anthony: if we agree to anything, it cannot infringe on what  we agree to
  • Lorenzita: if they register people to vote, they will not be eligible to vote because those deadlines have passed. We will have to provide info on same day registration.
  • Minnie: we have to be cautious about dividing up resources and labor, especially since it’s a friday afternoon. May not be very many people available.
  • Natasha:  iffy about “additions” to the  voter guide, we  should not agree to that portion of  it; we provided a “no recommendation” in certain races for specific reasons
  • Anthony: told Dr Iqbal about short notice and lack of capacity and would personally specifically like to  do outreach in North and East Las Vegas
    • Also on the fence about what Natasha said; OK with side-by-side as long as they don’t misrepresent our  recommendations… biggest concern imo is printing it and having edits that come up. Be clear that  we have an “as of” print date on the handout and  a live version on the website.
    • Dr.Iqbal sees it as a coalition opportunity; if we feel neutral about certain candidates we can align and try to find middle ground
  • Natasha: we’re going to vote on this action, presumably? so we’re approving distributing these guides together. it’s not something someone’s doing without our knowledge.
  • Tiffany: asks for clarification, wants us to be clear on how we draw a line between our no recommends and what they recommend
    • Anthony: we cannot let them recommend someone we openly oppose  and Iqbal is OK with that
    • Tiffany: if it’s on the same single page handout it makes me uncomfortable
      • Aimee & Paul John agree
  • Aimee: uncomfortable about this potential, agree with Tiffany that it cannot be on same piece of paper… we also haven’t put a lot of work into the Muslim community. I don’t like sullying our name by having someone adjacent to us recommending a landlord. And we’re exerting labor for this in theory.
  • Anthony: Do we propose just giving them a stack of papers with our recommendations? Concerned with promoting them by having our members hand out their recommendations.
  • Minnie: we can do this but without the landlord’s name on it… also uncomfortable with it being called COP… we could help educate him on our process, it’’ll soften the blow when we say we have to be accountable to members and our process
  • Tiffany:  our members haven’t ratified it yet and we cannot put resources into promoting someone we have not recommended
  • Aimee:  Dr. Iqbal understands our process and we have to respect that and him by being honest about it; we are upholding our chapter as is the job of the SC
  • Angel: distributing labor on such short notice is a good excuse to have
  • Anthony: will share with Dr. Iqbal that we discussed and see multiple concerns, want to work together and do coalition work together, but we cannot hand out other org’s recommendations.  Not comfortable with that process; we have to be accountable to our members.  We can distribute our own Voter Guide but cannot help with distributing material that has someone that we do not recommend.
• Treasurer’s Report
  • Updated after last Sunday Solidarity and down payment for 6 months of  storage
  • Email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com for the report
  • Minnie: Priority accounts roll back into general fund after convention?
    • Will write a resolution if something hasn’t been done about Back To School
    • Aimee: had that exact thought… reviewing fiscal policy and materials from national
  • Tiffany: our financial reso says SC can vote on what to do with leftover funds for specific projects
  • Anthony: budget is written per year so we can give suggestions on what to do with those funds for 22-23 FY
  • Tiffany: we did vote on distributing masks… how do we override that?
  • Anthony: we can make a motion to update that, and as long as it passes, it’ll change
    • Anthony: We could leave it for another Back to School Solidarity
      • Minnie: timing is very stressful, would recommend against using those funds for a similar purpose. Tight timeframe after convention with new SC.
  • Aimee: for clarification… so much rides on having internal organizing with teachers and unknowns surrounding trying to distribute masks at the time we did it.
    • Anthony: plus, supply was hard to keep up with
• Open Comment 
  • Tiffany: we should solicit donations at  June GBM for Solidarity Fridge
    • Happy to bring these donations to the Fridge
    • Angel: can also help with transporting donations
    • Anthony:  will mention Fridge donations in Slack comms
    • Mike: i can mention Fridge donations on the GBM reminder email that goes out as well
• Adjourned at 8:53