Agenda

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

Meeting Minutes

Chair: Anthony L.
Notetaker: Tiffany S.

• Call to order at 7:05
  • Minnie motions to adopt the agenda, Anthony seconds, none opposed. Agenda is adopted at 7:08
  • Tiffany motions to adopt last meeting’s minutes, Minnie seconds, none opposed. Meeting minutes are adopted at 7:10
• Treasurer’s Report
  • Report is in the Google Drive. Email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com to view the report.
• Finalize Convention Details
  • We spoke about having convention on July 9th. The Nunnery is open all day so we have to decide on time.
  • Tiffany shares agenda from last year: https://lvdsa.org/local-convention-2021/
  • Anthony suggests 1-5pm
  • Minnie: We don’t know yet how many resolutions we will need to discuss. Maybe we should keep the extra half hour?
  • Anthony: We will have one presentation less than last year, that is the half hour that Anthony is suggesting we cut
  • No opposition to 1-5pm
  • Tiffany asks what the hourly rate is for The Nunnery
  • Aimee wants to give them more money – this is a donation to a marginalized group that is under attack and we have plenty of money
    • Aimee suggests $300 for 12-5
      • Everyone present (7) agrees with offering The Nunnery $300 for 12-5pm on July 9th
  • Minnie: The time on the agenda from last year for the Priority Campaigns was quite short because we had standalone events in the run up to convention for people to go over the resolutions, just making a note.
  • Tiffany says the SC nominations has yielded 8 candidates who have qualified and accepted; there are several who have not accepted yet but have enough nominations
    • On the ballot: Aaron R., Anthony L., Minnie W., Natasha S., Nathaniel P., Sarah L., Sean Y., Shaun N.
    • Just need to accept their nomination to appear on the ballot: Roy Z., Justin N., Tamara T., Rahman F., Angel L., Mike Y.
    • Almost at threshold: Aimee H., Casey L., Ash M.
  • Minnie asks if anyone has submitted Town Hall questions, Tiffany says not many
• Plan for Transferring Any Outstanding Data from Priorities
  • Anthony: Some documents have been created during the course of the priority campaigns that are owned by the individual stewards. We should figure out how to transfer those so they are owned by our google account
  • Tiffany: We can make a search for documents not owned by lasvegasdsa@gmail.com and make a list and reach out to the owners to have their transfer the ownership. Volunteers to bottom line this task.
  • Minnie: Question about physical sign in sheets at Sunday Solidarity
    • Tiffany: those have been added to Action Network
• Abortion Rally/March
  • Tiffany explains that there have been efforts to plan an event with WWAF, they have been busy
  • Planned Parenthood has asked us to do an event and July 2nd seems like a good candidate for a date
    • If WWAF is okay partnering with that event, then we’d like to do something on that day
    • SC members show consensus for 7pm start time
• Southwest Regional Organizer Retreat Update
  • Natasha: National wants to reschedule the national organizer retreat that was planned in March before Garrick resigned. We have been promised 15 slots, the timing would be right after convention so we can strongly encourage folks who are applying to be priority stewards to attend. Not much to be done, we have already submitted a list of locations for them. We will need 1-2 volunteers on the day-of as well as plan a social. They would also like volunteers for solidarity housing.
    • Tiffany: Concerned about solidarity housing, we had out of town DSA visitors give covid to several members recently so not feeling great about asking our members to host people
    • Anthony: Clark County is high risk of transmission at the moment, concerns around that.
    • Lorenzita: Can we require negative COVID tests? Lorenzita can provide tests
      • Natasha: We could ask
  • Potential dates: July 29th-31st
    • Minnie: Concerned about the timeline, six weeks seems too close.
      • Reflects on inheriting Back to School Solidarity at the beginning of our SC term which was hard to juggle with the transition
      • Natasha: The only thing we would be responsible for is planning a social
      • Aimee: The timing so close to a new SC incoming is not great
      • Anthony: I think it’s worth telling them that there will be a new steering committee coming in right before this event, with a lot of leadership turnover.
        • Natasha already informed them
• Recap of Year-End Reflection
  • Paul John resigned a few hours ago, since Anthony was the only other SC member present at the year-end reflection, he will give a recap.
  • PJC had technical issues for the first 25 minutes. At the beginning, there were more people in attendance but left before the event was able to start. PJC, Anthony, Sarah L, Ahmad, Alvin C., Jackie S., Valerie T., Olivia A, Shaun N were in attendance at the beginning of the event. Eventually Alvin, Jackie, and Valerie left.
  • Some of the feedback:
    • Ahmad loves and appreciates the chapter. He has lost 19 family and friends to Covid and the chapter has been there for him. He did say he believes the SC rushed to a decision on one occasion that he was disappointed in.
    • Shaun talked about how he felt great love from the chapter when he thought he was going to run for office, also felt support when he decided not to run. Proud of the chapter and the things we have been able to achieve
    • Olivia said that as a new-ish member, complimented how easy it is to plug in to work.
    • Sarah said positive things about what we have been able to achieve. Likes the new SC structure and priority model. Expressed that she did not feel she had any agency as a housing steward, but did not provide more detail.
    • Paul John felt that we have done good work, but that the housing justice priority was not as successful as it could have been because members stopped showing up. He wished people would show up to events.
    • Paul John spent about 20 minutes discussing what he felt were racist behaviors in our Steering Committee. Said that he heard LVDSA had bad relationships with North Las Vegas. Also believes that the SC should not have removed a person of color from the chair position without input from members. Feels that the chapter is being run by an authoritarian.
    • Anthony took some time to explain how the chair position has been handled on the steering committee throughout our term. Initially the chair position was only on paper and had no duties, and we rotated through facilitating meetings. When vacancies occurred in Feb we took the opportunity to reassess portfolios including giving the chairs duties since many SC members did not like facilitating meetings. Anthony and PJC both were interested in being chair, this was the only contentious position in the reassessment. Meeting minutes from the meeting in question can be found here: https://lvdsa.org/meeting-minutes/steering-committee-meeting-2022-02-17/
    • Paul John responded to Anthony’s recap, said that he should have been chair because he would be in the streets and is the best organizer in SC, felt that members should have voted on being chair, did not feel supported on SC
    • Ahmad called Anthony the next day to discuss the meeting, discussed Anthony and Paul John’s previous interactions. Anthony wanted to approach Paul John about what happened, Ahmad provided feedback and encouraged him to reach out to Paul John. Anthony sent a text to Paul John the next day to apologize that Paul John did not feel supported. Did not receive a response.
  • Aimee: Feels that there is misplaced anger in Paul John’s venting during the reflection event.
  • Tiffany: Believes there is a lot of miscommunication going on. Our bylaws clearly indicate that SC elects the officers, not members. Paul John also did not advocate for himself as the chair during the portfolio rework meeting but feels frustrated that we did not know how much he wanted the position. Unfortunate.
• Open Comment
  • No one stacked for open comment
• Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm