November 21st, 2021

2-4 pm

Settle in

1. Carlos O
2. Lindsey M
3. SHane R
4. MAddy GW
5. Annika B
6. Jess B
7. ANdrew R
8. HAsan A
9. Neder
10. Benny Z
11. Graham
12. Max
13. Kat O
14. Mathew L
15. MIchael K
16. Joty D
17. Paola L
18. Hillary
19. Ali N

II. Approval of Agenda

A. Approved by Acclimation

III. Committee Reports

A. Treasurer

Our Budget jump due to shares given by National - 141 monthly donors 

B. Recording Secretary

Resolution to Stop Okland Airport expansion failed with 5 yes, 6 no, and 1 abstain - citing lack of buy in from DSA membership, related committees, and recommended having at least 5 bottom liners to motivate the expected resubmitting

Resolution to implement new member onboarding recommendations PASSED with 9 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstain

Resolution to request funds for Branches Working Group social passed via acclimation 11 yes 2 abstain

Resolution For Berkeley Progressive Alliance PASSED via acclimation 11 yes and 2 abstain

EMAIL Votes:

Resolution to Provide Funding for A Talk on the Oakland General Strike 10 yes and 3 abstain

Waiting for the votes for appointing the chair and mobilizer for Racial solidarity

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. Resolution to Hire Lindsey Moore to Organize a Fundraising Campaign from January to April

By Shane R, Annika B, & Andrew R

Whereas, 2022 will bring a new office space and multiple electoral campaigns that will require increased levels of spending, 

Whereas, implementation of the Fundraising Committee has largely stalled due to lack of capacity,

Whereas, hiring a part-time Fundraising Organizer will allow us to dramatically increase our revenue by committing members to regular monthly contributions,

Whereas, hiring a part-time Fundraising Organizer will allow us a short-term, low stakes experiment in managing a staff person in a democratic membership organization, 

Whereas, Lindsey Moore, as our Treasurer, a trusted member of the Operations Committee, and organizer of our Bernie Campaign, has shown extraordinary commitment to the working class movement and demonstrated the necessary skills for this task,

Therefore be it resolved, East Bay DSA will hire Lindsey Moore for a maximum of 16 hours per week from January 4th to April 1st to organize a 2022 Fundraising Campaign, 

Therefore be it resolved, the goal of the campaign will be to commit at least 20% of our members to monthly contributions of at least $20, more than doubling our monthly revenue,

Therefore be it resolved, that the chairs and Lindsey will negotiate a contract that will determine Lindsey’s wages, schedule, job description and working conditions, which will be submitted to the Steering Committee for approval,

Therefore, be it resolved that at the March Steering Committee meeting, the Steering Committee will receive a report on Lindsey’s tenure and will consider renewing, amending, or terminating the contract. 

Therefore, be it resolved that this resolution will be brought before the General Membership for debate at the December General Membership Meeting.

Motivated by Andrew

Q&A

• Q -Benny: What happened with the original Fundraising committee? Shane chaired the committee, and they couldn’t have people bottom lining.
• Q- Carlos - would this be through the Fundraising Comm? A: It would be through the Chairs

 Graham - move to committee of the whole to move to debate; Jess and Neder second.

• Motion vote: PASSED via acclimation

Q - Jess B: What is the story for the fundraising campaign? The actual fundraising plans? Hiring Plans? Open Hiring? A - Shane: the idea is that we are kicking off the new year, waking from slumber, looking for in person meetings, a new office and prep for the 2022 campaign; Closed Hiring would be preferable as opposed to an employee not part of DSA to handle. 

Graham: His union hires short term campaign workers, and sees Lindsey and the best candidate. Sees this and an important step. 

Benny Z: Resolution presupposed that we have a stronger need for more money and we needed more than how we’re getting fundings from. The only thing we’d imagine would require seeking out more money would be for hiring a staffer

Hasan: Sees accountability, within capacity of the chapter, likes LIndsey; but fears that it won’t solve anything. Recommends this being an actual pilot. Doesn’t see the urgency nor the issue in a brief delay and deliberation.  

Shane: Sees the December meeting been dedicated to the staffing questions; Some infrastructure problems can be fixed with a staffer. Sees this a good opportunity to start a fundraising in the new year and see the deliberation taking place in the Dec meeting. 

Jess B: Recommends a more detailed plan to answer questions and concerns raised today to vote on by Dec GM. Doesn’t have a procedural suggestion at the moment. 

RESOLUTION DEBATE

Against: Neder - recommends a more detailed plan. Stronger rationale to the resolution to be received better for the GM, especially as its a resolution created by chairs from a single caucus. 

For: Shane - they expect the staffer to do the same duties as a volunteer, and sees the electoral season beginning as vital for getting the staffer. Hopes that everyone oesn’t see mal intent.  

Against: Benny - would like to see this fundraising group try to fundraise first. We hadn’t seen any progress in that working group. Sees the staffer as a premature response. 

Maddy Grace W: We always have ideas that require money; and asking for funds is a reasonable ask. Sees an opportunity being lost by delaying a vote. 

Against: Neder - A campaign plan for the staffer expense is a significant thing missing from this resolution. 

For: Andrew - Sees that potential in having a staffer, like Lindsey, coming up with the plan in its implementation, which would be a longer term pilot, upon electoral season

Motion to amend - Hasan

Delete : “and will consider renewing, amending, or terminating the contract.” 

Add: “and will decide on how to proceed (e.g. candidate(s) from an open hire process)”

Seconded by Maddy GW and Graham

Amendment Debate - no one stack against

Amendment vote: PASSED BY ACCLAMATION

RESOLUTION DEBATE CONTINUED:

For: Graham: see’s this as the start of the process to be discussed at the GM

Against: Neder - the details of the allocation of funds is vague. 

POI: Hasan: - is the fundraising committee still a thing and can we join? A: Shane: Yes to both

Maddy G - motion to call to question.

Seconded by Benny; no objection

MOTION VOTE: PASSED 6 Yes, 4 no, 1 abstain

Shane - vows to write a detail planned.

Hasan and Jess B offer to join the fundraising committee

B. Resolution For T-Shirt Screen-Printing Funds

Submitted by Joty Dhaliwal & Nathan Swedlow

Whereas People’s Transit Alliance (PTA) is a highly actively group within the East Bay DSA and is regularly canvassing on the streets and staging rallies and would like to have identifiable merch during these actions and outside of them; 

Whereas PTA has developed a color schemata that uses peach as a secondary background color to the DSA red. It is used on the flyers PTA distributes to riders (see further in this document) as well as on the website and in educational resources. Peach was selected because it is a warmer and more inviting color than just having white as the background and PTA is striving to be an inclusive and inviting space to riders and workers new to organizing;

Whereas the peach color will require custom dying shirts and PTA has found a comrade who they can hire for $200 for one day to help them test and define the color and then teach the dying process to PTA members. PTA members will then do all the shirt dying;

Whereas PTA would like to use a screen-printing service other than Alliance Graphics. Alliance has been unresponsive to emails and had initially said they could not screenprint on shirts pre-dyed by PTA, they said we would have to use their vendor who will only dye minimum quantities of 1200 shirts. After being unresponsive to multiple emails following this, they have now shared that they could screenprint on shirts pre-dyed by PTA, but continue to be unresponsive about how much they charge and other details. PTA would like to use Alliance if they respond to emails and will in fact screenprint on pre-dyed shirts, but would also like the option to work with a vendor who is more amenable and in case Alliance changes it’s policy again; 

Whereas screen-printing is a service where there are many small businesses and worker-owned collectives that are not necessarily unionized and where unionization may not be a present priority as there may only be 1-5 employees; 

Whereas PTA has been in contact with one local shop in San Francisco that has been around for decades, has 2 employees, has been hard-hit by covid and could benefit from the work. PTA has also been in contact with the Forgive Everyone Collective, an abolitionist screen-printing collective where every member of the team has been directly impacted by incarceration and is paid a living wage, offered free health insurance, share ownership and profits, and is provided one-on-one resource navigation assistance;

Whereas outside of printing services, East Bay DSA actually has a regular practice of using non-union services even when a worker-owned or unionized option is available i.e. Dominos pizza instead of Arizmendi at general meetings; 

Whereas merch needs to look unique and fashionable in order for people to actually wear it. Merch that is bland simply looks like corporate advertising;

Whereas merch is a great way to raise awareness of PTA’s organizing efforts as well as of East Bay DSA. This can lead to new membership. The cooler a project is and looks, the more likely people will want to join;

Whereas PTA would like to have shirts by the end of 2021 for actions planned in the new year;

Therefore be it resolved that the People’s Transit Alliance is approved to use a vendor other than Alliance Graphics if needed for screen-printing. This vendor will still be aligned with EBDSA’s values and priorities i.e. paying living wages and offering benefits to employees.

Therefore be it resolved that the People’s Transit Alliance is approved to receive up to $3400 in funding the purchase of 200 shirts that they will then sell and return all proceeds to the chapters bank account. The cost of shirts is currently estimated to be $15 each for the shirt and screenprinting, $200 for colorist comrade and $200 for clothing dyes, and will be sold at a sliding scale of $15 - 45 each.

Facilitated by Andrew

Motivation by Joty D

Q&A

Debate

Amendment by Graham, seconded by Maddy

Replacing "200" with "75" without changing the budget. 

Q&A:

Q: What does Joty think? A - Joty: can do it, and can likely save the print for future reproduction. 

Amendment Vote: PASSES by Acclimation

Resolution Debate

Resolution VOTE: PASSES 10 yes and 1 friendly abstain. 

C. Resolution to Launch a Berkeley Police Budget Reallocation Campaign

Submitted by Matthew L, Andrea M, Paola L

Whereas, East Bay DSA supports reducing police budgets and reallocating those resources to services such as social housing, healthcare, and increased education spending; and

Whereas, East Bay DSA is involved in efforts to reduce the budget of the El Cerrito Police Department; and

Whereas, in the neighboring city of Berkeley, there have been significant efforts by City Councilmembers to expand the surveillance state, by giving the police new automatic license plate readers and increasing the number of security cameras; and

Whereas, a coalition of various groups has been formed to oppose these efforts through reduce, improve, and reinvest strategies; and

Whereas, among numerous other reasons why socialists oppose the expansion of the surveillance state, it inevitably results in the expansion of police budgets; and

Whereas, every expansion of police budgets "signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed," those who are unhoused and housing insecure, and those who lack healthcare and have inadequate healthcare; and

Whereas, in the medium-term, prospective efforts by East Bay DSA to oppose the expansion of the surveillance state in Berkeley would be an excellent starting point for a chapter campaign to reduce the budget of the Berkeley Police Department; end racial disparities, militarism and harm by police; and reinvest in community services; and

Whereas, the Berkeley City Council has already referred giving the police new security cameras to the December budget revision process; and 

Whereas, in addition to funding new security cameras for the police, there is a concerning possibility that the Berkeley City Council may also use the December budget revision process to fund new automatic license plate readers and increase funding for the police in general; and

Whereas, this is expected to be the last East Bay DSA Steering Committee meeting before the council votes on the December budget revision, making this a time-sensitive resolution; and

Whereas, there are also efforts to increase the number of police officers, thereby requiring a bigger budget; and

Whereas, there are also efforts to create a crime suppression unit, which is modeled on previous practices like the occupation-style drug taskforce and would represent a reversal of even reform efforts of the past few years; and

Therefore be it resolved that East Bay DSA condemns the efforts to expand the racist, militaristic police state in Berkeley and endorses the efforts to fully oppose it; and

Therefore be it resolved that East Bay DSA will participate in the anti-surveillance coalition, including by sending a representative(s) to meetings; and

Therefore be it resolved that East Bay DSA will begin a campaign to reduce funding for Berkeley police department, including working with local organizations that support doing so.

Motivated by Paola L and Mathew L

Q&A: 

Q - Jess B: who else will be involved? A - Paola: Berkeley COmmunity Safety Coalition, RCJA, ACLU

Shane - Motion to extend by 20 minutes; seconded by Neder

Motion Vote: PASSES by acclimation

Q - Hasan: Are there people you reached out to bottom line it? A - Matthew L: got some feedback from DSA members and defund members. 

Motion to Amend, seconded by Carlos.

To separate the final “there for be it resolved” from the rest. 

Motion vote: PASSES by acclimation. 

Resolution debate:

Against: Shane - not clear who from DSA will work on BPA, NO a clear plan for victory.

For: Hasan - Sees this as a reasonable step in our capacity, and strategic to organize around. 

Call to question Shane, seconded by Hasan - PASSES

Resolution to Launch a Berkeley Police Budget Reallocation Campaign (amended)

Resolution vote: FAILS: 3 Yes, 7 No

V. Report Back: Ali’s work as YDSA Liaison

By Ali N

Chapters Albany High, UC Berkeley are the active chapters. 

Discussion: How EBDSA can support YDSA [20 minutes]

More consistent support and interaction between YDSA and the East Bay Chapter. 

Increasing engagement. 

VI. Meeting Adjourned

Adjourned at 4:36

*****SUPPORTING REFERENCES*******

Peach Within The People’s Transit Alliance Flyer

Draft of Shirt

Some changes to copy and fonts still being made

Reference Images of Peach Color