Steering Committee Meeting Agenda June 26th, 2022

2-4 pm

I. Settle in

1. Carlos O
2. Matthew T
3. Shane R
4. Andrew R
5. Michael S
6. Renee P
7. LInsey M
8. Max M
9. Kat O
10. Neder GS
11. Annika B
12. Yari G
13. Nick R
14. Maddy GW
15. Graham D
16. Jess B
17. Benny Z
18. Mathew L
19. Hasan A

II. Approval of Agenda

A. Consent Agenda

Resolution to Transfer Legal Responsibilities to New Steering Committee Members

Submitted by: Lindsey M

Whereas outgoing members of the Steering Committee are signatories to the chapter’s bank accounts

Whereas the names of outgoing members of the Steering Committee appear on various legal documents 

Whereas incoming Steering Committees should assume those responsibilities and be the signatories on legal documents the state requires for officers of 501(c)(4)s

Whereas the Treasurer has historically administered the Chapter’s G-Suite and Password Manager

Therefore be it resolved that both the outgoing and incoming Treasurer will coordinate the removal of existing signatories and the addition of new signatories to the chapter’s bank account and to the documents described below as soon as possible.

Documents and signatories

1. Officers listed on CA Form SI-100

Resolution

EBDSA’s next filing of the CA SI-100 will list the following roles and individuals:

Chief executive officer/president: Shane Ruiz or Hasan A.

Secretary: Juan Carlos Ocasio Jr.

Chief financial officer/treasurer: Graham Denevan

The members of the board will be also revised to match the members of the incoming Steering Committee.

Incoming Treasurer Graham Denevan will perform this filing at the earliest convenience. SI-100 is due in the second half of the fiscal year, or after June 30th.

Rationale

Form SI-100 lists basic information about a California nonprofit corporation, including contact information and the identities of its officers and board. The following are listed as our current officers: Shane Ruiz (co-Chair), Juan Carlos Ocasio Jr. (Secretary), and Lindsey Moore (Treasurer).

The officer roles listed in the SI-100 don’t align particularly well to our leadership structure. In particular, we have two co-chairs, and no such “chief executive officer” nor “president” role. As such, these titles have effectively no bearing on the internal operation of the chapter. There may be fine-print legal responsibilities attached to these designations, but thus far it has not been a concern except as a requirement for completing the SI-100. What’s more important is that the names do reflect current leadership, as opposed to past leadership.

2. Bank signers for 501(c)(4) bank account

Resolution

Addition of new bank signers

The Treasurer, as a requirement of her duties, have access to the chapter’s bank accounts. As a back-up, however, it is prudent to have an additional bank signer who can access Chapter funds in the exigent circumstances. The signers of the EBDSA chapter bank account will be as follows:

Graham Denevan (treasurer)

Juan Carlos Ocasio Jr. (recording secretary)

The current treasurer, Lindsey Moore, is authorized to initiate the transition paperwork at any time and will coordinate with the incoming recording secretary.

Removal of existing bank signers

The outgoing Treasurer, Lindsey Moore, will be removed as a bank signer as soon as possible.

Rationale

Bank signers are “co-owners” of the chapter bank account, and are authorized to withdraw money, sign checks, change signers, etc. EBDSA’s bank, Beneficial State Bank, requires approved minutes in order to initiate this process. The process involves collecting multiple rounds of signatures from the incoming signers, and takes about a week to complete.

3. Administration of G-Suite and Password manager

Resolution

The chapter Treasurer shall continue to be the administrator of the chapter’s G-Suite and Password Manager

Rationale

The Treasurer has historically performed these responsibilities and administration of the systems enable the Treasurer to maintain control over sensitive information, including bank account information and passwords.

B. VOTE: APPROVED VIA ACCLIMATION

III. Committee Reports

A. Recording Secretary (Carlos)

1. Votes at the May Steering Committee Meeting
2. Resolution to authorize Solano + Napa County Branch Socials passed 8 yes, 2 no ; 1 absian
3. Resolution for Hayward Branch Socials - passed 9 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain
4.   Resolution to Buy Equipment for Hybrid Meetings - passed Resolution vote, 10 yes, 1 no, 0 abstain

• Votes at the June Convention

1. Resolution to Amend Endorsement Process to Add “Support” Tier - VOTE FAILS via CLEAR MAJORITY POLLING
2. Resolution to Un-Endorse Mike Hutchinson - PASSES UNANIMOUSLY
3. Resolution to Endorse Nikki Fortunato Bas for City Council District 2 - passed via clear majority
4. Resolution to Endorse Janani Ramachandran for City Council District 4 - failed yes:28 no:50 abstain: 14
5. Resolution to Endorse Eduardo Martinez for Mayor - passed unanimously
6. Jamin Pursell for City Council district 4 - PASSES VIA CLEAR MAJORITY
7. Labor Solidarity Priority Campaign Proposal - passed clear majority
8. Resolution to Endorse Richmond Progressive Alliance Priority Campaign Proposal - passed - clear majority
9. Resolution for East Bay DSA to Hire a Staffer - passed via clear majority
10. Resolution for Quarterly General Meetings + Re-Establishing a Meetings Cmte - divided between Quarterly and Meetcom portions of the therefore - both passed via clear majority
11. Amendment to Dissolve the Communications Secretary Position & Add an At-Large Seat polled favorability
12. Amendment to Rotate Chairs of Chapter Meetings unfavorability - clear majority pollining 

• Online Votes

1. Resolution to approve data access for MEC leads - passed 10 yes 2 abstains
2. Resolution to support a petition + action on 6/23 protesting Barbara Lee's recent Ukraine vote - passed 7 yes 2 no 2 abstains

B. Treasurer (Lindsey)

• $52K in the DSA bank

IV. Discussion

A. Outgoing SC: Reflection on our term

•  What did we do well, what could be improved? Highlights: 

1. Well: the bowman affair
2. Well: experiment with a staffer
3. Well: the Hutchinson affair
4. Well: branches and the richmond social
5. Well: labor circles, new member onboarding
6. Improve: being mindful of paving a path that could lead us to go right
7. Improve: quorum issue - hybrid meeting; recruiting DSA member for codre candidates
8. Improve: more coherent leadership tactics
9. Improve: one on one engagement
10. improve : better more experimental Labor org
11. Improve - more social centered on political tasks

B. Incoming SC Convo

• What we passed at convention, and what needs to be done? Highlights:

1. Hire a staffer
2. Money to pay a staffer vs Diminishing returns
3. Create a Meetings Committee
4. ME: continuous surveying of concerns in the east bay. 
5. Bring people into RPA and Labor Solidarity campaigns

V. NEW BUSINESS

A. Resolution to consolidate Membership Engagement, Political Education, and Communication Committees

Submitted by Laura C., Lexi R., Matthew L., Michael S., Eric V., Kat O., and Erica W.

Whereas, it’s critical for a mass, volunteer-led organization like EBDSA to run efficiently and minimize as much administrative overhead as possible;

Whereas, the Membership Engagement, Political Education, and Communication Committees all serve a similar goal to improve the engagement, education, and experience of our chapter’s existing and potential members;

Whereas, in order to build a mass movement, it is critical to create a membership with a shared, cohesive political vision;

Whereas, the Membership Engagement, Political Education, and Communication Committees have all faced similar resource constraints in the past two years concerning volunteers and leadership;

Whereas, there are clear opportunities for these committees to aid in the efforts of each’s work;  

Whereas, the ongoing programming of these separate committees would benefit from their collaboration as a whole;

Whereas, the consolidation of these committees would reduce administrative overhead and increase the time volunteers can spend on what they do best and find most energizing - building relationships, facilitating communication, and implementing chapter programming;

Whereas, the Membership Engagement and Political Education committees have independently discussed, debated, and voted on this proposed merger and both of these committees have agreed to do so with little to no opposition;

Whereas, the Communications Committee did not have the capacity to meet but the proposal was also met with no opposition;

Whereas, the Communications Secretary, Membership Engagement and Political Education committees unitedly approach the Steering Committee with this resolution; 

Therefore be it resolved that the East Bay DSA Steering Committee endorse the consolidation of the Membership Engagement, Political Education, and Communication committees under the newly named Membership, Education, and Communications Committee, with the goal of educating and engaging membership, effective immediately

Be it further resolved that, upon consolidation, this committee will meet at a cadence that best serves the needs of the group (monthly to begin), while its subcommittees will continue to operate uninterrupted as they do today 

Be it further resolved that the formation of this committee will not exclude the consolidation of further committees if desired 

Motivated by Laura C

Q&A

DEBATE

VOTE Passes - 9 yes - 3 no 1 abstain

B. Resolution in Support of Effective DSA Participation at the 2022 Berkeley Rent Board Convention

Submitted by: Matthew L, Hasan A

WHEREAS, in February, the East Bay DSA Steering Committee unanimously passed the Resolution to Co-Sponsor and Participate in the 2022 Berkeley Rent Board Convention; and

WHEREAS, among other reasons to cosponsor the Convention, the resolution specifically cited “Influence over who is slated for the Rent Board. While all the candidates can be expected to support rent control, given the status Rent Board commissioners have, it is important to ensure that slate members do not have bad views on other issues (e.g. land use)” and “Increased chances of DSA members being slated for and elected to the Rent Board. In addition to building the credibility of DSA, doing so can build a bench of DSA candidates for higher office in the future;” and

WHEREAS, multiple candidates at the 2022 Convention are either sitting East Bay DSA-endorsed incumbents or East Bay DSA members; and

WHEREAS, in order to better understand which candidates best align with DSA’s values, East Bay DSA interim representative to the 2022 Rent Board Convention (and Steering Committee member-elect) Matthew L, in consultation with both East Bay DSA Electoral Committee Co-Chair and outgoing Steering Committee member Neder G-S and UC Berkeley YDSA Communications Chair and representative to the 2022 Rent Board Convention Erik H, created a “mini supplemental questionnaire;” and

WHEREAS, said questionnaire contained Primarily yes-no questions from East Bay DSA’s official questionnaire, e.g. “Are you a socialist,” “Will you allow DSA to keep copies of all data we collect through voter contact,” “Do you support BDS,” and “Do you pledge not to take any campaign contributions from[list of reactionary sources]” A few non-yes-no questions from East Bay DSA’s official questionnaire, e.g. “What do you see as the role of DSA in your campaign? And how will this campaign contribute to building DSA” and “What do you see as the role of DSA once you are in office? And how will you use your position to contribute to building DSA” On a few occasions when there were not appropriate yes-no binary questions on the official East Bay DSA questionnaire, questions from Our Revolution East Bay’s questionnaire, e.g. “Do you support a Green New Deal with the policies proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” and “Do you OPPOSE the use of capital punishment in all situations”

WHEREAS, Matthew L, Erik G, and East Bay DSA Steering Committee Member and Co-Chair-Elect Hasan A (who is serving as SEIU 1021’s representative to the 2022 Rent Board Convention) caucused together to (among other things) determine the ratings that the representatives of East Bay DSA and UC Berkeley YDSA would give to each of the 7 candidates; and

WHEREAS, they decided that East Bay DSA and UC Berkeley YDSA’s screeners would give six of the candidates - Mari Mendonca, Negeene Mosaed, Vanessa Danielle Marrero, Della Moran, Ida Martinac, and Soli Alpert - the highest possible rating — 4 - Highly Recommended; and

WHEREAS, after reviewing those candidates’ responses to the main Convention questionnaire and the DSA supplemental questionnaire and interviewing them, they did not feel that there were any serious issues with those candidates that would cause the chapter not to endorse them if they were slated by the Rent Board Convention; and

WHEREAS, the aforementioned screeners did have concerns about the seventh candidate and gave her a rating of 2 - Acceptable; and

WHEREAS, following the screening (i.e. interview) stage, it is common/acceptable for pre-Convention slates to form and for sponsoring organizations to do turnout for candidates they prefer; and

WHEREAS, such efforts are often successful, unless there is a competing effort;

WHEREAS, there is currently such pre-Convention slate slate forming which includes the candidates that DSA’s screeners had concerns about; and

WHEREAS, it would be very unideal if that were slated and it turned out that DSA did not feel comfortable endorsing her; this would be particularly bad because almost all of the campaigning done by the slate will be done as a slate, making a DSA endorsement of only 4/5 candidates not very effective (especially given DSA’s desire to avoid paper endorsements); and

WHEREAS, as mentioned above, the Resolution to Co-Sponsor and Participate in the 2022 Berkeley Rent Board Convention specifically cited, among other reasons to cosponsor the Convention, “Influence over who is slated for the Rent Board. While all the candidates can be expected to support rent control, given the status Rent Board commissioners have, it is important to ensure that slate members do not have bad views on other issues (e.g. land use);” and

WHEREAS, DSA can and should push for DSA members (and non-member contacts) to vote in the Convention (which is open to all Berkeley residents who are at least thirteen and make certain pledges on tenants rights) and specifically vote for the 6 candidates that East Bay DSA has ranked highest; and

WHEREAS, the UC Berkeley YDSA Central Committee has already signed off on doing such a joint effort with East Bay DSA;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that East Bay DSA will update its messaging to members (and non-member contacts) who live in Berkeley about voting in the Berkeley Rent Board Convention to include recommending that they rank Mari Mendonca, Negeene Mosaed, Vanessa Danielle Marrero, Della Moran, Ida Martinac, and Soli Alpert at the top of their ballot; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that for the avoidance of doubt, this resolution does not constitute an automatic endorsement by East Bay DSA of any of those candidates who are slated by the Rent Board Convention, nor does it entail an automatic recommendation for endorsement from either the Electoral Committee or the Steering Committee. All candidates slated by the Rent Board Convention must still earn a chapter endorsement through the normal process; and

WHEREAS, because National DSA’s Zoom account is being used to host the Convention itself on Zoom, East Bay DSA has access to contact information for everyone who registers for the Rent Board Convention; however, the use of said data to influence the results of the 2022 Rent Board Convention would likely be seen as unethical; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that East Bay DSA will NOT use contact information it has from hosting the Convention Zoom for the purpose of promoting any candidates at the 2022 Rent Board Convention (nor will it provide such data to UC Berkeley YDSA, or any other DSA entity, for that purpose); and

WHEREAS, it is clear that Matthew L is going to continue serving as East Bay DSA’s East Bay DSA’s representative to the 2022 Rent Board Convention for the rest of the process, and not merely as an interim representative;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Matthew L is appointed as East Bay DSA’s permanent representative to the 2022 Rent Board Convention.

Motivated by MAthew L

Q&A

Motion to move into executive session - approved via acclimation

• E.S. concluded

RESOLUTION VOTE - fails 11 no 2 abstains

VI. Adjourns at 4:15