Steering Committee Meeting Agenda November 10th, 2022
East Bay DSA
Steering Committee Meeting Agenda
November 10th, 2022
7-8pm
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82672171030?pwd=wEcJ3vtLWn7B7fa0Ki6dqih3Kn4bCM.1
Meeting ID: 826 7217 1030
Passcode: 466367
Steering Committee Agenda
- Settle in 7:00PM-7:05PM [5 min]
- Nelson S
- Carlos O
- Michael S
- Yari G
- Max M
- Ella T
- Kabir K
- Mathew L
- Nick
- Graham D
- Susan
- Hasan
- Approval of Agenda 7:05AM-7:10AM [5 min]
- APPROVED via ACCLIMATION
- Discussion 7:10PM-7:20PM [10 min]
- December SC Social [Yari] 3 minutes
- GM Agenda [Maddy Grace]
- The Napa-Solano Branch petition needed to be voted on the GM
- 20% membership signatories acquired
- Approved via ACCLIMATION
- SEIU Staff strike support resolution incoming By Matt To.
- Announcing the Steering Committee vacant seat elections
- County Wide Eviction Moratorium potential resolution
- Shaving off 10 minutes of off announcements for Branches discussions/votes -> move to consent agenda APPROVED
- New Business 11:00AM-12:00PM [40 Minutes]
- Resolution to Replace Shane as Manager through the New Year [Shane]
- Motivated by Ella T
- Regular check in @ Noon
- Nominations:
- Yari: herself
- Hasan: Yari, seconded by Graham - Yari ACCEPTS
- APPROVED BY ACCLIMATION
- Resolution to Lease 641 17th Street [Yari]
- Motivated by Yari and Ella
- Q&A
- debate
- Motivated by
- Q&A
- Debate
- Motivated by
- Q&A
- debate
- Motivated by
- Q&A
- debate
Consent Agenda
[none]
NEW BUSINESS
Resolution to Replace Shane as Manager Through the New Year
Submitted by Shane Ruiz
Whereas, Shane R needs a break,
Whereas, the chapter staffer needs daily guidance, approval of certain tasks, and coaching,
Therefore be it resolved [name] will replace Shane R as staff manager until January 1st,
Therefore be it resolved, the replacement manager will do their best to meet with the staffer for at least 30 minutes every weekday that the staffer is working.
Resolution to Sign a Lease for 641 17th Street
Submitted by Yari Greaney
WHEREAS East Bay DSA membership voted for the chapter to get an office in fall of 2021.
WHEREAS there is growing interest in holding more in-person meetings and events
WHEREAS a team of chapter members has spent a total of eight months actively searching for an appropriate office space
WHEREAS an office with a large open space will enable members to organize in-person more regularly and engage more members more deeply in chapter efforts.
WHEREAS the Steering Committee has discussed a monthly budget of $2,000-$2,500 for an office, with a preference for more affordable spaces.
WHEREAS an office in or near Oakland, and near a BART station, provides convenience for a plurality of current chapter members.
WHEREAS an office on ground floor is more accessible than an upstairs office
WHEREAS it will be easier for chapter members to access supplies if we have an office that can accommodate some storage space
WHEREAS we have the opportunity to sign a lease for an office space at 641 17th St Berkeley, which consists of about 700 sq ft divided into two rooms and a bathroom, which enough space for meetings and some storage, is a 7 minute walk from the 19th St BART station, is $2,000/month, and is on the ground floor
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Steering Committee Chairs will promptly sign the lease for 641 17th St, Oakland with a start date of December 1, 2022.
Resolution to Authorize Staffer to Help Jumpstart Systems for Ongoing Member Development
Submitted by Yari G
Whereas, all members of East Bay DSA can benefit from ongoing skill development, political education,
Whereas, the chapter will be stronger and more engaged if there are systems in place enabling systematic leadership development
Whereas, skills trainings do not currently occur regularly or systematically, and do not consistently connect with and build upon members’ work in the chapter
Whereas, most members of the chapter lack peer mentors who are intentionally engaging them and providing opportunities for them to grow their organizing skills, leadership within the chapter, and political development
Whereas, many chapter bodies and efforts suffer from lack of capacity, despite the chapter’s size
Whereas, the Ongoing Membership Engagement subcommittee of the Membership Engagement Committee is low on capacity and supports staff capacity going toward creating systems to support ongoing membership engagement,
Therefore be it resolved, we authorize the East Bay DSA staffer to work with chapter leaders to explore and establish a system to improve ongoing member engagement throughout the chapter,
Therefore be it resolved, this system or systems may include, but will not necessarily entail or be limited to: better integration of secure member engagement data with campaign and committee work, trainings on effective leadership development and ladders of engagement, development of ongoing member engagement roles embedded within existing chapter bodies and campaigns, centralized organizing skills training including regular follow-up to help trainees integrate learnings into practice, or recruitment of individuals to an ongoing membership development cohort that could learn and implement practices that will help improve membership development across the chapter
Therefore be it resolved, the staffer will work with chapter leaders to establish practices that are designed by and operated by chapter members, and which does not rely on ongoing staff capacity
Resolution to Systematize and Prioritize Email Communications
Co-sponsored by Shane R, Kat O, and Ella T
Whereas, email communications are an important tool for mobilizing our existing membership to our events and political priorities,
Whereas, the chapter currently has an informal system but no written guidelines for regulating the volume and content of email messages that go to members,
Whereas, receiving too many or low-quality email messages can cause members to opt out of or not respond to emails, which has a negative impact on our ability to do turnout,
Therefore be it resolved that the Staff Organizer will review email message copy and contact list requests to make sure they follow best practices; after reviewing the copy and contact list request, the Staff Organizer may approve the email message, offer edits to copy that would help the SMS copy conform to best practices, and/or suggest adjusting the audience targeting to be more relevant to the email message;
Therefore be it resolved that email messages to the entire membership (always with the best practice of not messaging any contacts who have opted out from email contact) must meet one of the following criteria:
- Related to chapter-wide socials or General Meetings
- Related to fundraising
- Related to rapid-response events about political happenings, i.e. marches or rallies responding to national or political news
- Authorized by an online vote of the Steering Committee
- Related to Night School
- Related to a chapter priority passed at convention
Therefore be it resolved that, where the email message request does not meet the above criteria to use the chapter-wide list, campaign and committee leaders who decide to send an email message will intentionally target the audience to less than the full membership, with the Staff Organizer and/or members of Operations providing support on whom to target by identifying relevant affinity groupings, such as geographic location, committee membership, campaign involvement or opting in to contacts related to the email topic via event sign-in (many of these affinities are available already as tags in NationBuilder),
Therefore be it resolved that the SC establishes the guideline that no member should receive more than 3 email messages per week, with the ability to make exceptions and go up to 4 per week if something is urgently requested by the SC;
Therefore be it resolved that the chapter will use the next three months (Nov 2022-Jan 2023) to train an Email Comms person for each active committee, campaign and working group (ie the meetings group) who has permissions to implement email messages, so that these designated Email Comms folks can implement targeted email messages.
Resolution to Do an Email List Swap with EBDSA Partners
Submitted by Shane Ruiz and Ella Teevan
Whereas, East Bay DSA has worked with several candidates and groups, namely Jovanka Beckles, Oakland Education Association, and Richmond Progressive Alliance (herein “partners”), who have significant ideological and geographic overlap with our chapter,
Whereas, we aim to grow the chapter in numbers and in the direction of the multiracial working class, a group that makes up some of the constituency of each of these partners,
Whereas, adding people to East Bay DSA’s email and text lists puts in front of them the opportunity to come to our events, become volunteers, and pay dues to our chapter,
Therefore be it resolved that the Staff Organizer (Ella Teevan) will pursue an email “list swap” action with each of the three partners; this means each partner will send an email to their own email list with an East Bay DSA signup form of some kind to be defined by agreement with the partners; this action will collect their email addresses (and phone numbers if possible, to be determined by agreement with the partners),
Therefore be it resolved that East Bay DSA can offer in exchange that we will send an email to our own list with a signup on behalf of each partner, to be determined by agreement with the partners, wherein each partner gives East Bay DSA members the chance to join the partner’s email list;
Therefore be it resolved that the exact ask of each partner’s email will be determined following discussion and may include but not be limited to a pledge to take future action, an event signup, or a donation ask,
Therefore be it resolved that any person who joins our email and text lists from these list swaps will be tracked so that people doing membership engagement can follow up with them.