Thanks everyone for hopping on. I think probably common. Riley Yeah, I'm here
I think my partner has a beating
Oh, you're a little you're a little choppy
talk louder Is it better?
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it is
all right
okay, it's coming to order. Um, well we have quorum not on here but valid the calculation for the last six months and forum for I believe. Right Paola. Okay, so we have enough we have, what do we have? For eight? Now? I'm gonna quit. Okay, so are there any changes to the order business? Anyone wants to make? Nope. Okay. Moving on roll call. Meeting leaders. A lead with meeting during committee is present. We all know who everyone is. Not here. Okay, they're missing a quarter. Okay. And we do a quorum, and everyone knows each other. We're gonna move on knowing Okay, so we have to approve the minutes of the previous meeting during committee meeting. The minutes for the general meeting from November 9 and steering committees around the 17 steering committee meetings are under the 17 thread they're posted on the forum are there any corrections to the minutes okay Hearing none the minutes are approved as posted we went on any reports of members that are new or destructive
I got my tooth I'm still dealing with I got an appointment for the root canal at least finally for next week though. So progress
was good. Okay.
Reports of officers and committees probably have anything to report Nope. We haven't gotten emails or anyone. Riley membership coordinator anything to report?
I'm not really just working on handbooks and stuff. Are we supposed to this week at least?
Okay. campaign. We do have update for the Indian campaign that we plan later. But it's not here for Ewok the guy doing the walk organizing for that we've been working with it reached out recently and said that they hired a microphone or they put in a bunch of policies at his workplace the number everyone who's been trying to get an organizing committee we tend to do we go and we're kind of put up like a meeting between us and Northland reality day and whoever he wants to bring along to help them kind of move through the move to the product and he walked called me yesterday or two days ago that update and again if you want to debate any walk by labor organizing people any unfinished okay is by ballot you want
Hello, I hope everyone can hear me um, so steering committee is aware of this but general membership may not be without tax exempt status from the California Franchise Tax Board all corporations, including nonprofits are subject to pay an annual minimum franchise tax of $800 The California Franchise Tax Board. In order to secure tax exempt status from the California Franchise Tax Board, we need to first obtain tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service by submitting IRS Form 1024. A. Until we are recognized as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501. C four, we will most likely not be able to open a nonprofit account at any of our local banks. I put this on the agenda because this forum has turned into a can that we keep kicking down the road. And I don't want us to eventually run out of road and end up in a place where our member dues get eaten up for the next six months to pay off an $800 tax that we could have avoided if we had just prioritized it sooner. Nowadays, left movements and organizations don't need to be crushed through violence. There are laws and court systems that can be wielded against us to do that if we don't have our affairs in order. So we need to keep placing dates on the calendar to work on this until it gets done. Since the last general, we had one zoom call where three of us went over for one zero to four A. Some of it is straightforward, but some of it isn't. None of us are tax experts or experts in nonprofit law and regulations. So there's a lot of questions we end up asking ourselves. And that brings me to the subject of whether or not we should have the paperwork reviewed by a lawyer during a consultation, it'll probably be somewhere between 202 $150 It's not cheap. But keep in mind that the typical processing time for this application is four to six months. And the time it takes to get tax exempt status could be longer if there are errors or omissions or things on the form that the IRS has questions about. So it might be worth it to get legal advice. But any lawyer will tell you that they can't guarantee results. So I'd also understand if membership just wanted to roll the dice. submit the application and see what happens. By a show of hands, who thinks we should pay for a consultation? Raise your hand if you do.
Okay, it looks like none of us are foreign. Okay.
I'm only thinking of like, if it means expediting the process and avoiding, like, more confusion. I'm also wondering like, if there is also I just think of like YouTube, Like, is there like illegal advice YouTube account or something that we can like deep dive into? And like try to figure out on our own. But if that has been done and tried then and then also like for those that have reviewed it? And it's still confusing, then it seems like doing that seems more feasible then, like you said, kicking it down or late longer. There's nothing here, but
there are there are left wing, like lawyer groups that will do consultations for free. I, I'll try to remember the name of it, but there's an Instagram that is attached to one of those groups. And so they might be willing to help us with that. Also, DSA might be able to, you know, we might not have to pay for it, it's what I mean.
Well, they might be able to, I mean, they might be able to give us the information.
So that's what I was gonna say, pallets then during like a link to get to phase one or two for a form and paperwork. So we can take a look at that. And I think we should probably look at, like, if that's not very satisfactory. Or do it anyways, like other left wing words that are similar to what we're trying to do? Let's see what they say. Like a BSA. We're probably going to be okay with like, something similar. But I mean, like, follow the thing. It's like it matters and it also like, they can help you. No matter what if they want a puppy. But like New York City, DSA is getting food for like, something that they were told is okay, like by their equivalent of the registrar's office. So, you know, there's yeah, there's like, limits on how but like, I agree, we need to get it done. Yeah. You want to you have your motion here for
I only put down a motion if we wanted you to the consultation, because then we would have you know, assigned those responsibilities to someone and then we would have set a budget or at least motion to have those people reimbursed later with our dues. But since we're not going to go that route, we can just skip this and treat it as a discussion item.
Or pray You're very quiet compared to Paulo.
Okay, let me let me make sure
I would Yeah, I would turn your channel up a little bit.
There's not okay.
Okay, here you go. Yeah. Okay, it
helps when it's not turned all the way down. Days at least so or at least have pressed by like the end of the next two weeks, submit the PRA request for like maybe three other similar orcs. And then what's the timeline? I'm getting them Do you know,
they don't have a timeline. Unfortunately, there
are some less so Chris did see that you can actually just like if someone's already requested a PRA request, you can just download the form. Apparently, no one's requested DSHS before. So we can have like a meeting or we kind of just like two of us. Like if one other person wants to volunteer to do this with Chris. And me, we can go through other orgs try to find other one or two for a forums. Try to have at least three and then maybe by like the next general meeting, have like our finalized version. We can put it up like a week before everyone wants to review, see if you catch something that we didn't. And then since we don't, we can also try to like the left wing lawyer group. I can actually contacting immigration group, like a lawyer group that might be willing to help. Yeah, then we just roll the dice and submit it and see what happens. We can also we can always submit edits. Like that's not that big of a problem. So yeah, so do Does anyone want to offer to help Chris with this? One more person? Adri has nominee Oh, someone's
got her hand up.
I can also help. Okay,
so that's two folks. Okay. We can just set a date just with Chris. Hey, Chris. We're talking about you. Yeah, the forum.
Oh, no, he's Yeah. Okay. So good. All right. So Chris, by the is not really voted on, but just kind of agreeing as a group that, in the next couple of weeks meet with Bessemer and Adri, to look up other organizations with one or two for a forms like that, we can just pull or submit prs. And then if we can get something back in time, get it kind of finished, like by the end of this month, and then post it and then maybe at the next meeting, we can just vote on finalizing it and then sending it in.
There's a form called the higher ed the 8872, which is I guess, all orgs are all nonprofits have to file and it's like a searchable thing on IRS website. But it requires either it required like a nother description of the org, which I was unsure of. I didn't know if we had to be an established organization to file for that. Or if it just was that was just part of the process. But I'm in the process of doing because I'm trying to figure out exactly. If it's an foi thing or if it's something you can just search but there's also an option to opt out of having your ad somebody do search. There's a chance that might not work. But I'm in the process. Okay.
Let's move on. Alright
Wait, let me see what's happening here. Okay, I'm just gonna present this something you don't next section. Okay, so these are just our communication bylaws for the steering committee. So steering committee members are should utilize communication channels approved by the membership or discussing WC business. And these channels should be accessible to all members in good standing for viewing and commenting. And for transparency purposes during committee members should strive to maintain transparency in their decision making process. avoiding any appearance of decisions being made in close channels, and then justifications and reasoning for our decisions should be provided to the general membership as appropriate. So just as an add on to what Powell is gonna talk about, we do have any questions about why we're doing anything? You should feel free to ask. Okay.
So yeah, I submitted this item to address the steering committee, Whatsapp group and communication channels broadly, operate just read on the thing was in our bylaws that pertain to this topic. So a steering committee Whatsapp group was created and utilized exclusively, exclusively by steering committee members, it was not approved by membership and members in good standing did not have access to it. And that's a problem because members need to be able to view and comment on steering committee communications so we can have transparency and accountability over the people we've elected. Since the last meeting, the contents of that particular Whatsapp group were posted behind the member wall of the discourse forum. I don't feel the need to address it further. I think it's well understood now that steering as a committee should not be communicating in any channel, whether that be emails, group texts, private group messaging on social media that is not sanctioned by membership, and is inaccessible to those of us in good standing. So hopefully, that doesn't happen again in the future. Does anyone have questions for steering before moving on to the broader topic of communication channels? Okay, moving on, so we never got around to it. But communication channels need to be authorized and approved by membership. We have the discourse Forum and the WhatsApp general discussion group chat, but those things were never formally agendized discussed and voted on. They were created, and we were sort of just told to join them. So now's the opportunity for us to decide together how we, we want to communicate as an organization. If we can go to the next slide, these are questions that I hope will guide us to consensus. Okay. So some of the questions I had put down was, Do you like what's currently in place? What works? What doesn't work? Are there other platforms, we should consider discord, signal, etc. If using more than one communication channel, how should each be used. But first we'll start off with should we use one or more than one communication channel, consider the benefits and drawbacks of using one versus more than one. And keep in mind this is about how we will communicate as a group, it will still be at your discretion how you choose to communicate between one another on an individual basis. So that means if at the end of this, the majority, for example, agrees that we should only use a forum. But perhaps two members prefer using signal, then those two members can use signal for their private communications one on one, this vote is only about getting on the same page about how we'll communicate collectively, not your individualized private communications. And so for me, I think having to check two communication channels is probably a bit of a hassle. our digital lives are already overcrowded with emails, texts, social media and other things we're having to monitor. And if members aren't consistent about checking both it can lead them to miss out on things, it can cause confusion, especially if there aren't established guidelines for how each channel should be used, which is sort of the situation we find ourselves in right now. Bessemer is new. And I don't know that any one of us could draw out clear lines of distinction for her on how WhatsApp should be used versus the discourse forum. I think this split and how we communicate is inefficient. If we had just one place for everything, people wouldn't have to be redirected from one platform to another to cast a vote or to have a conversation. You wouldn't have to do all this wrangling and things would probably be a lot less complicated if we had a singularly dedicated spot. But those are just some of my thoughts. Would anyone like to go next?
Okay. I do think that yes, the communication having multiple communication channels can can definitely be a hassle. It sometimes is, for me, at least when it comes to the the chat forum, I think the like our own like, what are we calling it? Forum? Yeah. At least for me, I need to make sure I can be notified or get receiving notifications. So I think for me, like the, the WhatsApp has been reliable for that. But considering that most of our stuff is on the forum, you know, or it's all being stored there in some way that it makes sense to want to, you know, try to centralize it into one place. But it leaves with the issue of you know, whether we can't be notified. You know, there are there's an app for that, I guess, I do think it barely works. Okay, there
is an app, I worked for some people worked on for others, like I get all foreign notifications on my phone, and O'Reilly doesn't you don't. It's very inconsistent. If you ask the developers, they're like, Oh, well, it worked for us. And then that's it. So the notification on the forum thing, just if we were to stick with it, and only Get, we would need to, like investigate or invest in something that would then allow us to like hype those notifications, like through something else and then to something like WhatsApp or slack. Anyways. Yeah,
I think overall to even WhatsApp signal, WhatsApp and signal from what I know is that they have like end to end encryption, encrypted encryption, excuse me. So there's a benefit of at least if we keep those or considered signal for example, there there is that behind it, but I'm not exactly sure what the best option is, though. I think considering WhatsApp has we have different groups for that, then, you know, we can work off of that. However, it may not be the best place to for files are, you know, working off different things. So I have similar sentiment, but I'm not sure what the solution is. Or I don't know what else to suggest yet.
Oh, Chrissy go next cognac.
Oh, you can go? No, go ahead.
Oh, okay. Well, well, sorry, what was gonna say is, I kind of think that having, I think we're going to end up kind of having to have more than one channel. And the reason is that, like, none of the existing social media, or like communication, apps, slash, you know, like software, none of those things really do everything that we need. And, you know, I think that like, we're already kind of spread out over like Google Drive, the forum, WhatsApp, you know, the, I think that that's functioning for us right now. And like, it doesn't, unless somebody unless somebody knows of like, something that works, like, does all those things in one, like, I kind of think it's okay, the way it is. That's that's just me, though. So.
So like Basecamp does, but it's closed source. So that's it like, the other problem is that you also have to whatever alternatives we looked at, like they should be open source and self postable. So that way, we don't get kicked out of like, all of our data, like Google Drive right now.
Yeah, I was just gonna jam it. Yeah. The forum. I like the forum being officially sanctioned, like just for business stuff. And then the WhatsApp just being sort of intro layer, almost where we can have general discussions and a WhatsApp group. And people could even join in if they didn't want to participate. I don't know, In what world I mean, ideally, everyone who's coming is participating in our meetings. But if someone's like, Well, I'm not ready to step into the forum yet, then there's just a layer before that, where they can and then if you breach that layer, it's like, hey, there's a vote going on, go to the forum for the vote.
I didn't know there was an app for the forum. So there could be a chance that you know, if after I download it, or something on my phone, that maybe that solves things. For me, I think overall, it was mostly like, even on my computer, like I needed the browser open in order to kind of receive notifications. But if there's something on the phone and it not solve things, then you know that that can be a way of you know, kind of, I mean, I'm just speaking for myself though, that it might make it easier and then it's like, okay, we don't need what WhatsApp when it comes to like day to day communications, though, or you know, talking about a topic like a current event, things like that, that may not pertain to working class, I can see where having some level of social camaraderie in some ways through WhatsApp can can be nice and benefit in helpful but if we wanted specific formalities stuff, then maybe it's just a matter of having to decide that all those things would just be communicated through one place and not through both.
Anyone else?
Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. I had one more thing I was gonna say. Oh, no, go ahead. Go on.
I was just gonna say that. I think, at least for me, the hardest thing to navigate has been the forum like I'm barely starting to get it and I'm like Audrey was saying, for me to get notifications, I either have to have it open, and sometimes I'll get emails. And sometimes I won't like it really just depends. It's just my lucky day if I do. But I do also understand that it's nice to have everything be on the forum, because it's like, open and also for new members to be able to go back and see like, Oh, this is what they were working on then and, you know, something like that. But I think, WhatsApp or even signal No, we haven't been like, oh, actually, I don't know. I don't think we've used it. But I like those more only because it feels more. I don't know, because it we all get notifications. I feel like people answer but like more quickly. And I don't know, personally, I just like WhatsApp, or signal more. But I also understand that it's very difficult to just go on to one platform, even though I think that that would make everything a lot less confusing.
Right? Yeah. So what I was gonna say is like, I think there's probably a way to, like automate posts from the forum to the WhatsApp. So like, if we made both of those official channels, then anyone who couldn't get notifications from the forum might be able to get notifications, just because the WhatsApp would see the post basically.
Yeah, the, the problem with inconsistent notifications on the forum is like each category, you can kind of set your level of notification. And so you know, things like steering committee minutes, if you don't care, you can just turn it off. And then if you're like, invested in Lieutenant union campaign, you can turn that to be like, every posts, email me, but all that stuff is kind of hidden and not very intuitive. So that's been a problem from the beginning of the forum. Personally, like the reason I advocated for the forum, for that I implemented it was, I've seen other organizations are organized exclusively through slack and like discord, or like chat groups, and you can't organize information, like, you know, now we have very clear your meeting minutes. And for working on the handbook, like here's a thread for handbooks, and you can like, just go find it, and see everything that's been discussed about a topic. But like in our chat thread, if we tried to do like topic by topic. It's like, we're, you know, sometimes they're doing three different things at the same time. And so it can get very confusing, and you can't track it. And so that's why the forum has been like a place where we're documenting things and we're having, like, we're trying to have our decisions and discussions about decisions being made on there. And the WhatsApp is more for socializing. But I know we'd like talked about making decisions and stuff on the WhatsApp group also. But yeah, the what is not just notification, it's like just having to go to the forum to post is less quick. Versus like replying to a text. So, yeah, I mean, I agree with Riley like the perfect app doesn't exist. So we kind of need both. But maybe we can kind of have a formal form more formal rules around what goes on the forum and what goes on the WhatsApp. So maybe that's something we can
Yeah, I mean, we could just leave the WhatsApp is like a informal placing if you know, for, like, informal forum or whatever, because like, right now, I'm using discord for a reading group that has nothing to do with working class unity, except it totally does. Because there's a bunch of white working class here and people that right, so like, it's has nothing to do with the organization as like a group. But it is a place where we're all meeting up, we could just have the WhatsApp be the same thing. Basically.
That's kind of what it is now. But I think maybe the added thing of it for deciding on something, then, like if there's already a thread made, and we're deciding on something, then really move it to the forum. And yeah,
pretty easily links it but like, if there's a boat going on, it's like, Hey, here's the boat. Here's the link to the forum
we should just use the forum for votes for formal votes, and we should try and link them whenever they become relevant. Ideally. Oh, yeah.
The only other thing I was going to add is I, I know that we've also been using WhatsApp before, like especially for canvassing We've been canvassing in the past or like, maybe it's, you know, we're gonna have this upcoming tenant union meeting. So in those cases, I would imagine WhatsApp is going to be used more because like, maybe that's faster, easier, more efficient, where we can have more guaranteed notification sent to people. And, you know, maybe last minute, we need to communicate with each other that, so when something is happening, or something is changing. Now, those are the only times that I can see that. If we create, like these hard lines, you know, we're only communicating specific stuff about so when whatever whatever in the forum, that if it's needed to use that, what, you know, do we catch ourselves, I mean, I don't know if we want to be that technical about it or not. But those are just situations where I think like, it would still be, or it has still been helpful to have what's up.
So maybe we should do something along the lines of like the forum is really meant for you know, how steering is supposed to make our decision making public, it's supposed to be the same thing for the membership. So like, if you're working on the handbook, instead of talking about it on WhatsApp exclusively with like three people, then no one else knows what the process actually was of developing the handbook, because you just did it all on your own. But if it was taking place on the forum, then not only do people get a chance to step in later, but we also see what the process is. So we don't end up like what I didn't want was everyone in their own little silos. And then you like repeat stuff over and over again, because you have no idea at these three people, like already tried everything that you're trying now. And so maybe there's no hard rule, but the general rule is, you feel like there should be documented and should be something that other members might want to see. Then you take the conversation over, or if you do end up having a conversation, what's that, summarize it and posted on the forum, just as like, a good manner thing for the forum for the membership. And it's not a hard line or anything, like the votes should obviously happen on the forum, because stuff that needs to be recorded, should be there. But other than that, use your best judgment.
Everyone Okay, with that?
I was just gonna, I wanted to ask something about, like, what would be the alternative? Like if we wanted to go like, okay, we're just going to do WhatsApp, like we would still use, like Google Docs, like, keep the documents and have a link to the folder. Are there any other options like in that kind of style?
I don't know of any chat program besides like, twist, which is $5 and pop, like per user? That,
obviously I think discord, Discord is literally the only other option. And it's not great in a lot of ways. Yeah,
the threads are not anywhere near as organized.
It does have like, it has a lot of the features that we're looking for. But it's lacking a lot of critical features too. So
when especially the thing where we could get locked out of it, like they could just say Delete. Yeah.
Which is the main thing we're like worried about. And then with WhatsApp, the problem is anyone you can't see anything old because it's encrypted.
Okay, I'll just make my final comments, because I know it's getting late. It's like 641 already. I think the issue for me with WhatsApp, like I understand like the need for private communications, end to end encryption, but I also, you know, this is going to be a mass membership organization, we're not going to be like vetting people, like based on our bylaws, technically, as long as you pay the dues, like you should be able to have access to this communication channel. And so by virtue of that, it's less secure because really, you know, you know, people were making enemies with could just pay off people to come and join the org and look at our communications. So end to end encryption for me, isn't that important in group chats? And that way, I think it's important on individual communications when you're sure you can trust that person, but anyone could just join us and just take screenshots of our you know, WhatsApp Channel Communications, anyway. And the other issue that I had with WhatsApp is you know, like, I didn't have a smartphone like for like months and I couldn't access WhatsApp because you have to like sign up through the app with your phone. And then you can pair it with like your laptop if you have a laptop and so like I was completely like left out of those communications even though our bylaws say like every member in good standing should have that. And even now because of The design of WhatsApp like even if I were to join now, I can't see like the communications you guys had before that. Um, so that's why I'm like really resistant with WhatsApp. But I understand like people wanting to keep keep using that.
Yeah, I mean, the reason for WhatsApp is because it's like the global platform for communication. So like all the people I met internationally, we got each other's WhatsApp numbers, and
whatnot. WeChat sorry. I'm sorry, I'm just making a joke. Terrified. Well done.
And like our 90 Day deletion on everything, so everything beyond 90 days gets deleted for everyone. And yeah, I mean, I yeah, there's like unique circumstances, I guess, but it's anything else will be less widely adopted. And less successful? Like, for organizing like all the data you need people use WhatsApp, because it is what? Like, every immigrant has WhatsApp. Well.
Yeah. Are they are they use Slack but the problem is like, we would have to pay for a slack for it to be as good as like WhatsApp, basically,
old people. So use Slack.
Slack is called slack is convoluted for, like, unnecessarily?
No. Everyone that uses teams officially as like, a business thing, like wants to kill Microsoft. I don't know what's wrong with it. But everyone's just like, never.
It's not that bad. It. Okay, I will. I'll let me give you an example. We use teams at work. And I yet the day before yesterday, it just decided to not send messages to anyone. So that and it's an Yeah, yeah, not great. Yeah,
I mean, there are plenty of other like cheaper programs also that that can work. It's just WhatsApp like everyone has it. And so if we wanted to make like a calcula, Whatsapp group, or like, mostly everyone will be able to join it.
I only mentioned that because the teams is part of the Microsoft. And then like, if it meant like file saving and sharing like that was that's like a whole other like place to do all of that and, and have things. So it could be a way of like, you have WC files that you can access through teams, and all of that. So and communication and video, etc. So that's why I brought it up. Because it it's a little comprehensive, kind of like Google. But yeah, I do. Yeah. Everyone in Mexico has WhatsApp. So yes, I get it.
Yeah, I mean, the problem with like, eventually, I'd like us to move off a Google Drive is the best thing we can do, like easily. Okay, I'm gonna like set a limit on this conversation, because very late, we've got a bunch of other stuff to do. So any final comments before? I'm just gonna motion what I mentioned before which was adopting the forum, and WhatsApp. And then as official platforms, keeping any official things that we'd know need to be documented on the forum, and basically just having a culture of okay, well, let me say it one way, I guess. Yeah, a motion to adopt the discourse forum in WhatsApp as the official communications of WC EU. And then maintaining that the forum is the place of record for any votes or any documentation, and that we adopt a culture that anything that members believe could be benefited by being viewed by other membership should be posted on the forum. And only communication that we believe membership won't lose anything from by disappearing over time. Should be kept on WhatsApp. And I get it second seconded by Joanna. Everyone in favor, raise your hand. Brandon, Brett's Adri, Robbie. Riley best smart. Any knows. How about snow? Okay, Motion approved. All right. Moving on. New business, no dealer. Okay. Sorry, more somewhat boring things. Okay, so this is the bylaw modification that we voted on last last time for a quorum. And so I did propose two amendments which we have to approve. If we don't approve them, then we can just approve the bylaws as they work. So the previous version of quorum was that the quorum for all general meeting shall be 50% equal to 50% of the average attendance of members in good standing at general meetings held during the preceding six months. This average that we calculate immediately following the last general meeting for an upcoming general meeting. But Paulo brought up that there is the possibility of members just like going leaving, or arriving. And so the quorum at the beginning of the meeting may not represent what quorum actually was throughout the meeting. And since we do record what everyone votes on every vote, I propose that the amendment should be the quorum for our general meeting shall be determined by calculating the average number of members present at the start of each meeting. And at the time of each vote taken during that meeting. This average attendance for this already attended for a single meeting shot and we recorded the quorum for the future record general meeting shall be established by averaging the single meeting averages from the six most recent general meetings. So basically, average out the number of people at the start, and that voted for everything that average numbers and the new average rate general meeting instead of just being at the beginning of a meeting. So can I get a second for approving this amendment to our Bylaw Amendment? Adri seconds. Everyone in favor? Riley Robbie, that's trying to Chris and myself, and he knows, abstentions? How AppSense Okay. Number two, the calculating of average attendance was the sum total of members in good standing at at the six months general meetings, oh, that probably should have been there shouldn't have been. Sorry, 3.1 should be 3.2. Essential.
Okay, rounding is the calculation of 50% of the average attendance was often a fractional number of the quorum shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number. And then 3.4 record keeping the Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining accurate records of attendance, blah, blah, blah. And then I added one more amendment for maintenance of quorum, which again, to Paul's point of people leaving was to ensure a quorum is maintained, the quorum will be reassessed immediately prior to any vote taking place, but only if there's a change in the number of members present compared to the start of the meeting, or compared to the time of the previous vote when quorum was confirmed. At any point, the number of members in good standing present drops below the required quorum. Quorum due to changes in attendance, no vote shall be conducted in quorum is re established. So basically, if if people are coming and going, just make count before any formal votes. And then if you don't have enough, you can proceed. Any discussion on that? Can I get a second? Trying to second everyone in favor? Right away. Okay. And any notes? Abstentions? How abstains everyone else voted. Okay. And then finally, the final vote is for the whole thing. Changed amendment 3.1 to 3.2. The highlighted one instead of 3.1. Any discussion on approving this bylaw change? Can I get a second? I believe that a discussion hand or a second hand.
Sorry, that was I forgot to put my hand down.
Okay. Adri seconds. Everyone in favor. Raise your hand are gonna. Second. Did everyone favor raise your hand? Okay, and he knows. Abstentions? How abstains otherwise unanimous? Yes. Okay, thank you. Second reading of non campaign activities. The proposed tax changed it to any member can bring the proposal to the membership and it can be approved with a quorum plus one approving the action, or three members in good standing whichever is higher. The steering committee members cannot make up half or a majority of the votes. If approved steering committee member committee or a delegation will be in charge of accomplishing this action basically streamlines the process and it also restricts or prevents a steering committee from blocking any action from happening if a quorum approves of it. discussion before a second. No. Okay. Give me a second go in a second. Everyone favor say aye aye Okay, that's fine. Okay, hi. Okay. Any upset Hi. I love saying it's okay. I I long list of other bylaws but just that power posted but I'm going to move past them for now. We'll come back at the end of the meeting if we still have time. because we're running late. So those are all posted. Most of them, there's like small ones that are left, if we'll talk about them, like one by one at the next meeting, but please go over them until then. Okay, side quest? Who wants to just talk about how the side quest went? Or the Yeah, the teaching went? That's why do you want to go?
Um, I think it went great. think at least like for me, for some reason, it took a lot more time than I expected just because I was like, oh, shoot, let me research on this to make sure I'm getting these facts straight. And then there was looking at like, different articles for like, two hours, but I learned a lot. We got a pretty good, like, a considerable amount of people showed up. So that's pretty good for our first teaching guys like, to be honest, pat on the back to us. What could have gone better? I think if we were to do more teachings, I think maybe establishing like, days or times that like works for everyone is going to work on it to meet up and work on it together. Just because I feel like it could be a lot more productive that way. And I can only speak for myself. I think up until the morning of there was no like, set plan of like, was going to speak or like who exactly was going to show up? Or what's going to happen. So if we meet a little bit before then we could like actually talk about it. And because I was a little anxious. Not gonna lie. But no, other than that, I I enjoyed it. I would love to do more. It was really fun. Yeah.
Anyone else want to comment?
Yeah, I do. Guess second what Buzzsumo was sharing as far as the organization. I know that there were there were opportunities that I had initially offered to help. And then you know, I couldn't. But I do appreciate the way that Basma and Chris even, you know, stepped up. So you know, big shout out seal. And
so yeah, I think it went well, what could have been better? Just like the the who, yeah, the assigning part probably, you know, knowing, you know, I'm happy to help i, if anything, like I had, I had no issues like jumping in, like, you know, speaking on it. But, you know, we had there been the opportunity to, to chat about it more i that would have that would have probably helped. So I think those things can be changed for the future, to kind of have a more coordinated, and if we do teachings, you know, what, what, what committee might be responsible for that, you know, even thinking about those things. And, you know, making sure that there are certain people that if it's assigned to them, or if it's something that they sign up to do that, you know, they can kind of take lead on, you know, whether unless there's something that needs certain approval from the whole group to.
Yeah, I think it went great. It was we got a lot of people to show up, which is fantastic. And I don't think we did that. We definitely pushed out like a post, but we didn't do that much. It's not like it definitely is good to know in the future, that that's a good way to draw people in. And obviously everyone needs to know more about Palestine. So it helps us to, as we research. Oh, could have gone better. Yeah, I think structured work time similar to like our Monday work time. Just sort of blocking out those times a little better. I know personally, I had the intention of working and then I would get distracted or not work on. You know, the overall thing as much. So thank you Basma for taking over on that. A lot of those slides were a lot of great information. And that helps. Even having like a structure for what each topic each chapter was on was great. That helps so much, because that definitely helps me personally, sort of, you know, it helps there are the people watching to directs them in the right direction, they asked a lot of good questions. And I think that was also a huge positive. Even just getting people to interact and ask questions is great. What could be changed yet? Same thing, just a little bit more structure. We definitely do on the fly, and we made it work. But and I for the first time, honestly, I didn't expect there to be structure. So we did fantastic. And yeah, the future. Keep those things in mind.
Anyone else? Got questions?
Now, I was just gonna say I didn't I had intended to go. But ended up not being able to make it. So I'm really proud of you guys for doing it sounds like you did a really good job. I wish I could have seen it. But yeah.
It's in the drive. If you want to see it.
Oh, it is I do want to see it. Yeah. Yeah. Under
meetings and recordings.
I'll I'll look it up right now.
Okay. Anyone else?
Is there a post on the forum linking
to it? Or Should there be? There should be? There probably should be there isn't? Yeah. Okay.
Anyone else? Okay, focus campaigns, since we're voting on Free Palestine as a focus campaign just want to go over our bylaws for what a focus campaign should be one more time. These are, they should be strategically focused with specific goals to advance socialism, build power for the working class, involve organizing power and mass mobilization of love, math, mobilization, and WCS membership, all eight of us, and the broader working class and Simon county presents significant long term commitments of time and resources by NWCU. At any given time, we shall maintain no more than two active focus campaigns. So both of these combined, you know, should make up a majority of the work that we're doing on top of the tenant union stuff. Okay, so the goals of the Free Palestine focus campaign from kind of what was posted on the forum, and what we talked about coalition building, highlighting the drawbacks of our current two party system, presenting the current situation globally in Gaza, at home and home, to have a clearer picture of reality. So, you know, we should know what's effective, what's not effective, what's actually happening, why countries are doing certain things. That's the stuff we should look into. And then openly discussing the need to organize outside of our current electoral system. And so with that, does anyone want to talk about making this a focus campaign? Your thoughts on it? Questions about it, whether we should or not?
Real quick, I just just, I know, there's discussion of like a temporary two months ceasefire. And I just wanted to clarify that I think it would be really important to continue this as a focus campaign, because I think it's going to be relevant for our six month focus campaign duration. And we should continue to sort of go after our our local Dems and our Josh harder. And that's I think we I think that that not only brings a lot of energy to people, but also I think it's very important as an organization that we make our stance really clear.
I do think it's a very important cause and very crucial cause to support. I think that I, I also hope that you know, personally, I kind of am on the fence of which way to vote for this, because, you know, I think my sentiment for that will go on wavered regardless of whether we have as a focus campaign or not. But I also in thinking of, you know, what were what would be the case, if after six months, you know, people might still say, we want to we want to continue this because the things with Palestine have not changed or have not improved, for example, are we then to consider, you know, continuing to approve to extend the focus campaign? And what are the risks of doing that? Whereas, you know, could it give us a broader opportunity to work on things that could still also pertain to Palestine, but aren't heavily focused on Palestine. So I think that's one thing that I'm, I'm thinking of that if we were to To approve it as a focus campaign, six months from now, you know, maybe situations are the same, or have changed drastically, by a miraculous thing. Right. But if they haven't changed, but maybe we're seeing that, okay, well, if we decide to end this campaign what, what is or people on the outside? What would that look like? You know, is it saying? Or is it now showing a stance of we no longer are supporting Palestine? I don't think that would be the case. But you know, for some people, they may interpret it that way. In terms of maybe even local politicians, for example, like, hey, working class, unity is not focusing on this campaign anymore, what does that look like? And could that, you know, have any impact on us? So I just trying to think of, you know, if there is a way to still show that support, and still target the people we want to bring emphasis to, without having a focus campaign. And it could be just another campaign that's kind of broad, like, still doing the coalition building, still talking about the drawbacks of a two party system, because those things are kind of rooted to our ideology in general. So it's not just because of Palestine. So I think that's where I'm a little torn, but I just thought I'd share that perspective.
Personally, I think it's there very important to continue to talk about full stain. One, because I really liked the question that you had posed, Audrey, that if we vote not to make a focus campaign, how will others from the outside see it like, well, they take it as US no longer, you know, being for like, free Palestine. And I'm not gonna lie, I think, if I were an outside observer, and I see that a group no longer, you know, does anything, especially when, like, when hearing that there was like, a two month ceasefire, then I just be like, Okay, well, I don't know, maybe they weren't that interested in it. And I think the topic of like, or the situation of Philistine hits a lot of marks. Like, it's not only about like, you know, capitalism and imperialism, but it's also about, you know, like, how it's affecting the climate, how it's affecting, you know, people and, and agriculture. And there's, I think there's a lot to talk about, especially since, like, we just had our first teaching, and there are people that just don't like, just went to like, and just started learning a little bit more, I think it would be such a shame to drop it so early. I'm also saying this as someone who joined recently, so I don't know what you guys, like, have done about, like, you know, the Free Palestine focus campaign in the past, but I think like, I don't know, we, we can do more like we're on the cusp. We can get educate more people, we can talk to more people, we can do more. But that's just my opinion.
Yeah, I do think we can do more. And I also think that if we make it a focus, my concern, my fear is if we make it a focus campaign, and six months comes and goes, and we vote to terminate it, does it look, you know, could it look like we were just riding the wave riding the momentum of the attention that Palestine is getting right now? And what could that look like? You know, of course, any other socialist group is kind of doing that right now, too. Right. But so it's definitely something to be questioned in general, right? people's support for Palestine and how persistent that would look like down the road. But I just want to I'm trying to be mindful of making sure it doesn't become our whole thing in we understand that, you know, because then some of my argue, what about Congo? What about these other places that are also dealing with colonization and imperialism from the US as well, that we don't make post focus campaigns about? You know, we Palestine is an area that has gotten a lot more of attention, for whatever reasons whether it's because it's definitely the media, but compared to Congo Somalia, these other places are, you know, are we creating the same support for them? is, as you know, what does that look like as an org as well. But all those things have a same all of those concerns that those other countries are experiencing can be said, and, you know, pointed to as far as some of the same things that Palestine is experiencing. But, you know, maybe with more clear media attention to it. So, you know, if it meant it being a side quest, and something that we continue to devote as a side quest, rather than, you know, if we wanted to create focus campaign on, you know, US imperialism, or how we can draw attention to that, that would allow us to talk about much more things than just the Palestinian struggle that's happening right now. So I'm just trying to look at, you know, down the line to Yeah. Anyone else? Um,
I will, oh, sorry. Yeah, good. No, you're good going?
Okay, I, um, I'll just say that I'm, I'm thinking about this focus campaign in relation to the other focus campaign that we have. I mean, technically, yes. According to our bylaws, we can have two active focus campaigns. But for me, it's a question of, should we. We've been doing Palestine stuff since October. The first motion was, for it to be a side quest with the understanding that tenant union stuff should be a priority, because that was our Active Campaign. And that didn't really reflect in how we distributed our time, like, things for the tenant union completely fell off, there was no forward movement, there was no education as a group on tenant issues and tenant rights. And, you know, just last week, we just, I mean, just last month, we just reauthorized it and like right out of the gate, our first like, canvassing event was canceled. But yet, with Palestine, we still had a teaching. And that wasn't even when it was a full blown campaign. And now we're talking about Palestine as being a full blown campaign. And I don't think as an org, we've shown that we can balance the responsibilities of two focused campaigns. And, you know, I think we owe it to the, like communities and the movements that we say that we care about to set ourselves up to succeed, and I don't think stretching ourselves thin, is doing that.
Right? Yeah, so I was gonna say is, is there so okay, if we're being realistic about what our capabilities to do for Palestine, is, right. For the most part, we can't do anything to save Palestinian people to stop genocide. That's not what we can do. What we can do is like spread information, and, you know, basically get people angry. And so I'm wondering if maybe there is an alternative to a Palestine focused focus campaign that would allow us to do the Palestine stuff, but also be more broad. First, like, personally, I think that focusing on Palestine is going to be very useful for us. Like I hate to be like, very utilitarian, and like kind of selfish about this. But like, in reality, like, if we do Palestine stuff, the best we're going to do is get like maybe get shot harder to agree to adopt a ceasefire. But what it will do is allow us to get people angry and motivated to do stuff. And if there's an alternative focus campaign that we could do, that would allow us to do that same thing. But you know, maybe be more broad. That, I think that would also be fine. But the we're not going to as an organization, we're not gonna be able to do anything if we don't have people like Paulo saying that we're stretched thin. And the reason is, we don't have enough recruitment. Right? We don't have enough people here. We don't have enough hands. And I hate to like be selfish about it. But Palestine is something that can get us people who are going to be interested in engaging locally, they're going to be angry. They're going to want to do things. And we need that. Like whether we're helping people with their housing. Boom. Good education, it doesn't matter. We need people. And like Palestine is a good recruitment tool. As as cold does that sound is just the case. So yeah.
Adri here, I do see that. I also see like, if our sole ability to recruit people is through a focus campaign to Palestine, what's the chances that those individuals will stop becoming members once that campaign ends. So I, I'm just wanting to make sure like we don't stick our, like, our identity isn't stuck to ongoing struggle, really. Because like, that's constant. So I want to I'm trying to think of longevity for the VCU. If we stick to this thing I see like, yes, we can maybe recruit members, we can also lose people, the minute we decide, well, maybe we've done what we could or we recognize that we can really hit hard with local politicians. But everything beyond that is out of our out of our hands, kind of because of just the way things are fucked. But so then if we vote to end this campaign, people are like, Well, screw you guys. I still care about Palestine. I'm leaving. You know, I think that's, that's what my like in the long term concern is. And, and then with that said, then my Wonder is should we then think about if we're, if we really want to focus on strengthening who we are, so that when we have members, things are seamless as well? What could there be a benefit to having a campaign on membership of a focus campaign on membership, or recruitment or something like that? And then continue with side quest about Palestine?
I actually wait real quick. That is almost exactly what I was thinking was that if we made a focus campaign that was about recruitment, we could do Palestine stuff as as one of the methods of that, because that would allow us to do teachings, it would allow us to do rallies and stuff, right. But it would also allow us to do other things. So I 100% agree with what you just said.
Okay, going off of that. So for like focus campaigns, we need concrete goals. And like, raising awareness, and vibes is not a goal. And so like, what are like the, if you were to pass this or if we pass something similar, so like, if you look at kind of our goals, ultimately, it is to present the idea of not doing Popular Front design with Democrats, as like the only pathway forward, like that's not a pathway, but it's at least blocking that pathway for people. Because that's the default that everyone takes in that doesn't necessarily have direct ties to Palestine. Like you're saying, Adrian is a much broader topic. But if we were to go down that route, and yeah, like we need benchmark. So what would the benchmarks be like for the tenant union, it's obviously like organizing a neighborhood. If we spent another six months and we don't organize a neighborhood, then even pretend union stuff we have to evaluate. And like, if people did join for the tenant union, then we might lose them. But that's just the way it goes. Like we can't, like we can't keep moving forward just because, like, yeah, they're still renters in trouble. But if we're not effective, then you know, like, you're saying, we are spinning our wheels and not going anywhere. And yeah, it would look bad to abandon a campaign. But that's just kind of reality. So we're not just like, yeah, just putting a lot of time and effort into things that are not succeeding. So like, even if we were to keep these kind of benchmarks of trying to split people from the Popular Front and trying to get them to organize in a way that they can come in and help us try to imagine what is an alternative pathway that we can take? Like, what are benchmarks, kind of tied to that? Like, is it solely just recruitment? Is it like attendance at events? Is like other actions?
I think it recruitments definitely a big aspect. But I also think getting dem leadership in the city particularly I mean, Stockton, I shouldn't say because all of San Joaquin is a huge goal to just have them acknowledge genocide in general, I think would be a win for our org, and it would be a win for, you know, paying mankind and Palestine. I think that I think that alone should not only last six months, but is a benchmark that is achievable. I don't know if we will achieve it. I don't know, I can't determine that. But I do think that that in and of itself is worth authorizing the campaign for
like to flip them on. Like the ones that have endorsed harder, yes, or across endorse, like get them to UNendorsed or even
just say the word genocide even just have any, anyone aim higher. I agree that that is that want that is my benchmark goal. But I honestly the fact that San Joaquin politicians can get away with not even acknowledging it drives me nuts, because it's something that I think is an org, we could pressure them to do.
So I guess, like you're trying to think about what those goals might be like, just to kind of go off of that is the idea, then, like a goal should be that we propose the city of Stockton or the board of supervisors to do a ceasefire, like what would those goals be? You know, like, I know, like, you know, that attention has been brought locally, like, look, the cities are demanding a ceasefire, like that's in you know, people are very, you know, can be very happy about that. It's just like, you know, how does that change local leadership? How does that change local politics as far as making things better for us? You know, it may just acknowledge it on paper, and I know that some, you know, in some ways that can have significance. But, um, yeah, I'm wondering, then, like, what might be those goals? I guess that's what you're asking. How No, because the ways the goals are written now, like, you can put something else that doesn't say free Palestine, and it sounds like it's another different campaign campaign to me. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure. What
are the goals right now, I don't actually remember. It's,
um, for goals of free Palestine focus campaign. So far, it says coalition building, highlighting the drawbacks of the two party system, presenting the current situation globally, in Gaza, and at home to have a clearer picture of reality, and openly discussing the need to organize outside of the electoral system. So to me, those kind of sound like they can be, you know, things that a socialist group in general would want to emphasize, aside from just wanting to have a free Palestine campaign.
Yeah, to like Riley's point. Like, in the short term, there is very little that we can probably do to help people in Palestine. You know, like, Biden's basically been like, bucket, you know, where he's gonna lose all the Muslim voters. It's fine. But yeah, but the rallies point, it is like a current issue. People are questioning, like, that's what we were questioning, like, what can we actually do to help? And while we don't have like a three, six months solution, talking about this stuff is like the long term solution to stopping it. You know, in I say, 10 years, you guys say five years? Yeah, so like, that's kind of how it ties into free Palestine. But you're right, that it is not a free pass on like, only thing, and that other things could be used. It's just now is the most? Like, it's what's on everyone's mind. So what everyone's asking like, how do we actually fix this? But addressing that doesn't mean we have to make it a free Palestine campaign. Because you're right, there are other issues that we can highlight as well.
I think one thing I wanted to bring up are from I remember from the teacher and someone asked the question of like, so what do we do? How do we vote for now? And, but Right, and so like, that was kind of a question like, Okay, well, Biden sucks. No one wants Trump in office, but what do we do? Or what's the alternative? Or we know that an alternative is not feasible? And I think that question is being fueled a lot because of Palestine because of what people see that their local politicians or you know, the national politicians or are not doing. However, that can even just that itself, it's like, taking that energy of the way that people are feeling can just be like, a way to, hey, you should get to know about what this is this belief system is rather than Hey, you like Paul's we use for Palestine? We do, too. We're doing this thing on Palestine, you should without giving people maybe a broader context. And so so I feel like that, you know, we can use we can you know, it's not to say we can't talk about Palestine talk about the Congo. Oh, talk about, et cetera, et cetera. It's more of we can people or people or you can say people's conscience consciousness is changing, why not still take that energy that people have from, from the frustrations of Palestine and use it to a broader strengthening of socialist mentality and ideology and consciousness within the community?
Right, I was. Alright. Any comments?
Me? Um, you know? I, it's, yeah, no. Oh,
I was also gonna say. So the I think the other thing that we have to think about as far as Palestine is that because we're San Joaquin County organization, right? We're like a hyperlocal, hyperbolic super local group, right. We do have to like, when we have a focus campaign, we have to think of how it benefits the local area. Right. And I think that Palestine allows us do recruitment, right. But again, it could be like an anti imperialism, anti genocide, it could be like an education campaign, it could be like, several other variations. So I think as long as like the the goal of it allows us to do that networking and collaboration with other groups, and like local education. I don't personally really care what the focus exactly is, as long as the, like, the actions that we take to do it. have, you know, there's like, specific material effects from our actions.
I think, sorry, I think maybe making the focus campaign into like, an anti imperialist campaign, or even like, recruitment, and then just focus on like, education could be beneficial, like, you know, it's a more broad topic, and we can, you know, talk about more like, yeah, there's, there's stuff going on in the Congo. And so then, and in here, there, Latin America, there's a lot going on. So there's a lot to talk about. Oh, my God, I lost my train of thought. And also, like, if we do the recruitment, that would we need recruitment? Like, going back to what Paulo was saying earlier about? How do we even know if to focus campaigns? Can we handle it? Can we, like, genuinely handle it? And it's like, well, we need more people, and we need to recruit more people. And then if we do a broader thing, then it could be easier to like, create a coalition because it's like, okay, all of y'all are focused on like anti imperialism, or all you're focused on, I don't know, Neo colonialism. And so we can go all under the umbrella of this, and you could be talking about Sudan, and you could be talking about Congo. And we'll be talking about the last thing, and then that can make it easier to like, we can work with other groups in the San Joaquin County, or even here in Stockton. I'm not sure what groups are aren't stopped. And to be honest, but I'm sure there is that are also talking about these things. And I just think it could broaden the our horizons. But yeah, so I think anything as long as like, I think it's important to continue talking about Philistine whether it's a focus campaign or a side quest or anything, some sort of education about this. I'm very, like, strong, strongly pushing for that. Whether Yeah, it's a free Palestine focus campaign or like a anti imperialist one. I'm okay with whatever. As long as you know, we're still talking about this.
I would just say historically, the left goes towards international efforts when its weakest because it's stuff we have no control over. And so we should Well, I do support, you know, free Palestine. I don't think we should go after other international efforts because it is Literally all we're doing is like sitting around talking to each other and not really. And it's not something that interests, the broader public. Unfortunately, like free Palestine has kind of broke through the wall to the ceiling. And it's like important to people now, but it's, you know, which is why I've been like so insistent on like, if we're going to do stuff locally, it has to be about local Democrats about local politicians. Okay, so maybe if we shifted towards, like, anti Popular Front, independent socialist movement building.
But should we at least vote on this before we create a new one? Right? Well, technically, yeah.
So that's the question then is, if we vote this down, then we can't do anything until maximum. Like we either we can present something right now, and then approve it next month. Or I actually don't know if we can just like, cross out the title.
Because I think the the item on the agenda is to vote on the campaign on the being the campaign, so we would have to vote, you know, someone would have to second take the vote, whether it passes or not. And then if it doesn't pass for some reason, then someone create a new motion to consider a new campaign.
Right, but then we can't vote on it. Until next time. Okay.
So um,
yeah. So that's, I guess my question is, we can either because like you were saying, like, most of the stuff here is what we want. So if we like cross out, and then like, vote on that, or we come back next month with something very similar, with a different name.
What, maybe Robbie knows, can we move to just change the name?
Well, technically, since we're still just in discussion, like there's did someone at the beginning actually make a motion? I don't believe it. Anyone did? Yeah. So technically, we're just still discuss discussing stuff. And until someone says, I move that we accept this as a campaign, you know, we don't even have to vote on it. If, if no one brings it up. We're doing our rules right now are like Harpreet saying is that we can't we have Kev presented at the meeting before to be able to vote on it. So even if we like, said something now, it's not really presenting it, I wouldn't say qualifies. So we'd still be two months down the way. But since no one's made the motion yet, I think, since we've all discussed it, and we all understand what's going on. Someone can say I move that we accept it in this manner, you know, just make the new motion that we've been discussing it I think it's perfectly fine.
Or we can motion to amend could we Yeah,
because this isn't formally declared yet. So someone can still like say, Okay, we should do it this way and then still make the formal motion that's how I would interpret it if anyone else has any.
Counter I'm just going to jump in here real quick. I'm sorry, I I'm sympathetic to the to the need to want to not limit ourselves by not passing a focus campaign and not being able to do actions outside of a tea you but I I honestly feel like we're rushing this to just now say, Oh, well, it kind of sounds like we don't want to do free Palestine. Like let's just cross things out and Wurtsmith right now that feels really rushed. And I think that's not the best way to make decisions
Well, one as I understand it, we did we present this because we're presenting it now so we would have to vote next meeting. What don't we know
we presented last time. So we're just further discussing okay. Yeah, this is the second vote. Okay, well, you were of like rushing and then fixing things later. So I guess I will move and then we can see what happens. Any other comments before we motion out so I'm gonna motion through on like Adrian said, amend the name pending something better than anti Popular Front independent socialist motion. And then motion to approve. I mean, as is basically works, if we want to do like a focus on Gaza, and then of course, with membership, we can shift the focus later. Like, focus campaigns are always the goals can always be amended prior to six months as the membership vote. But okay, so
real quick, also, if we want to, if we want to shoot this, like if we vote in favor of it, and then next month, we're like, oh, we don't want to do this anymore. We can just stop doing it and pick a new focus. Campaign
yes it
can be like it yeah
okay, so I moved to change the name of the focus campaign to something similar to but not exactly named ending of instead of a sole focus on Free Palestine to anti Popular Front slash independent socialist movements can I get a second
okay, Adri seconds everyone in favor of the pending rename and you raise your hand please
all right, raised his hand. Okay. Okay,
I'm fine with the Rename.
Okay, only one yes. Well, which is Riley? Everyone, not raise your hand which is Chris Robbie Paulo and abstentions to Anna Adri. That's fine. Okay. So now we have to vote on it as is voting on the free Palestine campaign. As is moved to approve as is. Everyone favor?
Well, we need a second. Oh, yeah.
Sorry. Can I get a second? A second. That's my seconds. Everyone in favor. Raise your hands like see. Chris. Harpreet, Riley. Robbie. That's all I can tell us. Now. What is that? 12345 out of? Eight. What is two thirds? Oh, anyone? Nan favor. Adri Paulo Riley's are hand up or down.
It's down. Sorry, let me lower it real quick.
pensions. Joanna? Okay. What is? Two thirds of H?
Two thirds of a is like 5.3.
So far, it didn't pass. Okay, yeah. Cuz five, five out of eight is 62.5%. Is what? It would have been out of 862 points. Yeah, we didn't we didn't need six people. So
we round up a quorum. Okay. So Motion fails. All right. Moving on to the next slide.
Can I ask a quick question? If since the motion failed, what does that mean for the rest of the month? Are we just going to be focusing on tenant union stuff then?
That's currently on the schedule, unless someone proposes a side quest, and we get a whole Yes. Or we get quorum on that, which is for people. Okay.
Could Could someone present like an item on the agenda for the next meeting that they want to propose a new campaign?
If you have a new campaign idea yet, then we can present it next month? Yeah, it would have to be approved in
the month after April. Okay.
Well, in theory, they could present it in. In the harbor, basically, anyone can talk at the end of the meeting.
Yeah, you can present. They could. Yeah, yeah.
So moving on to this. Does anyone want to be campaign leadership for the tenant union campaign? Okay, thank you very much. So the first union tenant union meeting is February 24. The current canvassing dates we have is February 8 which is a Thursday so we need weekends, some days where we can spend more than half an hour canvassing. So I guess we can just go through the weekend days. I'm assuming people prefer Saturday or Sunday. Okay, I'm just gonna name weekend. Let me know if you're approved.
Okay, so we have well there's this weekend on the fourth I don't think anyone will answer the door on the 11th. So let's say four and, and 17 or 18. So we could either pick one of those days who's available on the fourth
anyone else? Okay, what about the Adri anyone else? I am. Okay then
oh, sorry I am available on the fourth actually, I think
okay. Are you available in the 10?
Ah no, I don't think I am. Okay.
And then we have the 17
That's my is anybody else?
I also think I'm probably available 17
Are these gonna be the same time that we proposed as last time? I think it was 430. Oh, it literally says right in front of me two to five. Okay.
Yeah, I mean, sometime, no, two to five is the first time in campaign the canvassing dates can be anytime in the day. Okay. Okay. Ideally, like, around noon ish. Okay. Okay, and then we have the for best my Chris Riley. does the 18th work better?
There's not really not much. Not much of a difference between the 17th and the 18th. At least for me.
Okay.
Riley are Yeah, same. I think it's I think I either want to work
or the 19 Is this how you would like to spend your holiday
okay. So the most days we have are the 10th and then 17 Then I guess. And then, like I said, we have the eighth who can still make the eight
I mean, what it depends workwise because any, any anything Monday through Friday is going to be kind of iffy. timewise
I can still do that.
Okay. All right, then we have the option, we should probably do the 22nd and not the 15. It can be like a last minute thing. Of well. Okay, ideally, we should do the 23rd If we're gonna meet on the 27th so it's not working class Thursday. Exactly. But the day before is usually the best time to go bother people. So can but if no one can make it on Friday, then Thursday is better. So. Okay, Thursday, then who's available on the 22nd? Yeah, this evening again?
Yeah, I'm available on Thursday the 22nd.
Just a heads up, I have to go to a funeral on the 23rd and we'll be out of town, the 23rd 24th and the night of the 22nd
Okay, If that's okay, that sucks.
I am tentative I would I'm gonna put myself tentative for Thursday because I will be out of town that weekend as well. Not for a funeral. But yeah, I'll be out of town
Okay. Anyone else on the 22nd? Riley, that's fine. Robbie
What time are we planning?
So on the weekdays, it would be like 430 or 30. Like come whenever you can after work basically. Until it gets dark.
Which is not the same? Is that the same day as steering? Or once during the 15th?
The 22nd is a Thursday it is the fourth Thursday
of February things are on Monday. Oh, sorry.
I forgot might be available on 22nd.
Okay, any other takers for 22nd?
It could also do the 22nd. Okay.
Thank you very much. All right. So we got four canvassing days, which is should be more than enough. Then the 17th the eighth and the 22nd.
And then for the presentation, we will have are working meetings on Monday, the fifth and on the 19th. Yeah. So is there anyone that wants to like a co lead on the presentation with me? That I can bother outside of the Mondays?
I can definitely help with making it I just since I won't be there for the actual meeting. I'm willing to like put more energy into helping make it okay.
And that's my salary. Raise your hand. Okay, anyone else?
Okay, you can always book me
nation. Okay, so the Monday the fifth and the 19 are working meetings. And so we can work on it then. Also as like a broader group. Alright.
What time are the working meetings? I think
we did six to eight last time. But we can do like five to, I mean, whatever.
Laters better honestly. Okay. For me, so. Okay,
honestly, the Zoom is like always open. So just like open the general meeting zoom link. And you can just join the Zoom Room. So that room is always open. So if you want to start a five, you can just drop the link in the WhatsApp and. Okay, carry on if you want
is there um I think there's a way to pin things in WhatsApp. Is there a way to pin it? The meetings on LinkedIn? Yeah. Or is that something we should just like, keep to the forum? Actually.
Yeah, we can have a forum. We can have an on the forum
and just be like, Oh, by the way, in the WhatsApp?
Yeah. Okay.
Just for clarification, that was the fifth and then 19th For working days. Yeah.
Okay. And then steering meeting is on the Monday before the third Thursday. Okay. Any other questions before we move on? Okay, I'm presently talking about the database. And once we have that sorted, whatever number of people we have tenants, which is divvied up among the active people, and then you'll kind of be like, their point person for the for the team meeting. So I'll probably only be like three or four people to be honest. But you're kind of in charge of, we wrote up. In the last meeting, we wrote up like a bunch of example, texts and phone scripts and stuff. So you can just use those to contact those three and four people, too. I invite them to come up. Okay. The ABCs? Are we like overscheduled? Already? Jesus for like, 15 minutes over. Okay, if we're okay to carry on for like another 10 The ABCs of capitalism. That's basically our education that we've like already done. Riley is there. Like I can present with you. But is there like a day that you want to schedule this? Most of our Thursday seem to be taken up at this point.
Um, I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be a remote, right? It's not like we're not going to. Yeah, if we're not meeting in person, like, I basically any day, that's not Tuesday nights, or like, all also, yeah, I Tuesday and Wednesdays kind of are iffy. So we can schedule it for basically any Monday that we don't have something going on, that it's really more important that like everyone kind of be on the same page and like, come to the same meeting for it, then it'd be on a specific day. So maybe we need people's availability first.
Though, do we want people who are already members or who have already gone through it to attend?
Which I, if they're, if they're interested, I would encourage him to come back and do it again. We didn't have a whole lot of attendance last time. So.
Okay, so are just those are free Mondays and Thursdays we have the 15th The 29th Thursdays, and we have the 26th for Mondays. Those are our three Monday Thursdays?
Um yeah, I mean, maybe that maybe the Monday after the after the tenant union meeting would be good. I don't know. I don't know how many people were weren't gonna want to do it that day, though. But
just to clarify, this is just to meet about presenting it. This isn't to actually do the Zoom online zoom and teach, like,
two hours thing worth doing it? Because we already have what we have. Like, where do you have a product that's already written out? So it's just like, let's do this at least. And then next month, we can schedule to like, develop something more concise.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. I, I thought the same thing as Adrian, I thought, because our, our old schedule was like, broken up into different parts of the book, like I we haven't condensed it down into one presentation. So I thought these meetings were to work on putting it together.
Yeah, cuz if anything I was. I'm not I was not very involved with like the book club stuff. I forgot what we call it. Sorry. To like, play it down that way. I did not mean that. Reading group. Thank you so much. Wow. But I am only if the 26th is the day that you want to present it. And that's go for it. I was just thinking that there were just looks a little busy. So yeah, in case if there is a need to do more stuff on it. Making the 26 instead of a like as a working an extra working day, for example. I don't know. Because we still have to work on scripts. Or we if we're talking about making a video for the tenant union email, we have to find time to go and do that. And no, Paulo even suggested like making the video outside of the building so that we're having the meeting. So things like that, and then making sure there's people for that, cetera, et cetera.
I think my only concern is we are extremely inward facing right now. When there is a lot of activism and without the other focus campaign, we are not recruiting, which is actually kind of like it's necessary. And the tenant union is not pretending you know, the way to recruit tenants into the org and like, get them into the broader route of socialism. But right now we have no pathway of bringing people in my cattle. So this is maybe,
maybe we can Yeah, what I was gonna say is maybe what we can do is instead of doing the ABS He is, maybe we can just replace that with a, like a meeting on how to how to do recruitment, like, because we've been planning on doing tabling and all that kind of stuff. And I think Boswell is the only one who hasn't seen the ABCs. Right?
I haven't, I've seen that. So, if you want to have a,
we just go, we can just go over it one on one if you want. But you know, it might be a better use of time to to have like a strategy meeting about recruitment, since if we're not going to do Palestine. Or since we're not gonna be Palestine,
I guess my concern is still only being a tea like we're, if we're only to you, Oregon makes it harder to recruit. Like, if that's all we're showing people that we're doing, especially because we're really like, focused in a neighborhood. Where, I mean, you can break up the ABCs. And just, you can strip out parts that are like, oh, did you know, lobbing is bad, like, there's some stuff in ADCs. That's why I wanted to at least have one public event. But like, it's up to everyone else. Those other meetings that need to take place to like recruiting and stuff.
Do you want to do another tweet like an another teaching instead of Do you want to? Do you want to do the ABCs as a teacher and is what you're what you're saying?
I mean, yeah, essentially,
that's what I understood as Yeah. From how it's being presented.
Okay, because I the Yeah. Okay, because of the what we had been talking about the ABCs as, as was like, an intro course for new members. And, but if we're doing it as a recruitment, or as like public education thing, that that would also be a good use of time.
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what it was. We we did get like a bunch of people who ended up not joining the org, but they did, like attend. And then, you know, dropped out, but that would kind of be the purpose of it to get new people to come in, I think we need to meet more about like having like a cadre education, but that's kind of a different thing.
As far as I think you mentioned something about membership or having meetings for that for recruitment, it would that fall under membership. And then would that mean, like other separate meetings, from steering in general meetings? Or is it just like,
yeah, that's membership committee. So like, Riley can just have those whenever we don't have to prove them here. Okay.
Yeah, literally, you just message me. And I was like, as long as I post about it, on the forum, or in I guess I could do it on the WhatsApp since that's now an official channel, but ideally, on the forum, post it before we do the thing that way everyone can like, come and join. It's fine.
Okay, so it's like no one else available on the 26th? Or the 29?
I'm available on the 26th.
Yeah, I should be available.
Okay.
Sure.
Yeah, I'm available as well.
Yeah, we're available. I just didn't know what's going on for a second.
All right. We'll do that on the 26th. Basically just slicing up what we did before the fit into an hour. Table Tabeling. Do we want to just pass this off? Until next time? We honestly don't have to have a discussion here. Yes. That's good.
I think that we, like we only have like two open days, the rest of the month. And I have a feeling that they're going to end up getting scheduled for. Yeah. Like the other kind of work. So yeah.
public facing materials, we do need to create a process for managing our public facing material, including social media, blog posts, official statements, flyers, sign up on emails, etc. I wanted to create a temporary working group. I know we're kind of busy this month, so maybe three months to just talk and make like a process map, which is basically like, if you're going to post x here, the decision makers, I need to like sign off on it. If you're going to do this, here's the process for that. Anyone want to sign up to just kind of workshop this for two months and then present it to the membership? Hey, let me take notes because everyone raised their hand
rarely anyone else yeah my hands up and that's okay right so the whole org is in this working group score
Let's go guys
okay definitely left which is something I wanted to present which was basically the in a way it is an offshoot of the of the popular Friday Randy Popular Front thing so I wanted to put just put together like a 30 minute talk on how we should stop doing dumb shit that the left has been doing forever and let pessimism guide us so but it's more of a social event so more of a get together just as a group. So I'm thinking weekend instead of one of our days probably towards the end of the month. So maybe after the end it can be like March or something
like if you want to do the weekend like March 2 or third or something to the weekend after our tenant union campaign, or yet any union meeting select the second or dinner
about you folks online the second dinner we'll meet up somewhere Roger
can try to make both but no promises.
Okay.
I will second I can't say for sure. It just depends on where and when. Okay.
All right. I'll say double left is second March and I think we are not long last Oh financial report
Yeah, you money. I thought the whole point of socialism was get rid of that.
We have to have some
unfortunately. You have money a little bit. But yeah, nothing to report. So anyone got announcements?
Just wanted to wish Riley a happy birthday.
It's your birthday. Thank you. Happy birthday. Hey, Riley.
Thank you. Appreciate it. This is exactly how I always wanted to spend my birthday. I'm not even being sarcastic. This is actually how I want to spend my birthday.
All right, I am moving to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second? Second did everyone that? Agreed? i Okay.
i
Sorry. We're running late which is
nay we definitely can't leave.
We should all stay here. Yeah, no going home tonight guys
play on the live stream online right away.
I feel like trash I shouldn't when we were talking about people who are sick. I should have been like, Oh yeah, I'm sick but so
