Thank you to everyone who attended our most recent Chapter Meeting. It included our first ever New Members Coffee, ideas for 2019, and some last-minute voter registration help. Below you will find the minutes.
First I want to share my announcement from the meeting. My two-year term as Chapter Chair began in February of 2017, and is coming to an end soon. I have thoroughly enjoyed being Chair, getting to know and working with so many of DA's Hamburg members, and putting together events of all sorts with you. For personal reasons, I will not be running for re-election. I plan to stay active after my term's end. But most importantly, this means that we have a position to be filled. If you are interested, please reach out to
[email protected] at your earliest convenience! I am happy to answer any questions. The election will take place in January or February, before the DA Germany AGM.
Minutes:
- New Members Coffee - This proved to be an excellent way to start the meeting, giving
members (new and old) a chance to talk and get to know each other better.
- Fundraising - We raffled off a book ("How I Resist") during the meeting, raising 17€ !
We want to make raffles a more regular part of our events. Let us know if you have
ideas for raffles or have something you want to donate, and other fundraising ideas.
- Treasury - We currently have 500€ in our treasury. 150€ will go to DAG by year's end
to pay for a tablet and portable printer we received for GOTV efforts.
- Membership - Our membership just recently reached 622, from around 400 at the start
of 2017.
- 2019 - non-election year, time to train, organize
- Regular events, i.e. monthly or bi-monthly - Chapter Meetings (2nd or 3rd Sunday of
every month, or every other month?), pub nights, book club meetings
- One month of every year is focused on one caucus - that caucus leads the Chapter
Meeting in that month
- Equal Rights Amendment - only one more state needed to ratify. Could this be a focus
of 2019?
- Black Caucus - Black History Month, February 2019
- Black American Night - mid-February, featuring American performers
- Other ideas include an American finger food buffet, a raffle table, a favorite dish or pie contest.
- Women's Caucus - Berlin Workshop, September 22nd, 2018
- One of our Chapter members attended and summarized - more details here .
- Many are interested in putting together a similar event here in Hamburg.
- Impressions from the USA
- One of our members just got back from a trip to see family in Mississippi. She also campaigned for Democratic candidates and attended a
town hall meeting.
- From her conversations, and talks she listened to, we can see a silver lining in the current situation as people are motivated to take
action, and Democratic candidates have better chances in red states.
- Reminder - Every state has an abroad Facebook page.
- Last-minute voter registration
- Some states' deadlines for registration and overseas ballot requests have not been reached yet. It is worth checking.
- Emergency Federal Absentee Ballot - If you requested a ballot and have not received it, you can vote (in Federal elections) using this
option.
- Both of the above can be done at votefromabroad.org .