The minutes from the 2020 DAVI AGM, held on March 31, 2020 (online only) are posted below. Thanks to all who attended!

MINUTES
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
March 31, 2020

1. Call Meeting to Order: 1505 [3:05pm]

Present: Heidi Burch - Chair
James Ham - Vice-Chair
Jon Scheer - Treasurer
Jena Magnus - Secretary
Penelope Hocking - Member-at-large
Patricia Kostek - Member-at-large
Jonathan Holiff
Kevin Brown
Mat Small
Orion Carrier
Whitney Laughlin

The Chair welcomed the attendees & thanked everyone for the attendance.
Chair provided a walk through on the use of the webex program.

2. Approval of the AGM Agenda: Jena moved to approve agenda, seconded by Pat Kostek.

3. Report from the chapter chair on 2019 activities:

• DAVI hosted 8 well attended primary debate watch nights.

• DAVI hosted a July 4th celebration on July 4.

• The US Thanksgiving Pot Luck was very successful & enjoyed by all.

• The chapter again hosted the US tax seminar. Well attended & successful fund raising event.

• The Chair hosted a phone banking tutorial attended by 3.

• The DAVI chapter sponsored & presented a Global Presidential Primary Polling station Mar. 7 at the Knox Presbyterian Church.

  • DAVI had 125 ballots cast: 62 for Sanders, 57 for Biden, 2 for Warren & 5 spoiled ballots.

  • Final overall DA results: 57.9% Sanders, 22% Biden.

  • 13 elected DA Delegates: 9 for Sanders, 4 for Biden.

• The DA convention & delegate selection will be online this year in May due to the pandemic.

• University of Victoria outreach: We’ve been approached by a UVic student group who want to do GOTV for the Nov General Election. They originally got together to support Bernie Sanders’s candidacy, but now wish to become a DA Club and do GOTV for the Nov election. Heidi is working with the organizer, Calvin Simpson, to take the necessary steps.

  • DAVI can only host events & GOTV activities on campus if a club is certified by UVIC. To be certified the club requires 10 members.

  • Covid 19 has curtailed any campus activities until further notice.

• Main GOTV activity will be phonebanking our membership & other key races.

  • New people need training.

  • Current volunteers will need updates regarding changes to the CallHub system

  • We encourage all overseas voters to use www.votefromabroad.org to register to vote and request their ballots

  • Chair encourages all DA members to go to www.democratsabroad.org/phonebanking for sign up instructions and phonebanking training

  • We will do a big push in Sept & Oct, and hope to do more, depending on funding. Also DA is setting up phonebanking campaigns in April as everyone is home due to coronavirus.

• Fundraising: all DAVI funds go only to GOTV activities, chapter events & community outreach.

• Social media outreach: additional assistance with the Chapter’s social media accounts needed especially during this pandemic response. Chair requested members volunteer or help recruit new volunteers for DAVI’s social media.

• Chair called for questions from the floor.

  • How will we obtain training for April phonebanking?

    • The DA website has online training modules & videos at: www.democratsabroad.org/phonebanking The training is available 24/7.

    • Heidi will arrange another live training session when able.

4. Approval of minutes from previous AGM [March 17, 2019]

• Chair asked for questions or corrections for the minutes of our last AGM.

  • None received, but J. Holiff sent a chat message requesting a copy of the 2019 AGM Minutes be sent to him after the meeting.

  • Chair moved to adopt minutes, Vice Chair seconded. Motion passed.

5. Approval of treasurer report:

• Account balance: Mar. 1, 2019. $ 706.59

• Account balance: Feb. 29, 2020. $ 1,791.27

• Expenditures: $ 663.25

• Deposits: $ 1,747.93

• Two tax seminars within 12 months boosted the final balance.

• GOTV activities will be the major expenditure expected in 2020.

6. Membership Report:

• Chair presented report for the membership secretary.

• Membership is up from Feb. 2019 despite losing members in the verification process.

• Over 135 new members joined DAVI in Feb. & Mar. 2020.

  • People joined to vote in the GPP

• There is a Nanaimo DAVI sub-group of 5 formed in June 2019.

  • Focus on GOTV.

  • The group met in person until the pandemic response. Now keeping in touch via email.

  • Nation Builder able to create lists, groups & tasks which can help tailor our activities to specific areas of interest & location. Work is ongoing to utilize the tools available.

7. AGM adjourned: Orion moved to adjourn, Jonathan seconded. Meeting adjourned 1550 [3:50pm]

To All DAVI Members:

DUE TO CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS, THIS IS AN ONLINE MEETING ONLY--VIA WEBEX!
After you RSVP, we will send an email with the link and instructions!

The Victoria and the Islands Chapter of Democrats Abroad (DAVI) will be holding its 2020 Annual General Meeting:

DATE: March 31, 2020

TIME: 3:00 PM

PLACE: THIS IS AN ONLINE MEETING VIA WEBEX ONLY! Please RSVP (below) and we'll send an email with the link and instructions

RSVP: Online at: www.democratsabroad.org/ca-victoria_events or Email us at: davictoriachapter@gmail.com

Let’s Get Out the Vote for a Democratic President, win back the US Senate, increase the majority in the US House AND increase Democratic Governors and State Legislatures all over the US!