Minutes of Annual General Meeting 2022

Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 11:00am MDT via Zoom

• Secretary Phyllis MacCartney confirmed that quorum was met with 22 members on line and 17 proxies
• Meeting called to order 11:08
• Secretary Phyllis MacCartney read the summary of the 2021 AGM minutes. The March 2022 membership total count = 543.

Democrats Abroad Guatemala Executive Committee 2021-2023 Elected Officers

• Chair: Kee Evans
• Vice Chair: John Chudy
• Secretary: Phyllis MacCartney
• Treasurer: Vacant
• Counsel: Vacant
• Member at Large: Karl Holzwarth
• Member-at-Large: Mary Lou Ridinger

            Appointees

• MediaContact & Communications Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Issues/Special Events Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Membership/Voter Registration Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Fundraising Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Guatemala City MeetUp Chair: Vacant
• Lake Atitlan MeetUp Chair: Vacant
• Occidente MeetUp Chair: Rachel Shenyo
• Huehuetenango MeetUp Chair: Johnny Figueroa-Month

Treasurer’s Report:

Three Year Comparison         2019-20                      2020-21                      2021-22

Beginning Balance                 4,713                           6,408                           8,816

Income                                   6,917                           6,147                           8

Expenses                                5,222                           3,729                           949

Income/Loss                           1,695                           2,418                           (941)

Ending Balance                      6,408                           8,826                           7,875

The preceding year (March 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022

Balance Q8,816, Income Q8 Expenses Q941 Bank Fees and GOTV related.

Ending Balance Q7,875 Income Analysis

• Donations/Income
• Tee Shirts Q0
• Mugs and Other items Q0
• Direct Mail Q0
• Other Q8
• Total Q8

Unanimously approved

MeetUp Chairs’ Reports

            Occidente Region, Rachel Shenyo,  Due to Covid restrictions, no events were held in                                2021 or 2022 year to date. If Covid restrictions continue to lift, Rachael plans to hold                                monthly GOTV events.

            Huehuetenango Region, Johnny Figeroa-Month, still working on ways to reach people.                             Covid restrictions have prevented GOTV events. John Chudy plans to go to                                   Huehuetenango later in the year to assist with a GOTV event.

            .

Chair’s Report:

• Members elected in 2021 were Kee Evans, Chair; John Chudy, Vice Chair; Phyllis MacCartney, Secretary; Vincent D’Agati, Treasurer; Juan Pablo Aris, Counsel; Karl Holzwarth, Member at Large and Mary Lou Ridinger, Member at Large

• Blaine Stokes was appointed as Counsel to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Juan Pablo Aris. Blaine served from September 2021 through February 2022; Special thanks and recognition to Blaine, and Juan Pablo Aris who served as Counsel from 2019 - 2021.

• Special thanks and recognition to Vincent D’Agati who served as Treasurer from 2020 to February of 2022.

• 2021 DPCA Global Meeting May 14 -16 & August 21-22 Newly elected officers were: Candice Kerestan. Chair; Art Shankler, Vice Chair; Beth Landry, Secretary; Quyen Nguyen, Treasurer; Orlando Vidal, Counsel; Steve Nardi, RVC Americas; Nicholas Gordon, RVC, Asia Pacific; Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, RVC, EMEA. Quyen Nguyen has since resigned her position, and Cory Lemke is serving as Acting Treasurer.

• Resolutions Adopted Deferred or Withdrawn May 14-16. 27 Resolutions submitted. 12 were adopted, 1 was withdrawn, 14 were deferred to a later meeting. Resolutions on August 13 were chosen, 2 were adopted, 1 was withdrawn, 2 were postponed indefinitely, 6 were not considered during the meeting. DAGT submitted four Resolutions - one was approved, one was withdrawn, two were not considered because of time constraints.

• The DCPA Global Meeting for 2022 will take place May 20-22, virtually on WebEx.

• There are now 10 DA Caucuses. Two recently formed Caucuses are the Global Senior Caucus and Global Disability Caucus.. Everyone is encouraged to join one or more Caucus.

• Due to Covid-19 no in-person events were held between March 14, 2020 and March 5, 2022

• Events 2021 - 2022
• CENTRAL AMERICAN IMMIGRATION 2021 May 27, 2021 Co-Sponsored with DA El Salvador Zoom
• OUR COMMON PURPOSE September 23, 23, 2021 Zoom
• Voter Registration/FPCA March 5, 2022 @ Enlaces in Antigua
• Voter Registration/FPCA April 2, 2022 Tentative in Antigua

• Stay Informed and Get Involved: Join your state Democratic Party and the DNC. Every state has a Facebook State Group. Join and keep informed about what is going on in your state from the other DA members around the world. The easiest way to find the groups is to go to Facebook and search for the group. For example, Coloradans Abroad or New Mexicans Abroad.

• DAGT has three Facebook Pages, the DA Latino Page, the DA Guatemala Page and the DA Guatemala Group Page. On the group page we post items of interest to DAGT members. One must be a member of DAGT to join this group page. The Latino and DA page are public so news specific to DA is not posted.

• 2022 Elections, there are 36 gubernatorial seats on the ballot in 2022. A total of 469 seats in the US Congress (34 Senate seats and all 435 House of Representative seats).

• Midterm Elections are coming up faster than we think. Request your Overseas Absentee Ballot/FPCA now.

Upcoming Activities and Events for 2022

• Everyone should request their Overseas Absentee ballot and complete their FPCA. VotefromAbroad.org absentee ballots for US Citizens.
• In-person registration events will be held monthly in Antigua and later in the year in Huehuetenango and Xela.
• US Labor Day is September 5, 2022, DAGT is hoping to have a picnic
• Everything is Covid dependent

What’s Happening in Guatemala?

• A graph was presented showing the percentage of members in age groups in the Americas Region and in Guatemala. Most of DAGT’s members are in the 70 - 79 years age group. Of our 543 members, 160 are in this group. More members are needed across all age groups.

• Volunteers Opportunities

            CallHub

            GOTV Coordinator

            Events Coordinator

            Communications/Media Coordinator

            Fundraising Coordinator

            Membership Coordinator

            Meet-Up Coordinators for Guatemala City and Lake Atitlan

• Americas Region-monthly meeting on Zoom. Country committees include Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil. the Caribbean Islands and Guyana.The regional Vice Chair is Steve Nardi, DA Canada.
• DAGT Executive Committee meetings are held monthly.

Amendments to the Bylaws In Article V-V11, Amendments to the bylaws change “Chairperson” to Chair or Vice Chair. Where “He/She occurs in Articles 111, V1, X111, X1V, the gender neutral Their/They are used.

Article V The officers of the organization shall be the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Counsel To the Committee. The Vice Chair shal be of the opposite sex for the Chair. For the purposes of theses Bylaws the term “sex” is defined as male, female, intersex, non-binary or any other classification of sex or gender that is legally recognized by any state or federal jurisdiction within the United States of America. 

            A motion was made and seconded to approve the changes to the DAGT Bylaws, and                                 passed unanimously.

Nominations and Election Committee Chair, Thea Hocker, announced there were no nominations for the position of Counsel, and no nominations for the position of Treasurer. Nominations were called from the floor, there were none for either position.

Motion: Given that no nominations for Treasurer and Counsel vacancies were presented (for the balance of the 2021-2023 term) at the Annual General Meeting on March 19, 2022, move that the Chair continue to seek nominations from the general membership via email, to be followed by special online elections for each vacancy as and when candidates are identified.

Motion passed unanimously.

Guest Speaker, Robert Levitt, DA Taxation Task Force Robert gave an introduction to what the Taxation Task Force is, its goals, its accomplishments and how it is working to eliminate tax code requirements that discriminate against US Citizens living abroad. A short question and answer session followed the presentation.

Ways to financially support DA and DAGT

• Become a sustaining donor to Democrats Abroad. Give monthly, quarterly, or annually or give a one-time donation at democratsabroad.org/donate
• Give directly to DAGT, all donations stay with DAGT. democratsabroad.org/donate_gt

There was no further discussion and the meeting was adjourned.

Adjournment 1:01 pm

Minutes of Annual General Meeting 2022

Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 11:00am MDT via Zoom

• Secretary Phyllis MacCartney confirmed that quorum was met with 22 members on line and 17 proxies
• Meeting called to order 11:08
• Secretary Phyllis MacCartney read the summary of the 2021 AGM minutes. The March 2022 membership total count = 543.

Democrats Abroad Guatemala Executive Committee 2021-2023 Elected Officers

• Chair: Kee Evans
• Vice Chair: John Chudy
• Secretary: Phyllis MacCartney
• Treasurer: Vacant
• Counsel: Vacant
• Member at Large: Karl Holzwarth
• Member-at-Large: Mary Lou Ridinger

            Appointees

• MediaContact & Communications Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Issues/Special Events Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Membership/Voter Registration Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Fundraising Standing Committee Chair: Vacant
• Guatemala City MeetUp Chair: Vacant
• Lake Atitlan MeetUp Chair: Vacant
• Occidente MeetUp Chair: Rachel Shenyo
• Huehuetenango MeetUp Chair: Johnny Figueroa-Month

Treasurer’s Report:

Three Year Comparison         2019-20                      2020-21                      2021-22

Beginning Balance                 4,713                           6,408                           8,816

Income                                   6,917                           6,147                           8

Expenses                                5,222                           3,729                           949

Income/Loss                           1,695                           2,418                           (941)

Ending Balance                      6,408                           8,826                           7,875

The preceding year (March 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022

Balance Q8,816, Income Q8 Expenses Q941 Bank Fees and GOTV related.

Ending Balance Q7,875 Income Analysis

• Donations/Income
• Tee Shirts Q0
• Mugs and Other items Q0
• Direct Mail Q0
• Other Q8
• Total Q8

Unanimously approved

MeetUp Chairs’ Reports

            Occidente Region, Rachel Shenyo,  Due to Covid restrictions, no events were held in                                2021 or 2022 year to date. If Covid restrictions continue to lift, Rachael plans to hold                                monthly GOTV events.

            Huehuetenango Region, Johnny Figeroa-Month, still working on ways to reach people.                             Covid restrictions have prevented GOTV events. John Chudy plans to go to                                   Huehuetenango later in the year to assist with a GOTV event.

            .

Chair’s Report:

• Members elected in 2021 were Kee Evans, Chair; John Chudy, Vice Chair; Phyllis MacCartney, Secretary; Vincent D’Agati, Treasurer; Juan Pablo Aris, Counsel; Karl Holzwarth, Member at Large and Mary Lou Ridinger, Member at Large

• Blaine Stokes was appointed as Counsel to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Juan Pablo Aris. Blaine served from September 2021 through February 2022; Special thanks and recognition to Blaine, and Juan Pablo Aris who served as Counsel from 2019 - 2021.

• Special thanks and recognition to Vincent D’Agati who served as Treasurer from 2020 to February of 2022.

• 2021 DPCA Global Meeting May 14 -16 & August 21-22 Newly elected officers were: Candice Kerestan. Chair; Art Shankler, Vice Chair; Beth Landry, Secretary; Quyen Nguyen, Treasurer; Orlando Vidal, Counsel; Steve Nardi, RVC Americas; Nicholas Gordon, RVC, Asia Pacific; Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, RVC, EMEA. Quyen Nguyen has since resigned her position, and Cory Lemke is serving as Acting Treasurer.

• Resolutions Adopted Deferred or Withdrawn May 14-16. 27 Resolutions submitted. 12 were adopted, 1 was withdrawn, 14 were deferred to a later meeting. Resolutions on August 13 were chosen, 2 were adopted, 1 was withdrawn, 2 were postponed indefinitely, 6 were not considered during the meeting. DAGT submitted four Resolutions - one was approved, one was withdrawn, two were not considered because of time constraints.

• The DCPA Global Meeting for 2022 will take place May 20-22, virtually on WebEx.

• There are now 10 DA Caucuses. Two recently formed Caucuses are the Global Senior Caucus and Global Disability Caucus.. Everyone is encouraged to join one or more Caucus.

• Due to Covid-19 no in-person events were held between March 14, 2020 and March 5, 2022

• Events 2021 - 2022
• CENTRAL AMERICAN IMMIGRATION 2021 May 27, 2021 Co-Sponsored with DA El Salvador Zoom
• OUR COMMON PURPOSE September 23, 23, 2021 Zoom
• Voter Registration/FPCA March 5, 2022 @ Enlaces in Antigua
• Voter Registration/FPCA April 2, 2022 Tentative in Antigua

• Stay Informed and Get Involved: Join your state Democratic Party and the DNC. Every state has a Facebook State Group. Join and keep informed about what is going on in your state from the other DA members around the world. The easiest way to find the groups is to go to Facebook and search for the group. For example, Coloradans Abroad or New Mexicans Abroad.

• DAGT has three Facebook Pages, the DA Latino Page, the DA Guatemala Page and the DA Guatemala Group Page. On the group page we post items of interest to DAGT members. One must be a member of DAGT to join this group page. The Latino and DA page are public so news specific to DA is not posted.

• 2022 Elections, there are 36 gubernatorial seats on the ballot in 2022. A total of 469 seats in the US Congress (34 Senate seats and all 435 House of Representative seats).

• Midterm Elections are coming up faster than we think. Request your Overseas Absentee Ballot/FPCA now.

Upcoming Activities and Events for 2022

• Everyone should request their Overseas Absentee ballot and complete their FPCA. VotefromAbroad.org absentee ballots for US Citizens.
• In-person registration events will be held monthly in Antigua and later in the year in Huehuetenango and Xela.
• US Labor Day is September 5, 2022, DAGT is hoping to have a picnic
• Everything is Covid dependent

What’s Happening in Guatemala?

• A graph was presented showing the percentage of members in age groups in the Americas Region and in Guatemala. Most of DAGT’s members are in the 70 - 79 years age group. Of our 543 members, 160 are in this group. More members are needed across all age groups.

• Volunteers Opportunities

            CallHub

            GOTV Coordinator

            Events Coordinator

            Communications/Media Coordinator

            Fundraising Coordinator

            Membership Coordinator

            Meet-Up Coordinators for Guatemala City and Lake Atitlan

• Americas Region-monthly meeting on Zoom. Country committees include Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil. the Caribbean Islands and Guyana.The regional Vice Chair is Steve Nardi, DA Canada.
• DAGT Executive Committee meetings are held monthly.

Amendments to the Bylaws In Article V-V11, Amendments to the bylaws change “Chairperson” to Chair or Vice Chair. Where “He/She occurs in Articles 111, V1, X111, X1V, the gender neutral Their/They are used.

Article V The officers of the organization shall be the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Counsel To the Committee. The Vice Chair shal be of the opposite sex for the Chair. For the purposes of theses Bylaws the term “sex” is defined as male, female, intersex, non-binary or any other classification of sex or gender that is legally recognized by any state or federal jurisdiction within the United States of America. 

            A motion was made and seconded to approve the changes to the DAGT Bylaws, and                                 passed unanimously.

Nominations and Election Committee Chair, Thea Hocker, announced there were no nominations for the position of Counsel, and no nominations for the position of Treasurer. Nominations were called from the floor, there were none for either position.

Motion: Given that no nominations for Treasurer and Counsel vacancies were presented (for the balance of the 2021-2023 term) at the Annual General Meeting on March 19, 2022, move that the Chair continue to seek nominations from the general membership via email, to be followed by special online elections for each vacancy as and when candidates are identified.

Motion passed unanimously.

Guest Speaker, Robert Levitt, DA Taxation Task Force Robert gave an introduction to what the Taxation Task Force is, its goals, its accomplishments and how it is working to eliminate tax code requirements that discriminate against US Citizens living abroad. A short question and answer session followed the presentation.

Ways to financially support DA and DAGT

• Become a sustaining donor to Democrats Abroad. Give monthly, quarterly, or annually or give a one-time donation at democratsabroad.org/donate
• Give directly to DAGT, all donations stay with DAGT. democratsabroad.org/donate_gt

There was no further discussion and the meeting was adjourned.

Adjournment 1:01 pm