Announcement of 2021 Democrats Abroad Japan Tokai Election

The 2021 Nomination and Election Committee (NEC) of Democrats Abroad Japan (DAJ) Tokai Chapter is proud to call upon our membership to submit their nominations for the 2021 DAJ Tokai Chapter Election. The call for nominations is for the following positions:

• Tokai Chapter Officer positions
  • Chair (Volunteer Lead, Raises New Leaders)
  • Vice-Chair (Serves as Chair in their absence; Supports the Team)
  • Secretary (Manages/maintains membership database; Technical and Precise)
  • Treasurer (Manages the Tokai finances, maintains transparency and records) 

The Nomination and Election Committee (NEC) of Democrats Abroad Japan (DAJ) would like to open voting for the 2021 National Election from now (April 18th) until May 28th at 11:59pm!

Please download the following document for everything you need in order to vote, including instructions for casting your ballot, the statements from the candidates, and your empty ballot: http://drive.google.com/file/d/1AktdH-H6RkSxFiIJS-0Db6pMn0PM7a90/view?usp=sharing

PLEASE NOTE: Only vote for the Member-at-Large in the region of Japan you reside in. (e.g. If you reside in Tokyo, please only vote for "Member-at-Large for Eastern/Northern Honshu", leave the other Member-at-Large positions blank)

Democrats Abroad Japan’s Annual General Meeting is taking place this Sunday April 18th at 2pm via WebEx! 

Please attend to learn about what the party does for you, and how you can advance and change it! While we usually have enough in person, this will be our first completely online Annual General Meeting (AGM). If you attend any meeting for Democrats Abroad Japan, this is the one! It is imperative to have at least twenty members in attendance for quorum to stay in compliance, so please attend this Sunday even if you can’t stay the whole time!

The 2021 Nomination and Election Committee (NEC) of Democrats Abroad Japan (DAJ) is proud to call upon our membership to submit their nominations for the 2021 DAJ National Election. The call for nominations is for the following positions:

• National Officer positions
  • Chair (Chief executive officer)
  • Vice-Chair (Serves as Chair in their absence; serves as liaison to chapters and officers)
  • Secretary (Manages/maintains membership database; keeps minutes of all meetings)
  • Treasurer (Manages the finances of DAJ; prepares/maintains financial reports)
  • Counsel (Provides consultation on legal and procedural questions relating to DAJ and its activities)
• Member-at-Large positions (Represent areas in Japan that do not have an active chapter)
  • Hokkaido
  • Eastern/Northern Honshu
  • Western/Southern Honshu
  • Shikoku
  • Kyushu/Okinawa
• DPCA Voting Representative (Votes during certain conventions, meetings, and candidate and policy selections)
• Alternate DPCA Voting Representative

Members of Democrats Abroad Japan,

Thank you for all your hard work in the general election and in Georgia. Together with our allies in Asia Pacific and around the world, we really were able to make a big difference in the senate election and presidential election. Really, thank you. It took every vote we had to get through this year, and leaders in the Democratic Party are finally taking more notice of Democrats Abroad and its value. However, our terms are coming to an end in just under three short months.

So today, we'd like to announce the final Annual General Meeting (AGM) of our terms, taking place online on WebEx. It is important that at least 20 members attend, and while we had nearly 50 last year, turnout is usually lower in midterm years. If you are reading, please come to the annual meeting for an overview of everything we did and what to look for in candidates next term!

Date: Sunday, April 18th
Time: 2pm-4pm with 5pm extension if necessary. The meeting room opens from 1:30pm.
Place/Link: WebEx https://democratsabroad.webex.com/democratsabroad/e.php?MTID=mb74ebe20a5350b9802e91e0fe7dcf180
Password: dems
RSVP here: https://www.democratsabroad.org/annacostello/daj_annual_general_meeting_2021

Per our bylaws, we are including a link to the AGM minutes from our meeting last year: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_j7P1PVoTTZ1710Na8QyV149-kdL7Six_Wz2oPJJLb4/edit?usp=sharing

We'd also like to announce that the Nominations and Elections Committee (NEC) has been appointed and confirmed by the Executive Committee. The key deciding factors were expressed interest and follow-up on the documents/materials, and familiarity with the organization.

Its members will be:

Members:
Kiyoko Ayukawa
Anna Costello
Gregorio Gagnon

Observers:
Jenise Treuting

We will have more correspondence about our elections once the NEC requests dissemination of information regarding our election schedule and other materials.

Kindest,
John A. Baumlin
National Chair | AP 2020 DNC Delegate
Democrats Abroad Japan

Anna Costello
National Secretary
Democrats Abroad Japan

Call for Nominations:
Democrats Abroad Regional Vice Chair Asia Pacific

We are now accepting nominations for the bi-annual election of Regional Vice Chair (RVC) for the Asia Pacific (AP) region! This election will take place during the AP Regional Meeting on the 16th of May as part of the Democrats Abroad Global Meeting. One vote is allocated to each AP country committee and will be cast solely by country committee chairs and vice chairs. The chair and vice chair each carry ½ vote. If either is not present, the other will carry the full vote.

Democrats Abroad has three RVCs, one for each region, who:

• Are elected to a two year term that begins and ends with the regional election.
• Cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
• Serve as one of 8 voting members of the International Executive Committee. Meetings are currently held weekly and typically last from two to three hours, but this is subject to change with the new leadership. 
• Organize and lead monthly regional calls of about one to two hours to encourage, inform, and create a sense of community among regional country committees. 
• Organize and lead a one to three day annual regional meeting to encourage, inform, and create a sense of community among regional country committees. When practical, these annual meetings are held as in-person events with remote participation available. 
• Act as a liaison between the International Executive Committee and one or more of the Democrats Abroad committees, lending a hand to the committee chair and assuming chair responsibilities should that position not be filled.
• Assist in organizing and attend the annual Democrats Abroad Global Meeting, preferably in person when conditions allow. Note that travel costs are the responsibility of the RVC.
• Work with existing country committees to mediate and resolve issues within their committees including election issues, membership queries, etc. 
• Track compliance status of country committees with Charter requirements and work with emerging and out-of-compliance countries to help bring them into compliance.
• Communicate International Executive Committee decisions, policies, and Democrats Abroad best practices to the country committee leaders.
• Bring regional issues to the International Executive Committee for discussion and resolution.

The eligibility requirements for AP RVC are as follows: 

• Be a citizen of the United States. 
• Be a member of Democrats Abroad residing within a country in the Asia Pacific region.
• Adhere to the principles of the Democratic Party of the United States.
• Due to the extenuating circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of the AP region who are temporarily residing outside of their country of residence due to the pandemic may still run for AP RVC (example: resident of Singapore who is temporarily residing in France due to quarantines and travel restrictions). There must be an intent to return to the AP region following the lift of travel restrictions.

Self-nominations and nominations of others are both welcomed and encouraged! Please submit any nominations via the nomination form at this link no later than 23 March 11:59 PM EDT (UTC-4). Each nominee is required to accept their nomination no later than 31 March 11:59 PM EDT (UTC-4). Nominations from the floor of the election meeting will be accepted as well, and all official candidates will be given time to make a short speech.

A list of candidates will be released on 1 April following the nomination acceptance deadline. 

Please direct any questions to [email protected].

On behalf of the 2021 AP Nominations and Elections Committee (NEC),

Anthony Nitz (Vietnam, Chair)
Christine Valverde (New Zealand)
Michael Ramos (Australia)
Phong Quan (Singapore)

Thank you.

Thank you for volunteering.
Thank you for passing good resolutions.
Thank you for donating.
Thank you for keeping us accountable.
Thank you for voting.
Thank you for letting us serve you.

Thank you for doing your best.

Thank you, and we hope all of you aspire to run for office and bring us closer to a better future. None of this works without you.

Kindest,
John, Kiyoko, Anna, Dave
Democrats Abroad Japan Executive Committee

Election Day is drawing nearer, and there’s very limited time left to cast your vote and send in your overseas ballot! (And if you haven’t registered/requested your ballot, do so NOW: https://www.votefromabroad.org/ - many states have ballot request deadlines this week.)

With election day drawing nearer, we all want to check in one last time to make sure everyone has requested their ballot and has relevant, accessible information to successfully return their ballot in their state.

Dear Democrats Abroad Japan Members,

The biggest thing we need to do this year is Vote! in November and make sure all our 4000 DAJ members, their friends and families vote, too. One of the most effective ways we can do that is by calling/messaging them through a 📞phone banking campaign.

We need to act fast⏰.  The recommended date for yearly voter registration to get a ballot this year is August 1st. Only 600 of our roughly 4000 members in Japan have completed their www.votefromabroad.org ballot requests so far.😱   

 Ways you can help:

1.     Phone banking📞- help call our DAJ members

     We are launching an online phone banking campaign, and need volunteers. It's easy. The campaign software does automatic dialing, and then you just follow the script on the screen.

Sign up at https://www.democratsabroad.org/voter_support_team (more details at # 3.)

1.   Register Yourself!

         If you have not filled out your votefromabroad.org ballot request, go do it NOW, so we don’t need to call you. If you have already requested your ballot this year, forward the link to your US citizen friends and colleagues. 🙏

Go to https://www.votefromabroad.org/

1.     Join a Phone banking online party📞🎉

DA Australia is sponsoring online phone bank parties several nights a week.  All Democrats Abroad members living in Asia Pacific countries 🌏 are welcome to join. They provide training on how to join the call campaign, then everyone goes off to make phone calls for an hour, and finally everyone returns to have a quick online postmortem discussion.  We can do our own team-Japan campaign “2020-07 JP CC-BallotReq Japan-ALL #057B (0000-0800EDT)”

RSVP for the Australia events at https://www.democratsabroad.org/au_events

For information on the campaign, please contact [email protected]