Minutes of Democrats Abroad Guatemala
Executive Committee meeting on Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 12:00 noon
Via Skype
Members in Attendance: John Chudy, Chair; Kee Adams Evans, Events Coordinator; Dave Evans, Member at Large, and Juan Pablo Aris, Counsel.
Call to order: 12:06pm Central America Time (2:06pm EDT)
Agenda and minutes from April meeting were approved
Chair’s Report: On May 22nd, citing personal reasons, Tom and Lyn Totino submitted their resignations, as Treasurer and Secretary respectively. A motion was made by the Chair to accept the resignations. The motion Passed. Dave Evans, as Member at Large, will become Acting Treasurer until at new Treasurer can be named. John and Kee will tag-team the Secretary’s responsibilities until a new Secretary can be named.
We also need to fill MeetUp Group chair for Guatemala City.
Events for 2019 Film Series update. Next film: ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’. Date, time, place will be set when John returns with a copy of the film in June. Future films may include Green Book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Matewan.
Outreach to younger voters: Venue research of Frida’s and Saul’s was not carried out. Discussion ended on agreement that it would be best if a millennial were to organize events with a younger-voter focus. Details will continue to be discussed.
June 26 and 27 Debate Watch Parties: Dave and Kee Evans will host debate watch parties both nights of the first Democratic debate that will take place in June. Both will pot luck events. Mark your calendars!
July 4th Sundowner with Fireworks at CCC Kee will send out an email to survey the membership by June 1st, on holding an event this year. In the meantime, Kee will check availability of space @CCC 5pm to 8pm, Thursday, July 4th and make a reservation. A final decision and details will be worked out at June meeting.
Fund Raisers: Democrats Abroad Guatemala bumper sticker campaign is moving forward. Kee suggested ordering 3 x 11 stickers in batches of 100 and will get price and production data in batches and increments by the next meeting. The message would be the logo of Democrats Abroad Guatemala as it appears on our stationery, e.g., these minutes, and contact information [email protected] email, and www.democratsabroad.org website, as well as, We Vote!
2019 FPCA promotion Results of May 18th event at Enlaces were disappointing with no voters showing up. John proposed an idea he heard at the DPCA global meeting from Liz Jaff, who heads the DNC’s digital infrastructure division. When asked about a low-cost way of reaching out to voters, Liz said one tool that has been effective is making short 90 second videos in a question and answer format about Democrats Abroad. For DAGT purposes, such a setting would be Kee being asked by a member why they should prepare an FPCA every year. The short video would be posted on our DAGT group FB page, and members would be encouraged to share the video so that it reaches even more people. It can also be posted on Twitter. We could ask Scotney to post and promote the video. Multiple videos could be made around FPCA and GOTV questions.
DPCA Global Meeting in Washington, DC, May 17 to 19, with Capitol Hill door knock May 20 and 21 John reported some of the details of the meeting. Members are encouraged to go to the
https://wiki.democratsabroad.org/ wiki site for more details about the business conducted at the meeting, including bylaws changes and resolutions. One resolution that passed was Medicare for All, in support of the several House bills on the topic. Elections were held for International officers, and for Regional Vice Chairs, International Chair, Julia Bryan -- Czech Republic; International Vice Chair, Alex Montgomery --Hong Kong; International Treasurer, Lissette Wright – Canada; International Secretary, Jeffrey Cheng – Sweden; International Legal Counsel,
Joe Smallhoover – France. (FYI: Juan Pablo Aris will serve as Americas Region Counsel Assistant to Joe).
At the three Regional Meetings, the following officers were elected for two year terms:
Americas Regional Vice Chair; Kathy Rothschild -- Costa Rica; Asia Pacific Regional Vice Chair, Kat Allikian -- New Zealand; Europe Middle East and Africa Regional Vice Chair,
Will Bakker -- Luxembourg
DAGT June meeting – via Skype June 13th 12:00 noon Guatemala Time.
Travel Notes: Mary Lou will be in and out. Juan Pablo will be out June 16 to 23. John returns to Guatemala June 18th.
Adjourned: 1:10pm