2024-02-01 General Meeting
Attendance
Campaign Coordinator: @chima
Membership Coordinator: @HipGnosis
Treasurer: @Turcotte
Secretary: @Robert_H
Other members: @Adri_Martinez, @Bozzii, @anon26178869, and @Joanna
Meeting Notes
Opening
- @chima served as Meeting Leader
- roll call taken; @anon26178869 calculate necessary quorum 4
present: 8 members
Approval of Minutes
- 2023-11-09 General Meeting
- 2024-01-17 Steering Committee Meeting
The minutes were approved as posted.
Reports of Members Sick or in Distress
- @Robert_H has an appointment for a tooth.
Reports of Officers and Committees
- None by Treasurer, Secretary, or Membership Coordinator
- Campaign Coordinator had updates on the Tenant Union campaign later
- EWOC: We are in contact with one worker who is trying to build an organizing committee in his workplace.
Unfinished Business
IRS Form 1024-A
- @anon26178869 presented on the tax requirements, stressing the importance of getting them taken care of, and brought up the idea of consulting a lawyer for the form.
- We discussed free options and will pursue those. @Adri_Martinez and @Bozzii volunteered to help @Turcotte review the forms and research. The goal is to complete the document a week before the next General Meeting, allowing Membership to vote on the document at that meeting. The document will then be submitted ASAP with any modifications.
- The current drafts of our 1024-A tax forms can be found here and a thread discussing our tax documents can be found here: WCU 501c4 Documents.
Intra-WCU Communication channels
- Regarding the Steering Committee group chat that was not accessible to the membership: Its contents have been available: Steering Committee WhatsApp Communication Channel. The Steering Committee will continue to communicate 1:1 only and not utilize a group chat until an acceptable alternative is approved.
- @anon26178869 brought the above concern to the membership. He also initiated a discussion about the openness, accessibility, opensource, and the importance of receiving notifications for being engaged.
- @chima moved to adopt the Discourse Forum and WhatsApp as the official communications of WCU and then maintaining that the Forum is the place of record for any votes or any documentation and that we adopt a culture that anything that members believe could be benefited by being viewed by other membership should be posted on the Forum and only communication that we believe membership won’t lose anything from by disappearing over time should be kept on WhatsApp. Seconded by @Joanna. Motion carried 7-1, with one NO vote coming from @anon26178869.
New Business
Bylaw changes
Finishing changes to proposed Bylaws changes
- @chima presented proposed two amendments to the Bylaw Modifications presented at the 2024-01-11 General Meeting, modifying section 3.2 Calculating the Average Attendance and adding Section 3.5: Maintenance of Quorum. Note: The presentation says 3.1, however, it was clarified prior to the vote that the amendment was meant to replace 3.2
- @chima moved to approve this amendment (3.1 Determination of Quorum) to our Bylaw Amendment (ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3). Seconded by @Adri_Martinez. Motion carried 7-0-1, with one abstention coming from @anon26178869.
-For 3.5 Maintenance of Quorum, there was no stated motion/first in the recording. Second from @Joanna. The vote tally was 7-0-1, with one abstention coming from @anon26178869.
-Before proceeding with the next vote, @chima clarified that Amendment 3.1 on the slide should be 3.2.
-For the Bylaw Amendment (ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3) overall, there was no stated motion/first in the recording. Second from @Joanna. The vote tally was 7-0-1, with one abstention coming from @anon26178869.
-For the other Bylaw Amendment (ARTICLE VIII, SECTION 2), there was no stated motion/first in the recording. Second from @Joanna. The vote tally was 7-0-1, with one abstention coming from @anon26178869.
Free Palestine Teach In
- @Bozzii discussed how well the teach in went as well as some ways to do better such as a more set schedule earlier.
- @Adri_Martinez and @Turcotte concurred.
Free Palestine as a Focus Campaign
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@chima Presented options for a Free Palestine Focus Campaign with goals like coalition building, educating people about the drawbacks of the two party system
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The members discussed and tried to address the realities of what we as a group can do; what realistic goals we could achieve here; whether the focus should only be on Palestine or if it should be broader
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@chima moved to change the name of the focus campaign to something similar to, but not exactly, name pending of, instead of a sole focus on Free Palestine, to Anti-popular Front/Independent Socialists Movement. Seconded by @Adri_Martinez. Motion failed 1-3-3, with three NO votes coming from @Turcotte, @Robert_H and @anon26178869 and three abstentions coming from @Joanna, @Adri_Martinez and @Bozzii. Harpreet’s vote was not captured in the recording.
-@chima moved to approve [the Free Palestine Focus Campaign] as is. Seconded by @Bozzii. Motion stated to have failed 5-2-1, with two NO votes coming from @Adri_Martinez & @anon26178869 and one abstention coming from @Joanna.
Original Clarification: Affording to Robert’s Rules, abstentions do not count towards the vote total. Therefore, the motion should have passed with a 71.4% vote in the affirmative. However, because the motion was declared failed at the meeting, this issue must be addressed at the following meeting. Members will have the option to vote to bring the Free Palestine campaign up for a vote again; there will then need to be another vote in the affirmative for the focus campaign to pass.
Note from @anon26178869 : According to Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief, “In the usual situation, where the rules require either a ‘majority vote’ or a ‘two-thirds vote,’ abstentions have absolutely no effect on the outcome of the vote since what is required is either a majority or two thirds of the votes cast. On the other hand, if the rules explicitly require a majority or two thirds of the members present, or a majority or two thirds of the entire membership, an abstention will have the same effect as a ‘no’ vote.”
Tenant Union Update
- First Tenant Union Meeting Feb 24 2-5pm
- Checking schedules for canvasing
ABCs of Capitalism
- Discussed scheduling and reading the book or adapting it as a teach in.
Public Facing Material
- Temporary working group - membership volunteered: @Turcotte, @anon26178869, @Adri_Martinez, @HipGnosis, @Bozzii @chima
Death of the Left
- Social event and Education
- March 2nd
Adjournment
- @chima moved to adjourn. Seconded by @anon26178869.
Dates
Tenant Union
Canvassing
2024-02-09T00:30:00Z: @Adri_Martinez @anon26178869 @HipGnosis @chima
2024-02-10T22:00:00Z: @Turcotte @Adri_Martinez @chima
2024-02-17T22:00:00Z: @HipGnosis @Turcotte @chima
2024-02-23T00:30:00Z: @anon26178869 @Adri_Martinez @Joanna @HipGnosis @Bozzii @chima
Tenant Union Meeting
2024-02-24T22:00:00Z
Working Meetings
2024-02-06T02:00:00Z
2024-02-20T02:00:00Z
ABCs of Capitalism
2024-02-27T02:00:00Z
Death of the Left
2024-03-02T22:00:00Z
