2024-05-06 Working Meeting
Outside of creating a process for managing public facing material, there’s no shortage of things that the organization could use help on. The Working Meeting isn’t until Monday, but if anyone is free before then, the Zoom meeting room should be available this weekend.
FINANCES
-budget projections for IRS Form 1024-A
-research upcoming tax filing deadlines–the forms and costs (*I believe there are filing deadlines coming up on May 15th.); start filling out drafts to present to membership at a General Meeting
-database for tracking our activities (number of attendees, duration of event, description of event–including if it was political or non-political)
-create a financial report that includes: general fund balance (current total of member dues + any donations), ongoing expenses (the Discourse Forum, Wordpress, TalkThru, Airtable and so on), any reimbursements that may need to be made to members, etc.
EDUCATION/MEMBERSHIP
-schedule a membership committee meeting; collect a list of existing of WCU members who would be willing to be paired with a new member and serve as a point of contact; schedule 1-on-1 meetings with new members and review membership handbook/pipeline documents and discuss what and how we will actually implement them
-upload the recording of the previous reading group meeting; provide a summary for those who could not attend
-update the Working Class Unity Calendar with dates and descriptions for the upcoming reading groups; create social media posts to invite the public
-condense ABCs of Capitalism into a single lesson plan that can be presented to new members in-person, through a video recording, a virtual meeting or written form
-find out what topics or skills membership would be interested in learning (via polls on the forum, surveys with open-ended questions, or some other method)
-reach out to new members to get their preferred method of contact (email, text, call, WhatsApp, the Discourse Forum) and ask for their availability, so we can better coordinate events & activities
TENANT UNION FOCUS CAMPAIGN
-create a script for the next canvassing event
-summarize the 2024-02-24 meeting with CalVilla residents (tenants & owners) as an update for those who could not attend
-condense the CalVilla Bylaws into something we can distribute–the important things residents should know
-brainstorm ways to increase participation of tenants
~maybe instead of trying to knock on as many doors as we can, use one of the canvassing days to have longer conversations with residents; circle back to the best knock (interaction) you had–reintroduce yourself, bring up something from your previous talk to show that you were listening, “how have things been for you since we last spoke? try to implement AEIOU”; follow-up with a personalized text or email or message through their preferred method of contact (Ex: “Hi, [insert name]. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me yesterday.”) the next day; let them know when you’ll be back and then show up, so that they can start to see us as reliable and consistent
NO VOTES FOR GENOCIDE FOCUS CAMPAIGN
write up a description of the focus campaign for the website
-turn the communication/strategy portion of the proposal into talking points that we can use at rallies (or discussions with the public), on social media, and for handouts (flyers, bifolds, etc.)
-draft the No Votes for Genocide Pledge
~script for getting people to sign it in-person
~script for getting people to sign it during phone banking
~draft of a letter encouraging people on our email list to sign it
-draft a Ceasefire Now Pledge (*In contrast with the No Votes for Genocide Pledge, this pledge–if I understood the proposal correctly–is intended to be less polarizing(?) or more palatable for unions/businesses to sign on to.)
research which labor organizations have called for a ceasefire and use that as leverage to ask local chapters to sign on to one of our pledges, attend our rallies, put out their own statement, etc.
-social events:
~select the film we want to screen (compile a list of options and discuss how we want to structure discussions afterwards)
~poster/art making (*Discuss with coalition partners ahead of time when and where the next rally will be held, so we can prepare for/schedule poster making beforehand and send out invitations for it via social media, email, etc.)
ADMINISTRATIVE, MISCELLANEOUS, OTHER
-place a link of the Working Class Unity website that directs visitors to our calendar; update the Working Class Unity Calendar; many events still lack descriptions; the next Steering Committee Meeting is listed as being on May 20th but it should be the Monday before the third Thursday of the month which would be May 13th
-create a presentation slide template for future General Meetings with speaker notes to assist people who volunteer to be co-facilitators
upload the the recording of the 2024-05-02 General Meeting