2025-07-03 General Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes
Attendance
Campaign Coordinator: @chima
Membership Coordinator: @HipGnosis
Education Coordinator: @Englishpete08
Treasurer: @Turcotte
Secretary: @Bozzii
Members: @Adri_Martinez, @NoraG, @Tanner, @Veewok, @Raiken_202, @ckposadas, Tristan
General Meeting
Date: 2025-07-03T07:00:00Z
Calendar Related Topics
Old Business
Organizing Conversation Training
- Happening on July 26 10am-12pm
– Put it in your calendars; invite any friends who might be interested
Unioning Workplaces
People interested: @NoraG, @HipGnosis, @Bozzii, @Englishpete08
- Happening on July 24 6pm-8pm
New Business
New Member Orientation
- Happening on July 20 10am-12pm
Tenant Union Workshop Reminder
- Two weeks until workshop on July 12th - must canvas a lot
– July 5th 10-12: @Tanner
– July 6th 10-12: @Tanner, @Englishpete08
– July 7th 6-8: @Bozzii, @Adri_Martinez, @HipGnosis
– July 10th 6-8: @Bozzii, @HipGnosis, Tristan, @Adri_Martinez(?), @Englishpete08(?)
– July 17th 6-8: @Tanner & @Englishpete08
– July 31 6-8: @Tanner
Reading Group
- Happening July 28th 6pm-8pm
Calendar
July 2024
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 TU 10-12 | ||
| 6 TU 10-12Know Your Rights (4PM-6PM) | 7 TU 6-8 | 8 | 9 | 10 TU 6-8 | 11 | 12 (TU Workshop 10AM-12PM) |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 TU 6-8 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 New Member Orientation | 21 WCU Article 6-8 | 22 | 23 | 24 Unionizing Materials | 25 | 26 (Organizing Conversations 10AM-12PM) |
| 27 | 28 Reading Group 6-8 | 29 | 30 | 31 TU 6-8 |
August 2024
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 New Member Orientation 6-8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 TU Workshop 10-12 and Org Conv BBQ 12-2 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
Non-Calendar Related Topics
Old Business
Vote by Proxy
- You can find the current discussion on this topic here: Discussion: Proxy voting via delegates
Vote
@chima moved to table meeting and give it 30 minutes
- 8 yes; 1 no; 2 didn’t vote
Discussion
- @Tanner : people paying dues to be a part of the group and miss an important vote because they’re sick doesn’t seem fair
- @Veewok : what is a steering committee?
– @HipGnosis : it’s like elected positions you’d expect from government except that our job isn’t to make decisions for the organization, but to make the decisions make by members happen. We have slightly more access to information
– @Bozzii : steering committee meetings are open for everyone to join - @Adri_Martinez : probationary period or showing that someone has attended a certain amount of meetings may seem like someone missed out on a vote, but if there’s hesitation to go through with the proxy vote then that could be another safe guard. Creating a system might end up being more work that we cannot keep up with. Not a big concern that people will misuse it
- @chima : Early voting has messed up other orgs. One way of solving this is a post vote on the forum. Often during meetings the wording of what we are voting on changed so doing it this way would ensure that what is being voted on online and in meeting are the same. This would also allow for access to the discussion, especially because we rely on the general meetings to hash out most of out ideas
- @Adri_Martinez : if we wait to give proxy vote option can have a back and forth of what is amending the amendment. Could lead to never being able to vote on something
– @chima : or the opposite of never being able to amend at a general - @HipGnosis : if we are amending the amendment of the amendment if probably means we don’t have enough agreement and shouldn’t be passing the thing anyways. Opposed to proxy vote wholesale. If you know someone then proxy votes could double your voting power. People making decisions should be people involved and in many cases
- @Tanner : how is it fair that someone can pay for dues and not receive a vote
- @chima : dues aren’t to grant you a vote, they’re just to support the organization. What gives a member decision making power is actually participating in the work and the discussion
- @Tanner : what is you have a disability that precludes you from participating in the org?
– @chima : we have zoom and don’t want to equate dues money to having more power in the org - @Bozzii : in order to have a vote you have to be a dues paying member
– @HipGnosis : no you don’t, you can get a waiver to pay a dollar in dues. Dues aren’t about gaining access to voting - @Bozzii : if I were to start a job and can no longer come to the general meetings even though I would like to
- @chima : have to see beyond the vote as your way to impact the organization. We should be talking to people beforehand and letting them know our perspectives. That’s what it means to be in a participatory org not just that you can pay and cast your vote
- @Veewok : if you’re going to have dues paying people that aren’t going to participate what’s the likelihood that they are going to use their proxy vote
– @chima : problem is that they become yes votes. How about we table this and give it 30 minutes during the next meeting - @NoraG : we have ranked voting so contributing members get two votes and people who don’t contribute/only pays dues get one
- @HipGnosis : how do we decide who gets more votes
- @Bozzii : leads steering members to have an automatic two votes
- @HipGnosis : people with more time (those who we already have been discussing have too much power) get more votes
The People from Outside Meeting Discussion
- Current discussion: Discussion: Unity Assemblies
- Consnsus during meeting:
– Event Name : Community Assembly hosted by Working Class Unity
– present stuff were doing in the beginning
– people speak for 3-5 minutes with an option to extend another 5 minutes for discussion
– have it be open, but be upfront about not allowing cops, politicians (elected official/running for elected office), or landlords
– cannot use the time to plug a politician/businesses/property if they’re a staffer
– still need to figure out what to do with NGOs
Vote
@chima motions to host the Community Assembly where everyone to be welcome to the space to be no cops, elected/running office official. Staffers, businesses or landlords cannot use the space to advertise themselves/the people they represent
– unanimous yes
Discussion
- @Tanner : don’t think anyone here will be opposed to these
- @HipGnosis : We should be talking to one another about organizing
- @Adri_Martinez : Do we want to exclude people? Who do we want to invite? How we structure these meetings? Members of the community includes law enforcement
- @HipGnosis : what do we want the outcome to be?
- @Tanner : someone proposes an idea that leads to us doing something good for the community and other people join WCU
– @chima : his goal also when proposing this. If we’re not participating in the sidequest anyways maybe we can help them/give them advice - @NoraG : Goal should be to agitate and be more organized
- @Bozzii : viewing this as something outside of WCU. Point of it is to create a space where people share things that they want to see/do and connect people together and with local organizers. Envisions it as something bigger than just WCU
- @Veewok : Likes that idea. If we invite other orgs then people or orgs can come up and share ideas for what they want to see happen somewhere and them orgs there can pick up that person or project
- @Tanner : People of WCU have bullshit detectors and if we were to get people up there with a certain attitude and a presentation, we’d question what’s going on. Doesn’t have an issue with if an organization comes and share what its doing, if WCU members want to join in their own time, why would we stop that
- @Adri_Martinez : we’re going to need to vibe check an org. Can’t control who can become a member of WCU, will decide with themselves if they align with us. What we can control is how we partner with other groups
- @chima : If we are going to be a socialist organization we should do something different, otherwise if we’re inviting everyone that’s something Hatch can host and do better. We shouldn’t push into these roles that other orgs can do better than us, instead if we have fewer people we can offer advice that isn’t just go to city hall to solve issues. Our role should be more than just a hub. We should be getting people to succeed in organizing outside of the default framework of protest and collect signatures
- @Tanner : We have to have limitations to who is allowed to present.
- @chima : Politicians or small business owners that come and invite you to a fundraising event they’re having
- @Tanner : should people be barred from that
- @chima: every non-profit is going to be sending people over and sweep most of the people that some.
- @Bozzii : if we are going to limit people sharing their events are we going to be limiting ourselves as well?
- @chima : Less on people and more on what people are saying. If they’re advocating for a project they have where they’re helping those on the streets its fine, but if they’re just plugging their small business that’s a no. Have disclaimers on flyers. If you are a non-profit or politician you don’t need our help. Goal is to find a diamond in the rough
- @HipGnosis : people come in represent themselves and limit time to do their presentation. If its something we don’t like we can stop them and if we do we can vote to add more time. No cops, land owners, or politicians. Goal is to get connected with and gather an idea of the direction the people in our community want us to go
- @NoraG : Set rules and guidelines. Likes idea of bringing people together
- @Bozzii : We should have community guidelines posted as people are entering the space. Have to meet people where they’re at in terms of beliefs, not expecting a lot of socialists to come and our role would be to hopefully connect the dots to class consciousness through the advice we give them
- @chima : don’t want organizers or nonprofits to come in and speak over community members or politicians coming in and co-opting what were doing. Have to make space for community to come in and not be suffocated by players that already suffocating them like politicians or specific community organizers that gatekeep resources and pretend to represent people
- @HipGnosis : we should just do one and we will learn what restrictions we need to add
- @Adri_Martinez : wrote things we agree on, not necessarily excluding individuals, more so echo that it isn’t a space to solicit the organization they are a part of
- @NoraG : could be a good opportunity to record some of them and post them to help get the word out
– @Bozzii : we’d have to ask for people’s consent and make sure they want to be publicly tied to what they say
Why Liberals Lose WCU Article Outline
- Current discussion and link to outline/article draft: WCU Article: Why Liberals Lose: Josh Harder, Abundance Caucus, and Making Neoliberalism Great Again
Vote
@chima motions to approve the outline
– Unanimous yes
Discussion
- @Englishpete08 : Still a work in progress adding more points to the outline about cultural politics
- @HipGnosis : just organizing tenant unions or democratic work places isn’t the solution, need to prefigure the society we want in the here and now. More nuanced solution
– @chima : can add community assemblies to solutions. Don’t want them to come across too utopian - @Adri_Martinez : pulling specific examples of current politicians that emphasize working class values and how that’s been out the window in the things they support. Can also add local cultural politics
- @Turcotte : need give a strong call to action at the beginning as well as the end and give specific examples of ineffective actions
- @NoraG : Cultural politics may be what introduced people to politics, but does lead to the working class coming together to fix stuff. Maybe we need to articulate the fact that everyone is being affected outside of culture/race/ethnicity but class
- @Englishpete08 : Just voting for someone like AOC or Bernie because they align with you politically isn’t effective political action. Politicians we like often disappoint us
- @HipGnosis : could be good to comment on why identity politics doesn’t work or more so the scary times where it does work like with white nationalists
New Business
Present Solidarity Tech
- Website: https://solidarity.tech/
– app has a good database of all the people we’ve contacted and how they responded; people who RSVP will now be interested in the system
– incorporated phone banking, texting, and email
– field app can automatically sign people interested in joining WCU/TU up for text updates about upcoming events
Vote
@chima motioned to approve the use of solidarity tech
– unanimous yes
Discussion
@Turcotte : it’s cheaper than any another program
@chima : other programs cost $100 for just one function
Tenant Union Update
- General TU updates - 2025-06 Tenant Union Campaign Update
Voting Record
Notes
- (*) indicated they did not vote or were not there for this vote
| (A)Vote by Proxy | (B)Community Assembly | (C)Why Libs Lose Outline | (D)Solidarity Tech | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| @chima | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @HipGnosis | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @bozzii | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Adri_Martinez | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Tanner | no | yea | yea | yea |
| @Veewok | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Raiken_202 | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @ckposadas | * | * | yea | yea |
| @Turcotte | * | * | * | yea |
| @Englishpete08 | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @NoraG | * | yea | yea | yea |
| Tristan | yea | yea | yea | yea |
Quorum for Meeting
[(10+9+10+11+12)/4]/2
= 7