Congratulations to Reid Chalker and Tom Gallagher, Berniecrats who were confirmed as Democratic State Delegates at tonight’s DCCC meeting! Along with our wins at the ADEMs locally and statewide, we are in a good position to reform the Democratic Party. It is vital that this fight against Trump’s “Corporate Coup d’´État” (-Naomi Klein) is lead by true progressives like us and NOT the corporate Democrats that enabled the Trump regime.
Our next meeting is Wednesday Feb 1, 6:45-8:30pm at the Park Branch Library where we’ll be having Officer Elections.
In this email you’ll find:
A) Membership eligibility, nominations, Proxy Voting
B) Agenda for Feb 1 Meeting
C) Voting Instructions from our Election and Endorsement Coordinator Reid Chalker
D) Action items and events for the next few days
A) Agenda for Feb 1 Meeting
Berniecrats February Officers Election Meeting
Wednesday February 1, 6:45 PM – 8:45 PM
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, San Francisco
AGENDA:
1. Agenda and Officer Updates
2. Amendments to Bylaws
Voting Process:
Use Rank Choice Voting instead of 5 point system (see Section B)
Officer Roles:
Correspondent – instead of writing to members (which Co-chairs can do), the correspondent will now compose our letters to elected officials and statements on behalf of the club.
Moderators (x2) – We’re adding this position to help keep the meetings on time, prevent people from ranting / calling out / dominating
Press Coordinator – Separate this position from Social Media Coordinator
Moderators (x2) – We’re adding this position to help keep the meetings on time, prevent people from ranting / calling out / dominating
Press Coordinator – Separate this position from Social Media Coordinator
3. Officer Elections – 1 min candidate speeches, discussion (30 sec each), voting on ballot
4. Announcements
B) Membership Eligibility, Nominations, Proxy Voting
To vote at a SF Berniecrats meeting, you need to be a member in good standing by having participated in 2 General Membership Meetings in 3 consecutive months (or have put in qualifying volunteer hours) and paid your Membership Dues. Please read the Bylaws for more details.
Nominations should be made asap via this form. All candidates for officer positions must be members in good standing. Here is the current list of candidates running for officer positions. Although nominations can be made up until the beginning of the election process, we encourage you to nominate now so our Elections & Endorsement Coordinator Reid Chalker can prepare the ballots.
Proxy voting is allowed to members in good standing who are unable to come to a meeting in person. Those who wish to do so should email Reid at orchalker@gmail.com.
C) Voting Instructions from Reid
We are suggesting an amendment to the voting process from a 5 point system to a rank choice voting system. Below in an explanation of how this process would work.
Ranked Choice Voting
For all elections with multiple candidates other than the Outreach Coordinator, there will be ranked choice voting. You will have the option of giving up to three people your vote in the order you prefer. For example: let’s say that Susan, Dave, Jen, and Matt are all running for the same office. Jen would be your first choice for the job, you like Matt, but not quite as much as Jen, you feel Susan would be alright at it, and you don’t have any desire to vote for Dave. Your ballot would look like this:
Susan 3
Dave
Jen 1
Matt 2
In the first round of ballot counting, Jen is the person your vote would go toward. If any candidates first place votes are enough to get them a majority, then they are the winner. If no one has a majority of votes, the last place candidate is eliminated, and any ballots with that candidate as first choice then change to second choice. If no one has a majority of votes again, then the new last place candidate gets eliminated, and their voters’ ballots then go to the voter’s next choice. This goes on until a candidate wins. So in the example above, if Jen is last place after the first round of counting, your vote would then go to Matt. If Matt is last place in a later round, your vote would then go to Susan. For more info on how Ranked Choice Voting works, you can check out http://www.fairvote.org/
Single Candidate Races and Outreach Coordinator
For Officer seats where there’s only one person running, and for the Outreach Coordinator positions, the rules are much more simple. For these elections, you are either saying yes or no to each candidate. When it comes to voting, if you want that candidate to be elected to that seat, write 1 next to their name. If you do not wish to vote in favor of them, write a 0 next to their name. If you leave it blank, that will not count as a vote, and will not go toward the total. If a candidate has a majority of 1 votes, they will be elected. If a candidate receives a majority of 0 votes, then they will not be elected.
If you want to check out the list of positions being voted on, you can find it in the bylaws here https://docs.google.com/
D) Action Items and Events
TODAY – THURS JAN 26th:
Thursday, Janurary 26, 2-5pm
San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Place, SF
Demand there be more than 13% affordable units at new
Thursday, Janurary 26, 6-8pm
Federal Building 90 7th Street, SF
How Big Organizing Can Change Everything (PDA)
Thursday, January 26, 7 pm
Unitarian Universalist Center Chapel, Franklin @ Geary
1) Becky Bond (senior advisor to Sanders presidential campaign)
2) Q&A and discussion with recently elected ADEM
