Minutes - CU Dems [Transitional] Executive Board Meeting

Date: Sunday, May 3, 2015 | Time: 5 PM - 6:30 PM

Location: Kent 411
In attendance: Austin, Kristen, Shoshana, Mike, Annika, Jordana, Darius, Isabel, Partha, Jess,
Ben, Allison, Adjua, Alex, Dan, Joelle Boxer
Absent: Melissa
Toast:
Austin: to Dems!
Board Consensus: Well all miss Austin!
Week in Review
Immigration Forum
Well Attended (though not too many Dems were there!)
Speaker (Cesar Cruz) went over Mexican and American history, feminist perspectives,
and his own experience of being undocumented
Cesar Cruz could be a speaker at Dems
Dems Formal
Consensus: it was a success!
Year in Review
Broad Themes
Shoshana: Really enjoyed her first year on Dems!
Isabel: Board dynamic has improved
Jordana: Board dynamic has steadily improved with each semester she has been on
Dems
Engagement with the Media
Jordana: We need more op-eds. We can do New York State issues. Should not be
primarily the Media Directors job to write about op-eds. GB could do that too!
Jess: Bwog approached us about doing more political stuff. Suggested that Dems and
Republicans could write on a regular basis. Bwog has talked about political leaders
being involved.
Kristen: How about coordinating liberal sparring with op-eds.
Jordana: We could use MailChimp to revamp our emails. There could be collaboration
between the Membership and Media Directors
Shosh: Everyone, but particularly Joelle and Alex, should look at City & States regular
updates. We could model our email on that
Circles
Mike: Circle leaders bringing articles to the meetings were cool. We raised the level of
discourse. Circles werent just educational anymore. Social media could help promote
circles. It could be a way to advertise meetings.

Partha: How about structuring circles through the Body Email?

Lobby Trip
Partha: Liked how the Leads used Google Drive to review Lobby Trip proposals. Raised
the level of proposals.
Programming
Annika: We did a good job of not putting our hands in too much stuff, not taking on too
much programming this semester.
Isabel: Planning meetings two weeks in advance was a good policy that Board tried last
semester. Creating a behind-the-scenes programming calendar might be helpful.
Joelle: We could bring experts to meetings
Adjua: We could do more events with the Republicans.
Darius: The 2-3 panels a semester rule should be reevaluated, if its not really being
followed. Also, having a long-term project for the year is useful.
Isabel: Historically, the Secretary has precalendared two events. However, the
usefulness of that is questionable, since dates are always up in the air.
Dan: To share news and current events, we could have a 10-20 second tl;dr at the
beginning of General Body Meetings.
Recruitment
Jordana: Informal interaction with General Body is important.
Jess: Should be mindful of financial constraints when engaging in informal interactions
Shosh: Has ideas for NSOP-related events. Will discuss with Joelle. Wants to discuss
the possibility of social events.
Mike: We can institutionalize Joelles idea of having coffee dates. Do one with each
General Body Member. We need to have continual conversations with people about
what they want out of Dems.
Annika: Dont restrict involvement with General Body to people you know yourself
Joelle: GB-GB interaction, like with the coffee dates, is possible
Freshman Rep.
Ben: the Freshman Rep should not be responsible for planning social events to recruit
events. Rather, should be assisting someone else in planning those events.
Jordana: its somewhat weird for one freshman to be introducing themselves as
Freshman Rep to other first-years and recruit them that way.
Miscellaneous
Darius: The Feminist Mystique is something Dems used to publish. Maybe that could be
an interesting idea.
Mike will be housing PrezBo for the summer.
Partha: We will need to assign a Rep to CPU, under the new CPU Constitution.
New Board Meeting
(Austin, Jordana, Darius, Jess, and Ben leave at this point)
Board Goals
Covered in first half of the meeting.

Will further discuss at Retreat.

TurboVote
Mike explained TurboVote (For more, go to TurboVote.org), and summarized our
meeting (attended by Mike, Partha, Isabel, and Annika) with Mike Ward of TurboVote
People working on TurboVote: Mike, Dan, Isabel, Partha, Joelle, Adjua
Set up meeting with Pete to collaborate
Voting Week may be a preferable source of funding for TurboVote
Discuss TurboVote with NSOP
Slack.com Implementation
Kristen: GroupMe worked well
Benefits of Slack.com: channels, organization
Adjua: Why do we not have a forum for Body and Board? How about an FB Group? This
begins a conversation on this subject
- Dan: We have a FB group for Milvets
- Mike: In a potential FB Group, outside group advertising should be allowed.
- Potential FB Group to be further discussed at a later date.
Trial of Slack.com to be done for a week
Summer Plans
Campaign Trip: Leads will be on it!
- Mike points out that destination might be contentious, as we could be faced with
doing a ballot initiative.
Summer Activism
- Kristen: Each Exec Board Officer should put on at least one event during the
year. Also, we should make a Doc with issues were all passionate about.
- Shosh: Proposes social events in NYC, DC, LA cities where there will be many
Dems this summer.
- Summer LBCs to be done
- Joelle: Coffee dates could be done during the summer
Annika: Funding [from our budget] for coffee dates could be arranged for
the Fall.
Adding two new people to Board?
Argument advanced by many: conversations would become difficult with so many people
Annika: committees of General Body could be used to accomplish certain tasks