Meeting Minutes

Annual General Meeting

Democrats Abroad Chile
April 18, 2017

I. Welcome Brittany Brown opens meeting, welcomes members, and gives a

brief overview of DA International and DA Chile
II. Introductions current Executive Committee members introduce themselves
III. Review of 2016 Alli Engle
a. Registration and GOTV efforts: 5 voter registration/GOTV drives, including
two outside of Santiago, in addition to GOTV efforts at watch
parties/Conversations & Cocktails events
b. Watch parties: Two presidential debate watch parties after the GPP,
including Election Night and taking into account Chilean holidays impeding
more debate watch parties.
c. Recognition of Election Night as a milestone event for DA Chile, despite the
result. DA Chile filled an entire floor of a popular expat bar, had many first-
timers attend, received national press coverage, and received a major
boost to our funding
d. Membership: we are consistently growing but need to translate interest in
our events into member registration
e. Update from the Treasurer Mary Laverty: DA Chiles balance as at AGM is
CLP 224.825. Our fundraising efforts are leaps and bounds ahead of
previous years and we have never had such a high balance.
Congratulations and a sincere thank you to our members who have made
this possible
IV. Field Plan for 2017
a. Voter registration/local races: Josh Tan reviews high-profile special
elections, importance of FPCA each year, how to get your ballot to the US
b. Conversations & Cocktails series: Mary Laverty reviews our signature
event series in which all nationalities/political ideologies are welcome to
discuss policy issues relevant in both the US and Chile, opens the floor for
suggestions from members
i. Suggestions include environment (renewable energy, mining, water,
climate change, Paris Agreement), immigration (immigrant rights,
racism), education, Trump election: lessons learned and way
forward, training event on interacting with members of Congress
from abroad
V.Executive Committee elections
a. Chair Brittany Brown: 16 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
b. Vice Chair Josh Tan: 16 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
c. Secretary Alli Engle: 16 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
d. Treasurer Mary Laverty: 16 votes for, 0 against, 1 abstain
VI. Introduce creation of committees and sub-chapters: Alli Engle
a. Fundraising Committee Lead: Giselle Gibbons has vast experience in
fundraising for Democrats and great ideas for starting from the grassroots
level, necessary for DA Chiles current situation
b. Community Outreach Committee Lead: Penelope Knuth is a long-time
expat in Santiago with a wide variety of contacts in different areas of expat
life and is eager to form a team to reach out to the widest population of
Americans in Chile
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c. Statement by DA Patagonia Lead, Erin Becker: Erin Becker, who helps

manage DA Chiles social media, recently moved to Puerto Varas and plans
to found a DA Patagonia chapter in the Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt area. We
need your help to make this happen! If you know Americans living in that
area or nearby, please let us know via the DA Chile Facebook page or by
email so we can get in touch with them. Our goal is to have a small but
mighty group by midterm elections, so we can serve US voters in the
entire Regin de Los Lagos. By the next presidential election, our goal is to
have a larger contingent of members and volunteers who can serve voters
in the wider south of Chile and Argentina as well (as Argentina does not
have an active chapter currently). Thanks and definitely get in touch if you
have any thoughts or questions about this new initiative from DA Chile!
d. Alli Engle reads Michael Ramos statement on forming DA International
Hispanic Caucus: Michael Ramos is a member of DA Australia and votes in
IL. He recently had an informal conversation with our international chair
Katie Solon about gauging interest in forming a DA-Hispanic Caucus.
Anyone can join you dont have to have Hispanic roots to be a member.
He has reached out to DA Chile to see if our members would like to
become founding members of a DA Hispanic Caucus so we can get the ball
rolling on its creation. If so, wed next have to collectively put together a
purpose/mission statement kind of thing, and come up with action items to
be a legitimate organization within DA, etc. He has plenty of ideas to share
regarding a Hispanic Caucus and would love to get your thoughts as well.
The purpose would be to advocate for issues important to Latinos in the US
(i.e. immigration reform, etc). Please let him know via Facebook message
or email to Michael.e.ramos@gmail.com.
VII. New business from members, meet with committee leads