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Accolades 2020 - Election Celebration
Accolades 2020 - Election Celebration
First off, thank you Kee Evans and Mary Lou Ridinger for the concept to do this
ZOOM celebration. Most would prefer an in-person event, but this will do
perfectly in these times of the pandemic, and today’s robust participation attests to
the brilliance of the idea. If not this event, there would be nothing.
Second, thank you Kee, for putting today’s program together. The activities and
presentations look to be engaging and entertaining, and an appropriate mix of
tributes to the celebration of Election Victory 2020. In addition to seeking out and
organizing today’s activities, Kee also handled the promotion of the event by email
including the responses so that we would all receive the log in information and
coordinates. Very well done. Thank you for effort.
Next, we must thank Vincent D’Agati for making his Zoom license available to us
and organizing with Kee the log in information. The now very popular Zoom
platform makes this event both accessible and easy to use for most people, and the
visuals are more attractive than on other platforms. That this is possible for us is
much appreciated by everyone participating today.
2020 started off as a hopeful year, one we at Democrats Abroad Guatemala felt
would offer many opportunities for in-person voter registration events and get-out-
the-vote activities enabling us to both grow our membership and more importantly,
increase the overseas absentee voter turnout from Guatemala. Covid-19 put a stop
to all those ambitious in-person plans. But despite the disruption, DAGT still
accomplished a lot, thanks to all who pitched in. We turned to email and to
Facebook, and word of mouth, WhatsApp and phone calls.And it worked. During
the year, notwithstanding the pandemic and its shut down, we were able to guide
308 voters to use VoteFromAbroad.Org, our online voter registration and ballot
request tool. That’s about 55% of our current up to date membership of 560.
The full Executive Committee deserves a thank you for all it did during this
tumultuous year. By name, expressions of thanks are deserved by:
Mary Lou: for making phone calls and helping voters complete their
ballots.
Kee: as our GOTV and voter registration chair, was able to hold one in-
person voter registration event early in the year, and was able to help
organize our very successful in-person global primary March 3rd, but when
covid hit in mid-March, the shut down stopped all in-person events. But
despite the interruption, Kee helped voters by phone and email during the
closing months of our GOTV effort.
Traci Styner: for guiding many at the Lake in requesting, voting and
returning their ballots, and offering ideas to improve our GOTV efficiency
going forward.
Rachael Shenyo: for helping voters by phone and in person request and vote
their ballots and get them delivered to the US Embassy for mailing via DPO
to LEOs.
Vincent D’Agati: for stepping up to become our Treasurer, and the other
skills and experience he brings to DAGT, in addition to making Zoom
possible.
Juan Pablo Aris: for coordinating a discount with DHL for ballot return,
and using his office fax service for return of ballots by fax.
Karl Holzwarth: for not only stepping up to be a Member at Large, but for
two other important contributions to the Victory 2020: (1) contacting the US
Embassy through his Congressman’s office to encourage the US Embassy in
Guatemala to allow voters to send their ballots via local courier to the DPO
using either Cargo Expreso or Guatex, and (2) assisting DAGT with
Facebook ads financed by the DA globally. Also, lending his fax service for
return of ballots.
Carla Perez: for stepping up to become our new Media Contact and
Communications Standing Committee Chair. Special appreciation for
Carla’s language skills in helping populate the DA Latino Facebook page
with ads.
DA International also made history and some numbers are worth noting: