July 6, 2019 - Basement Group Executive Committee Meeting

When is the next meeting?

o The next meeting be a social one on Wednesday, July 24 at The Sackett (661 Sackett Street, Brooklyn) from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

- When will we hold future meetings?

o Future meetings will be set for the same Tuesday and time each month, with every third month taking place on a weekend day

§ This schedule will begin in September

o We will research the opportunity for remote access to meetings (Skype, Zoom, Google Hangout)

§ To ensure that we are in compliance with parliamentary procedure, our Co-Chairs must be able to see everyone in attendance in person and remotely and should there be anything presented to the group (PowerPoint or handouts), these will be made available to anyone calling in to the meeting as well.

§ We are unfortunately unable to offer childcare options at this time – but would welcome those with ideas on how they could organize it to lead the charge!

- What are the best ways to communicate among our group?

o The Google group that we have currently is still the best and allows for people to participate digitally in addition to in person

o Code of Conduct

§ We will write a code of conduct that all members of the Google group will adhere to

§ Included in the code of conduct will be:

· All members of the Basement Group will communicate respectfully with each other

· Other suggested additions for the code of conduct:

o When replying to an email in the group, please be mindful that replying to ad52-county-committee@googlegroups.com will generate an email to the entire membership. Do not include ad52-county-committee@googlegroups.com if the email is not relevant to the group; you can reply directly to the member instead.

o Keep in mind that the Basement Group is a Democratic organization of the 52nd Assembly District and those interested in our work.We want all members to feel comfortable posting to the group and interacting with other members. Should you have any questions or concerns about the list or membership in general, do not hesitate to contact the Basement Group Leadership (include emails here).

· What else do you want to see included?

o Welcome Message

§ This is a note that will go out to any new members joining the Google Group

§ The Code of Conduct will be made part of the welcome message for new members and will be shared every so often as a reminder to the group as a whole.

§ It will state the goals of the Basement Group, such as where to learn more about running for County Committee

§ It will include a link to our organizing document

§ What else do you want to see included?

o A Basement Group Website

§ Will include the following:

· How to sign up for the google group

· Links to RepYourBlock that answer the questions “Want to get more involved in local politics? Thought about running for County Committee?”

· Post minutes to the site too

· Meeting dates

· What else do you want to see included?

- ADC

o One of the main goals of the Basement Group is to get more people involved in our group and in local Democratic politics overall. This will include getting more people involved in and at the future ADC meetings.

§ For the moment, we will be focusing our energy in increasing engagement in order to effect change at future meetings.

- How to integrate with RYB

o As a group, we will not be doing our own organizing nor be officially connected to RepYourBlock, but we will promote the activities and information presented by RYB. The Basement Group is most interested the same goal of getting more people onto County Committee

- Endorsements by the Basement Group

o The Basement Group will not endorse candidates

o Our meetings will be open spaces for candidates to talk about why they are running and members who are interested can then become engaged with specific campaign(s) as individuals

- Growing representation in the County Committee and other positions

o Outreach to other community and local issue groups to discuss what’s happening with CC

§ To ensure that we are working towards our goal of growing County Committee engagement and the number of people running, we would like to connect with and when possible, make presentations to local issue and community groups to present about County Committee

o How do we get more representation in the NYCHA housing in the 52nd?

§ The 52nd is quite affluent and NYCHA residents are not represented by those who are winning. How do we connect more to those living in NYCHA to get more representation?

o One of our future meetings will cover information on all the different positions that someone could run to represent the district, for example, running for the Judicial Nominating Conventions – and what it would look like if we ran and won for these positions