Board Meeting 3/7/23

Attendees: Alexandra Dolce, Amy Schwartz, Christopher Regan, Debra Ann Freeman, Erica Vladimer, Gabriel Panek, Jill Eisner, John Bartos, Jordan Stein, Kim Moscaritolo, Kit Morrison, Matthew Lombardi, Rebecca Weintraub, Robert Jackman, Ruth Halberg. 

AGENDA

• Treasurers Report

• • • $19,053.10 current account balance

• Spring Fundraiser 

• • • Thursday, May 4 7-10 pm 
    • Received board approval for budget of $4,800 + Gratuity / Sales Tax
      • Buffet style dinner like last year and drinks, beers, wine, basic liquor 
      • Last year we spent $5, 595. We raised $13,045.
    • Discussion of guest of honor discussion 
    • Kit to send around last year’s tiers for board approval 

• Upcoming Meetings

• • • March 16  
      • Club business 
        • Promote petitioning, campaign events and updates from endorsed candidates. 
        • State Committee report (Jeremy Berman) 
        • Spring Fundraiser announcement (Matt Lombardi)  
      • Education resolution and club vote 
        • Plan to send the resolution ahead of time in newsletter  
      • 7:30 pm Arts Education Panel 
        • Short introduction 
        • X2 speakers (10 min per speaker) + BP Levine  
      • 8:15 pm BP Levine Presentation on Housing
    • April 20 
      • Congressman Nadler
      • Tax resolutions (John Wagner) 
      • Member engagement presentation (Kit Morrison) 
      • Member time 
    • May 18 
      • Rebecca Seawright on disabilities and the lead sponsor of the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) 
      • Panel discussion on recycling and the bottle bill (Amy Scwartz) 

• Technology 

• • • Discussion regarding Owl Labs Demo Request, a software program and tool that connects to zoom to make it better for online participation. Cost of $1,000 
      • Decision to form a subcommittee to discuss / interview IT people about the technology. Jerry and Chris to lead the committee. 
      • Discussion regarding the difficulty of participating on zoom due to sound issues. People on zoom can’t hear club members unless they are at the mic. People in the room can’t hear what people on zoom are saying. 
      • For March meeting we will try to connect the microphone to the speaker and to the computer. 
  • Working Groups Update – how can we encourage more activity?
    • Discussion regarding the lack of activity in certain working groups and how to encourage more activity. Ideas discussed and agreed to: 
      • Amy, John, Bob to review the groups and make a recommendation to consolidate some groups. 
      • Limit the number committees someone can co-chair and ensure each working group has a co-chair (and or consolidate them with another group) 
      • Direct outreach to the group leaders for updates and year-long plan. 
    • Discussion regarding activities outside the club for removing Jay Jacobs and whether or not we should want to involve club members more? 
      • Decision to keep these activities separate from the club, but to amplify efforts through the newsletter and general meetings. 

• Support of DL candidates

• • • Volunteer activities
      • Petitioning ends in April, TBD date. 
    • Financial commitment
      • Discussion on fundraising and possible campaign expenditures.

• Website Update

• • Chris reviewed FFDC; we can make some improvements on updating events, working groups descriptions, meeting dates, creating a calendar, etc. 
  • Discussed putting a google calendar on the website TBD. 
  • Jordan reached out to Alison S and Nation Builder; she wasn’t interested in further work.
  • Kim worked with NB to fix issue with info@ffdc so that we will now get those emails. 
  • Nation Builder is an end-to-end solution; it provides email, CMS, fundraiser, and website support.
  • Jordan pitched an idea to organize a standard website template for all political clubs to use. He will present a plan at the next meeting.