January 15th Minutes and Action Item

At our General Membership Meeting on January 15th, we conducted our Biannual Reorganization, and passed a resolution. This resolution was submitted by Ruth Williams to our newsletter editor, Barbara Whitt in time for inclusion in the January Demogram, however because we printed the entire set of bylaws and the proposed endorsement rules necessary for the Reorganization, we could not include the resolution in the printed version. Ruth had also sent the resolution to the 46-democrats discussion list, and asked for discussion on that list and for a ruling from the Chair that the resolution was timely. I ruled that it was. The body put forward a motion to suspend the rules to allow us to hear the resolution, a 2/3rd requirement which passed overwhelmingly. You can read the details of the debate in our minutes.

Here is the text of the resolution:

Naming Thornton Creek Park Six
”Alice Bryant Peace Park on Thornton Creek”

Whereas Alice Franklin Bryant was a Seattle activist for peace, justice, and a healthy environment, who passed away in 1977; and

Whereas Ruth Williams, the long-time neighborhood park steward for Thornton Creek Park Six, is endeavoring to have said park named "Alice Bryant Peace Park at Thornton Creek"; and

Whereas naming a beautiful, urban, natural area after a person who devoted her life to creating a more peaceful, beautiful world is a very appropriate honor; and

Whereas honoring a peaceful person in a peaceful place directly across the street from a large and growing shopping center invites the public to come and take refuge from the pressures of daily life;

Therefore, Be It Resolved that we, the 46th District Democrats, endorse and support the effort to name Park Six: “Alice Bryant Peace Park on Thornton Creek”;

You can download a PDF version of this resolution on our website, and I am submitting a copy of the resolution to the appropriate members of the Seattle City Government today.

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Chair's Note

I received a phone call from the chair of the Thornton Creek Alliance about this resolution on Friday, January 16th. She was disappointed that the body considered this resolution without hearing full presentations from all sides. I invited her to submit an article to the Demogram.

Consideration of resolutions like this is part of our responsibility as a community organization, and we have rules and procedures to help us and set the foundation for how we do this. But this does not end the discussion. The decision on what this park will be named is made by the Parks Department and the Seattle City Council. Comments on this resolution and the topic of naming parks are welcome here on this blog or via letters to the editor. The bottom line for me is whether we as an organization followed our procedures, and that we encouraged a discussion on the issues of the day.

What do you think?

Finance Committee

I was able to sit down with Kathryn Lewis tonight, and she is willing and excited to accept an appointment as Finance Committee Chair. We bounced a few ideas back and forth about the budget, the fund raising goals and ideas, and how this committee can coordinate and cooperate with the other committees to enhance our visibility in the community as an organization and build our membership base as part of the overall strategy.

We now have a full set of standing committee chairs!

Committee Appointments

The Bylaws of the 46th District Democrats define six standing committees and a few other ad-hoc committees. The committee chairs are appointed by the Chair. I have been in discussions with the Executive Board members, and I am making the following appointments:

• Program Committee: Gerry Pollet


• Legislative Action Committee: Sarajane Siegfriedt


• Membership Committee: Betty Means and Javier Valdez (co-chairs)


• Platform and Resolutions Committee: Dean Fournier


• Community Outreach Committee: Elizabeth Willmott

I would also like to appoint Dean Fournier as the chair of the Bylaws Review Committee, tasked with collecting ideas for changes to the bylaws and bringing a set of recommended changes to either the February or March meeting. I would also like to tap this committee to review the standing rules that we have that are appropriate to review during this election cycle so we can have them ready to go when needed.

Moving forward, I am still working to identify someone who can take on the Finance Committee for the next two years, and I am open to suggestions on who should be appointed to conduct the required Financial Review of our 2008 books. I would also like to task this committee with coming up with recommendations for opening the books of the district to our members. Not every exhaustive detail, but being able to see reports from the Finance Committee on the website would be valuable, and I would like to hear ideas on what those reports should contain and how they should be formatted. The members money needs to be well spent, and it is our responsibility to ensure that we are transparent to those who give us their hard earned dollars.

You can read more about the committees and see what reports have been submitted over the last few years on our website:

http://46dems.com/committees/index.php

Keep in touch!

Chad

Welcome from the Chair

Posted here.

Welcome to the website of the 46th District Democrats. We are a community organization and the grassroots arm of the Democratic Party in North Seattle.

"The purpose of the organization shall be to promote citizen participation in the Democratic Party, advance the 46th District Democrats’ platform, and support and work for the election of Democratic candidates and candidates for nonpartisan office who demonstrably espouse the principles contained in that platform." - Our Platform

Activism is the quest to answer three questions.

1. What decision is being made?
2. Who is making that decision?
3. How can I influence that decision?

Most often, political activism focuses our attention on legislation, executive decisions, and the elected members of our government that we can influence by our vote. Community activists recognize that this is only part of the picture. The decisions we make as individuals, like whether to pay our mortgage or our medical bills, are just as important as a decision made by an elected official whether to lower interest rates or pass Health Care Reform. And our ability to influence decisions can be focused in both directions, as we try to influence the larger community toward social and economic justice.

I've heard it said that Democracy stands on two feet. One is political, the other is economic. If the members of our community do not have a solid and secure economic foundation, they will be too distracted by their lives to be able to get involved or even pay close attention to the decisions made by elected officials. In order for the Democratic Party to be able to say that we support "Democracy", we need to be as focused on the day to day decisions of the members of our community as we are focused on the day to day actions in City Hall, the County Council, Olympia or Washington D.C.

I encourage everyone to get involved in their community. Our membership provides our organization with the resources that we need to conduct our operations. Our resolutions and platform are the basis for how we communicate with our elected officials and how we allocate our resources to influence their decisions. We use tools both online and off to get in touch with our neighbors, build and strengthen our community, and maximize the positive influence we can have. We invite you to join us, teach and learn from us, and be empowered to become the change that you wish to see in the world.

- Chad Lupkes
Chair, 46th District Democrats

2009 Reorganization Results

Hi everyone,

I thought I would relaunch this blog by posting the results of the 2009 Reorganization meeting.

Chair - Chad Lupkes
1st Vice Chair - Shanna Sawatzki
2nd Vice Chair, Membership - Betty Means
2nd Vice Chair, Programs - Gerry Pollet
Treasurer - Stan Moffett
Secretary - Stan Sorscher
State Committee Man - John Webber
State Committee Woman - Janet Miller
King County Male Rep - Dean Fournier
King County Male Alt - Matthew McSheehy
King County Female Rep - Elizabeth Willmott
King County Female Alt - Sarajane Siegfriedt
Sgt at Arms - Barbara Whitt
At large - Kathryn Lewis
At large - Erica Minshull
At large - Javier Valdez
At large - J. Peter Shapiro
At large - Jason Sawatzki

The district considered an endorsement for the Director of Election position, and gave a strong endorsement to Sherril Huff. We passed a motion to give $500 to her campaign, and to provide up to $1,000 in printing costs to help GOTV for her campaign in the 46th.

We also passed a resolution (being prepared for posting).

More to come, but I wanted to get this out there.