Chair

The chair noted that most of her concerns will come up under New Business. She thanked all those who worked to help defeat the State Rules Committee (SRC) amendments to the state rules governing caucuses; the effort was successful. The SRC will appoint a subcommittee for the revision of caucus-related rules, and caucuses will be represented. Maurreen Skowran recognized the contributions of Nicole Olonovich, Pia Gallegos, and Jay Levine (as well as MS herself) to that effort.

Vice-Chair

The vice-chair noted that New Mexico is much in the national news lately.

Treasurer

The chair reported that Dimid Hayes has stepped down as treasurer, after filing the most recent required report and in general providing exemplary service to the organization.

PF noted that after a bogus charge to her credit card, her credit card issuer told her that ActBlue users experienced more than usual problems with unauthorized transactions. CH noted that members can pay their dues by check or cash if they prefer. There was some discussion of other possible payment processors, and vigorous opposition to the thought of using PayPal.

Secretary

The secretary noted that something of a backlog had developed with regard to minutes. Minutes for several meetings held in 2022 but had not been uploaded to the web server; the secretary has now uploaded them all to the server and updated the page of pointers to minutes. (Secretary’s note: the draft minutes in question had been distributed shortly after the meetings, with the exception of those of the members meeting of 8 September 2022; it is only the upload to the server which was delayed.)

The secretary and the chair are preparing the semi-annual report to DPNM on the activities of the caucus; officers are encouraged to report to the secretary any activities that should be included. DPNM has changed the web form they ask caucuses to fill out.

The current dues-paying membership of the caucus stands at fifty.

Election of New Officers

The chair asked the secretary to report on plans for the election of officers.

The secretary began by noting that the elections should have been conducted in September and October and apologizing to the executive committee for the delay. The offices to be filled by election are those of Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and one At-Large Member of the Executive Committee.

The secretary then outlined the plan for the election.

• The nominating period will run from Thursday 19 January through Sunday 12 February.

  Members willing to serve as officers are invited to fill out an online self-nomination form at <https://form.jotform.com/230157297520050>. The form includes questions intended to confirm the individual’s eligibility to run for office and space for a candidate statement to be distributed to the caucus.

  Members who would like to see specific individuals serve in office are encouraged to contact those members and ask them to serve. If no one is willing to serve as an officer, the caucus cannot function well.

• Once the secretary has confirmed that those who have filled out the self-nomination form are eligible to run for office, the list of candidates will be announced to the membership of the caucus, with details of the next steps.

• In the simple case, where we have no contested races, the election will be held during the general members meeting of 2 March 2023. The secretary will move that the candidates be elected by acclamation.

• If there are any contested races, then the election will be held online.

  Formal notice will be sent out by 16 February, with the list of candidates and their candidate statements.

  At the general members meeting of 2 March, an informal candidate forum will be held, in which candidates are asked to speak briefly to the caucus and caucus members can ask questions.

  Balloting will run from Wednesday 8 March to Wednesday 22 March using the online service OPAvote. Provision has been made for the case that any caucus member cannot cast a ballot electronically.

  Results will be canvassed as soon as possible after the close of balloting and the results announced to the membership no later than Monday 27 March.

Cheryl Harris and Maurreen Skowran have agreed to assist the secretary in the conduct of the election.

The secretary noted that the bylaws say no one may run for office unless they have been a member of the caucus for six months. The secretary takes that to mean that they have been members since 15 August 2022.

The bylaws restrict voting in this election to those who have been members of the caucus for at least thirty days. For an election during the member meeting of 2 March, that means 31 January (since that election will be by voice vote, we will have to rely on the honor system). For an online election with balloting ending 22 March, that means those who are members in good standing by 20 February can vote.

In email of 11 January, the secretary had placed several questions before the executive committee, which amount to the question “Who counts as a member in good standing?” In the absence of a contrary consensus in the executive committee, the secretary is inclined to think that the simplest answer is that any individual who has paid dues or has a dues waiver is a member in good standing.

There was discussion. The idea of a nominating committee to actively seek candidates appealed to several members of the EC.

A few EC members were concerned that having a candidate forum or election during the March members meeting would take too much time away from discussion of legislation. There may also be some interference from the party elections at the precinct, ward, and county levels. Most of the EC, however, felt that since the elections should have been held months ago, we should take care of them as soon as feasible. A motion to adopt the schedule outlined by the secretary passed, with NO dissenting and PF abstaining.

The chair appointed a nominating committee of herself, MS, and MSM, with the possibility of others to be named later. And she encouraged all members of the EC to search actively for candidates.

The chair floated the idea of adding the second at-large position and the CD-3 chair position to the election, since they are now vacant. The secretary objected on the grounds that the set of offices to be elected is prescribed by the bylaws and the executive committee does not have authority to override the bylaws in that regard. There was discussion of whether the chair should appoint people to those positions, as allowed under the bylaws; the chair ended by saying she proposed to leave the positions vacant in order to allow the new chair to fill those slots by appointment; the EC expressed no objection to that plan.

Update to Bylaws

MS reported on the work of the committee to finish the proposal for revision of the bylaws. CH, MS, and Pia Gallegos had developed a proposal last summer, which is the basis of the new committee’s work. The new committee, however, has reached consensus that the proposal for local Adelante chapters is not a good idea at this time.

The committee is considering seveal possble changes:

• Moving caucus elections to the spring.
• Eliminating the at-large positions on the executive committee.
• Adding a parliamentarian focused on ensuring that the caucus (and the executive committee) follows its own rules, along possibly with other related duties.

The chair encouraged the committee to announce their meetings on the caucus web site and to welcome any interested caucus members to attend. If some configuration issues can be dealt with, the Adelante Zoom account can be used.

On inquiry, MS said she hoped the bylaws committee might be ready to report to the EC at next month’s meeting. CH noted that in that case, the approval of the bylaws changes might be done in the same online election as the election of officers.

Legislative Lobbying and Update

CH noted that the state budget is expected to be very big this year — about $5 billion. There are a number of new committee heads in the state House, and a wide variety of legislation to address gun violence. She has invited some of the sponsors of that legislation to the members meeting on 2 February.

JY reported on some of the environmental legislation being promoted by the Environmental Justice Caucus and expressed the hope that APC and EJC could work together. EJC will have a meeting focused on legislation at 7 pm on 25 January. CH said she would mention that meeting in the newsletter with a pointer to the EJC site for details. CH thought it would be wise to collaborate also with Retake Our Democracy.

We discussed possible clusters of bills to focus on. CH proposed three:

• child health and education
• environment
• gun safety

CD urged that we encourage the legislature to use this short-term money on infrastructure and initiatives to move towards renewable energy; the money we have now is the result of particular international events and it won’t last. MS urged that we also keep issues of good governance in mind: the redistricting commission (HJR 1) and the several proposals to modernize the legislature.

Several people noted that with so much legislation, it’s important to set priorities.

General member meeting 2 February Update

As noted earlier, the member meeting of 2 February will include a panel on gun violence prevention issues.

Open Discussion and Announcements

CC noted that the Federation of Democratic Women will sponsor a Women in Blue day at the Roundhouse on Wednesday 25 January..