[These are unofficial draft minutes; they have not yet been approved by the executive committee.]

Adelante Progressive Caucus Executive Committee

Minutes of regular meeting 16 February 2023

Attendance

Present

Executive Committee members:

Cricket Courtney (CD-2 Chair)
Colton Dean (At-Large Officer)
Patricia French (Vice-Chair)
Cheryl Harris (Chair)
Michael Sperberg-McQueen (Secretary)

Other caucus members:

Roger McNew
Scotti Romberg
Maurreen Skowran
Jane Yee

Absent

Athena Christodoulou (Political Director)
Samuel Nevarez (Congressional District 1 Chair)
Nicole Olonovich (Administrative Director)

Agenda

1. Call to order/ welcome/ quorum check
2. Reports- old business/ new business

Old Business
- Review from By Laws Committee- Maurreen Skowran, Chair
- Status of Self Nominations for Officers and Next Steps- Michael
- Status of old minutes sent by Secy, and Vote to Accept
New Business
- Elections, status of and vote on by-laws
- Treasurer replacement on temp basis, in absence of candidates
- Parliamentarian opportunity
3. Officer Reports
- Chair: Discuss status of caucuses and rules committee situation going forward from November
- VC: Attended Rules this week. Add on to discussion above
- Secy: Going forward, election issues not covered above, any other anticipated changes this quarter
- Treasurer: Financial report, discussion of resignation and replacement on temp basis til 2nd quarter
- Committees?
4. Other actions, what do you want for March member meeting? Elections, Speaker, both?
5. Review action items and adjourn

1 Call to order, welcome, quorum check

The chair called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm and confirmed that a quorum of the executive committee was present.

The agenda sent out by the chair was approved with one change: the reports from officers were moved to the top of the agenda.

2 Reports of officers and committee chairs

Chair

The chair reported that she has been trying to recruit officers and members, albeit without great success.

The secretary of DPNM held a meeting with all caucuses recently; all caucuses were represented except the Fuerzas Unidas caucus and the NM Federation of Democratic Women (not a caucus but an affiliated organization); with the secretary, the caucuses discussed what support is needed by caucuses, and how to go about revising the DPNM rules relating to caucuses.

Also, the DPNM State Rules Committee held a meeting to which caucuses were invited. CH was indisposed so PF and MSM attended on behalf of Adelante; CH asked them to report.

MSM reported that the one item of business relevant to caucuses was a proposal to form a task force to work on a proposal for revisions to DPNM rules relating to caucuses. This is apparently an attempt to recover from the disagreements that arose late last year when SRC proposed caucus-related rule changes without consultation with the caucuses. The proposal is that the task force will have some members from SRC and some from the caucuses; each caucus can send as many people to participate as they wish, but each caucus will have one vote. The chair of the rules committee had asked whether the caucuses would be interested in such a task force; MSM had replied that the answer was probably yes, but that not all caucuses were likely to be in a position (or possibly willing) to participate. PF noted that she had asked about votes; there would be one per caucus. PF would prefer that there be only one person from SRC on the task force, in order to ensure that the caucuses, rather than the committee, control the task force. The decision will be made at SRC’s March meeting, which will be either 13 March or 15 March. It is important, PF said, that we all be on that call.

MS asked whether we know what caucuses are delinquent on their reports; CH noted that the secretary of DPNM had promised to list those after the legislative session ended.

CD asked why the rules need to be revised anyway. CH noted that some caucuses have complained that other caucuses are not following the DPNM rules which require that caucuses maintain a membership list and report their members (and activities) to DPNM. JY added that the controversy had started because Kathy McCord had noticed a discrepancy in the rules. Currently the bylaws must be reviewed by SRC before the caucus is approved, but there is no rule requiring review of changes to the bylaws. There was also a proposal that the caucuses (and everyone else) be required to abide by the platform.

Secretary

The secretary reported:

We have 535 addresses on our newsletter list, 20 members currently up to date on their dues, and 24 members who were up to date at the end of 2022 but who have not paid for 2023 or for January. After discussion, the secretary accepted an action to send an email reminder to those who have not yet paid dues for 2023. The executive committee recommended that information on dues and renewal be included in the newsletter, but urged that a separate email also be sent, addressing solely the issue of dues.
A backlog of minutes not yet approved has accumulated; action on the backlog is requested and appears later on the agenda.
The secretary and chair have filed the required semi-annual report (31 January) with DPNM.
We have only one self-nomination for the coming officer election; it may be advisable for the executive committee to twist some arms.

Treasurer

There was no treasurer’s report.

3 Report from bylaws revision committee

Maurreen Skowran reported on behalf of the bylaws revision committee. The proposed revisions make several changes to the bylaws:

A quorum requirement is imposed on member meetings which vote or transact business.
The executive committee is explicitly authorized to transact business for the caucus.
The Political Director and Administrative Director are to be elected, not appointed.
The at-large seats on the executive committee are eliminated.
Elections will be moved to the first quarter of the year, and current terms will be lengthened slightly to accommodate the move.
An election for removal of officers can now be initiated by a 2/3 vote in the executive committee (instead of only by the membership).
Some minor changes have been made to the requirements for notice of caucus meetings.

MS suggested that the caucus should vote on the bylaws in the same way as is planned forthe election of officers.

RESOLVED (on motion of MSM, seconded by CC) that the executive committee should forward the proposed bylaws changes to the membership with the recommendation that they vote to approve them. After discussion, so resolved by general consent.

The committee then discussed exactly when and how to conduct the vote on the bylaws, and how to communicate the change proposals to the membership.

RESOLVED without objection: that the next newsletter notify the members that the executive committee is recommending changes to the bylaws, that the proposed changes be presented to the members at the meeting of 2 March, with the opportunity for members to ask questions, and that the balloting be conducted electronically from 8 to 22 March.

3 Report from secretary on self-nominations for election

The secretary reported that the only self-nomination received was from the current secretary reporting a willingness to serve another term as secretary.

PF agreed to be a candidate for chair. CH agreed to be a candidate for treasurer.

In accordance with the plans presented at the January executive committee meeting, since there are no contested races, we will hold the election during the members meeting of March.

3 Approval of old minutes

The minutes of several executive committee meetings were reviewed:

The minutes of several member meetings were reviewed:

There being no corrections, these were all approved without dissent (on motion of PF, seconded by CH).

The secretary accepted an action to update the officers list on the web site.

4 Announcements

SJR 6 (the Green Amendment) has been pulled from Friday’s Senate Rules Committee agenda and put off til next week.

CH will send email to the executive committee about an opportunity to engage someone to act as a parliamentarian during the coming summer.

MS volunteers to review the bylaws bit by bit and train people.

The Political Director is working in the legislature as an analyst.

5 Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.