Attendance

Present

Executive Committee members:

• Cricket Courtney (CD-2 Chair)
• Dan Fay (Treasurer)
• Patricia French (Chair)
• Michael Sperberg-McQueen (Secretary)

Other caucus members:

• Roger McNew
• Jane Yee

Regrets

• Nicole Olonovich (Political Director)

Call to order and quorum check

The chair called the meeting to order at 6:39 pm. We did not have a quorum present, so no formal actions were taken.

Draft resolution on standing committees

Jane Yee reported on that status of the draft resolution on standing committees (which calls for DPNM to appoint an ad hoc committee to draft changes to rules governing state party standing committees, with a view towards making them more consistent across committees, and more democratic). The Bernalillo County resolutions committee will meet tomorrow and JY will present the draft there and ask for support. Then, she thinks, the resolution is ready to go to the State Platform and Resolutions Committee (SPARC).

Some other caucuses have been contacted informally; most have been supportive. JY reported that in the Environmental Justice Caucus there was one voice in opposition; she hopes to speak to the person and address their concerns. EC members are encouraged to take up informal contact with leaders of other caucuses or with county resolutions committees who might be friendly to the resolution, and urge them to endorse the resolution formally or support it when it goes through SPARC and the SCC.

JY will send a pointer to the current draft of the resolution.

Working group on DPNM rules governing caucuses

PF and MSM reported from the all-caucuses meeting of 22 July; among other things, the secretary of DPNM (Isaac Dakota Casados) said that a working group would be formed with five members from the State Rules Committee (SRC), five members representing the caucuses, and himself as chair, to draft proposals for changes to DPNM rules governing caucuses. (This is a follow-up from the failed rules changes proposed by SRC last fall. Those proposals failed because SRC had not consulted the caucuses and had taken no steps to get the caucuses on board with the changes. This working group is an attempt to ensure that the caucuses feel consulted, though so far the effort is struggling a bit, owing to the fact that the caucuses were not consulted on the question of forming the working group or its makeup.) PF and JY were named to the working group during the all-caucuses meeting; they reported that the working group has not met or begun its work.

Draft resolution on gun violence

JY noted that she, Kathy Moseley, and Patricia Milner are working on a resolution relating to gun violence, since the current party platform is not specific enough on the topic. JY mentioned and discussed some flaws in the current draft, but said she would send a link to interested parties.

DPNM code of conduct

FG inquired about the current status of the DPNM code of conduct. No one on the meeting was sure of details. Some problems with the public review of the draft were reported; at the all-caucus meeting the secretary of DPNM had reported that the draft code of conduct would be revised and might be circulated for a second cycle of public comment, but no one had more recent information.

Upcoming meetings

We reconfirmed the plan to have a general members meeting on 7 September. (This will not conflict with the Bernalillo County resolutions committee, which meets on the second Thursday of each month.) MSM will remove the label “tentative date” from the events calendar entry.

MSM will try to put together a newsletter to hold the notice of the member meeting in September; DF re-confirmed his wife’s offer to write something for the newsletter. Other contributions are welcome.

PF noted that SPARC will meet from 10 to 2 on Saturday 19 August in Socorro, at the NM Tech library. If we can remind the members of that, it would be good.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 7:35 pm.