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Hey comrades,
Thank you to all those who were able to come out to the Local Convention on Saturday! It was great to see and talk with everyone. For those who weren't able to come, keep scrolling to read about what was missed, and we hope to see y'all at an event soon!
One convention discussion topic was potentially endorsing Devin Davis for Congress against Troy Carter. You can watch Devin's recent DSA Endorsement Candidate Q&A here, read the notes from that Q&A on this document, and read his full policy platform on his website. To vote on his endorsement, please check your email for the subject line "Devin Davis Endorsement Vote" from OpaVote Voting Link.
CONVENTION RECAP --
We had around 40 people present in-person at Broadmoor Community Church, with a few more members participating via Zoom. Our thanks go to Reverend Gregory Manning for his powerful opening remarks and all his assistance with the space. At this convention, we also officially began using OpenSlides for our voting -- please reach out to Bob M on Slack with any feedback!
The meeting began with the outgoing co-chairs delivering the State of the Chapter before hearing updates from and the future priorities of each committee, campaign, and working group. Afterwards, our Local Council nominees spoke, before a vote was held to confirm their positions.
Congratulations to our newly elected Local Council!
Co-Chairs: Wash F & Jack RS
At-Larges: Bob M & Emmanuel S
Membership Chair: Iman N
Communications Chair: Taylor G
Secretary: Madelaine H
Treasurer: Chris C
Health Justice & Direct Service Committee Chair: Ali K
Political Education Committee Chair: John N
Municipal Action Committee Chair: Charlie B
At our August General Meeting, we will be electing stewards for Make Entergy Pay and Worker Power Louisiana (the labor committee). Please submit nominations for these positions by Monday, July 15th. The date of the coming GMs are TBD due to the current transition of leadership. The dates will be chosen and published soon; thank you for your patience.
DSA New Orleans deliberated on five bylaw amendments in addition to the resolution for endorsing Devin Davis. Major results include:
Internal organizing structures consolidated to include solely Committees, Campaigns, and Working Groups, made them easier to establish by reducing the amount of paperwork needed, and clarified Committee election requirements;
Expanded upon policy related to the formation of internal bodies such as caucuses and associations and established requirements needed for recognition via a Slack channel;
Committee Stewards are now referred to as Committee Chairs in line with the language currently used;
The Municipal Action Committee will assume all responsibilities and functions of the existing Electoral Working Group, and future Voter Guides will be drafted by a Voter Guide Working Group to sequester it from active electoral work;
Amended Financial Oversight section to bring it further in line with the chapter's actual operations by adjusting the makeup of the Finance Committee, and to require finance reports at every Local Council meeting;
Term limits for all Local Council positions have been standardized to one year.
Election section condensed into more readable language and the notice requirements for elections clarified;
Codified an asynchronous voting process;
Condensed Election of Officers section by replacing the paragraphs detailing specific requirements for disclosing national political caucus affiliation with a sentence mandating disclosure of all organizational and political affiliations;
Codified requirements for a Code of Conduct and the requirements for amending them, codified the chapter's commitment to the Jemez Principles, and mandates both are on the same easily accessible page separate from the Bylaws;
General cleaning of typos, unclear language, and repetitive or contradictory sections.
The bylaws on our chapter's website have been updated to reflect the several new changes. Want to know more about what happened at Local Convention? Find the convention minutes in the #convention2024 Slack channel!
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Excerpt from the State of the Chapter:
"Looking forward, we face fascist right-wing governments on the state and federal levels, absurd levels of corporate greed and attacks on working people, unsustainably bad infrastructure, and the wholly unprecedented effects of late-stage climate change already impacting the most marginalized communities… We face a tidal wave of statewide issues either from repressive governments or from natural disasters, and there is no time like the present to collectively build our strength so we can weather the storms (both physical and political)."
-Wash F, co-chair. Read the full speech here.
We hope to see you in the fight for a better world soon!
Solidarity forever,
New Orleans DSA Local Council
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