 Hey folks, hey folks, thanks everyone for coming, we'd love for everyone to find a seat. Recording in progress. Hi everybody, I'm Joanna Grossman, I'm the rearcher for Chittenden County Dems. Thank you all so much for being here, it is so fun to be here with this room of amazing Democrats. I'm really thrilled, we had 101 people sign up for Reorg, which is just really awesome. So yeah, thank you Andrew. So I just wanted to say thank you all so much for being here, I also really want to thank the donors who helped offset the cost for this event, they're all listed on the back of the agenda. I'm not going to read them out right now, but I do want you all to know how much we really, really appreciated that. Running a hybrid event can be really expensive and so we just really appreciate that. I also really wanted to thank the Reorg committee, this was an unusual way to run a Reorg and we had to really kind of function as a really tight knit team and I really appreciate everyone stepping up to help, especially Peter Booth who is an amazing partner in this project. And yeah, so really quick, I'm going to introduce Andrew Champagne who's going to say a little something and then we're going to move into the agenda. Thank you all so much. Hey everybody, we just want to remember the, I'll do it off Mike, we just want to remember the former executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. Her name was Claire Cummings. She was executive director for the historic 2020 presidential win of President Joe Biden and also Mr. Moreau, Mayor Weinberger's fourth victory in 2021. She was also a member of the executive committee from the state of Maine. She was a Wellesley grad and my dear friend Claire Cummings passed away in her sleep at the age of 32 last week. So it's a death in the family. She was a spark plug. She was a pistol. I want to thank Jim Dandenoe who took her place to come and pay his respects and come tonight. But Claire was a special person and we want to thank her and pray for her family. Her name was Claire Cummings and she'll be greatly missed. Thank you. Hello, hello, people here. I'm going to use the microphone, even though it might be a little booming in here so that folks on Zoom can hear. And if people have extended speeches to give, I'll ask that you use the microphone. So my name is Peter Booth and I am a resident of Jericho. I teach high school math at CVU. I have a student in the room, which is very exciting. And every year I start my first class off and I asked the kids, like, who's nervous? And they're all like, nope, I'm like, well, I am. Like, this is my 34th year doing this. And every year I still get nervous at the beginning, just sort of talking into a bunch of strange students. You're all easier to, you're all, you're all strange, but except for one of you, you're not my students. So I will officially call the meeting to order and just note that there is a quorum of 25 or more delegates here to vote. And so that brings us right to the agenda. And the agenda was available at the table as you walked in. And I believe it's online, I believe it's in the Zoom chat. I'm looking over at Mike. We'll get that into the Zoom chat in a moment. And I would entertain any motions to amend or change the agenda. To change the agenda. Terry, excellent. So just to repeat that, Terry LeFave has made a motion to move the Treasurer's Report up one, two, three slots to follow just before the approval of minutes. Is there a second for that motion? Thank you. And by way of explanation, I'll let you know that Terry wants to sort of get her work done here. And she's worked tirelessly as a Treasurer for four years. So thank you for that, Terry. And we want to honor her request to move that up a little bit so that she can get her stuff done. So with that explanation, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Opposition? Abstentions? Excellent, the motion passes. Thank you very much. OK, so now Mary Sullivan. I think everyone here, or a lot of people here, know Mary Sullivan. And Mary is here to introduce our guest speaker. That was tall, but I guess not that tall. It gives me great joy to introduce a really dear friend. I was trying to think. I know that I got to really know Jill Kroinski in 2006 when we were working on Peter Welch's campaign. I think I knew her before that for a few years. But Jill's leadership skills really became apparent in no time. So she goes on from that to working for Gay Simington in the speaker's office. And then she becomes a legislator herself. And then she just goes right up the ramp. So it's really thrilling. We all know Jill, I'm sure. And she is an amazing leader. She's an amazing Democrat. She's an amazing human being. So it gives me great joy to introduce her. And please come up. Thank you, Mary. It is so exciting to be here tonight. And I just want to give a shout out. If you are an elected official, whether you're on the school board, city council, you're serving in the legislature, please stand up. I just want to thank all of you for your incredible work and dedication. Yes. Thank you. Look at all these people standing. I love it. So as Democrats, we are on a mission to create a Vermont that works for everyone. We want our families and our communities to thrive and make sure that everyone has access to that Vermont dream. Last cycle on election night, we made history by electing a record 104 Democrats to the House. And as I look around the room, I see people who played a big role in that. And so I just want to thank everyone in this room who worked hard on those campaigns. And it hasn't been easy, right? We started this session on a mission to make more affordable housing, to tackle climate change, to do workforce development, and so much more access to affordable childcare. But we are on this mission without a partner in the governor's office. And we are dealing with a governor that's governor no. And so I think it's really important for us to be organizing at every single level from city council to governor, because it's going to be a really critical election. I'm really proud of the work, though, that we did this last session on affordable housing. We invested over $250 million into affordable housing and services for Vermonters. That money was in the budget, the governor vetoed the budget, and we overrode that, and we got it done. We continue to do our work on climate change. We passed the Affordable Heat Act that's going to lower our carbon emissions and help low-income people have more access to affordable options. This work is critical, and we need to continue to do more this upcoming session. But I've got to remind you that the governor vetoed that bill, and we overrode it. On childcare, how many of us know someone or ourselves that have been struggling to find access to affordable childcare in their community? We worked really hard to pass a bill that just really jumped start access to affordable slots and to help our teachers. I see Joan here who started Robin's Nest, an incredible institution in the Old North End. The governor vetoed the childcare bill, and we overrode it. We made it happen. And as we see across the country, states targeting women's reproductive rights and targeting health care providers, we led the way in Vermont. Not only, thanks to your help, we passed Prop 5, which enshrined reproductive rights into our state's constitution. We passed two shield bills this session to shield health care providers who are helping with reproductive rights and gender-affirming care. We made that happen, and we should be proud of that work. And we also made history this session around gun violence prevention. We passed a bill that will save lives, and it is starting to save lives. We passed a 72-hour waiting period, and we passed an expansion of safe storage and extremist protection order. We had the highest rate of suicide in our state last year, and we needed to do something. So we let this bill has been vetoed time and time again. And this year, we worked really hard. We got it across the finish line. The governor let it go into a law without his signature. This bill is so critical, and I'm really proud that we were able to do that. And now we're going to be coming back, right? Thank you. But we're not done. We have so much more to do this session. And then it's the election year. So it's just so great, as I'm looking out here, seeing all of you fired up and ready to go. We have to be on defense, and we need to be on offense. Last cycle, every single incumbent Democrat who ran in the House won their seat. And like I said, we got to 104. But you should know that we also have a path to pick up seats. Is anyone here for Milton? Dear, sweet Milton, we're here. We, I am not giving up on Milton. We only lost that seat by 53 votes. In West Rutland, 43. In Castleton, it was 43, and in Rutland, it was 43. We were so close. We are so close in some of these red districts to flipping them to blue. And that's why this is so important. That's why these elections tonight are so important. This is our team that's going to help lead us to victory in March and in November. So this is huge to have this election tonight. And I'm just so thrilled of the people who are putting their names out there and doing this. We all need to be a team together to make sure that we're successful in these upcoming elections. So again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for the work you're going to put in, making those get out the vote calls and knocking on doors and raising money and writing letters to the editor. All those things are needed to win. So again, thank you so much. And let's get to work. Thank you very much, Jill. OK, so we're moving now into the election process. And I want to start by explaining the process up front and giving folks a chance to ask questions if there are questions. So what we're trying to do, we want to make this as efficient as possible so that it doesn't become a very long grind. We will first take nominations for every position on the ballot. If a race is not contested, so if one person is nominated and nobody else is nominated, we will denote that name. Mike's going to jot that name down so we have a list of that, of who those people are, who are running not contested. And then if a position is contested, we will record those names on here so that folks have the names, the position, the names, and the spelling of names. And once all the nominations have been done and we know which races are contested, which will be written here, and which races are not contested, we will then ask the clerk to cast one ballot in favor of the full slate of uncontested positions. And we will then have each of the positions that are contested have each of the candidates come up and give a brief two or three minute talk about their interests and what they want to do. And there'll be a few minutes for questions for each race. We'll go through all the contested races that way. And then at that point, and really at any point, you can then, using your blue ballot, write in the name of the person who you are like to vote for only in the contested races. So the only races you need to be keeping track of in terms of what am I gonna do next are the contested races and those will all be written up here. So are there any logistical questions? I find that hard to believe because I fielded 14,000 emails as we worked out that plan. And no one has questions. Yes. Yes, we do need a second from that question. That question was from Chris Shaw from South Burlington. And the question was, do the nominations need seconds? And yes, they do. Joanna. Joanna Grosman. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Yep, the question for Zoom was from Joanna Grosman. And she asked, she said that a delegate asked her if the person making the nomination should make a speech on behalf of the nominee. And I would say no. I would say that the speech should be from the nominee themselves at the appropriate time. Yes, in the back. Only delegates are allowed. Well, delegates are allowed to vote and members of the executive committee, even if they aren't delegates, are allowed to vote. And my understanding is that if you're an alternate delegate, the question would be what's the delegate, who's the delegate you're replacing? And if your town has six delegates and only five of them are here and you're the sixth as an alternate, then I would say you should be voting. Does that answer the question? And I didn't repeat the question, but I think it was implicit in the answer. No, I think my explanation, I think clarified it, but you're right, I didn't repeat it. Yes, Mike Gros, nominate yourself. The question was to clarify the process for self-nominations. And my understanding is that self-nominations are fine. So you just nominate yourself, someone seconds it and you're then a nominee. Terri Lefebvre, I would say that the person is not here and you know that they are, I'm sorry, thank you, Mike. The question was if the person being nominated is not here, can the person doing the nominating speak on their behalf? And I'm gonna say yes. Yes, online questions. Yes, the answer to that is yes and that would be through the Zoom chat. Nominate yourself or whoever you're nominating and Mike will read that into the record. As soon as we have all of the contested races recorded, excuse me, here in the back of the room, the talented Shay Evans is back there and she is creating a Google form live on the scene, immediately hot off the press and then she will be posting that in the Zoom chat. So as soon as election, as soon as voting begins, the link for the Google form will be posted in the chat and votes will be collected that way, online votes. Okay, last call for questions. Oh, thank you very much, the green ballot. If you got a green ballot, hopefully you're a town chair. If you're not a town chair, relinquish that green ballot. So one of the positions on the executive committee and my wife is calling me, nope, sorry. One of the positions on the executive committee is the town chair representative and every town has a chair obviously and they are a cohort and they have one representative on the executive committee. So the town chairs this evening who are present or who are on Zoom will vote if it's contested, will vote for a town chair to be the representative for all the town chairs to the executive committee and that is a vote only of town chairs because that's who that person's representing. Thank you for that question. In education, this is called wait time. Where you wait and let the silence sit there and then people get uncomfortable and ask a question. Yes, I would think that would need to be a town chair. That a person who can vote for that person needs to second. Okay, so we will now commence with nominations and again, we're gonna do all the nominations at once and we'll record the contested ones here so you don't have to keep track of that. And I will repeat the nominations into the microphone for people on the Zoom. So I would at this moment would entertain nominations for chair of the executive committee. Mike Ross has nominated himself for the position of chair. That's been seconded by Chris Shaw. Joan, other nominations. Yes, now you can go. Okay, Joan Lennis of Shelburne has nominated Joanna Grossman for the position of chair. Other other nominations. Oh, sorry, thank you. Julie Hubbard has seconded that. Other nominations. Tom Jocelyn. Oh, okay. Is there a second to that nomination? Okay, excellent, the position has been nominated and seconded. Other nominations. Okay, so Jessica, can you hear us? And if so, can you speak? I believe you are unmuted and able to speak. I can, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Yeah, I was just seconding the Mike Ross nomination, so. Wait, that guy's, yeah, that's been. A long time ago. Yep, that's now thirded. Perfect, thank you very much. Thank you. Are there other nominations or comments from the online people? Okay, fabulous. So we will now move to the position of vice chair number one. Other nominations for vice chair number one. Beth Esmond from Jericho. Beth Esmond has nominated me, which is awkward, but thank you Beth. Are there any seconds? Joan Lennis has seconded, thank you Joan. Other nominations for vice chair number one. Yay. Okay, so nominations for vice chair number two. And while I'm gonna bring this over to Joanna so she can record the names for a chair. Okay, thank you. So vice chair number two, Julie Hubbard from Colchester. Is there a second to the nomination? Second, Julie Hubbard nominated Elia Beckett and Emily Krasnow seconded the motion. Are there any other nominations for vice chair number two? Okay, the next position on the docket is secretary. Are there any nominations for the secretary to the executive committee? Moving on to treasurer, are there nominees for treasurer? Chris Shaw. Chris Shaw has nominated Chris Trombly from Shelburne. Is there a second? South Burlington, whoops, my bad, sorry. Second from Jonathan. Jonathan from South Burlington. Jonathan Ferguson from South Burlington has seconded that. So Chris Trombly has been nominated for treasurer. Are there other nominees for treasurer? Andrew is very excited, which is great. No, I love the enthusiasm. Okay, we'll move to assistant treasurer. Nominations for assistant treasurer, Terry? Terry LaFave has nominated Bob Hooper to continue his position as assistant chair and Andrew Champagne from Burlington has seconded that. Are there other nominees for assistant treasurer? Not assistant to the treasurer, assistant treasurer. Okay, one small typo on the next two things. The next two positions are state delegate, state committee delegate one and state committee delegate two. And I don't have the bylaws in front of me, although they are right there, but I believe the language speaks to the two positions needing to be more than one gender, that they cannot be both women or both men or both non-binary, I believe. So, Jim? Okay, thank you. So nominations for state committee delegate number one. Mike Yintoshka, is there a second? Okay, so Mike Yintoshka from Charlotte has nominated Ed Cafferty, also from Charlotte, and that was seconded by Tom Jocelyn from Jericho. Are there other nominees for state committee delegate one? Yes, Thomas Renner from Winooski has been has been nominated by Connor Daley for alternate state committee person number one. Thank you, I'm not good at this, right, I mean thank you. And that was seconded by Brent Oatley from Winooski. Yes, misspoke. Yep, so we now have two nominees for state committee delegate number one. Terry? Okay, we have a third nomination for state committee delegate number one and that is Bob Hooper, is there a second? I don't know your name, I'm sorry. Serita Austin has seconded that motion. Are there any other nominees, nominations? Carol Smith from Jericho, you are live, hit it. Yeah, I'd like to nominate myself. Okay, I'm pausing because of the gender question. Do we just have this, so is it appropriate for me to ask Carol to nominate herself for the second delegate? Oh. Okay, so Jim Dandenow, I believe, Jim Dandenow, the Democratic Party Executive, something, Executive Director, said, sorry, sorry. Notorious Party Boss. So, clarification, so the process, this can be run as state committee delegate one is male and state committee delegate two is some other gender, or it can be run as here's a pool, vote for two people who are not the same gender. And my instinct is to go with the second option where we'll nominate all the people who are interested in being state delegates and then you will all vote for one of each gender. So clarification for people who are on Zoom, what Party Boss Jim Dandenow just said was that the process which he, I think, is subtly recommending and I'm going to use is that we will put all nominees for these positions into one pool and we will, the top vote-getter will get the first position and then at that point everybody of the same gender as the person who got the most votes will then be removed from the group and the remaining people of different genders will then be eligible for the second. The top vote-getter of non-male candidates will be elected. Yes, question, that is an excellent point. Thank you very much, we will do that. Go ahead, Carol. Okay, I'd like to nominate myself as the other gender state delegate. So Carol Smith has nominated herself for the, we'll say, female delegate for the state committee delegate position. Is there a second? Seconded by, is that Andrew? Andrew Champaign. Are there other nominees of any gender for the state committee delegate position? Okay, so do you have the names written down there, Joanna? Could you read the names and could people who, when your name is read, identify your gender please? Ed Cafferty, male. Thomas Renner, male. Bob Hooper, whoop, I think Bob would say male or make some funny remark and then say male. And Carol Smith, who self-identified as female. Are there other nominees for that position, for those two positions? Okay, excellent, we're doing well. We now move to alternate state committee person. Is there a gender rule around this? There's not, so this is anybody? Okay, so we're gonna do this in threes. Should we still do it as three in bulk? Oh, yep, okay, yep. Okay, so we're gonna, I'm gonna do it by individual, by each position individually because of that reason. Mary, hold on one second, Mary. Can you use, is Elaine not here? Oh, she's on Zoom. Yeah, that's when we, if it's contested, let's wait and she'll have a chance to talk if she would like to. So Mary Sullivan of Burlington has nominated Elaine Haney and that was seconded by Jason Lorber. Are there any other nominations for alternate state committee person number one? Okay, oh, yes in the back. Oh, okay, so we'll move to alternate state committee person number two, are there nominations for that? Yes, Brian McLaren from Essex Junction nominating Andrew Champagne and seconded by Leah, I couldn't hear that name, I'm sorry. Thea, works, okay, I'm sorry, I guess I just don't have great hearing. My wife yells at me about that. That's how my wife was calling me, I'm kidding. Are there other nominations for committee person, alternate state committee person number two? Number one was Mary Sullivan nominated Elaine Haney and number two is Andrew Champagne and alternate state committee person number three, are there nominees for that? Number three, Jason, you can go ahead and unmute and speak and we will all hear you. Hi everyone, my name is Jason Kerchak, I'm actually a JP in South Burlington and was hoping to self nominate myself as alternate state committee person number three. Excellent, there is no hope to it, you just did it my friend, congratulations. Is there a second? Chris Shaw from Essex I think has seconded that, South Burlington, you're our school's competition, I can't, okay, South Burlington. Are there other nominees for committee person number three? Yes, okay, Lorraine's, something's, Carter Lovejoy from Burlington has nominated Gino Sullivan from Burlington. Gene, I call him Gino, we go way back, it's Gene is, Gene, pause, oh Sullivan has been nominated as alternate state committee person number three, I apologize, this is what you get for putting me in charge. Okay, moving to youth representative, are there nominations for the youth representative? Terry, Olivia Toomey, Toomey. Terry LeFave has nominated Olivia Toomey who is for youth representative, are there seconds? She'd nominated herself, oh, way to go Olivia. Olivia also nominated herself, is there a second? Terry can be this, everyone loves Olivia, okay, excellent. Thomas Brenner has seconded and Terry nominated and thirded and there's a lot of enthusiasm for Olivia, which is great. Okay, so that is the end of the regular ballot, we'll do the town chairs in a moment, no, we should do town chairs right now. So, as a reminder, only town chairs who have the green card can be elected or nominate or second. So is there a nomination for the town chair representative to the executive committee? Ellie Beckett, Ellie Beckett of Williston has nominated Julia Hulbert of Colchester as town chair representative, is there a town chair who would second that? Ed Cafferty of Charlotte has seconded that, are there other nominees for town chair representative to the executive board? Okay, fabulous. So now, whoops, so now we are going to hear from candidates who would like to speak for any of the contested races and I have lost track but I'm sure that chair, we don't have a secretary nomination. What do we do with that? We just, okay, I'll give you all stern looks. I need, oh, it worked, stern looks worked. And your name is? Okay, this feels awkward. The nomination of Stephen Berbeco was made by either a sister or a spouse, Daisy Berbeco and it felt like a little bit of an aggressive nomination but he is here and he did not cut her off. Is there a second? And your name is? Connor Daly has seconded that. So now we have a nominee for other secretary nominations. Stephen, this has been your nominated Daisy. Okay, so the contested races, I believe, are chair, state committee delegates, and alternate state committee person three, is that correct? Okay, so we're gonna hear from those people and while we're hearing from those people, I will gather up all of the uncontested races and we'll pass them all as a slate and then have the written ballot for the contested races. So why don't we just do them in alphabetical order? So chair is Joanna Grossman and Mike Ross, correct? What is it? If nominated, I will not run and if elected, I will not serve. Oh, sure, I'll run, sure. Okay, so I'm no, I'm sorry, no, I'm not running. I'm not going to be the chair. So just to be crystal clear about that, I'm not gonna be the chair. So let's hear from Joanna Grossman and then Mike Ross. We'll say two minute time. Can you guys hear me okay? Hi everyone, I'm Joanna Grossman and I live in Burlington. I have a 13 year old daughter at Edmonds. I know I said this before, but I'm also the rearcher and I'm just so appreciative of you all being here. I really feel proud to bring this amazing group of Democrats together. Here's what I wanna tell you. I love democratic organizing. It is my jam of run nine campaigns here in Vermont, which is hard to believe. I've done two cycles of national democratic organizing as well, helping mostly down ballot candidates in red states. And I really wanna use those campaign organizing skills. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. I really wanna use those campaign organizing skills to take the county committee to the next level. And there's a few really specific things that I'd really love to do. I really wanna bring new faces into the party. I feel very strongly about that and I've been working on that for months already and I'm so thrilled to see a bunch of you here tonight. I'm really ecstatic about that. Another thing I've been hearing is that town chairs need more support. So I wanna see what we can do about that. I think the county committee could be a really great resource for collaboration, programming, fundraising, to really help town chairs make town committees great. I hate that that sounded like make something great again. So just forget I said that. And going to fundraising, I really think that the county committee needs to be doing lots and lots of fundraising. Yes, it would be great if we could take the money out of politics, but we can't. So instead, let's raise a lot of money and elect a lot of Democrats. And I love that Jill kinda named all of you who ran. Like there, I have no higher respect for anything than putting your name on the ballot. It is so hard and so impressive. Even running for this, I felt like intimidated. So I just appreciate everyone so much who's done that. And the last thing that I really wanna do, there's like lots of little things, but the other big thing that I really wanna do is professionalize and level up our communications. So I love to see us using CRM email and social media and having a great website and making sure that our meetings are events and events are accessible to anyone who wants to be a part of the Democratic Party. We're gonna have a little Q and A section soon. So if you wanna ask me any questions, please do. And if you don't get a chance then, just like tap me on the shoulder and catch me. I would love to meet everyone in this room no matter who wins. So just like thank you all so much for your time and for listening to me and for being here and for being Democrats. Good evening, everybody. I'm Mike Ross and I'm running for the position of county chair. Little bit about me. I've been involved in the BDP since about 2016 in one way or another. And I've been in leadership positions since 2017, including at the town committee level and county committee level. I've also had the opportunity to be an alternate delegate and state delegate to the state committee from Chittenden County. That said, so why me? I am running this evening because I would like to continue to build bridges between the town and city committees, county committee and the state committee. And if reelected as county chair, I plan to center the upcoming work for the upcoming election cycle around three priorities. And those are empowerment, stewardship and sustainability. With the first pillar, I would like to seek to empower town and city committees through ensuring that the county committee state party continues to support the town and city committees at the grassroots level, and ensures that they have the sufficient resources, whether it be reference materials and or templates to continue the important party building and grassroots work of the party at the town and city level. That said, as far as the second pillar, stewardship, I would like to create and focus more on creating more stewardship between the town and city committees, county committee and state committee, and create greater solidarity between them. And the county committee's already begun this work previously by encouraging attendance at county committee meetings and just trying to bring more people into the party to bring new energy and new Democrats and voices to the table. That said, my third priority would be sustainability. And so the focus there would be essentially building off of the work done in the past year or so to increase the involvement in the county committee subcommittees as well as I have a recommendation to create constituency caucuses at the county level to bring new voices into the party. I feel in this way between the standing subcommittees and the constituency caucuses, Democrats looking to get more involved can lend their time, talents and voices to the important work of the party and the party can have sustainable operations moving forward with everybody lending their time and talents. And with that, I would ask that you consider voting for me this evening and thank you for consideration. Bye. Okay, so a little transparency. We're gonna hold questions until all the folks have spoken so feel free to jot down notes of the questions for either Mike or Joanna. And I panicked and said two minutes and then Joanna spoke more than two minutes and I panicked and didn't do anything and then Mike spoke more than two minutes but I let Joanna spoke two more than two minutes but I let her speak. So I'm gonna ask candidates to please watch me and I will give you the like wrap it up at the two minute mark for other candidates who wanna speak. So now I believe we're moving to alternate state committee, nope, sorry, state committee delegates one and two. So let's bring up, well, if you wanna get Carol Smith ready and then we'll bring up, is it Andrew? I can't see the names. Okay, so those are in alphabetical order so Ed Cafferty and then if someone wants to speak for Bob Hooper and Thomas Renner. Oh, okay, great. Okay, so Ed, where's Ed? Right there. First of all, I wanna thank you all for being here. Taking a night off to come out and being active in the Democratic Party, we need you. I have been active in the Democratic Party my whole life. I have been involved at the county level in terms of being chair, vice chair and a delegate to the state committee. I've done all those things. In my private life, I am a teacher at Champlain College and I teach human rights and political courses there. In fact, I taught three today before coming over here. And in my last involvement with the state committee, I led the fight to amend the bylaws for the state committee so that it would go to what's called proportional representation. Presently, each county gets three delegates to the state committee. So Essex County, which has 5,900 people, gets three delegates. And Chittenden County, which has 169,000 population, gets three delegates to the state committee. I don't think that's right. I'm in favor of proportional representation and we put that to a vote of the state committee in the spring and we lost by a few votes. And we didn't lose because it was majority vote. We had to get two thirds vote to change the bylaws of the state committee, but we came close. I'd like to continue that fight. I think proportional representation is a basic principle of democracy. Anyway, thank you for the applause. I appreciate it. So I'm asking for your vote. And I promise that I will speak well for Chittenden County and continue to work on county activities. And I thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ed. If it works for you, Mike, to go to Bob Hooper now, who is online, maybe not. Bob Hooper is in the house. Bob Hooper, go ahead and say something. We think you're live. Are you muted, Bob? This was teaching in 2020. This was it. You're living it right now. Except all you see is icons because the kids are all actually in bed not watching and listening to you. Okay, welcome back to Bob and move to Tom Renner who is in the room. So Tom, come on up for two minutes. I butchered his name, Thomas Renner. Hey, everybody. So good to see so many friendly faces. Really excited to be running tonight. A little bit about myself. I first delved into democratic politics when I interned for Senator Patrick Leahy and then continued my career with him for about five years. Most recently, I've been elected to the Winooski City Council where a few months ago I was unanimously elected as the deputy mayor of Winooski. Thank you. The Democratic Party has been a part of my life for so long. My parents are strong Democrats and I just really want to give myself to the party and to everybody who's running to do as much as I can to help folks. I volunteered on campaigns since I was able to vote and I just really want to be able to represent people in a new way where maybe they haven't seen representation in our county committee in terms of diversity and in youth and in my color as well. So if you would vote for me, I'd really appreciate that and love to talk to any of you after this. Thanks. Okay, I think we have Bob Hooper ready. Bob, I think you're unmuted. Go ahead and talk. He's very shy. He's not shy. I don't know him personally, but he's not shy. I watched a lot of hours of the House GovOps went around the teacher retirement. He's not shy. We're still waiting. Why don't we go to Carol Smith? Does that make sense or is that gonna wait? Bob, go ahead. We can see you, Bob. And you're muted though. Bob, you're being advised to check your mic settings on your computer or your iPad or whatever device you're using. We just so you know, we now cannot hear you or see you. We just see your name. Oh, we can see you. Welcome. And he's not gonna talk. Would you like someone to speak on your behalf? Yes. Terry LeFave is gonna speak on behalf of Bob Hooper. Thank you, Peter. I think a lot of you already know Bob Hooper. He's been an active Democrat for many, many, many, many years. He's currently serving in the State House as a representative. And he asked me to nominate him as a State Committee person because he believes that we need a link between the State Committee and the State House. Bob has been chair of this group. He's been vice chair of this group. He's been treasurer. He's been and continues to be assistant treasurer. And we hear a lot of talk about we need to get young people involved. We need to get young people to start taking over and do the work and keep things going. I agree wholeheartedly. But you also need a couple members of the old guard to bring the younger people on board and to give them help until they get their sea legs and they can take over on their own. And Bob would be an excellent person in this position to help out the newbies that are coming up. So I encourage you to vote for him. He's also past president of Vermont State Employees Association and is a union man through and through and a Democrat through and through. He's a hard worker and he'll do an excellent job representing us and I encourage you to vote for him. Thank you. And finally Carol Smith who is on Zoom. Hi. Oh yeah. Yeah actually Carol Smith you're, hi Carol. Good to see you. Yeah. I can't see you but you can see me. Yes. You're unopposed actually. I yes I am. Yeah do you want to say hi to people or anything? No you got the mic unmuted. No not really I've been doing this for a while. Okay. Okay excellent I'm gonna vote for you Carol. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay and now lost my agenda. Thank you very much. Third alternate to the State Committee which is, we will get that spelled up here so you can see it clearly. Gene O'Sullivan and Jason Kerchak whose name we will get spelled up here for you. O'Sullivan and is Kerchak with a K? Okay so Jason Kerchak if you would like to say a few words. Who's on Zoom? Jason I think if you unmute yourself you'll be able to speak. All right hold on you're still coming in. We have to make you a member. Okay you can unmute now and if you want to go on video you can do that as well if you turn your video on. Well good evening I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person. And Peter I have to say I got started in politics back in high school when my teacher dragged me to a local Democrat meeting. So it's you know for me early on I was really involved in LGBTQ rights and immigration equality and really working with our Vermont delegation for many years to ensure that DOMA got struck down which it did in 2013. So I'm Jason Kerchak I live in South Burlington. I've been a JP in South Burlington since 2016. I'm an oncology nurse up at the Medical Center and a public health nurse working with older adults to maintain their independence in the community. And as a nurse you know with several nursing organizations that I've been a part of we're trying to get our voice and our advocacy and our action into the communities that we work with. We have a poly crisis of different things going on. We've had gun shootings and climate change. We have a huge isolation epidemic with our aging population and we're still dealing with COVID. So for me I have been involved trying to bring my energy and my knowledge and you know here to learn and bring that to help our community and help advocate for the patients and our overall population of Vermonters. So I'd appreciate your vote and just grateful to have the opportunity to be here tonight. Thank you Jason. And oh Jean Osolivan is Jean online. Okay I would love that. Hey everybody how will we give it up for Peter doing this meeting? Okay I'd like to speak for my friend Ms. Jean Osolivan. I've known her since she was a city council woman and also several term state rep. There's someone who cares about the people. Big fan of labor union, big fan of voting. Just a very high quality person. Great member of the Burlington Dems so I'd like to nominate Jean Osolivan. Thank you. I believe that's all the candidates have spoken. Is that correct? Okay fabulous. So now we have a time for Q and A for any of the candidates and I would love for people to get their questions asked and answered but also not have this run off the rails and we'll have us all here until 10 o'clock at night. So if anybody would like to ask a question of any of the candidates I would ask you to raise your hand and state your question and then I will have the candidate come up here and speak in the microphone. I'll repeat the question. Yes sir. Thank you. So the question was from Alan Birkey and the question was why wasn't, I believe this isn't correct, correct me Alan. Why was the Democrat Party did not have a presence this year at the Champlain Valley Fair and that was a question for the two candidates for chair Mike Ross and Joanna Grossman and either of you, okay the question was clarified to not a question about why didn't we do it but do these two candidates feel that we will put that back on the slate in the coming years? Thanks for asking about that. I heard about it kind of right before it was supposed to happen and I know a lot of people were really sad about it. I don't know a ton about how it's been set up in the past. I did hear some concerns about being able to staff it and pay for it completely. Having said that, if it's doable I would love to bring it back because I think it's really cool and it would be a really great way to meet new voters and possible new Democrats and help candidates meet people. I think it's a really great opportunity. If it's doable, I would love to do it again. Hello. So a little bit about why we didn't have a presence at the Chittenden County Fair this past summer. So as was mentioned, there were some concerns that this was an off-election year and there were also some concerns about being able to staff the booth sufficiently for the duration of the fair. That said, regarding the county committee potentially having one for this upcoming year 2024, certainly I think that this particular event is a high visibility event and that perhaps after further discussion amongst the county committee that if the county committee decides that this is a priority, then the county committee at that time will move this discussion forward. But having attended the county fair in years past, I have enjoyed the fair myself and do appreciate how this could be a high visibility event for the party moving forward, depending on the feedback received by the county committee. Thank you. I'm gonna do the Chimney Valley we need someone like Martin Luther King so I can say, hey, I'll be with you. Or Andrew. Andrew will cover 60 hours, I will cover the other 60. Okay, we're in. Are there other questions for any of the candidates? Question online, do you wanna read it or do you wanna, Jason, you can unmute and you are up with a question. Great, thank you, can you hear me? Yeah, yes we can. Great, I have a question for Joanna. Joanna, you mentioned that there are, that you'd like to see new faces show up in, for Democrats and expand what being a Democrat looks like. I'd love it if you could say more about specific groups of people or perspectives that are missing. Oh yeah, thanks for asking that, Jason. I felt like there's so many ways we could diversify the party, it's almost hard to answer. I will say, as an Emerge alum, I've been working really hard to try and bring more women and younger women into the party and that's just kind of like one thing. Obviously there's, you know, I feel like we're underrepresented with queer folks, we're underrepresented with people of color. Like I mean, it's just kind of, it's just all kind of right there and there's so much room for potential. I'd really like to work strategically with community groups and leadership programs like Emerge or VLI or something like that to try and connect and see if we can find some more engaged folks who would like to show up and be a part of this. My finding, especially with running female candidates, sometimes people just need to be asked. Sometimes folks just need to be asked. Thank you, Joanna. Are there other questions for any of the candidates? Yes, sir. Oh, this is a great time for me to jump in. I am not, if you vote for me, you are wasting your vote. I will not be serving as chair. If you're enthusiastic, vice chair number one, that's me, I'm your guy. I am not gonna serve as chair. So if you vote for me, I appreciate the kind thoughts, but I will not be running that job. So for the two candidates, thank you. So the question for both of the chair candidates was related to, if I'm summarizing this correctly, what their ideas are for expanding the Democratic electorate in, is that the right word? I'm not sure, in Chittenden County, specifically Milton and Colchester, where there are people there who will vote for Democrats and we need to rally them. And how did the two chairs plan to do that? For the question, before I address this question, I just wanted to comment on the previous question asked that if I am reelected, I would recommend to the county committee that it prioritize creating county committee constituency caucuses for groups, including BIPOC caucus, women's caucus, AAPI caucus, LGBTQIA plus caucus, labor, disability, rural youth, small business and senior caucuses. With that said, regarding the question that was just asked, I can say that during my time as county chair, I have prioritized creating a bridge between the Milton Democrats and the county committee and the state committee by, first of all, attending the event not so long ago, which was held by the Milton Democrats to create more awareness of the Milton Democrats and what they're working on in their community. Also, I personally attended the Milton Democrats Reorg caucus and had the opportunity just to speak with Democrats and Milton and just to let them know that the VDP here and me personally, I see Milton as a real opportunity for the party to invite more Democrats in Milton to get more involved and therefore to grow the party in Milton and help elect Democrats in Milton. Thank you. Yeah, I love this question. Geographic diversity isn't one of the ones that I hit, so thank you for that. Yeah, I think there's a lot we could be doing very actively to support the different town committees and town chairs. I really think we could be, for one thing, rotating where we have our events and meetings. So instead of having it always be in Burlington, we could be doing one in Milton, we do one in Colchester and one in South Burlington and kind of be roving around both with our events and with our meetings. And especially, I feel like if we do some really solid fundraising, we can also help the town committees do their own really solid communications and programming that they just really don't have the resources to do right now. So a lot of it is like literal material support and a lot of it is also financial and strategic support. Yeah, thanks for asking, Brian. Okay, we have a question online on. Oh yes, so for people on Zoom and also people in the room as well, I guess. Right now, Mike is putting the link to the Google form for voting into the Zoom chat and you can submit that, not you folks here, but people online can submit that at any time by clicking on the link in the chat. And of course, you all in here have papers and I've seen people writing so that you can write your votes whenever you want, obviously. Okay, another question from the Zoom? Romeo, go ahead. Yes, thank you, can you hear me? Yeah, yes, yes, we can. Perfect, first of all, thank you for putting together this event. It's wonderful and it's good to see democracy in action. Beyond that, my name is Romeo von Herrmann. I'm with the Burlington Democrats and my question pertains more to diversity and I think it was briefly spoken about earlier. My question states as such that what would the county Democrats do to bring more new American family members, different diverse groups that are generally not present in the county level? This goes basically to every candidate whoever wishes to answer, I would love to hear it. What are the some of the key steps that folks will be taking in attracting more new American families, more African Americans and so on and so forth? That's not to say the rest of the folks cannot join among the ranks and so on and so forth. So that's my question. I just wanna say thank you for giving me the time to speak, thank you. Thank you, Romeo. So that was an open question to any of the candidates and so it's sort of up to folks if they wanna speak to that. Okay, Joanna Grossman and then Mike, you can speak and any of the other contested candidates, any of the other contested candidates can also speak afterwards. There's just a million different ways that could be done and they all have to be tried. I think the few that really come to mind first are it has to be, our events and programming communications have to be accessible. They have to be discoverable and people need to be able to know where they are and when they are. So that's one huge thing that we could be doing better and another is food and childcare and this event is not a very good example but I would really like to see at least several of our events every year be feeding people and providing childcare because I have a kid and I know that when you have a little kid at home, you're thinking, oh my God, it's gonna be so hard to get out of the house and it would be so great if people are thinking, oh, it's gonna be great. I can have childcare for a minute. So you just wanna make it easy. You wanna make, the committee should be making people's lives richer and not harder. So part of bringing in new Democrats into the party and new voices to the work of the party is about one of the priorities that I mentioned during my other speech of empowering the town and city committees and one of the ways that we can do that as I recommended is through the county constituency caucuses thereby inviting more diverse voices into the party at the county level as well as the town and city level. That said, another approach is to, as I said, empower the town and city committees to do the work of party building at the town and city level so that they themselves have the resources to recruit Democrats at the town and city level for example with the various party lists available. I feel that between the constituency caucuses at the county level and the party lists, this can empower the town and city committees as well as the county committee to work together to bring new Democrats into the party and make sure that all voices are present and heard. Would any other candidates like to speak to that question? Go ahead, Thomas. Quite literally representation matters. The day after my election, my nephew came over to our house to celebrate and he said, Uncle Thomas, I didn't know that people that looked like us could serve on city council. The Winnowsky City Council is also an all LGBTQ plus council. Our latest member joined because they were aware that they would be accepted on our council because of who was previously there. And the Winnowsky is the most diverse city in Shetland County in the state. We go to where diverse communities are. We don't expect them to come to us. They have an entirely different culture. They gather in different ways. So if we want to reach them, we need to go to where they are and that's what we do in Winnowsky and I would love to bring that to the county committee. Thank you, Thomas. Anyone else like to speak to that question? Okay, are there other questions in the Zoom? Are there other questions in the room? Okay, excellent. So that draws to a conclusion. The candidate Q and A, yep. Oh, I'm sorry, Daisy. I'm now gonna try to repeat that question carefully. I believe the question was specifically for, I mean, it was for Joanna Grossman specifically and it was a question about how will she be mindful about and I'm looking at you, Daisy, correct me if this is not accurate, how will Joanna be mindful of differentiating between if she's elected her role as the chair of the committee and her own personal interests and aspirations for herself as a person? I would just say what Peter said. What I'm hearing is you wanna hear how I would separate my party leadership from my work on individual campaigning. Is that a fair summary? Gotcha, okay, thanks. Well, for one thing, it has been very tricky to be the reorg chair and also be running for chair. I would have rather, we didn't have to have a separate reorg committee, but that was a situation that was kind of forced upon us. So, you know, in my communications, I tried to be really clear about whether they were an official reorg communication or whether I was talking to someone directly about seeking their vote. I'm definitely sorry if you felt confused about that and I would wanna hear more about how that landed. In terms of my own personal political aspirations, I don't have any. I'm never interested in running for office ever and I'm actually not gonna be running any campaigns for the 2024 cycle either, not in Vermont. So it's really, I don't consider it a conflict. What I will be doing actively is working with all of our Democrats in Chittenden County as much as I can to fundraise and train volunteers and see how we can, you know, support candidates fundraising and field efforts, however possible. And I'd really, really like to see us building a whole new bench of folks doing that because I think we just don't have enough folks who are experienced in that in Chittenden County to support all the amazing Democrats that we have here. Does that help answer your question? Yeah, okay. Okay, other questions? Yes, I'll try to repeat, what, I need your name? And Kate? Kate from Burlington. Ask the question of how will, I believe the question was a statement that fundraising is an important part of the executive committee's work and as the chair and leader of that committee, how will you navigate restrictions around your ability to fundraise based on your employment? Is that accurate, Kate? Thank you for the question. So regarding this particular question, should I be reelected this evening? I would delegate fundraising activities to the BDP, Chittenden County fundraising ambassador or co-ambassadors, as well as the standing budget and finance committee to take the lead on fundraising for the county committee. Okay, thank you, Mike. Other questions? Going once, going twice. Brilliant, okay, I would now ask for a motion directing the clerk to cast a single ballot in favor of all of the uncontested races, which was vice chair one, vice chair two, secretary, treasurer, assistant treasurer, state committee delegate two, alternate state committee person one, alternate state committee person two, youth representative and town chair representative. Moved by Terry LeFave and seconded by Betsy Dunn. Done, excellent, thank you very much. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Abstentions? Okay, fabulous. So now you are all welcome to vote as you see fit in the interest of time. While you're doing that, we're gonna move through the agenda. And the first thing we're gonna do is have Terry LeFave, who's been our treasurer for the past four years, come up and say a few words for her report. And hopefully folks grabbed a copy of her report as you came in. I can bring copies around if people didn't, yes. Oh, ballots will be collected over here by Meida and Ed. Mike, I'll put that up here, yep. Hello again. I was speaking earlier about the young people stepping up. And before I forget and give my report, will the new treasurer please come and see me before I leave, because I have all of the, thank you, I have all of the treasury information to give you. And we have a check that needs to be deposited. I did provide a written report of the committee finances from last October to October 24th. There is one change last evening. I don't get my mail until 7.30 at night. So last night I got a check from Act Blue for an additional $408.19. So when that check is deposited, we'll have $6,267.81, which is wonderful, but it's not enough. I want to congratulate Mike on his ability to delegate things that need to be done and to find people who are willing to do them because of the efforts of the reorg committee. The Act Blue system was sort of reinvigorated for our county committee. And that's where these donations are coming from. Our finances were seriously depleted because a lot to do with COVID. We couldn't get together. It used to be any time we got together like this, we would pass out an envelope to everybody and say drop in some money and put your name on it so we can add some money to the treasury. I have those envelopes in a bag right here and if anybody hasn't donated yet and wants to, I'll be glad to give you an envelope. And we need to raise money for the upcoming election. I fear that it's gonna be frighteningly expensive for this election. We need to support candidates who are going to support Vermonters, who are going to support working Vermonters, and all Vermonters. We can't do that without money. Just for a candidate to send out a postcard to their constituents is hundreds of dollars. And especially in Chittenden County where we have such a huge population, we can't elect people without money. It sickens me to say that, but it's the truth. We need money. And I hope that our new treasurer will be actively involved in fundraising. That we do have enough money and enough volunteers to go to the fair this year. We couldn't do it last year. You have to demand the booth the whole time the fair is opened. I see all you people here. If each one of you would come for two or three hours, we'd be able to do it. But we couldn't be this past year. We just couldn't afford it and we didn't have enough people. And I also wanna congratulate Mike for bringing new people in, for helping to organize town committees as he was Chittenden Committee Chair. And I hope that this momentum continues. We continue to build our membership, build our fundraising base so that we have money to do things that we want and need to do. And if any of you have any questions, give me a yell. Yes. You're welcome. Thank you. I told Mike this evening when he came in, I said, if you thank me one more time, I'm gonna smack you. But he said, okay, I'm done. It really has been a pleasure. But it's time for me to step back and let the young ones take over. And I will give you as much help as I possibly can. Any questions you have, don't hesitate to call or email. And I'll be around, but just not as much as I have been. Thank you, everyone. God bless and take care. Okay, voting is happening. Clarification, so we're gonna leave the voting open on Zoom and in the room until 8.45, so 15 minutes. No one needs to stay once you've cast your ballot if you have kids to go home to, you can do that. But people are encouraged to stay and watch the voting and make sure it's all copacetic. I'm gonna get my agenda. Okay, next on the agenda is to review and approval of the minutes. We do not have the minutes, so we're gonna move past that to the chair's report, which is Mike Ross. Hello again. So, to start my chair's report, I just wanted to just take a moment to remember Claire Cummings and just wish my condolences to Claire and her family on, to Claire's family on her passing. Many of us got a chance to get to know Claire during the time that she was the party executive director and so this is a sad moment for many of us that have had the opportunity to get to work with her and she will be missed. That said, I also just wanted to share as a part of my chair's report that two years goes by fast and a lot has happened in the past two years, but that said, the county committee has continued forward and has continued to collaborate and make progress despite whether it be the COVID-19 pandemic or the recent floods in Vermont. The county committee has continued to stick together and focus on the work of building the party and continuing to invite Democrats into the party to grow our party and to do the work of the party to elect Democrats. That said, I am proud and just wanted to thank all of the Chittenden County Democrats that have been involved within the party over the past two years for your dedication, commitment and the sacrifices that you've made to continue to be involved and to make the party what it is today here in Chittenden County. I appreciate the time and efforts of many of you and as we look ahead, the future is bright for the Vermont Democratic Party, not only in Chittenden County, but across Vermont. And whatever happens today, we are going to be ready to essentially take on the opportunities and challenges ahead as we look to 2024. So thank you again for your involvement within the party and I'll turn it back over to Peter. Thank you, Mike, for that report. That brings us to announcements, which is the only thing holding us back from adjournment. So are there any announcements? Any announcements? Oh, yes. Burlington Democrats having a gathering at Manhattan Pizza? At Manhattan Pizza next Thursday at 6 p.m., be there or be square. Other announcements? Yep? No. No, Vice Chair One was me uncontested and Vice Chair Two was, I think, Ellie Beckett uncontested. Other announcements? Okay, so just to make sure that people online don't have any problems with their votes, we don't want them to get boxed out too quickly. We're gonna keep the voting open until 8.45. You are welcome to get a drink, mingle, go home, do whatever you want, and we will count the ballot to 8.45 and then make an announcement here and we will of course email results to the full group. Thank you very much and thank you to Mike Fisher, who quietly just absolutely killed it on Zoom. That is, I'm not even kidding, that's the hardest job of the night and he just nailed. We had one moment of some people talking but you jumped on that, it was nearly flawless. That's it. Oh wait, is there a motion to adjourn? Teri LaFave has moved to adjourn, seconded by Ryan Nick? I know you. Another student of mine. All those in favor of adjourning, please say aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Dunzo? Thank you all. And bring your ballots over ASAP.