 So now I'll I'll go into our agenda. So the first item on reorg is always election of the city committee. So I find it's Somebody would like to make a motion to appoint all everyone here as the new city committee for 2023 that would that's usually how we start What does it mean? Okay, so Yeah, for anybody who's who's not really familiar with the process the the way parties organized in Vermont every off-year so in odd years we Meet on the local level here in Winooski or and throughout the state in September To appoint a committee and it's called reorg because we have to basically start from scratch So we're you know, we call a caucus and and appoint ourselves as the committee and then what we're gonna do tonight In addition to that is appoint some officers for our committee. It's Deanna and then appoint Members to represent us on the county committee Which then the county committees meet in October and they'll appoint to a state committee and that's sort of the overarching body that Runs the party and the state committee will meet in a convention in November and appoint and then a Coordinating committee, which is slightly smaller body that meets monthly and sometimes more than that to Run the day-to-day business. So there the coordinating committee is the one who Hires our few staff. We have an executive director and actually an organizing Person right now where which is nice We're not always able to afford quite as many staff as some of the other parties. So having two staff is pretty neat So yeah, so getting back to just what we're gonna do tonight. We're gonna basically appoint ourselves as the committee and then appoint officers and appoint members to that county committee and I've got some discussion items here, too And we can decide how much we want to get into that stuff today but Really pleased that there's so many people here I mean For us, it's not usually a huge commitment I think that only a couple of times, you know, we Would meet if we want to endorse candidates in the March elections, for example in municipal elections Sometimes we'll meet to endorse candidates for the November elections So we could frequently in Vermont people will seek multiple parties nominations so they'll They'll run in the Democratic Primary sorry, but also want our endorsement as progressive. So that's what Taylor did for example And that's how how we've sort of in the last 10 20 10 years dealt with the whole idea of being spoilers By running in the Democratic primary So we're not spoiling anything because then you get to the November election and it's just you know a Republican versus well Frequently in Winooski. Honestly, it's just whoever won the Democratic primary So the the city committee is essentially the ones who are organizing for progressives just here in Winooski So we as Robert was saying we don't meet super regularly now But if we get a larger committed group of folks who are coming together and are really engaged around issues or specific candidates We can meet more often, but truly this is the deciding body that gets to say How often we want to meet and what our priorities are especially when it comes to nominating candidates Come for town meeting day or for the election in November Yeah, so we'll get to a point for people to the county committee, so it's up to you Is that something that you want to do? and the county committee honestly frequently Meets even less than than we do. It's not a not super busy similarly They they will have to meet if they're going to endorse candidates on that level like state Senate candidates or occasionally State's attorney or things like that that are elected at the county level Sorry What else you know, but it also similar to this body it depends how interested people are in meeting more and and doing more organizing and Seeing so many people around the table. I'm hoping that that this year might be a start of like some good organizing, but You know, it's always entirely up to us. It's a as a committee and then the county committee and so and Typically when you're on the city committee, then you're able to report back to the county committee What's happening on the city level or if you're wanting to be a part of the state committee? Same thing goes is really Being a part of this committee is I would say the most integral part to being able to be a part of the county or state committees as well Being a member of all of those committees And Yes, I will really push on the on the fact that there are not a lot of meetings involved But the meetings that are there are truly meaningful and if if you do then get to the state committee that can be a bit more of a responsibility they need quarterly and Point the coordinating committee and things like that so that can be a bit bigger Responsibility, but it's always about what individuals can and want to do. I mean people's party, so we recognize Believe me, I know I have attended I for a long time of tendency to over promise myself So I understand trying not to you know, I've been trying to do that more and more And I respect that a lot It's it's hard, but um any other questions or So I guess just to clarify David, are you interested in being nominated for the city committee to start? How about we say no, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. How about we say no on that now? Just I'm obsessed with the county committee As long as I definitely like to say, you know, oh, please No, no, no, no, no, I just want to clarify I Think that if you wanted to be on the county committee, I mean you'd want to you'd need to be on the city committee, too Sorry, I might have No, it's yeah, I probably misspoke Yeah, I I understand that's the way I was phrasing that was it didn't make a whole lot of sense Yeah, so we won't be after you to run for office in March No, absolutely and and again like any time, you know, if you feel like you're being asked too much always But yeah, yeah, we'd want you to be on the city committee first. Yeah, it's it's like a you know a tiered thing Yeah, so for the record again I'm Robert Malar Or I heard I use they them pronouns I'm Brigid Aaron's David David Wilcox he him Deanna Gonzalez she her And Chloe Tomlinson I use she her pronouns and Taylor small and I also use she and her pronouns I Use he him pronouns. Sorry. I just forget that I Was wondering if to kind of set this up for people who might not know in Winooski the Progressive Party is Pretty active because we have a number of people who are in office that are progressives So I wondered if we might want to just summarize that Well, actually Great, so yeah, so I'm former state representative and I don't quite know I answer that question Yeah, no, no, no, that's it. That's it. No, it's just the two small children sometimes just suck suck my brain out of my nose Sometimes it feels like they're aliens with straws, but Yeah, so yeah, so it's been it's I've been part of the progressive party for ten-ish years and It's great. I mean people are just very excited about progressive issues and and so it's just a really great place to live and then it's this We are like fairly active and and and even though our city council is non-partisan There's a lot of people on the city council who have progressive issues and same or leanings and affiliations with the progressive party and and We've had ebbs and flows on the school board as well And so it's a nice nice mix. We you know clearly have our lovely representative who's progressive and so Yeah, so I'm not quite sure I'm sure that there's better Thanks as well But in terms of like building up of and what our potentials is that we we do have just a high potential in Manuski to have more engagement and more outreach and more people who are interested in being part of our party and so it's In all the door knocking that I've done people are just always very excited about progressive issues and it's a matter of Consistent organizing that we haven't that we have a lot of opportunity to that we could step into Yeah, I think you pretty much it you know we've um, you know and Well, let's see Gene ran as a progressive way back in 2004 That was probably the first candidate to run with the progressive label in Manuski And that was really hard back then and it's still pretty not not always easy It's the city sure has changed a lot since 2004 though and then I moved here in 2009 and our our committee consisted of me and the Robinsons Colin and Sarah Robinson and One other verse. Oh Israel Smith and that was it But we then we managed to get myself on the school board, which Was unexpected and no, I haven't been on the school board that long I was only I only served one term and then I lost reelection unfortunately, but and Sarah was on the council though for several years But that since then then we got you were first elected in 2014 or 20 Yeah, you and I ran together in 2014 and you nailed it I did not But did pretty well and then in 2016 I ran again But up and for up until that time when Uski was a very democratic It's still a very democratic city. So it's not like a Republican stronghold instead. It's sort of like a Middle of the road kind of stronghold for a long time has a strong labor history the mills and things like that I would say a relatively 50-50 split if we look at representation across the elected leadership in the city It's pretty much down the middle of Democrat and progressive So left leaning across the board and definitely I also look to our charter changes which we're both We think of all resident voting which happened two years ago And then this past year with just cause eviction really thinking of progressive values that we have that are in our Foundation and our pillars of what we truly believe in so to see them pass so overwhelmingly and when you ski I think we also know that there are a lot of progressive ideals that are held here Yeah, and it is important as to notice as Deanna said that our council and school board are Non-partisan so people don't actually run with labels so it can be a little Bit complicated. I mean, it's not necessarily as straightforward. It's like the Burlington City Council You can say oh, that's a progressive. That's a Democrat, you know Some people just a shoe labels completely and some people own it so But we have pretty progressive overall I would say Yeah The thing I was thinking about was actually justices of the peace because I'm one of I'm one of those And I know we have a pretty good complement of progressives who are serving as justice to the peace This is awesome because the city needs justices of the peace in order to operate and so and so do Vermonters Who want to get married or whatever? So anyway, I just Yeah, so it's great To encourage people Yeah, so we've been electing progressive justice of peace since 2010 I would say and I think currently four of the we have 15 total are progressives and and That's important not just for marrying people which is great, but It they serve as the board of civil authority which oversees elections. So if things come up along those lines then That's good. Good to have that part And it's it's interesting when you see it's really interesting because there aren't Any republicans on there and there never have been that I know of it's really very much this split between Sort of progressives and the democrats in the last ten years 14 more but however long it's been I don't know since I came and upset the apple cart. No Or okay, they're just not even trying to organize last year Via from porch forum, but it didn't materialize in tiny candidates running Yeah, I'm not sure if they even have a local committee Do we have other questions or Well, you're a JP so you can talk you can probably talk about how it's been We've had several elections now with all resident voting and of course with all resident voting They only vote on local elections and not the national elections because yeah Jess Wanooski you can vote for the school board You can vote for the justices of the peace if you live here in Wanooski, which seems fair to me and yeah The budgets are big exactly But It makes it slightly more complicated at the polls because there's separate ballots one with the national offices and one without But we've had I think really good support staff from Wanooski in terms of having interpreters Signs we have a Hostess at the door or a host at the door who in you know when someone comes in That is a non-resident to help them through the process or to even register them to vote that day. So But that seems it seems to be going smoothly I think it was a really good process that got us there, too. It was it was deliberative and Tried to involve as many people as possible in the discussion that was a good question I mean that makes me think of the just cause eviction charter change that was passed last March So that's great, but that's kind of stuck in the legislature for the moment Absolutely, yes, and part of the problem with that is is there was a technical issue on the on the City level when that was passed in when some Meetings were warned So it's gonna show up on the ballot again. I believe in March yeah for Validation vote which is simply just a revote on the same exact issue But in conversations with the Secretary of State The Charter change still lies as one that we can move forward as a legislature We don't need the validation vote to move forward But I think what we're seeing at the legislative level and has come up as an issue I Would say well it came up in my first term when we were talking about all resident voting that when charter changes are passed They might be passed by the municipality, but they still have to be passed by the legislature afterwards And so in that the legislature can change the language of charter changes Which I think is exactly what we're gonna see in the next legislative session is a more uniform policy that would be implemented for Burlington, when you ski in Essex, which were the three municipalities to pass it in the last election I don't know what that language will exactly look like I think it will likely be similar to the one that was passed for Burlington last year and was eventually Vetoed and the veto was not overridden But that is still to be told as we see what happens in the government operations committees In the coming session, but definitely encourage folks to follow along and of course advocate for The passage of just cause eviction for when you ski That we are only one of a handful of states that has that that most states as a city or municipality They can change what they want to and need to to to govern their municipality And don't need the legislature to approve things And so like for instance when you ski used to have in a charter change not allow guns to be shot in city limits that was in our charter and because of a different charter change and went through the legislature, it's that was removed from our city charter and And so That there's a little push for changing that Legal relationship between the municipalities and the state so that we can as a municipality Make decisions that we that are right for us without going through that additional body So just putting that out as a little PSA So here for that change. Yeah, thanks specifically what they were talking about was the I'm remembering correctly a lot that would allow anything that it already passed another municipality Could go through without having to go through the right. Is that yeah, yeah, well It is one option moving forward. I think that's kind of the in-between of Less oversight from the state, but of course, I'm gonna forget their names I know it's Homer's rule and then it's some other man's names rule that as to Whether it is going through the legislature to be approved or whether it is just the city that gets to determine its own Charter and what is happening within its own limits? And so I know the Vermont League of Cities and Towns has been a strong advocate for that change Especially as it hinders and we've seen many charter changes that either just don't come up again And are not considered again by the legislature or it only Goes through one time and then as vetoed and then does not come to fruition So the argument being that a charter change should be able to pass if that is what the voters are voting for Unless it is unconstitutional, and then we have those checks and balances already in place with the court system This is really good discussion. This is what happens when you have a lot of people show up. Yeah, I'm really glad to have you anything else or To the business part Oh Well, we only have this room for an hour or two, so So the first thing The way I want to do this city committee if we want if somebody We're comfortable making a motion to appoint everybody here as the city committee Great and could I get a second second? All right? I should probably make a note of this Move by Aurora seconded by Taylor and Sometimes I go really quickly through these Roberts rules type things So if anybody's confused or to concern, please stop me and slow me down, but Any other discussion on that? So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great, so we've appointed us As the committee now also had Erica bronze had requested to be added to the committee But she couldn't be here because she's going to see onnie de franco, and I'm really jealous Anyone else that wasn't in attendance today that was hoping to be appointed we had one other person Who emailed me who I don't know. Well, their name is Nick Brown now. Does anybody know you know Nick? Yeah, so yeah, so we exchanged some emails and It's gonna try to get on zoom, but then said they couldn't couldn't make it works too little reception So he sent a little bit about himself or themselves. I'm not sure Oh Yeah, I thought I saw the Yeah, so Nick sent a little blurb I could read oh great and okay Hi, my name is Nick and I'm interested in serving on the city of Wanooski's progressive party committee Last year I helped organize a canvassing effort for just cause eviction in Wanooski where we won approval with 70% voting Yes on JCE I'm running to be a progressive caucus committee member because I believe the progressive party and endorsed elected officials can bring more Municipal policy changes towards housing issues such as just cause eviction to the ballot And and I did go back and check old emails and Nick was on some of those emails around just cause eviction so I can at least confirm that On this city committee, I think just city I probably should have clarified more but Yeah, I moved to add Erica and Nick to the city committee Seconded by Bridget Great any further discussion on that All those in favor of please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay Great, so we now have a city committee Pretty solid number 79 I think that's pretty far up there I don't think we've ever gone higher than that because if we got to 10 we'd get more County committee members So I think this is pretty much near the top Yeah, I was just thinking it or well, but we just changed the bylaws So it'll be I'm not sure how to work out. It'll be based on How we vote Exciting still 10 would be a great great goal 10 is a great goal Yeah It is very complicated, but I guess it'll be more proportional theoretically The bylaws as they currently exist in how we're running this reorg Up to 10 members on a city or town committee We can appoint four members to the county committee and ten or more. It's a so I think They were thinking to make that a bit more proportional because Burlington gets eight and you know And that's it and even though they have a city committee that's usually dozens of people But that'll be in place for next reorg. So we don't need to worry about that for a couple years Our next business item it would be to appoint officers for this committee So we need to appoint a chair a vice chair a secretary and a treasurer and on this level Those have almost no duties. I mean the chair runs the meetings Unless delegated to I Chared for many years last couple years ago. We switched it up and have a Taylor chair, but Taylor's very busy And we don't have any money on the city level so the treasurer doesn't really Secretary we'd like to have take notes when we can but I don't remember who the secretary was last time. So that's when taking some notes Oh, I do You should take some notes, too So I would look for Nominations for chair any other nominations for chair. Oh, right Sorry, so your place chair. Okay. I got a ticket. Are you gonna take notes or Any other nominee already asked that. Sorry. Um, so Then all those in favor of me is chair. Hi. Hi Any opposed? Nope. Okay Yay, Robert I've been trying to move out of chair rolls Things but that's okay. I got off the housing commission chair not off the housing commission I got out of being chair Vice chair nominations for vice chair. I nominate Taylor small to be vice chair Any other nominations for vice chair? Yes, I can great seen none all those in favor of Taylor as vice chair. I Any opposed? Go around Nominations for secretary any other nominations for secretary. All those in favor of me say aye. Hi. Any opposed? That actually makes this paperwork really easy because I need signatures from chair and secretary Roars my spouse Okay, and a treasurer remember there are no assigned duties to be a treasurer I second Any other nominations all those in favor of Chloe for treasurer, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So we have our office already at the table together. That's great. So then our Delegates to the county committee so we can point up to four people to be delegates to the committee I'm just gonna throw out who's one Yes, other folks who want to be on the county committee I can yeah, I'll go on to the county committee to if Bridget's going I'm going And you don't have to be on the county committee So you can be at the county level But then you don't need to be at the county level to them be in that the coordinating committee which is like Kind of the board that supports and supervises the staff Just to be clear the state committee and the state coordinating committee or not the same thing, right? Yeah, so we appoint members of the county committee the county committee committee appoints members of the state committee and then the state committee Coordinating committee, which is a smaller body And they mean monthly and we're not appointing to the state committee right now. No because the county committee And you can still come to county committee meetings and participate you just couldn't post Moving to appoint the county committee David Wilcox Taylor small Bridget irons and Robert Malar any further discussion Is pretty much our business items I had included some discussion items Which the first one was town meeting day 2024 and also and this is where I'll just point out that we do have CCTV here So if there are things that you don't want broadcast on CCTV, I wouldn't suggest you bring them up right now But you know, like somebody who's thinking about it that doesn't want it So for just for town meeting day the mayor is up and to counsel seats are up We do not know who if anyone's going to be Run for any of their current seats So there's that we also have to school board three school board members up So those are probably our biggest items for our candidates for The municipality so I think really what we want to do is start thinking about One how do we support any folks that are running for those and two if there anyone that we know Who might be interested in running for any of those seats So we can kind of begin those discussions and think about how we can Well if any of them run and want the progressive nomination endorsement because They're technically as we went through nonpartisan seats, but That gets access or that can help with access to some of the state level like mailing lists and other resources, so That's where even at this level where they are Nonpartisan it can be important to get those sponsorships Re-election Okay, the two city councillors up for election is myself so we're heard and Thomas Renner I Spent a lot of information And then for our school board. Yes, so school board. We had two Resignations, so we filled some vacancies. So there are actually three of the five seats will be up and that is Stephen Berbeco is just up normally at the end of his term and then the Nicole mace and Isaiah Donaldson were appointed and we'll have to run I just ran in March, so I'm not up Appointed are they running for full terms or partial terms? I say is running for a full and Nicole will be running for the remainder of a three-year term so two more years. Yeah, it's kind of a mess right now And do you know if they're both running? I? Guess I can't say for sure for Isaiah, but he seems pretty into it and so Start let's start thinking about that now. Oh, and you mentioned With the endorsement you you know get comes essentially party resources one of those will hopefully be a updated database in the next few months we're moving from Civvy which is Freeware and what we've used for the last 25 years to Nation Builder Which is supposed to supposed to be quite a lot better with a lot more Bells and whistles, so that could be really helpful to anybody have anything else I want to say on that Yeah, definitely things to think about with that And that's that's where we might want to meet more and maybe virtually to make it easier for people and brainstorming down the line The other discussion thing I had on here is organizing and when you skate So, you know do we want to have a good opportunity with so many of us here to meet more try to you Know we talk up frequently. We've tried to do little events here and there to try to get more interest But you know that comes down to the capacity But I wanted to open that up as a discussion folks of ideas gonna say with the Level of we have an interest we have a very interesting town meeting day So it might be good to think about maybe December and January or January if there's time Just thinking of like, I don't know Taylor if you're thinking about any pre pre session event, but that might be If you have the capacity to do a pre session event then that could be a draw for people to come and Then in that like is there interest about the running for and during March? or Yeah, just something kind of around that might be might be nice Event I just I just had a question does when you ski have in-person town meetings? Because Burlington does not they just vote on There is a meeting at the school the night before but it's not it's not where we actually vote on things Well, I guess technically we vote on a couple of small things, but it's like moderator Which is also something as we think about like we could we haven't had a presence there but that also could be something that we could think about because there's There's still like there are people that come and really go through the budget and ask a lot of questions And so like that could be something that we could think about the day before and that's a longer term That's organizing for not just this March, but for the next cycle, which I mean, it'll you know, we'll be right here. So Yeah, just a potential idea See that's the sort of thing that you would call CCTV and say could you record that? Usually at the dinner usually do a dinner It's funny Yeah, because I bet we would watch that oh, yeah, like going through the budget and understanding what it is People usually show up in person. I can tell you that I think we had like five Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's so it's like yeah, I don't think it quite bounced back from It was pretty well attended Okay, so there's it's possible that CC TV can broadcast that live So you might want to call someone at the studio just explore about that Robert is the goal to raise awareness of the progressive party are we looking for candidates? Are we looking for support for people? I mean what what's because if if any of those are the goals you probably want to go before the vote, you know Yeah, I mean at all it all the idea Beats up kind of the same as the yeah, you know getting people involved interested and farming candidates and Going to that would not be to persuade anybody with them with how many take the very next day probably, but yeah But thinking about if there's Event slash progressive meeting that's happening prior to an early November say November 4th If that's available on people's calendars, and we want to start looking at that Find an opportunity to get together where it is a meeting of folks with like-minded views or That folks are being able to come together and discuss issues that are directly impacting them I think that's the best way to encourage folks to run for office To be able to identify clearly like this issue that you're highlighting is shared by others And you have a voice that you can share within local government because We don't know how many of those seats are going to be open or not And the council are gonna you know start crafting their budgets at the end of November through December even end into January and always always looking for citizen input as much as possible like and you know, that's something where Well, that's in particular you can try to let you know if we're trying to get some Pressure on different things like last time you're pushing pretty hard to try to keep the equity director Things like that and library funding that's gonna be big this year, too It's an important resource for community so yeah You've gotten a lot of emails about it. Yeah I have a question Events are good But I was wondering if the progressive party is that if they've ever thought about putting something out like a newsletter or a user group or something to kind of get people aware of Issues ideas updates at the various levels. Yeah Yeah, I mean We have whatever email us we have at the state level Oh wait, we have front porch forum I'm a big fan of front porch forum used to work there Yeah getting stuff out on there. Yeah, I think it's about like capacity so like, you know needing to have somebody who like that's Their focus and is it once a quarter once a month and then like what's it around? So I would think in order to like be sustainable. We would need to have somebody who Could take that on and own that and then I think if that if there is someone amongst us who could take that on and Was interested in working with Taylor like having during the legislative session like just a great pull and draw around Like what is you know day-to-day legislature like all the different pieces like that that could be a great build for the whole year But it is needing someone who says yep I can do that on whatever frequency and own it and do it and And that like that's that's historically been a challenge of like who can can maintain something like that And I would definitely encourage folks to sign up for the state mailing list because since we've now been able to fund legislative Support person it means that we're able to put out weekly emails from legislators Especially in the house updating about the exact issues that we're working on or the bills that are coming up And honestly we saw significant engagement this past year from the Progressive Party overall Especially when we think about the elections bill that was considered in the House and Senate and is honestly likely to be considered again this next year and so The fight isn't isn't over on that and making sure that we keep our elections fair and and equal How would I sign up for the state mailing list? Okay Just gonna say I think also there's a lot of engagement when There are particular issue based campaigns that really impact people's lives locally I think a lot of people got really activated with just cause of fiction and I wonder if there are ways to I remember Aurora you shared updates about the budget through the lists are for the city committee And I wish I had done more to sort of like write on FPF why that's important to me personally So I think that those types of updates You know are really impactful when people talk about Something that's important to them that impacts their life and other people's lives Here in when you ski too in addition to the you know longer more in-depth updates about specific legislation Which is also important But I think in terms of getting people activated those stories and individual advocating for issues is really critical too So maybe it can also be a matter of us staying up to date about what's happening and trying to individually Share you know action alerts that aren't like copy-paste, but our personal opinions on FPF and other places Which is a really wide audience it's a really wide audience wider than a listserv or a local lists I mean yeah party listserv I totally agree with that and I love the idea of Something that's small and one person one person speaking instead of here's a legislative update with all this big chunk Stuff to read through So what I'm wondering is if a bunch of people within the Progressive Party Would take the occasional issue and post about it that might be actually more effective than having one person Who's cranking out the monthly thing? Yeah, so something comes up I mean I'm curious like if there are specific things in city council that you expect coming up around school board I mean JC is passed and there might need to be some pressure on the you know Legislature, but if there are other Specific issue-based things that either like this group wants to focus on or where where might already be coming up because that seems like a way that You know an entry point for other people It's rather than saying like do you want to come to this progressive party organizing discussion Like do you want to come to a discussion about like how to prevent people from getting affected by the landlords for no cause that's kind of a more compelling ask often for people who don't know what the progressive party is or Aren't usually involved in organizing I think we're coming up on the end of the hour I reserve, but I will want to the last thing I wanted to say on the listserv is it's not intended just like for me to send warnings to You have things, you know issues or you know, and I'll get you added to the local listserv to Also, I should send like a little update out on there. Just let people know who's on there at this point It's only like 10 or 12 people But then if you have ideas for things that we should post up from which forum or events or anything It's supposed to be a discussion and sometimes it ends up in your spam folder. So be Keep an eye out for that. I don't know why it does that. That would be a good place to start Anything else? I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved Could I get a second? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. We're adjourned