DA Guatemala Annual Meeting Minutes

Annual Membership Celebration Minutes
Date: March 29, 2008
Place: La Peña del Sol Latino
5a Calle poniente #15-C
La Antigua, Guatemala

- Chair called the meeting to order at: 11:00 AM
- Secretary reported twenty-seven members in attendance at the opening of the meeting.

1. Treasurer’s Report of preceding year

Income: Election Series ’08 Q4,388.75
Events 3,345.00
Donations 2,058.00
Q9,791.75

Expenditures: Rent Q2,936.00
General expenses 2,116.87
Advertising 3,750.00
Q7,802.87
Total income: Q9,791.00
Total expenses: -7,802.87
Balance Q1,988.88
Balance from ‘07 + 740.00

Current Balance Q2,728.88 (US$1.00=Q7.50)

2. Secretary’s Report – state of membership growth during preceding year
- June 2006, start-up committee of six people meets
- March 2007, full committee status achieved having reached 50 members.
- Current membership: 260

3. Chairperson’s Report of preceding year
A start from scratch in 2005-2006
- Formal recognition by DPCA in March 2007
- Dramatic membership growth in 2007 and early 2008
- Promotional events in 2007
§ An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore
§ Bioneers videos (2005 and 2006) series
§ 4th of July Picnic
§ Election Series ’08
► August 2007, Health Care, Sicko
► September 2007, War on Terror, The Oil Factor
► October 2007 , Saving Social Security, Slide show presentation
► November 2007, Veterans Affairs, Slide Show with Dave Evans
► January 2008, Democratic Candidate Positions Overview, Slide show summary
§ February 5-12, 2008 Democrats Abroad Global Primary
- The Results of the Democratic Global Primary
§ Senator Barack Obama, first with 65.6% of the vote and Senator Hillary Clinton second with 32.7%. Worldwide, Democrats cast 23,105 votes.
§ The results give Obama six full delegates and Hillary three, with two more as super delegates. Democrats Abroad will send 11 full delegates (22 people each with a half vote) to the National Democratic Convention which will be held in Denver, Colorado, August 25-28th, 2008.
§ In Guatemala, 68% voted for Obama, and 29% for Hillary. A total of 189 ballots were cast: 110 from in-person voting, and 79 from voting by Internet.

4. Activities planned for 2008:
- Americas Regional Caucus and Global Convention, Vancouver April 11-13
- Democratic National Convention Denver, August 25-28,
- Fourth of July picnic
- GOTV activities for November 4, 2008 general election; Hold a Labor Day party built around voter registration/absentee ballot request theme.
- Requesting your absentee ballot with http://www.votefromabroad.org/ with live on-line demonstration.
- Democratic Nominee vs. Republican Nominee Election debate events:
Sep 26, Univ. of Miss. Domestic Policy Focus
Oct 12, Hofstra Univ., Foreign Policy Focus
Big-screen venue(s) need to be identified.
- Formation of informal DA meeting groups in Guatemala City, Quetzaltenango, others; Diana Diaz-Granados and Ed Mann will take the lead in Guatemala City; Paul Graddon will attempt to convene members in Quetzaltenango.

5. December 2008: Chair will form Nominations Committee to receive candidate nominations for Guatemala Executive Committee elections in March 2009.

6. Adjournment: At 12:30 PM, a motion was made to adjourn, seconded and carried.