The 2009 Democrats Abroad Americas Region Annual Meeting

October 31, 2009

Overview:
La Antigua Guatemala was home for the 2009 Democrats Abroad Americas Region annual meeting over October 23 and 24. The gathering came and went very quickly, but all who attended deemed the meeting a success and the chance to visit Antigua an enchanting plus to the experience. Some of the visitors stayed on a few days for some tourism and were happy for it. The last visitor departed on October 28th.

As these meetings go, attendance at the 2009 version in Antigua Guatemala was a bit exiguous. Typically, these meetings attract from 40 to 100 Democrats, with the enthusiasm being greatest in presidential election cycle years. This year in Antigua, only 20 people attended the two-day meeting, with 12 coming from outside of Guatemala. In addition to Lindsey Reynolds, our Executive Director, international officers attending the meeting included Christine Marques, International Chair of Democrats Abroad, and Patricia Ferrari, Regional Vice Chair for the Americas, who comes from Democrats Abroad Brazil. Mexico had the largest contingent with four members attending. Canada, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Brazil each sent one representative. Absent were Argentina, Colombia and Panama.

The modest attendance can be attributed to post-presidential election exhaustion and maybe some apathy as well. Then there are the fair weather Democrats, who may feel a little let down by Obama’s inability in ten short months to have totally transformed the world (see Tom Fina’s Letter from Washington, dated October 26, 2009). The hardcore group that did attend, however, felt that a lot was achieved during the two days, and left the gathering energized about our working toward Democratic victories in the 2010 mid-terms, and continuing to support President Obama’s agenda. Everyone left with a lot of material to take back to their respective country committees.

Meeting Summary:

Country committees: Brazil, Patricia Ferrari, Chair; Canada, Allena Leonard, Vice Chair; Costa Rica, Nelleke Bruyn, Acting Chair; Dominican Republic, Francisco Diaz, Chair; Guatemala, John Chudy, Chair, Gail Terzuola, Secretary, Tom Totino, Treasurer, Norma Gifford, Counsel, Judy Sadlier, Communications and Fund Raising Standing Committees Chair, Paul Munsell, Issues Standing Committee Chair; Mexico, Sandra Loridans, Acting Chair, Henri Loridans, member-at-large, Dee Dee Camhi, Chapter Chair of Puerto Vallarta, Kathie Coull, Chapter Chair of Lake Chapala.

1. The meeting was called to order by Patricia Ferrari, and welcome remarks were made by Christine, Patricia and John Chudy, host country chair.

2. Argentina: Before entering the agenda, Kathie Coull raised a question about the elections within DA Argentina that involved assistance from former Regional Vice Chair, Joe Green. The elections took place in early 2009. Argentina is a new country committee. The procedures that resulted from the regional vice chair’s visit are being constituted as general election procedures for Democrats Abroad and will be published soon.

3. Kay Anske, Consúl General from the US Embassy in Guatemala City addressed the group. The presentation described the services offered to US citizens living in Guatemala (or anywhere overseas) by the American Citizens Services section of Consular office. The consular office will “consularize” absentee ballots by stamping them with an Embassy post stamp, and will mail them in the APO mail, and will provide postage. Kay said that in Guatemala mailing time for ballots via the APO would be about one week maximum to their destinations. Larger country posts may take longer.

4. Country Committee Reports: Regional Vice Chair, Patricia Ferrari, made some general comments before each committee reported out. Her goals by the end of 2010 is to have established full committees in Peru and Chile, and to strengthen Panama and Colombia. International Chair Christine Marques commented that membership numbers are confidential.

• Brazil: The country committee is around 500 members, based mostly in Sao Paolo, which has an American population of about 30,000 (it is a city of about 18 million inhabitants). Rio de Janeiro has fewer Americans.
• Dominican Republic: About 900 members. An active committee that is an effective fund raiser for the DPCA and for their own internal needs.
• Guatemala: Has about 350 members. Needs to replace MeetUp Group leaders for Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango, from where leaders have moved away during 2009. Because of its small size, Guatemala does not have chapters.
• Mexico: Has around 5,000 members spread out in five chapters including a new chapter in Mexico City and a Young Democrats chapter.
• Canada: The big kid on the block, with about 12,000 members nation-wide under about 20 chapters.

5. Uniform Laws and Voting: Lindsey Reynolds made a slide show presentation on the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), touching on how the 118 year-old commission is now looking at some of the varying state laws that govern military and overseas citizens. Major issues for Democrats Abroad for the ULC are:
• Uniform deadlines for voter registration, receiving the ballot and returning the ballot.
• Uniform standards for hard copy registration documents
• Uniform access to federal voting by children born abroad disenfranchised by state law.
Lindsey then commented on Senator Schumer’s Move Act, which was tagged on as an amendment to the recently approved Defense Authorization bill. The Move Act covers most of DA’s concerns regarding overseas voting. DA will publish details of the Move Act once the president signs the Defense Authorization bill. This message will be part of a “what DA does for you” approach to our membership.

6. Health Care Update: Lindsey summarized progress on this historic legislation. Efforts for national health care first started with Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century. Now, almost a hundred years later, the goal is finally likely to be realized. It is expected to be passed by the end of November. But Congress needs our support. Everyone should call their representatives and senators. Country committees should resend the 5- Easy Steps to help assure passage of health insurance reform.
a. Allenna Leonard from Canada introduced a draft resolution from DA Canada that argued that DA take a strong stance in favor of health insurance reform with a public option. The resolution included a clause that spoke to the misrepresentation of the Canadian health care system in some circles in the US. Patricia Ferrari, argued that the draft resolution was redundant in that DA has already acted strongly in favor in number of ways including the promotion of its 5-Easy Steps (what can I do to get health insurance reform passed) message to its full membership. After some discussion, Allena agreed to withdraw the draft resolution and agree to lead a regional effort to integrate a push for health insurance reform among DA country committees.

7. Reciprocal Social Security Benefits: Francisco Diaz from the Dominican Republic brought up the subject of reciprocal social security benefits. The US already has reciprocal treaties with a number of countries and in Latin America only with Chile. Because this item was not on the agenda, and people are not fully informed on the topic, it was suggested that Francisco do more research and write a position paper that explores the issue more deeply.

8. Timeline for DA 2009 to 2011: Christine and Patricia distributed a draft timeline that will be posted on the website. We discussed some of the highlights of the timeline.

a. Jan - Feb:
- Database cleanup through phone calls.
- Draft Field Plans – these create a strong profile for DA within the DNC
- Each committee should assign someone to set dates for voter registration events.
- Promote a “Register every January” effort among country membership
- Field Plan internal calendar, keep footnotes as events unfold
- Field Plans due in Febraury
b. Voter Registration:
- Double up with other events
- Consider buying a laptop and wireless printer for remote registration
- Help people create email addresses if they don’t have one.
c. Membership phonebanking:
- Plan on one call to each member every year
- Link to Field Plan
- There is a phone banking script on the website; adapt for your country.
- Membership certification is due by January 31, 2010.
d. Service Events:
- Add to our Afghanistan event – a letter writing campaign to soldiers in Afghanistan.
- Check with Lindsey as to how and where to mail, etc.
e. Election of Officers:
- Guidelines for elections forthcoming
- Hold them first quarter of the year
- DA trying to get all countries on the same cycle, odd years.
- October 2010, form the nominations/election committee made up of three members who are not Excom members.

9. Gearing Up for 2010 Mid-Term Elections:
a. How to reach out to old and new members
b. Events built around well known guest speakers
c. Urge all current members to vote
d. Posters in restaurants and hotels
e. Movie Night – at homes by invitation (also use for fundraising)
f. Need to do a survey of our members to find out why they joined and what they expect to get out of being a member of DA.
g. Phone banking as an important way to get people to vote.
h. 45th Anniversary Video Link: http://public.me.com/rcheckoway
i. “Event in the Box” for ideas on how to organize an event.
j. There are 83 frontline Democratic House Incumbents – check with DCCC to see who they are.

10. Fund Raising for Democrats Abroad:
a. Lindsey handed out notes for a slide show on the International Fund Raising Committee (IFC).
b. The IFC has three parts: Sustaining Donor Committee, Event Liaison Program, and Major Donor Committee.
c. Country committees should be responding to all three areas.
d. Phonebanking to ask members for a one time contribution or a sustaining donor contribution.
e. Events positioned around well known guest speakers or similar attractions are effective. If there are members with deep pockets, asking for a set amount may work, i.e., a one time $500 contribution perhaps.
f. When phonebanking, let the respondent comment first after you have floated an amount for a contribution – first one to speak after that loses.
g. Country committees should ask their Excoms to be Sustaining Donors – all members – it could be as little as $10/quarter, i.e., $40 a year.

11. Code of Conduct: Christine Marques introduced the Code of Conduct which has been posted on the Leadership listserve. The Democrats Abroad Code of Conduct is meant to spell out what is expected of leaders and members of DA, as well emphasize the good will and responsible behavior by which DA committees and their leaders should carry out their actions and duties. In addition, it addresses communications and public relations behavior, and privacy and conflict of interest concerns.

12. Global Meeting: Christine Marques reported that the next global meeting of the DPCA will take place in Florence, Italy, March 5 to 7, 2010. People should make their travel plans now, and plan to fly into Pisa airport, and then take the one-hour train to Florence.

a. The next subsequent global meeting will be voted on in Florence, to take place after the 2010 mid-term elections in November. Asia/Pacific is due for a meeting, but the Americas could also vie for a venue.

13. Service Project: President Obama has asked citizens to perform service in their community. In keeping with this spirit, Democrats Abroad members attending the regional meeting decided that as a group it should do something in response to Guatemala’s current acute malnutrition crisis. Gail Terzuola, Secretary for Democrats Abroad Guatemala, who has been working with school children in the nearby town of San Miguel Dueñas, to collect food and to raise money to buy food for families suffering in the eastern part of Guatemala where the crisis is most severe, organized a fund raiser among the DA members present at the meeting. The effort netted just under $200. Gail will provide an end-use report on the resources collected at the meeting and it will be shared with all who attended the meeting. The DA Guatemala Excom thanks everyone for their generosity, and Gail for leading the effort.

14. Goals and Action Steps:
Just before the meeting adjourned, Patricia Ferrari, presented a list of goals and action steps she wanted the region to undertake. These include:
a. Sustaining Donor Program – We should reach 30% (of the global total – we are currently about 18% of the global total) and each Excom in the region’s country committees reach 100%.
b. Each country committee should establish a good relationship with the consulate.
c. Each country committee should prepare their Field Plans over the next 45 days (by December 2009).
d. The Dominican Republic (Francisco Diaz) will prepare a position paper on reciprocal Social Security programs.
e. Guatemala (John Chudy) will work with Panama to reactivate that country committee.
f. Mexico will launch a Movie Night, then create a template for the region.
g. Canada will work to integrate the region into a DA push for health care reform. Push the 5-Easy Steps, and then tell Lindsey when a country committee has done something (which she can then use in reports to the DNC).