SDSA Membership Minutes
The meeting was called to order by Co-chair Roberto Flores at 7:00 PM at Grady’s Restaurant.
Co-chair Lynne Armstrong announced that the web site is up and a work in progress. She encouraged members to visit the web site and thanked Linda Allen, Olga Hernandez, Bryan Gerard and Cris Ramirez for the efforts on this project.
Cris Ramirez, Secretary, read the minutes from the January membership meeting. There were no corrections or additions and the minutes were approved as read.
There was no treasurer’s report; Ruth Dalrymple was out of town. Roberto announced the appointment of Jeanne Belaire as Assistant Treasurer.
The SDSA Board, at their last meeting, appointed Board members to be “organizers” of the eight standing committees listed in the bylaws. The organizers are responsible for recruiting members, setting a meeting time and insuring that a chair and recorder are elected for each of these committees. The organizers gave a brief presentation on the function of their committee and made a request for volunteers from the membership. The following people spoke: Cris Ramirez, Board Development Committee; Bryan Gerard and Olga Hernandez, Communications Committee; Richard Moon, Endorsement Committee; Jeanne Belaire, Fundraising Committee; Olga Hernandez, Membership Committee; Bryan Gerard, Political Relations Committee; Mauro Gamez, Program and Events Committee; and Joe LaMonica, Voter Registration and Mobilization Committee.
Co-chair Lynne Armstrong introduced Dan Graney, who reviewed and discussed the proposed bylaws for SDSA. Copies of the proposed bylaws and a summary of the changes were sent to the membership prior to today’s meeting. Dan explained that each of the eleven articles would be discussed, and voted on individually, and then the membership would vote on the entire document. The membership suggested changes which were voted on and will be incorporated into the bylaws. The amended bylaws were approved by a vote of twenty-eight of the thirty members present. The revised bylaws will be posted on the web site. Lynne thanked Dan for his hard work on the revision of the bylaws.
Lynne announced the Texas Stonewall Caucus will be held in Austin, on March 4th at 2:00 PM prior to Equality Texas Lobby Day, on March 5th. Roberto announced the Equality Texas “Love Makes a Family” exhibit opening at the Esperanza February 20th. He urged the membership to attend, especially since SDSA made a donation to Equality Texas to help fund this exhibit. Bryan announced that the Susan B. Komen Race and the Cesar Chavez Walk are on the same day, March 31. SDSA will be marching in the Cesar Chavez Walk. Bryan also announced that SDSA will have an information table at the Laramie Project at Trinity University. Volunteers are still needed to staff the table; those interested in helping can call Bryan at 210-392-1640. Roberto announced that Dennis Kucinich would be speaking here on March10th and indicated that SDSA would have an information table at this event; volunteers are needed to staff the table, please call Lynne Armstrong at 210-232-8102. All of these announcements will be on the SDSA web site.
Additional announcements from the floor included information from Mario Bravo about John Edwards speaking in San Antonio, on March 7th at Sunset Station. Kat Swift, Co-chair of the Green Party provided information about certain bills that might be of interest to us, including the Primary Screen Out Bill, Election Holiday Bill, Voter Verified Permanent Paper Records Bill, Coal Plants Bill, Campaign Contribution Bill and Procedures for Denying Voters Bill. Dan reminded everyone that Mike Villarreal is presenting a work shop on lobbying this Friday at the Esperanza.
New faces at the meeting were introduced, Frank Rosas and Hal Caskey and Wil Broussard a guest of Travis Peterson. A representative from HRC, Chris Forbich, announced a Bowling for Equality event to be held on March 9th. He also announced a debate to be held at UTSA on homosexuality, on Wednesday, February 28th.
Councilwoman Elena Guajardo gave an update on her election and discussed the importance of lobbying city council members on certain issues. She indicated that she would be using Q-San Antonio to inform us of issues that we can lobby our council members on.
Cris Ramirez gave a brief presentation on her experience as a panelist interviewing applicants for the position of Fire Chief.
A raffle for tickets to the Bijou Theater raised $81.
A motion was made by Cris to adjourn the meeting, it was seconded by Marilyn and the meeting adjourned at 8:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Cristina M. Ramirez,
Secretary