Democratic Woman's ClubMonday, March 20, 2023. In person at Elijah’s Restaurant, 7061 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92111. Check-in and social time start at 6:00pm. Meeting begins at 6:30pm. Please join us!
Monday, Jan 18, 2021 Via Zoom
6:30PM Club President Susan Peinado called meeting to order
Opening remarks by La Mesa City Council Member, and clubmember Dr. Akilah Weber.
We all know that Martin Luther King Jr. is very well known for his leadership during the Civil Rights Movement. When it started in 1955 and he led it until his assassination in 1968. We’re all familiar with his very famous I Have a Dream speech that was given in 1963 during the March on Washington. Many of us have read his letter from Birmingham Jail. Or maybe familiar with the march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, which became known as Bloody Sunday as they initially tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We are taught about his role in the Montgomery boycott, and yes, thankfully, every year we celebrate his birth and his legacy in January. We respect, appreciate, admire, and I’m grateful for everything that he did, and all that he gave, including his life, his efforts to eliminate racial and economic inequality.
I thought it was interesting his daughter Bernice King tweeted something very powerful this morning. She said please don’t act like everyone loved my father. He was assassinated. A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most Hated. Many who quote him now, and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate the authentic King. And when you listen to her words you realize that she is absolutely correct. There was one person to credit for keeping his legacy alive, for telling his story for making sure that generations to come, would understand what he stood for, and the sacrifice that he made. And that is due to his wife, Coretta Scott King.
After his assassination she took over the movement for civil rights and broadened it to include other issues, such as women’s rights, LGBT rights and world peace. In 1968 she called for women to unite and form a solid block of women power to fight the three evils = racism, poverty, and more. She fought hard to make MLK Day a national holiday and continued that fight until she was successful in 1986. It is often said that besides every great man, you will find an even greater woman. They may not always get the credit. But when you look at every major movement. women are often at the core of making impactful change worldwide. Coretta Scott King said “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe you must become its soul.”
When we examine the current issues that we’re facing today. Recognize that they’re not new. We have faced them many, many, many times before. We can learn a lot from Coretta Scott King. She stated “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation”. We must remember, and teach our younger generations. The power of focus. The power of hard work. Not to get discouraged because right, and justice will ultimately prevail.
In conclusion I want to use one more quote from credit Scott King, she said “It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.” Members, we all have very, very strong opinions. And during these various tenuous times I challenge each of us to keep the words of Coretta Scott King and use our voice for positive change.
Thank you for letting me open this night on this momentous occasion.
Dr Akilah Weber
Approval of Agenda (M: Dr. LaWana Richmond)
Club Officers – President Susan Peinado, VP Dr Rebecca Fielding-Miller, VP Ramla Sahid (not present), Secretary Cathie Hyatt and Treasurer Rosamond Blevins
Recognition of visiting Electeds or their representatives, representatives from other affiliated organizations
I just have to say it is so wonderful to hear a member of the board of supervisors talk about evidence based health care and social determinants of health and thinking about vaccines. So, thank you for being on the board. It is just so good to hear this conversation,
Dr Rebecca Fielding-Miller
Rosamond Blevins, presentation of flowers
Rosamond Blevins with details of balance on account, and contributions of $7,782 k made to other organizations during 2020, including to Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight, San Diego Food Drive and Holiday Toy Drive.
Rosamond thanked the other committee members Dr Samm Hurst and Cheryl Robertson.
Dr. LaWana Richmond elected President of the Democratic Woman’s Club by acclamation (M: Lori Saldaña)!
Over the past 20 years, LaWana has been actively involved in community service and social justice endeavors. She is one of the inaugural Chrispeels Fellowship recipients and earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from California State University, San Marcos and University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include leadership development and employee engagement as well as access to and persistence in education.
LaWana is a member of the Advisory Board for the C. Montgomery Technology Fund, which supports community access to technology at the Malcolm X Library in southeast San Diego. She has served on the Executive Board of the African American Alumni Chapter of the San Diego State University Alumni Association, Executive Board of the UJIMA Network, Advisory Board of N.U.M.E.R.A.L.S. (formerly known as the Hadassah Project), Area 17 Governor for Western Division, District 5 of Toastmasters International, Chair of UC San Diego Black Staff Association, Chair-Elect and Chair of the UC San Diego Staff Association, as well as Junior and Senior Delegate for the Council of University of California Staff Associations.
Secretary Cathie Hyatt reelected by acclamation (M: Rosemond Blevins)
Treasurer Rosamond Blevins reelected by acclamation (M: Yvonne Elkin)
Covid Rant from UCSD Epidemiologist Vice President Dr. Becca Fielding Miller – Not that Kind of Doctor
COVID updates and vaccinne info. The county is lowering the requirement age to 65 the week of Jan 24. Sign up here. If you need help signing up, let the club know and we’ll do our best to help you sign up.
I just want to talk a little bit about how to talk with people who are vaccine hesitant. Because there is a crowd of people who are pretty intense about their feelings and want to throw menstrual blood on the floor of the legislature and those are.. that’s a certain set of people. But there’s a lot of folks who are well meaning who aren’t you know going to storm the Capitol but have some, some legitimate concerns right, maybe they don’t trust the guy who was in charge of our government when operation Warp Speed went into effect. Maybe they are just a little bit concerned about how quickly it rolled out or maybe they have any, or maybe they belong to a group of people who have been treated pretty poorly by the medical system. And so I just want to remind you when you’re talking to people about vaccines, the best thing you can do is remember that you’re not trying to win a tennis game you’re not trying to score points. The best way to have a conversation is to just have genuine empathy, and to spend honestly more of your time listening than talking. So if somebody says, you know I’ll get the vaccine but I don’t want to be first in line, you can say, I totally get that that’s a really reasonable concern. You know, like a couple million people have already gotten it by now but you know what worries you maybe we can talk about it, because most people really really really big squishy middle of people who are not anti vaccine. They just need somebody to stop and listen and have a conversation with them. So, I will remind you as vaccine conversations start to ramp up that nobody ever actually changed their mind because you told them they were stupid, that’s not really a great way to change people’s minds. The best way to talk to people about vaccines, is to remember this is somebody that you like and trust and have a relationship with, and you’re really lucky that they’re willing to voice these concerns and that you have an opportunity to listen, to respond to what they’re actually saying with empathy and to share some of your experiences and your thoughts. And if you ever have questions about vaccines or anything like that. you are so welcome to to reach out, in particular on Twitter, or over email and I’ll answer any questions that you have, or point you to resources. If I don’t know the answers. I also promised to say I don’t know if I don’t know, which is also a best practice.
Dr Rebecca Fielding-Miller
Chaired by Yvonne Elkin.
Yvonne thanked other bylaws committee members: Rosamond Blevins, Ruth Rollins, Nicole Crosby, and Jenn French. She also thanked Susan and John.
There followed a great discussion and various improvements were considered and a consensus arrived at to include these into the Bylaws to be voted on at the February meeting. Details to be sent out at least 14 days before the next meeting.
Article II Section 1 – Change promoting to developing an activist base (M: Lori Saldaña)
Article III Section 1 – Move “Individuals who are ineligible to vote…” to section 2 (M: Kate Bishop) If individuals are registered to another party not Republican.
Michelle Krug: friendly amend to other than
M: Rob Howard amend to NPP – no second. Original language retained.
Article III Section 4 – Change one meeting to four meetings (M: Samantha Jenkins)
Kate Bishop: friendly amend to three meetings. Seconded
M: Michelle Krug to strike thirty-four days. Seconded
Article IV Section 1 – Add language to make it clear that elected officials are eligible to be officers (M: LaWana Richmond)
Article IV Section 1 – Officer must resign from eboard 6 months before consideration of endorsement OR upon filing for the position, if within that 6 month period. (M: Sarah Davis)
Article IV Section 1 – Motion to change language in Secretary description. M: Kate Bishop, no second, motion dies
Nominating Committee elected by the body rather than President (M: Kate Bishop)
Article IV Section 3 designate October meeting of odd years to elect club associates (M: Kate Bishop)
Candidates still in attendance at the end of the meeting!:
Remember to mail your ADEM ballot. Since the meeting:
Wednesday, February 3 – All ADEMs ballots RECEIVED by Wednesday, February 3 WILL BE COUNTED. This is a 1-week extension beyond the previous “postmarked by January 27 and arrive by January 30” deadline.
Playout music, Sam Cooke “A Change is Going to Come”
Video of the meeting is on our YouTube channel here.
Notes by Cathie Hyatt, Secretary
Meeting virtually by Zoom.
When: Monday, January 18: Meeting starts at 6:30 PM but please start checking in at 6:00 PM, to help us get the meeting started on time.
Where: Zoom registration is required – if you’re a clubmember or participant click here to register ahead of time. All of the details on how to join will be provided – including dial-in details from a landline.
Our meetings are available live on our YouTube channel. Someone will monitor the chat to text into the meeting relevant questions or comments that may be asked there.
Dr. Akilah Weber will be opening our meeting with remarks to help us honor, on this sacred day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Remembering Dr. King is even more important after the huge national tragic horror that we all saw on Wednesday January 6. None of us know what is ahead of us, just that we all need each other to love, cherish and hold dear.
As the current president, Susan Peinado will not be running for reelection, she will be chair this part of the meeting.
Our current Secretary, Cathie Hyatt and Treasurer, Rosamond Blevins have agreed to run for another term. Stepping down are Susan Peinado, President, Rebecca Fielding-Miller, VP Internal, and Ramla Sahid, VP External.
As both Vice President positions have been restructured in the newly proposed bylaws with additional, clearly defined responsibilites,the decision is to wait until the new bylaws have been adopted before holding the elections for those positions. It is important that candidates fully understand what is expected of them.
We have had one candidate come forth to run for President, Dr. LaWana Richmond. Her officer candidate application is here. Our new President’s term will begin at the end of the January meeting.
Sarah Davis has come forth to run for Vice President next month. Her officer candidate application is here.
We still need applications for the two newly created positions – Director of Membership and Director of Communications. Please contact Rosamond Blevins if you are interested in running for either of these positions.
Elections:
The Bylaws changes were sent out in our earlier email of January 4, 2021.
Please come to the meeting having reviewed these documents. This will allow Chair Elkin to go through the changes in an efficient manner. After through discussion by our members at the upcoming meeting, the final version will be voted on at our February meeting, in accordance with our bylaws.
If you have questions about the bylaws, please email Chair Elkin, ylelkin7@gmail.com .
To recap changes from our earlier email, we have created a new membership category for people who may want to affiliate with the Democratic Woman’s Club because they are aligned with our mission, but for some reason are not currently registered as a Democrat.
We also have better defined the responsibilities of our board members, adding two additional positions to help distribute the work across more people instead of overloading our President and Treasurer.
The procedure we will use to review these changes is:
Any revisions voted on and accepted at this meeting will be redistributed at least 2 weeks prior to the February meeting. Approval of the Bylaw changes will be placed on the consent calendar for that meeting.
Rosamond will update us on DWC-SD income and donations since our last meeting.
Club Vice President Dr. Rebecca Fielding Miller, UCSD Assistant Adjunct Professor, Medicine, School of Health Sciences, an epidemiologist, who has been featured on NBC San Diego and Voice of San Diego, will address member concerns and questions on Covid related issues. More information on Dr Miller may be found here.
Registration to request a ballot is now closed. Your Voter ID number must be filled out for your vote to be counted. You will find your Voter ID number in your voter registration confirmation email that was sent from NoReply@politicaldata.com.
All Clubmembers who are running for ADEMS will have one minute to make their case to fellow Clubmembers. Please practice ahead of time, because one minute goes by very quickly.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2021 AT 11 AM PST
North County San Diego Womxn’s March
Online Event register here
2021 Book Club Meetups, organized by club member Geneviéve Jones-Wright. Register here.
Monday, Dec 21, 2020 Via Zoom
6:32PM Club President Susan Peinado called meeting to order
Club Officers – President Susan Peinado, VP Dr Rebecca Fielding-Miller, VP Ramla Sahid (not present), Secretary Cathie Hyatt and Treasurer Rosamond Blevins
Recognition of visiting Electeds or their representatives, representatives from other affiliated organizations
Delaine Eastin is running to be the next Chair of the California Democratic Party
Delaine wants to create an inclusive, growing, inspiring, transparent California Democratic Party that will win back the congressional seats we lost in November, and train and support Democrats up and down the ballot, and all over the state. https://www.delaineeastin.com
Q&A
Motion that the DWC take a position of support of Delaine Eastin for CDP Chair (Lori Saldana) passed unanimously.
Barbara Bry, former District 1 San Diego City Councilmember, spoke on the Recall Jen Campbell campaign www.recalljen.com
Shane Parmely also spoke about the We The People signup form – click here
Motion that the DWC take a position of support in the effort to recall Jen Campbell (Shane Parmely) passed by an overwhelming majority.
Dr. Samm Hurst updated us on her campaign experiences running as a first-time candidate for Santee City Council District 4.
Treasurer, Rosamond Blevins provided a nominating report, bylaw committee update, and Treasurer’s report.
Dr LaWana Richmond is running for DWC President on January 18, 2021.
Rosamond also outlined some of the groups that DWC has donated to in 2020 including Univesidad Popular
Arcela Nunez Alvarez spoke about the work that Universidad Popular does in North County https://www.unipopular.org
Covid Rant from UCSD Epidemiologist Vice President Dr. Becca Fielding Miller – Not that Kind of Doctor
The Safer at School Early Alert System (SASEA) is a COVID-19 wastewater detection pilot program for K-12 schools and daycares.
Upcoming virtual conversation to discuss the COVID-19 Vaccines and the African American Community
Candidates in attendance at the meeting:
Michelle Krug – CDP caucus participation is open to any registered Democrat, you do not have to be an ADEM to join a caucus
Angela de Joseph – Women of Color Roar Breakfast rescheduled June 19, 2021 – Juneteenth
Shane Parmely – Covid Hotel Room Resolution, please vote for this resolution at the December 22, 2020 Central Committee meeting
Sue Alderson – North County Women’s March 2021 – will be virtual and a lot of fun, with great speakers – for information email Sue
Lori Soldaña – Please join San Diego Democrats in lending a hand at sddems.link/fooddrive
Our next meeting is Monday January 18, 6:30 via Zoom
Playout music, as requested by Alyce Pipkin-Allen – Mariah Carey “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
Video of the meeting is on our YouTube channel here.
Transcript of the meeting is here.
Notes by Cathie Hyatt, Secretary
Meeting virtually by Zoom.
When: Monday, December 21: Meeting starts at 6:30 PM but please start checking in at 6:00 PM, to help us get the meeting started on time.
Where: Zoom registration is required – if you’re a clubmember or participant click here to register ahead of time. All of the details on how to join will be provided – including dial-in details from a landline.
Our meetings are available live on our YouTube channel. Someone will monitor the chat to text into the meeting relevant questions or comments that may be asked there.
Come hear from former State Superintendent Delaine Eastin about why she is running to be the next Chair of the CaliforniaDemocratic Party.
Delaine wants to create an inclusive, growing, inspiring, transparent California Democratic Party that will win back the congressional seats we lost in November, and train and support Democrats up and down the ballot, and all over the state.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DelaineEastin4CA
Twitter: @DelaineEastin
Instagram: delaineeastin
Former District 1 San Diego City Councilmember Barbara Bry will address us as spokesperson for the Recall Jen Campbell campaign.
To quote Barabra:
It’s a new day in San Diego, and it’s time for the voices of the people to be heard.
Do not let this chance go by. Get involved now. Protect the city — and your neighborhood — from entrenched, powerful, special interests.
Ms. Bry, in an interview with KUSI last week announcing that she would be part of the recall effort, said the campaign’s leaders planned to file notice of intent in mid-January.
That means we could be looking at an election at the end of next year, if the recall campaign hits all of its marks. The Voice of San Diego has more information on this recall.
Clubmember Dr. Samm Hurst will update us on her campaign- her experiences running as a first time candidate – personal observations about what she learned as a first time candidate. For information on the result of the recount in her race that was decided by FIVE votes is located here.
As Chair of this committee, Rosamond will report on current candidates for our open positions. Candidates currently running may speak briefly to the Clubmembers after her report.
To learn more about our open positions, please contact Rosamond directly demclub2018@gmail.com
Rosamond has also been coordinating our bylaw review committee and will briefly report on its progress.
Rosamond will update us on DWC-SD income and donations since our last meeting.
Club Vice President Dr. Rebecca Fielding Miller, UCSD Assistant Adjunct Professor, Medicine, School of Health Sciences, an epidemiologist, who has been featured on NBC San Diego and Voice of San Diego, will address member concerns and questions on Covid related issues. More information on Dr Miller may be found here.
Monday, Nov 16, 2020 Via Zoom
6:32PM Club President Susan Peinado called meeting to order
Approval of Agenda (M: Alyce Pipkin-Allen)
Club Officers – President Susan Peinado, VP Dr Rebecca Fielding-Miller, VP Ramla Sahid, Secretary Cathie Hyatt and Treasurer Rosamond Blevins
Recognition of visiting Electeds or their representatives, representatives from other affiliated organizations
Current Candidates
Updates on 2021 Assembly District Elections by Region 20 District Director Michelle Krug
To vote, register for a Mail Ballot by Jan 11, 2021
All ballots must be received by Jan 27, 2021
Club Member Andrea St. Julian, Esq, immediate past President of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association, co-chair of San Diegans for Justice on the implementation of Measure B, which DWC endorsed, which will establish an independent commission to oversee the San Diego Police Department.
Club Member Genevieve Jones-Wright on the San Diego City Council’s unanimous vote to approve an ordinance to govern all surveillance technologies in the city — action rooted in pushback after the city quietly installed cameras on 3,000 smart streetlights.
Motion to support DWC Eboard position endorsing Monica Montgomery Steppe for San Diego City Council President (M: Kate Bishop) 30 – 1 motion passed.
Covid Rant – UCSD Epidemiologist Vice President Dr. Becca Fielding Miller – Not that Kind of Doctor
Reports as Treasurer and DWC Eboard Nominating Chair Rosamond Blevins
Dr. LaWana Richmond and Dr. Becca Fielding Miller expressed interest in running for DWC President in January 2021
Clubmember Shane Parmely made a motion that DWC take a formal support position asking City Council and the County Board of Supervisors to fill our COVID hotel rooms to a 90% occupancy rate with homeless families and people with disabilities by December 15, 2020.
Motion passed unanimously.
Michelle Krug – redistricting in 2021, putting this on our radar
Rob Howard – Saturday food distribution on Saturday, November 21 from 8-10am. Drive thru only. Flyer forthcoming
Ellen Nash – Thank you to DWC for donation to BAPAC/Generation Justice Get Out the Vote Drive
Kate Bishop – Thank you to DWC for donation
Ruth Rollins – What is the possibility of State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins being selected for Senate – all up to the Governor
Our next meeting is Monday December 21, 6:30 Zoom PARTY
We’ll be inviting all female candidates – successful or not – to come celebrate with us and talk about their experiences as candidates. We are grateful to all of you for stepping up to run!
Video of the meeting is on our YouTube channel here.
Transcript of the meeting is here.
Notes by Cathie Hyatt, Secretary
Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash
Democratic Woman's Club 