Frankly, it was probably one of the most chaotic I have attended, hard to follow and hear over the din of conversation. Logistics could have been better. The membership rolls didn’t print correctly, there weren’t nametags for every member, and they ran out of voting bracelets. The hall itself was too spread out and they decided to keep the dance floor clear, though I suppose that may have been a rule of the facility.
The primary agenda items involved elections, the results of which were as follows:
- DNC women – Kate Donoghue and Susan Thompson re-elected without opposition
- DNC men – Gus Bickford and David O’Brien re-elected
- DSC Disability male – David Perlman and Jack Suslak
- DSC Disability female – Rebecca Morris and Amelia Peloquin
- Clinton PLEO male – Bob Deleo, Stan Rosenberg, and Marty Walsh
- Clinton PLEO female – Suzanne Bump, Deb Goldberg, and Maura Healey
- Sanders PLEO male – Mel Poindexter, Chris Walsh, and Dan Wolf
- Sanders PLEO female – Mary Keefe, Lisa Moscyznski, and Tina Poindexter
- Clinton at-large male – Nick Collins, Stephen Driscoll, Bill Galvin, and Dan Rivera
- Clinton at-large female – Ruth Balser, Andrea Cabral, Patty Marcus, Lynda Tocci, Linda Whitlock, and Alice Wolf
- Sanders at-large male – Ed Collins, Jared Hicks, Paul Mark, and Mike Moran
- Sanders at-large female – Ashley Brown, Andrea Burns, Jane Chertoff, Kathleen Hong, Julie Pinkham, and Linda Pinti
The election of Clinton delegates caused much consternation among the members and I think there could have at least been better communication about what was happening. More details are in this comment. I contacted the Clinton campaign via their website to express my own dismay over how they handled delegate selection.
Other items of business and notes:
- Mara Dolan gave an update from the State Senate. Recent or pending business includes pay equity, public school funding, and transgender anti-discrimination.
- Minor charter clarifications were referred to next month’s convention.
- The next Platform Convention will be in Lowell on June 3, 2017.
- The next DSC meeting will be August 16th in Worcester. The agenda will include nominating candidates for Presidential Elector.
- Add-on delegate slates for this year’s convention were ratified. Only a couple of applicants were not accepted due to not being registered Dems. I once again publicly called upon the state party to share these names and contact info with local committees.
- We adopted a resolution to direct the state party to investigate electronic voting for DSC meetings.
As always, I know other BMGers were present so they can feel free to add their two cents or anything I missed in the comments.
AmberPaw says
I stepped down, but like getting a sense of what happened. I know the stamina it takes to go to – and endure – these meetings.
jcohn88 says
I’ve never been to a platform convention before. What exactly happens there?
Christopher says
At the risk of sounding like a smart aleck the task of the platform convention is to adopt the state party platform, which at least in theory Dems have as their default issue and value document for the next statewide elections. There are hearings ahead of time to get input and sometimes amendments are offered at convention itself.
jcohn88 says
So is it an inclusive process, or is it just, here’s the platform?
Christopher says
…there is a vote on the platform as a whole and possibly amendments, but usually viva voce. There are hearings that Dems are invited to, so inclusive in that regard.
jas says
many times in the past there has been an inclusive platform committee that has drafted a new or amended platform.
There also used to be a progressive caucus that would bring amendments – but that is going back to the 80s/90s