October 17th Membership Meeting Agenda and Registration

Greetings Cumberland County Democrats! The October membership meeting is October 17, from 3-5. It will be remote, by zoom video. Please register in advance for this meeting. Here is the link to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsf-itrTkiG9DcVj8ufLtDba61qatozeDu

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please note that this is not the link to connect, it is a link to register. We ask you to register in advance, that gives us an idea of how many voters we are likely to have. We have had a problem with people trying to register at the last minute or trying to join after the meeting has started, and then getting upset when they don’t get in or don’t get ballots. The Executive Committee has therefore set as requirements if you want to be sure of participating you must register no later than 15 minutes before the start of the meeting (that is 2:45 Sunday October 17), and trying to connect no later than the start of the meeting (3:00). If you do these things after these deadlines you may or may not get in.

This is another not normal meeting, it is a meeting called to do a few particular pieces of business.

Here is the Agenda for October 17:

1. Approve the Agenda.

2. Approve minutes of last meeting. See them here. https://mcusercontent.com/ea06e9f1866940d907cd15bd6/files/f323dd8b-d3ee-f775-3c0d-2a86537a3d31/CCDC_Sept_2021_minutes.pdf

3. Treasurer’s report.

4. We are sad to say that Marcella Marino has found herself too busy to continue as Cumberland County Democratic Committee Vice Chair, so we need to elect her replacement. The Vice Chair is an important part of the CCDC Executive Committee. The EC meets roughly every two weeks and deals with emergencies and plans membership meetings and future events. The Vice Chair should also attend the CCDC membership meetings. And the Vice Chair may be asked to do other things by membership or by the EC. The only requirements for being on the EC is that you be and stay registered as a Democrat in Cumberland County. You do not need to be a present member of the CCDC. If this sounds like a role you would like to fill feel free to let me know in advance, and send me a short biography that I will distribute to membership. Nominations will also be taken at the October 17 meeting.

5. How public do we want to make our membership list? There is an official list of CCDC members. To this point that list has not been public. Do we want to change that? Make public just names and towns? Names, towns and contact information? Make available to the world? To just CCDC members? To persons running for CCDC office who want to reach voters? Something else?

6. We will continue a review of Facebook policy for the CCDC. Last meeting we looked at a proposal from the Cumberland County Democratic Committee Executive Committee. What follows is that proposal with modifications suggested my Membership in September, and some guidelines that were established by previous CCDC Chair Rachel Hendrickson. None of this is existing policy, it is all up for discussion It can be discussed as a whole or in parts. We will vote on policies that will accomplish what CCDC needs in order to have a Facebook presence that is fair, member-chosen, and will let us be effective.

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1)The new CCDC Maine Facebook page (the Page) at https://www.facebook.com/ccdcmaine will be used to communicate official CCDC business such as meeting and event information and to promote other Party activities. Anyone with access to the internet will be able to see what is posted to the Page.

2)The Page will be maintained by a person or persons elected by the Membership under the direction of the CCDC Executive Committee (the Moderator[s]). Anyone can submit material to be posted to the Page, but all posts must be pre-approved by a Moderator according to the Codes of Conduct.

3) Clear Codes of Conduct for both the Page and the Group will be developed by the CCDC and approved by the membership. These guidelines will be pinned to the top of the Page/Group’s Wall, where they will remain visible to all readers.

4)The CCDC Facebook Group (the Group) settings will remain Private. New members will be limited to current CCDC voting members (the CCDC Membership) only.

5)All members of the Group can post to the Group and comment on the posts of others. Posts are visible only to members of the Group.

6)The Group will be used for internal discussion of CCDC business matters and as a place where members of the CCDC Membership can discuss issues of interest to the Party.

7)Current members of the Group who are not voting members of the CCDC will be contacted via Facebook and given the following options:

7a. Attend a CCDC meeting prior to 31 December 2021 and become a voting member to remain in the Group.

7b. Continue to follow the activities of the CCDC by Following the Page.

8) Members of the Group who are not CCDC members will be removed from the Group on 1 January 2022.

The following sets of guidelines are based on protocols developed for the CCDC under Rachel Hendrickson’s leadership. If approved, they will serve as Codes of Conduct that will remain pinned to the top of the Page/Group’s Wall, where they will be visible to anyone who visits those sites.

Guidelines for the public PAGE:

1) The CCDC Facebook Page is a public Page maintained by the CCDC; that is, while any member of the public may see it and comment on it, only Moderators approved by CCDC membership may post to it.

2) The purpose of this Page is to provide Cumberland County Democrats with CCDC, MDP, and town committee information, to complement Democratic campaigns once primaries are over within the guidelines of the MDP Charter, and to offer a place for information and discussion of issues of political concern to CCDC FB members.

3) Anyone can submit material to be posted to the Page, but all posts must be pre-approved by a Moderator. Approved messages will be posted as soon as possible. Posts must adhere to the following guidelines:

3a) The CCDC maintains neutrality in contested primary elections at the local, state, or national level. An attempt to run a campaign from this Page may appear to be an endorsement. Thus, this Page may not be used as the campaign page for any candidate. Candidates may announce their candidacy, but then refer members to their campaign page or website. They may announce an event, but again refer members to the external site for information and discussion.

3b) Presentation or discussion of an issue or candidate must be free from personal or ad hominem attacks. Expressions of support for an issue or candidate are acceptable, but refrain from attacking those who disagree or who support an opposing view or candidate.

4) In comments, consider whether the CCDC FB Page is the correct place for an issue to be raised. A discussion on FB, no matter how passionate, rarely settles anything. There are frequently more appropriate venues, and members may be referred to those venues by moderators. Remember, the Page is visible to everyone on the internet. Attacks on FB can end up in an opposition election ad.

5) If a FB member is getting close to a violation in a discussion, a Moderator will warn the member privately through Messenger or another means and may delete the post. If a thread is moving past the original topic and getting into negative attacks, a Moderator will warn the group without singling out individuals. Individuals who persist will be blocked from the Page, and their posts may be deleted.

Guidelines for the members-only GROUP:

1) The CCDC FB Group is a private, members-only group; that is, only members can post to it, see what is posted to it, or comment on those posts. Posts to private groups are not to be shared outside the group.

2) The purpose of the CCDC FB Group is to provide a forum for CCDC members to discuss the internal business of the CCDC, MDP, and town committee, to discuss how the CCDC might complement Democratic campaigns once primaries are over within the guidelines of the MDP Charter, and to offer a place for information and discussion of issues of political concern to CCDC FB members.

3) Discussions of any issue or candidate must be free from personal or ad hominem attacks. Expressions of support for an issue or candidate are acceptable, but refrain from attacking those who disagree or who support an opposing view or candidate.

4) Consider whether the FB Group is the correct place for an issue to be raised. A discussion on FB, no matter how passionate, rarely settles anything. There are frequently more appropriate venues, and members may be referred to those venues. Though this Group is private, there is no guarantee that material posted here will not be shared outside the Group. Attacks on FB can end up in an opposition election ad.

5) If a FB member is getting close to a violation in a discussion, a Moderator will warn the member privately through Messenger or another means and may delete the post. If a thread is moving past the original topic and getting into negative attacks, a Moderator will warn the Group without singling out individuals. Individuals who persist will be removed from the Group, and their posts may be deleted.

6) Group members who witness possible violations of any of these Codes of Conduct are encouraged to report the incident(s) in a private message to the Moderators.

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7. Discuss how often CCDC wants to meet. Under my leadership we had aimed for every other month. We have now met in consecutive months, and with public elections in 2022 we could meet in November too. Do we want to meet monthly? Stick with every-other and add as desired?

These agenda items involve voting. Only people who are currently members of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee will be allowed to vote. Voters will receive a separate email invitation BEFORE the meeting. If you are not presently a CCDC member and want to be, the next item on the agenda for October 17 will be

8. Electing new members to the CCDC. Election by membership is subject to being eligible for membership – being registered as a Democrat in Cumberland County. If you are elected in October and are eligible to join you will be eligible to vote the next time the CCDC meets.

9. Announcements.

Normally I can estimate how long a meeting will take. I do not know how long discussion of Facebook policy will take. If it takes a while I hope we can finish our meeting by 5:00. If it is quick and we finish our business in one hour or less we can end early