July 2024 Meeting Minutes

Meeting started at 6:00 p.m.

Vote to approve June meeting minutes.

Sarah Stanley, Executive Director of HAWC spoke. Here are some highlights.

Flagship program is 9-room emergency shelter. They also provide legal services on issues such as educating women on their rights, restraining orders, and child custody.

In 2023, HAWC served 300 Salem residents HAWC is seeking volunteer community ambassadors to represent organization in community

Rani Jacobson, delegate to Democratic National Convention in Chicago, spoke. She is one of 124 delegates and alternates from Massachusetts going to convention.

Discussion of by-laws

There was a discussion of several by-law topics. They included what should be the quorum level. It was noted there needs to be a careful balance between setting it high enough to gain a broad representative of input from members. However, it also needs to be low enough to regularly reach a quorum to enable the committee to get things done and take action. Another topic was what to do about members that don’t attend meetings. It was suggested that it would be useful to reach out to inactive members to understand what are some of the barriers that hinder their attendance. Decision made to defer action on quorum levels and attendance requirements until the presidential election.

New Business

Vote to endorse Eunice Ziegler or Governor’s Council

Vote to endorse Eileen Duff for Register of Deeds for Southern Essex County

Liz Bradt asked if 3 members could volunteer to help onboard new members, which definitely could boost attendance and member engagement.

Lydia King will run a tutorial on how to use SDCC’s Wix website.

The Negro Election Day Parade is July 20 at 11:30 a.m.

Next meeting is August 12 at 6:00 at Salem Community Life Center..

Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

Minutes taken by Bruce Cohen, Secretary.