Meeting Reflections – November 15, 2022 – Election results and where from here

MEETING REFLECTIONS
NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Our normally scheduled Second Tuesday meeting would have fallen on election day this month, so we postponed our PDB meeting for a week, until the Third Tuesday, November 15.

After a year of jam-packed and informative meetings, we planned for this post-election time together to simply reflect on and discuss the outcome of the elections and where we want to go from here in 2023.

Support for Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock

After the treasurer’s report and several announcements (see below), our Steering Committee presented a recommendation to contribute to the extremely important campaign of Georgia Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock.  After discussion, it was moved and seconded to donate $500 to the Warnock campaign. The motion was overwhelmingly approved by Zoom poll.

PROGRAM: Election Results and Where from Here…

Our secretary “zoomed” us into breakout groups to chat about our experiences and learnings during the months leading up to last week’s local, state and national elections.  Members were also asked to suggest topics for future meetings, to address the need to find a new club Secretary as of January 2023 and to find new members for our Steering Committee.

Returning to the plenary session, we engaged in a great free-ranging discussion on our election learnings and observations, etc.. Here are a few notes from that discussion:

2022 Benicia Election – Some Lessons Learned:

    • Start planning and campaigning earlier! (As in NOW!)
    • We won the mail-in vote.
    • Better marketing for average people (for instance, Birdseye tv ads were helpful).
    • Terry Scott did a great job of visiting lots of homes.
    • Clever flyers are key.
    • Signs were scattered – maybe too few and far between.
    • Letters to the editor in print and online were helpful (even though the Benicia Herald has only 1200 or so subscribers).
    • Campaigns took advantage of residents’ long memories of Valero PAC’s massive spending and dirty tricks in 2018/20. (A group that was totally separate from candidates’ campaigns had a website and sent out 5,000 postcards. PDB endorsed and arranged without any campaign knowledge to send out 4,000 postcards, many to multiple-voter residences.)
    • Forums were ok, but could be improved – maybe could be more debate-like.
    • Do more at Farmers Market next time.
PDB – Where  From Here:
    • Program suggestions: ISO, GHG reduction, North Study Area (Seeno property)…
    • Member diversity – need to look into ways we can reach out more, become more relevant to and attract participation of more racially diverse members and youthful members.
    • Shorter meetings?

Participants were encouraged to write down notes from their breakout rooms and contact us.

Announcements
    • A member shared results of our Meeting Poll. Using a form on our website, members indicated whether and how we should return to in-person meetings. Results indicate that we will continue monthly zoom meetings for now, but maybe starting next Spring, will hold quarterly in-person meetings.
        • Zoom only – 4 in favor
        • In-Person only – 6 in favor
        • Combination, continue zoom except for in-person on a quarterly basis – 25 in favor
    • A member shared good information about letter-writing for the Warnock campaign via VoteForward, https://votefwd.org/.
    • A member shared information about his “marketing” project for a more general audience than current PDB outreach, the podcast Benicia Voice, https://anchor.fm/beniciavoice/ available on Apple and Spotify – and encouraged everyone to listen and subscribe to it.