At the May 22, 2017 meeting we adopted a mission statement (on our home page) and a basic governance document, both of which we will refine over time.
We share our procedures and our minutes because, as one member put it, “people checking out an organization for either joining or vetting, it is comforting to see that there is a structure and a way to see what issues are being discussed.” Email addresses have been deleted. If you want to follow up on something here, email us.
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2019
April 1, 2019
Present: Debbie, Emily, Susan, Matthew, Lewis, Margie
New: Kate, Cynthia
Follow ups:
Lewis will follow up with Tano from Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin’s office re: moving business plan forward
Oakland city council voting on resolution to support AB857 on 4/16 – show up and support
Assembly banking and finance committee voting on AB 857 on 4/22 – show up and support
Assembly local governance committee voting on on 4/24 – show up and support
Next Meeting: April 29th @ 6PM
Reportbacks:
California Public Banking Alliance – Prepping for meeting 4/7/19 and lobby day 4/8/19
Park Day School Environmental Justice Fair: Debbie participated, discussed how to fund Green New Deal
Bernie Sanders Rally: Jordan attended, got new sign ups
California Progressive Alliance: Susan attended, brought Kate and Cynthia to meeting met at this gathering. Only individuals can join this alliance, but our org signed up as an “ally” org. The Progressive Alliance signed up as a supporter of our statewide effort.
Reports/Discussions:
Meeting scheduling – we are moving our meetings to 6:00 PM since the Alliance Outreach Committee has a weekly call on Monday nights now.
State of matters w/ Alameda County: Susan has call scheduled with Kaplan’s assistant Bobby Lopez. A resolution supporting the state bill AB 857 is on the Oakland Board of Supervisors consent calendar for April 16th. Let’s show up! Oakland city lobbyist should support this bill if it passes (which it is likely to do).
Updates on proposed committee structure: Felix will collaborate with Debbie on next meeting agenda to structure based on committee report-outs and recruitment.
Tech report: Debbie concerned she is the only person with passwords for website and other important organizational knowledge – wants to share. Felix says one goal of committees is to share all this knowledge and responsibility.
We have sold 6 t-shirts from the site – yay!
Hands on/practice the pitch:
We spent some time practicing our elevator pitch about public banking. Questions from new members were answered at this time.
Upcoming:
Hayward farmers market, 4/6
San Leandro farmers market 4/17 (we haven’t heard back)
Castro Valley farmers market 4/27 (we haven’t heard back)
Malcolm X Jazz Fest – may be full already. Possibly we could share a table – group agreed to this idea if possible. We await word from Eastside Arts Alliance
Juneteenth – group keen to participate – who will follow up?
Emily to continue to coordinate tabling but tabling volunteers always needed
March 11, 2019
Present: Debbie, Felix, Lou, Matthew, Susan, Emily, Sylvia, Margie, Christine, BK, Ravi
Follow ups:
- Sylvia will ask for photos from the legislation press conference & Margie will share the photos she has–DONE by the time minutes were written
- Debbie will send her list of contacts to Lou in case it has contacts he doesn’t have
- Felix will follow up with Lou about more orgs to reach out to for the organizational outreach committee
- Debbie & Susan will follow up with Hank Levy, Alameda County Treasurer, to make sure we know what’s happening with the next stakeholders meeting
- Emily, Felix and hopefully Dress if willing will start planning a Friendraiser
- Debbie will create a one=pager with info about us and our business plan to provide to Ravi to present to potential donors. She will share with others to get feedback.
- Ravi will then present our plan to potential donors.
- Sylvia and Debbie will follow up with Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and City of Oakland about the 35K leftover from the feasibility study and how it is needed to fund business plan.
- All of us will coordinate with other members of the committees we’ve joined, in an effort to get work done before the general meeting
- For the next meeting: We will have longer discussion about how to connect with and get input from the community (on the level of community meetings & neighborhood meetings rather than just tabling)
Next Meeting: April 1st
Reportbacks
State legislation introduced today: AB857 Chiu & Santiago authors. Press conferences in LA and SF. Both well attended. Chair of Board of Equalization, 2 SF supes (Fewer & Shamon), SF Latino Democratic Club, Friends of the Earth, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights all spoke at SF press conference.
Sylvia said she will reach out for photos. Post with Chiu’s press release and a couple of photos is up on our website.
Indigenous Red Market
Emily, Matthew & Jordan tabled
Not well attended but because of that could have deeper conversations and people seemed interested.
Social Media Update
Bill not here to report. Has been posting on Twitter re: press conference.
Outreach to Orgs Committee
Lou updated that orgs group has met. Matthew and Lou will collaborate to call orgs. Felix will follow up to call more too.
Margie has also been reaching out to unions and has some ideas – Felix and Margie will collaborate to continue this effort
Sylvia suggests we include CPBA website and request for support when doing outreach
Workers coop resolution Berkeley
Sylvia represented PBEB at Berkeley City Council, which passed a resolution that supported worker coop
Intros
Two new attendees – BK is a filmmaker and works with Richmond Progressive Alliance, Ravi works on clean tech & a national bank and is willing to pitch our fundraising ask to potential funders
Reports and discussions
State of matters with Alameda County
We have been trying to get a meeting with Alameda County Treasurer Hank Levy for 5 months now. Unfortunately, the meeting is going forward with Oakland City Councilmembers Dan Kalb and Rebecca Kaplan, but without our group. Next step Hank is proposing is a small group meeting of about 20 stakeholders. Hank has told us we will be involved in the larger stakeholder’s meeting so the follow up is to make sure we know what’s happening.
Debbie & Susan will follow up.
Proposed Committee Structure
Reviewed the proposal
We need a committee not named in proposal for recruiting a board of directors for the Bank. We need to have 15 board members & a CEO in order to complete a business plan. Agreed to put the governance committee (currently Lou, Susan, Margie, Sylvia, Dress, and Debbie) in charge of the business plan.
Question: which committees build community involvement?
Lou speaks to the organizational outreach committee and others talk to tabling
Real question is are we doing real outreach to the community to solicit their involvement.
Question: Do we need public outreach – or should we reach out to the government first public bank as this is an organizational institution primarily
Perspective about why we might to do public outreach so people will learn about it and also become advocates for it
Perspective that we should include the community in deciding how they want their bank to be – not just as our supporters but to have agency in process
There is a way to get community level input like the Community Democracy Project or the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils (both in Oakland). We will attend the CDP’s next meetings. Discussed having a broader discussion on this at the next general meeting.
The committees are:
Operations (facilitation, treasurer): Debbie and Craig
Advocacy (legislation, elected officials): Susan, Craig, Margie
California Public Banking Alliance: Sylvia, Margie, Susan
Fundraising: Susan, Ravi
Outreach to organizations: Lou, Margie, Felix, Matthew
Public Outreach (Tabling, t-shirts, collateral, etc): Emily, Felix, Matthew, Debbie
Digital outreach (newsletter, social media, website, design thinking): Emily, Sylvia, Debbie, Jordan, Bill (?), Greg (?)
Governance (business plan, work on forming a board): Lou, Susan, Margie, Sylvia, Dress , Debbie
At the next general meeting, each committee will report out on
- What we said we’d do
- What we did/what changed
- Urgent issue now
- Any whole group discussion needed related to this committees work
- Defining what we will do by next meeting and asking help getting that done.
Please join at least one committee and coordinate with other committee members to complete work between general meetings
Website Report
Debbie asking for input on what to take from the old website and build into new website. No volunteers.
Also asks for help on wording with website but Emily and Debbie agreed to discuss this more offline
Fiscal Sponsorship
We are all set up with Social Good
We’ve sold two t-shirts
Sylvia got some money for speaking so we need to redistribute to folks who spent money on banner & t-shirts
Resolved to send invoices/receipts etc to Craig
Outreach Plans
Susan & Margie will attend meeting with Hayward city Manager/city staff in April
Emily and others will table at Hayward farmers market beforehand on April 6th – then we will be able to show signatures of Hayward folks at that meeting
Margie met with new Hayward City Counselor Aisha Wahab at South County Indivisible – Seems progressive
Lou also spoke to Valle who works on reentry programs
Emily wants to have a Friendraiser. E mily will reach out to Dress to see if he wants to help. Felix will also work on Friendraiser.
Emily made more trifolds – will send invoice to Craig. She will also make stickers.
Margie has been trying to connect with unions – spoke with CNA
Found out we should reach out to the climate action group at the Alameda County Labor Council
Medical Debt Project
Debbie working on Medical Debt Erasure project. Based on Rolling Jubilee – every dollar you give can erase $100 in medical debt. Focused on debt in Contra Costa County. Will PBEB sponsor this project? We vote yes.
Clean Energy Project and us have a reciprocal agreement for putting our logos on each other’s stuff which is similar.
Fundraising/Ravi
Ravi is newly introduced to our project. He currently works with Climate Link: network of clean tech investors, many have donor-advised funds, so many are interested in banking and finance sector, also has philanthropic focus within the organization. Also working on Bank for 22nd Century (or other name) – a national bank. Ravi will talk to people in his networks about our project to gauge interest in donating.
Debbie will create a one pager, run it by others in the group, and send to Ravi to share with investors. Needs to include money total, Gary’s name and credentials, what the business plan should include.
Include in pitch that we are farther ahead than other projects working on this nationally, and also we can be the template for other regions.
Ravi suggests we structure this like Kickstarter: donors commit so much but only if it’s fully funded (so donors don’t lose their money if we can’t fully fund the business plan)
Side convo: when we funded feasibility study, there was $35K leftover and the City of Oakland has the money. Sylvia and Debbie will follow up with Kaplan and City of Berkeley about this.
Upcoming
- California Progressive Alliance conference coming up March 30-31st in San Luis Obispo
- CPBA Advance (like a retreat, but forward) and lobbying day April 7-8 in Sacramento. Advance is at Sacramento Cafe & Brew, 925 3rd St., across the street from the Vagabond Inn.
February 11, 2019
Present: Debbie, Craig, Felix, Matthew, Margie, Lou, Tita, Susan, Emily, Casia, Resa, Jordan
Summary of follow ups:
- Please sign Change.org petition for public banking in California
- Organizational outreach sub-committee meeting at Lou’s, 2/21 at 9:00 AM.
- Debbie, Felix and Jordan will meet 2/25 at Impact Hub to discuss structure proposal to bring to next general meeting
- Debbie and Craig will take ownership of mailing t-shirts purchased from website (Felix has the t-shirts as well as tabling supplies. Lou has mailing envelopes)
- Workers Co-op Event in Berkeley – Sylvia, Margie and Debbie will attend but not tabling
- March 5: Tabling at Red Market – Matthew will coordinate to get us a spot at the event. Emily will create sign up sheet to make sure people are able to table and Felix will drive supplies and table.
Reportbacks:
Sacramento:
Meeting with Fiona Ma (state treasurer) aid went very well, hearing went well. Significant that the hearing happened at all regarding legislation supporting chartering public banking for local municipalities
Still have no primary author for our statewide legislation – hoping our allies in Southern CA will meet with their legislator. Second choice would be an SF legislator. Alliance taking the lead on this process.
SF resolution & referendum:
SF passed a good resolution and Susan will send similar resolution to Oakland City Council for hopeful approval
SF referendum: SF may hold a referendum that would say no one in the future can abolish a public bank. Do we want to do this? Group says no
MLK Day event
Successful tabling: have a new member who found out about this at the event, got some donations, additions to mailing list
Outreach and fundraising
Lou did some outreach, did connect with one organization but needs some more momentum
We will chat after meeting to schedule a meeting of the outreach subcommittee so that we can continue. Follow up: Organizational outreach sub-committee meeting at Lou’s house 2/21 at 9:00 AM.
T-Shirts
We have them, we are going to sell them on the website.
Debbie & Craig will mail t-shirts as needed
Felix will hold t-shirts
Lou has envelopes that we need for lower mailing rate. Debbie will pickup from Lou if needed
Letter for supervisors
On website already
This is a thing organizations can sign on to.
We can ask orgs to sign on, and we can ask individuals to sign on (instead of just asking people to sign mailing list)
DIscussion on if we should change wording to the existing letter: one idea is to remove phrase “fossil fuels”. Group is not in agreement. Some want to use positive language (ie: “we’re for renewables” instead of being against something.) Ultimately did not decide to change wording of letter
Intros
A few new folks (Tita, Resa, Casia), a few returning folk
Reports and discussions
Fiscal sponsorship
Social Good is our sponsor. We can now function as a non-profit.
Business plan
Will answer foundational questions like who will fund it, how will it be insured, etc.
Background: We met with County Treasurer
We have met with 4 of 5 supervisors about requesting a loan for the business plan
Rebecca Kaplan assisted in arranging a meeting with the county treasurer to discuss further. Kaplan and Kalb (or their reps) will go to a meeting with Hank Levy on the week of the 18th with reps from our org (probably Susan and Craig).
Contingency possibility with Gary (business plan author)
Floated idea of asking Gary to do business plan on contingency – where he would get paid assuming the business plan was accepted and bank gets created
Revised committee structure
Felix suggested a somewhat more formal committee structure. In the past subcommittees have been formed but have not gelled. Felix and Debbie will create a more formal proposal to bring to next meeting.
Outreach – some events we can participate in
Workers Coop Event in Berkeley – Sylvia, Margie and Debbie will attend but not tabling
March 5: Tabling at Red Market – Matthew will coordinate to get us a spot at the event. Emily will create sign up sheet to make sure people are able to table and Felix will drive supplies and table.
Hayward Farmers Market
Upcoming
We need a bill author by 2/22 – the last day to intro bills for this legislative year
On the horizon: One day retreat and one day lobby day the next day for the Alliance
Gayle McLaughlin is moving from Richmond Progressive Alliance to start California Progressive Alliance – they’ll be having a conference in San Luis Obispo March 30-31 and there will be a session on public bankin
Email lists:
Organizers list has 15 people on it. Newsletter list is about 1600 people. We have a mostly inactive intermediate list.
Some discussion on how to create different tiers of engagement – was not resolved
Next Meeting: March 11
Three agenda items pre-set:
Friendraiser
Structure proposal
Practice your elevator speech