Democrats Abroad Germany Annual General Meeting held in Stuttgart on the 11th of March, 2011
A delegation of 8 members of the Berlin Chapter of Democrats Abroad took it upon themselves to go to the Annual General Meeting of Democrats Abroad Germany (DAG) in Stuttgart on the 10th of March, 2011.
- Jessica Andrade – Secretary of DAG
- Donald Black – Legal Counsel of DAG
- Michael Steltzer – At Large Member of the Executive Committee of DAG and DPCA Voting Representative of DAG
- Nancy Green – Chair of the Berlin Chapter of DAG
- Bill Downey – Honorary Chair of the Berlin Chapter of DAG
- Alan Benson – Voter Registration Officer of the Berlin Chapter of DAG
- Florian Schiedlem – IT Team of the Berlin Chapter of DAG and member of Young Democrats Berlin
- Carolyn Lauer
Good organization by the Stuttgart Chapter made it possible for good workshops and great infrastructure. We met in the Ratskeller of the City Hall.
Electronic Participation and Voting now possible at Annual General Meeting
I think the most important part of the AGM dealt with the change of the bylaws. In the future it will be possible for members to participate in the annual general meeting without being physically present. Technology has made that possible. With video conferencing it will be possible for members to participate and vote electronically at these meetings. Hopefully this will lead to a larger grassroots participation in the decision making process. The next AGM of DAG will incorporate these rules. That will be in the spring of 2013 and will mean that we can vote for a new leadership in this fashion. A lot of preparatory work of the Bylaws Committee and the pointed leadership of Donald Black, the chair of the Bylaws committe made that possible.
Shari Tempel steps down as Chair – Quaide Williams becomes new Chair
A big change in the leadership of DAG took place. At the beginning of the meeting Shari Temple announced her resignation as Chair of DAG. She has been elected to become Vice Chair of the EMEA Region of DA. According to the Bylaws of DAG the Vice Chair assumes this vacancy until the next AGM, which will be in 2013. So Quaide Williams from the Munich Chapter has become our new DAG Chair.
The assembly stood up and applauded the great 3 years of work that Shari has done of DAG as Chair.
Beverly Seebach becomes new Vice Chair
During an Executive Committee Meeting of DAG this morning (March 11th, 2012) Beverly Seebach from Frankfurt was elected to become the new vice chair. Beverly has been very active in DAG. She was Chair of DA Frankfurt, was presently active as an At Large Member of DAG and has taken on the responsibility of coordinating the Global Primary of Democrats Abroad in Germany in May.
€ 1500 donated for DAG / Great Chapter baskets
A raffle of baskets and bags from the 9 chapters of DAG generated € 1500,00 ( € 5.00 per raffle ticken) for the work of DAG after the evening meal. The 8 submitted baskets included lots of specialties from the regions of the chapters and were supposed to have a value of about € 50,00. The Berlin basket hat lots of fun goodies including a Berlin Coffee Cup and Berlin Umbrella, a bottle of Kümmelschnaps which looked like the Fernsehturm, Spreewalder Gurken, Lutherbrot from Wittenberg, a retro USA Map, a Barack Obama Action Figure that you can believe in, and other good stuff. Thank you Nancy Green for putting this basket together for our chapter.
Great socialising events with members of DAG
The Stuttgart Chapter organized two social events: a get together at the Brunnerz Restaurant and Cafe Bar on Friday evening and a Gala Dinner at the Ratskeller in the Rathaus. Both events were well attended and I had a wonderful time meeting some of the active members of DAG. It was interesting to hear about the development of the Stuttgart Chapter and also how the members think about political developments in the US. Many members are very interested in the Occupy movement and the repressive laws that are being passed to suppress that movement.
On Saturday night a number of members of different DAG chapters spontaneously went to a Karaoke Bar and had a great time there letting off a lot of steam. It was fun to sing together. I had to film a little bit with the help of my iPhone:
The COOP of DA Germany is getting very professional
The Coop of DA Germany is the place where you can get lots of Democratic material to help get out the vote. At the moment it is not possible to post pictures here or to order them, but that will happen for sure in the next days. We brought a lot of material back to Berlin, which you can see at the next meeting. Great tote bags, pencils, luggage Tags with the logo from VoteFromAbroad.org.
Michael Steltzer – Berlin – March 11, 2012
thanks, michael, for filling in the parts i missed.