General Meeting of

Democrats Abroad Philippines

Saturday October 26, 2019 from 3:30-5:30pm

Elks Club (Library), 7th Floor, Corinthian Plaza Building

121 Paseo de Roxas corner Legaspi Street, Legaspi Village, and Makati
City

Attendees: Lisa Pagkalinawan (Chair), Angelo Goode (Vice-Chair), Morrie

Kayanan (Secretary & Communications Manager), Brian Borlongan (Get
Out The Vote Coordinator), Bing Gelman (Events), Omar Tiwana (Makati
Ward Chair), Joan Corpuz (Photographer), John Boyd (former Chair), Jon
Sachs, Kathy Guido (Treasurer), Yasmin Tiwana, Gay Zialcita, Vicki Indiati
and Maloy Gochangco, Morrie’s guest. Nancy Longatan (Social Media
Manager) joined via Skype for part of the meeting.

Chair Lisa Pagkalinawan opened the proceedings at 3:30 pm and noted

that a quorum was indeed present.

The group approved the minutes from the last Q3 General Meeting on April
6, 2019. Introductions were made around the room, with each giving a few
words on whom they were and where they were from.

As many of the members wore their Halloween costume (see photo), each
gave an explanation of which he or she was portraying. Gay was a colorful
Hawaiian rainbow, or maybe a hippie? Angelo wore a king’s crown; silver
chest armor emblazed with the colorful letter “C” on the front and carried a
sword. When Morrie asked who he was, Angelo answered, “The C stands
for Camelot.” As a follow up, Morrie then asked, “…So I suppose your
sword is named Excalibur?” Angelo smiled his confirmation. No one
guessed Morrie’s costume right away until he lifted the lanyard around his
neck connected to a referee’s aluminum whistle. He blew a toot on it and
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exclaimed, “…Naturally, I’m the Whistle Blower?” Some chuckled, others

groaned.

Morrie suggested that we add a new segment to the start of each quarterly
meeting called, “Current Events Recap.” His rationale was that there is so
much happening with the DNC in Washington, D.C. that maybe a concise
précis of current events may be helpful to know who’s on first. There was
some discussion and the consensus was that it would take too much time
and would make it too difficult to finish the meetings on time.

After some discussion, the group agreed to write a message of support to

Nancy Pelosi and post it on Twitter (and tag the DNC). Bill volunteered to
draft it and Angelo agreed with work with Nancy to post it.

DA Philippines Q4 General Meeting October 26, 2019: (left-to-right) Omar

Tiwana (Makati Ward Chair), Angelo Goode (Vice-Chair), Lisa
Pagkalinawan (Chair), John Boyd (former Chair), Yasmin Tiwana, Kathy
Guido (Treasurer), Morrie Kayanan (Communications Manager), Gay

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Zialcita, Brian Borlongan (GOTV Coordinator), Bing Gelman (Events), Bill

Gelman, Vicki Indiati.

The group voted to approve the minutes from the last meeting, which were
sent out by email to the members.

Angelo gave a brief report on the DA meeting he attended electronically

earlier in the day. It focused on the DA Global Primary, which will be held in
early 2020. He explained that we can’t have our voting center in an office
building as we have done in the past. He also said DA members can sign
Democratic Candidate Petitions online, the results of which will determine
which candidates will be in the DA primary ballot.

Lisa recapped recent activities, including debate watches held on July 31

and August 1 and September 13 and a mock debate and potluck on August
10 with Angelo as Joe Biden, Morrie as Elizabeth Warren and Lisa as
Kamala Harris. It was an enjoyable afternoon of interesting discussions and
good food. Morrie recorded it.

A database cleanup event was held on 9-28-19. The phoning and emailing
efforts are challenging since it is difficult to reach people and to get them to
respond. Efforts continue to discover more efficient ways to accomplish this
goal of updating our current membership list. Those with ideas or who are
willing to help are asked to step forward. Brian and Lisa are now working
on updating phone numbers.

Omar gave a report on the work of the Membership Management

Committee to create wards and assign ward chairs for cities where we
have a large number of members. The ward chairs will contact the
members in their city and organize social events. He is the Makati Ward
Chair. Bill suggested having an ad hoc meeting regarding the impeachment
procedures and support it by writing letters or postcards. Omar, Bing and
Bill agreed to meet to plan the first Makati social event. Morrie volunteered
to make a snappy ad for the event.

Brian said DA has published updated Voting From Abroad FAQs. They are
encouraging people to register as early as 2019, to minimize problems
when one needs to re-register in 2020.

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In response to a request from DA, several members of DAPh wrote

postcards that were sent to voters in Virginia for their recent general
election. The members were Angelo, Lisa, John, Brian and Dave
Kuchenbecker.

The Balangiga Bells Lecture, the next big DAPh event, is scheduled for
November 16th, and 3:30 pm at the Elks Club. Morrie agreed to work with
Brian to create a flyer to announce this program. Angelo agreed to help
distribute these flyers to the Elks Club management to post on their bulletin
board. Lisa will distribute it to the US Embassy. In addition, Morrie agreed
to write a Press Release, which Lisa, Angelo and John could then forward
to any and all contacts within the local media. Hopefully these
announcements will drive interest, articles and attendance upwards for this
Democrats Abroad Philippines event.

John Boyd will lead a visit to Clark to attend the Veterans Day
commemoration event on November 11. Morrie and Bill expressed interest
in joining. Lisa and John are organizing a Thanksgiving Day visit to
American detainees at the Immigration Detention facility in Bicutan. Bing,
Bill, and Jon Sachs expressed interest in attending.

Other Business: Bing suggested that we learn from Singapore – have a

theme for each meeting, so it’s not just a meeting and tie it to the
Democratic party. How can we support the party? What meaningful result
can we obtain? Potluck dinners with a speaker are popular. We can write
letters on issues such as immigration and the closure of some sections of
the Embassy that served those wishing to immigrate.

Lisa will look into the process for electing a secretary at the January annual
meeting (she temporarily appointed Morrie but an official election needs to
be held). Someone suggested looking into medical benefits for DA
members.

At approximately 5:30 pm, Lisa concluded the meeting and all departed in
good cheer.

–End Q4 DAPh Minutes–