Note:    Due to the Coronavirus and continued quarantine requirements ordered by the Governor, the regular monthly meeting was held via a Zoom session and appropriate notice had been provided.  

Executive / Central Committee Meeting July 23, 2020

With 64 persons in attendance, tonight’s meeting was promptly opened at 7:06 pm by Chair Peg Watkins.  The US flag was viewed on the screen and Peg led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

She proceeded as follows:

Old Business

Secretary  report –  Minutes from the previous minutes from the regular meeting on 6/18 and the special meeting held on 6/30 as posted on the website.   Motion to accept the minutes as written was made by Donna Sinclair and seconded by Pamela Foster.  Majority vote passed.

Treasurer’s report–  Roo provided a screen shot of the most updated data and said she is currently preparing the necessary report required to file for the Bd of Elections.  She also stressed the importance of providing her with the forms that were provided, especially for the Biden signs.  She has been receiving checks/money without the forms she is obliged to submit with details from donors.  (She has asked for the forms be included in these notes- will attach said at the end of the minutes) Motion was made to accept the report by Donna Sinclair, seconded by Melanie Farkas.  Motion was passed by the majority.

Resolution –  Robert Davis spoke for the ad hoc committee that was formed to revisit the resolution on Racism  that was previously presented.  He expressed thanks to those that were involved.  He indicated that the changes were straight forward and pleased with the amended wording.  The resolution was screened for view and he asked for any questions.  Richard Bradley, Dave Martin and Coe Huckabee noted minor changes to paragraph adjustment and lettering caps.  Richard made a motion to make the refinements and Pamela Foster seconded.  Majority vote passed and the resolution will be revisited, then signed by the Chair and the Secretary.  The resolution will also be made available to the parties mentioned in the resolution.

Peg welcomed Pamela Foster to the floor to discuss her candidacy for the County Commissioner position. Her campaign is well under way and very active.  She invites everyone to visit her new website and her FB page.  She is an avid football fan and has adopted the “Finish Strong” plan.  Her campaign launch is scheduled for Friday, 7/31 and there will also be a press release prior to that date.  She welcomes any help on the journey and asks you to assist by introducing her to your friends.  Thanks for your support.

New Business

Peg was on the radio recently and spoke about Redistricting U, and focus on the election, early voting.

Peg then introduced Mark Harrison, the coordinated campaign organizer.  He stated that although the main goal is to elect Biden, ODP wants to elect Dems up and down the ballot everywhere.  Sunday marks 100 days to Nov. 3 and there is much work to be done.  ODP is producing a mailer and it should be out by the end of September.  He encourages everyone to build voter involvement.

PROD Committee report –   Managers Cathi Kulik & Pam Warrick have been diligently working on organizing the 

six Regions and have been meeting with the facilitators of each region.  They are forging ahead with getting every registered Democrat in the county energized.  Many of the vacant precincts are being ‘adopted’ by other reps or enthusiastic volunteers. 

Peg welcomed ‘an old friend’  – John Russell to join us again. He was excited to be able to return to our meetings since he has been away for a while.  He spoke enthusiastically about how important this election is and the turn over in this county.  We can change things and make the Democratic Party alive here if we work hard.

Communications committee –  Melanie and Cara have built their team and divided into parts.  They will deal with all the Zoom factors, and the Data will be broken out.  Cara said they were pleased to get additional help and interest, especially with the challenges of social media, as we are faced with now.

Fund raising committee –   Julie noted that the mask project was very successful and profited $1435.00.  We also now have 33 recurring monthly donations which generally are aligned to membership.  Membership is down slightly and Barb offered a challenge to anyone that beings a new member in in the next month, Andre followed that with another challenge to whoever brings in the most new members.

Julie has been planning the next large event.  She is searching for anyone that has a special talent, young and not-so-young alike that would participate in “Dems Got Talent”.  The date is scheduled for Tuesday, August 25^th @ 7:30pm.  It will be a virtual event and a 3 minute(or less) audition can be sent to her.  Tickets will sell for $20.20 and more detail will follow soon.  Please consider. 

Julie and Greg have decided not to participate in the county fair this year due to an abundance of caution and their health concerns.  Roo will contact the fair board regarding any money that has been already secured for our booth.

Farm Wagon –  Peg noted that some other counties are using decorated mobile ‘floats’ that drive around the county to get notice and offer candidate materials, etc.   Joyce Bourgault has offered her truck and asked for help to decorate the truck.  We have some things in the storage unit.  They will check.  Anyone interested in helping can call Joyce.

Bd. Of Elections report –  Anthony Saadey appealed for anyone interested in working at the office should contact him.  There will be an extreme need this time for many positions.  They are working on a training module for workers so that people can minimize in person training.   Safety measures are in compliance with and above the Governor’s requirements for the protection of workers, as well as the public.  He noted that some reps have requested absent ballot request forms from the Bd, but noted that the SOS office has advised that they will be sending those forms out by end of Sept. or early October.

Marian Jacques once again posed the issue concerning the possible reimbursement of expenses to reps for sending out mailings, etc.  Pam and Cathi both addressed the matter and after much consideration it was hard to make a definite decision.  For persons facing financial imposition, they will discuss for some resolution on individual basis.  Contact them for further details.

A screen shot noted the upcoming events and can also be found on the website.

Andre Washington suggested awareness of the HB 680, which could still affect the General Election.   Please be conscious of it.

Vetting committee – Jay Gupta and Joyce Bourgault co-chaired this committee which will interview all local candidates and recommend financial support for our county commissioner candidates.

With no further business – motion to adjourn was made by Cara and seconded by Heather Karr.  Meeting closed.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Berry, Secretary

     ***  Financial form: link