Board Meeting Minutes
Davis Democrat Club Meeting June 7, 2004
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This meeting was held at the Davis Campaign Headquarters, at the corner of 5th and L Street. Present (15 members total) were: President: Tony Gruska, Vice President: Kingsley Melton Treasurer: Betty Weir Recording Secretary: G Richard Yamagata Past President: Stephen Souza, not able to make meetings at this time. Newsletter Editor: Dan Kehew Board members: Mary Lou Hernandez, Julia Sanchez, Joyce Wilson, Susan Peter-Thompson, Bob Bockwinkel, John Chendo, Lyle Smith, Mike Syvanen, Rhonda Gruska, Jim Pollock, and Scott Lay. Guests: Aren Sen and a visitor that came to volunteer at the headquarters. Please note the Campus Democrats were once again missing from this meeting. They are on the e-mailing list, so have been noticed via e-mail of the meetings. Tony called the meeting to order at 7:06 PM. MINUTES OF PAST MEETINGS: The minutes from the May Meeting were moved forward for a vote by Mike Syvanen and seconded by Bob Bockwinkel with no revisions. The motion carried unanimously. OTHER MINUTES The Woodland Democrats were not at this meeting, even though a representative from the group is on the e-mail list. No Action was required nor taken on this subject. NEW MEMBERS No new members to the board were nominated or inducted at this meeting. TREASUERER'S REPORT Betty announced that she recently wrote a check for opening the campaign headquarters. The Champagne Brunch brought in a total of $2230 with 162 people attending or having paid in advance. It was announced that $6088.90 was in the club’s checking account and $7,268.55 in certificates of deposit. We have a total of $13,357.45. Betty stated that we need to remember to pull the money out of the CD when it comes due in August. CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS We are having a grand opening from 5:30 to 9 PM at the campaign headquarters. The headquarters will be open on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Mary Lou Hernandez made the motion that the headquarters be opened in the mornings. There was no second to this motion and President Tony Gruska suggested that Mary Lou talk to Julie Lacy about scheduling volunteers to open the headquarters in the mornings. Bob Bockwinkel proposed that the Beat Bush steering committee open the headquarters on Saturday morning from 9 AM to 1 PM, since that committee is meeting at 1 PM at the headquarters. Since they have to meet at 1 PM, the members of the committee that show up early can get work done for Beat Bush before the meeting. There was some discussion about this. Scott Lay agreed that Saturday would be the best morning for people to come into the headquarters. There was some discussion about hiring a person to open the headquarters for more hours. No motion was made and vote was taken. Mike Syvanen asked about volunteers to work the county precincts. It was stated that 500 volunteers are needed and the organization has about 230. The initial efforts of the headquarters will be to recruit the volunteers needed to be in charge of precincts. That is why there is a database being constructed and the phone banks installed in the headquarters. CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH It was stated that the brunch was a success with 162 people in attendance or having paid in advance and $2230 raised. It was suggested by Betty that the club set-up committees for the future brunches. Committees needed are: Set-Up Committee, Decoration Committee, Kitchen Committee, Clean-Up Kitchen Committee, and Outside Clean-up Committee. It was stated that we need more pre-planning of this event in the future. President Tony Gruska stated that he would set-up the committees next year. No motion was made and no vote was taken. It was stated that we need 8 gallons of orange juice at future brunches and that the orange juice needs to be “no pulp.” That over 100 people showed up to this event was credited to the newsletter with the insert. Betty stated that over $800 came in early representing over 60 people. There was criticism that food ran out at the event. Bob Bockwinkel stated that there were bagels, danishes, and strawberries that were not put out and left over after the event. He also stated that we took in more money at this year than we had in the 7 previous years that he has been involved. This means that more people were in attendance and there is some question about whether there will be as much interest next year, hence the question if we really need to plan for more food. He further argued that there was enough of the main course for people to get at least one serving. It was people going back for seconds and thirds for these items that the shortage ensued for the main course food items. He stated that we did not run out of champagne, which is the primary item for this event. Bob Bockwinkel moved to thank Kingsley for lining up the primary speaker for this event. Julia Sanchez seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Mike Syvanen suggested that we have a Public Address System Committee, which he volunteered to head next year, for he has a PA system that he can lend the club for this event. At this point in time, a sign-up sheet for the 4th of July tabling by the club at the park was passed out. The names were kept by Tony and the club members were asked to contact him if they had not signed up. Bob Bockwinkel moved to thank John Chendo for the refrigerator in the campaign headquarters. This motion was seconded by Betty and passed unanimously. Tony put the question on the floor as to whether or not the Cook’s have been given anything from the club in the past to thank them for hosting the event at their home. Scott said no. Betty said that the Cook’s stated in the past that no gift was necessary nor would be accepted. Scott suggested that given that the Cook’s has hosted this event for so many years, that the club and the central committee should honor them with a gift. Scott made the motion that $50 be given towards a gift certificate for a fine meal at Soga’s or Seasons. Scott stated that he would make a similar motion with the Yolo County Central Committee for matching funds. Julia seconded the motion and it passed without dissent. FOURTH OF JULY BOOTH It was stated that a sign-up sheet was going around the room. Tony kindly volunteered his professional catering model drink dispenser for this event. It mixes and dispenses two types of drinks. The suggested drinks were lemonade and ice tea. Tony also stated that Move-On dot Org wanted to double up with the club and sell baked goods (Bake Sale). The Move-On people would supply their own table and people for the event. Tony stated that he would contact Stephen Souza for decoration and signage at the booth. He then asked the question if the club wanted to sell or handout buttons at the booth. Bob moved that the club spend $500 for campaign buttons and bumper stickers. Betty seconded this motion and it passed unanimously. John Chendo volunteered to work on a large presidential candidate photo for the booth. John asked about TV access at the booth and at the headquarters. The Gruskas volunteered a VCR and Lyle Smith volunteered a VCR/TV combo for the booth to play a Kerry tape to the public. Tony stated that he will be given two passed to drive vehicles to the booth area. Tony stated that he needed a truck. Kingsley volunteered his truck to ferry stuff to the booth. Tony stated that he would be at the booth for set-up and take-down. The booth will close down at 6 PM before the fireworks or earlier, if the beverages run out. Move-On will continue to sell their baked goods until they run out. Ely will be asked to provide a Mike Thompson poster. Scott Lay will follow up with Machado and with Ely. Kingsley will follow-up with the other candidates. ICE CREAM SOCIAL Jerry Kaneko said that he will call Tony back with a time and date for the event. The date is expected to be late August. FALL BARBEQUE Stephen and Robin will be contacted to see if they can host this event this year. An alternate plan would be for Rhonda and Dan Kehew to host a club barbeque on the greenbelt. HOLIDAY PARTY Bob talked to Doug Kaplan and has lined up the first Friday of December from 7 to 9 PM. Set-up will commence earlier. Planning will be done at a future meeting more closer to this event. YOLO COUNTY FAIR BOOTH Mary Lou would like the club to concentrate on the Yolo County Booth design this year. Scott Lay stated that in the past, Mariko Yamada and he were the only people that actually showed up to set-up the booth and that he and his friend were the only people to show up for take down. Scott stated that people that want change at the booth need to work with the Yolo County Central Committee and that people interested in the booth set-up need to come to the next Yolo County Central Committee meeting. Scott stated that he felt that last year’s booth was a success, getting the job done. Mary Lou stated that she wanted to find a person that could professionally decorate the booth. It was generally agreed that this would cost money. Tony Gruska suggested that people needed to have a fundraiser to raise the money to hire a professional designer to design the booth. At this point in time John Chendo lightened the mood by stating that the Democrats need to have a donkey at the booth and that the club needs to challenge the Republicans to have a baby elephant at their booth. Mike Syvanen agreed that the Democrats need a professional designer to set-up the booth and volunteered Sue Greenwald to design the booth. Mike would follow up by asking her. Tony ended the discussion by stating that people that want to influence the design of the booth need to go to the next central committee meeting in West Sacramento. NEWSLETTER Dan Kehew is the newsletter editor. He stated that in future issues, editorials or letters to the editor will not be placed on the front page. He stated that the numbering will be corrected. The donors and sponsors list will be updated and posted within the newsletter. Advertising will be included in future issues. He also stated that the newsletter will be gracing peoples’ mailboxes and act as a conduit for advertisers. Articles will flow from a number of sources, like articles from local candidates. The next issue will concentrate on Mike Machado, re-presenting him to the readers of the club newsletter. The newsletter will be more graphical for future issues. We will have articles this summer by people that are working at the ground level with campaigns and issues. The newsletter will also reprint articles of special interest to the Davis Democrat Club readers. Further more, Dan plans to streamline the newsletter so that other clubs can use it as their publication and will prepare it for those clubs to fill in their own local interest pieces. This will make the newsletter a vehicle for other parts of the county. The Davis Democrat Club will pay for the mailing of the newsletter only to its membership. The financial funding for the other club issues will be worked out by Bob and Dan. The plan is for the advertisers that want the added exposure to pay for their ad to go out in the other newsletters for $100/issue. Other money can come in from the individual clubs to fund the production costs and mailing. There are people in Winters that are having Democrat Club meetings. This past Saturday night, 70 people brought in $870. Former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger will host the next Winter’s Club meeting at his home. Betty asked Bob to vet the ads to make sure that people have paid. The question was asked if the advertisers should be called. Bob said that he would take care of it. NEW BUSINESS The question was made as to whether or not we should continue to meet on the first Monday of the month. It was stated that Woodland meets on the Second Monday of the month. There was a general consensus that we should continue to hold our meeting on the first Monday of the month. The July 5th meeting will be the day after the 4th of July booth and we could receive the reports of what happened there. It was once again announced that the headquarters will have its grand opening from 5:30 to 9 PM. A sign-up list was sent out for people to sign as to what they will bring to the campaign headquarters opening. This is a potluck event. It was announced that Julie Lacy found someone to man the headquarters on the other days of the week, so the headquarters will be open Monday through Friday afternoons. A general thank you went to Dan Kehew for the lending of part of his flag collection to decorate the walls of the headquarters. Bob Bockwinkel moved for adjournment. This was seconded by Rhonda and passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned at 8:03 PM. These minutes are respectfully submitted by:
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