Board Meeting Minutes
Davis Democrat Club Meeting July 5th, 2004
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This meeting was held at the Davis Campaign Headquarters, at the corner of 5th and L Street. Present (14 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, Bob Bockwinkel, John Chendo, Lyle Smith, Mike Syvanen, Jim Pollock, and Rhonda Gruska. Guests: Arun Sen, Pam Nieberg and two volunteers for 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. Total number of people at this meeting was 18. Tony called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM. Kingsley Melton introduced the changes for the meeting. These changes are to be implemented to accommodate more people, their ideas, and more topics to be covered at the meetings. MINUTES OF PAST MEETINGS: The minutes from the June Meeting were not moved for approval at this meeting and will be approved at the August meeting. 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. MEETING AGENDA Rhonda Gruska moved the agenda for approval. The motion was seconded by Arun Sen. The agenda was passed unaminously. TREASUERER'S REPORT It was announced that $5,211.40 was in the club’s checking account and $7,268.55 in certificates of deposit. We have a total of $12,479.95. Betty stated that we need to remember to pull the money out of the CD when it comes due in August. She also stated that we need lots more money to come in before November. NEW MEMBERS Arun Sen was nominated to the board by Tony Gruska. Tony explained that Arun was asked to attend the meetings as the parliamentary consultant. His credentials past participation were presented to board. This nomination was seconded by Dan Kehew. The motion passed with one dissent from Mary Lou Hernandez. The question was asked after the vote if a parliamentarian can be a voting member of a board. The rule is that a parliamentarian will not influence votes and will serve at the pleasure of the chair of the meetings. Joyce Wilson nominated Pam Nieberg to the board. Lyle Smith seconded the nomination. Pam’s credentials as a long time Democrat and was the supplier of editorial content for the latest newsletter were presented. Bob called the question for a vote. Kingsley and Betty Weir abstained from the vote. The nomination was approved. It was pointed out after the vote that the governing bylaws for the club state that the nominee must come to one meeting before they are nominated to the board. It was stated that Pam did attend one of the public meetings in the past. Mary Lou stated that she wants the candidate to come to a meeting and be recognized as a potential board member to the entire board. It was generally agreed that this should happen in the future. FOURTH OF JULY BOOTH The booth proved to be more successful than previous years. In the end, $165 was raised through the sale of beverages and campaign pins and paraphernalia. A lot of voters were registered at the booth. Over 20 Beat Bush 2004 t-shirts were sold at the booth. The most significant thing was that the booth was awarded Second Place for being the best looking booth at this event. There were 13 club members that came and worked at the booth. The club made $100 more than last year. ICE CREAM SOCIAL Kingsley Melton is the board member in charge of organizing for this event. He stated that he still needed to bounce e-mail back and forth with Jerry Kaneko to set the date and time for this event. The date will be after the Yolo County Fair and take place before the end of August. The time of the event will be 7PM. More planning for this event will be done at the next meeting. FALL BARBEQUE The location has not been set for this event. It was suggested that the event take place at Covell Commons on the greenbelt, but Rhonda and Dan Kehew would like to look at other possible locations. Mary Lou Hernandez wants to be involved in the location selection. She also suggested that the club board be in charge of providing the food for this event. This was met with resistance for the board has traditionally provided food for two events: The Champaign Brunch and The December Holiday Party. It was suggested that this event be a potluck and that people be asked to bring their own meat to be barbecued. Betty suggested that the club talk to Stephen and Robin Souza. An alternate plan would be for Rhonda and Dan Kehew to host a club barbeque on the greenbelt. Tony wants a committee to be formed for this and the other events on the agenda. It was discussed that ice cream scoopers and more campaign buttons and paraphernalia are needed for the ice cream social. It was stated that people need to step-up and help out with the planned events. Tony pointed out that he chaired the successful 4th of July booth effort. Mary Lou stated that we all need to participate and need a designated person in charge of the events. BEAN FEED It was stated that Lois’ Luau was on adjacent dates. October 1st is Lois’ Luau. October 2nd is the Bean Feed date. Bob Bockwinkel volunteered to relay messages to Scott Lay. If you have 2 big events adjacently scheduled, the argument was presented that it could negatively impact attendance. It was stated that Will Dunst will be scheduled to appear at the Bean Feed to attract people to this event. Betty was in favor of this and stated that we need to make the Bean Feed extra special to get people to attend this event. That is why we need to invite speakers to draw people to the Bean Feed event. Betty expressed concern at the planning of these two events. It was noted by Kingsley that these dates were locked in a year in advance. Betty asked to be on the Bean Feed committee for future planning of this important Yolo County event. CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS It was agreed that the Campaign Headquarters opening was a successful event. Lyle Smith reported that people are volunteering in droves and that the headquarters is swamped by volunteers. They are focusing on three activities: phone banking, precinct walking and tabling. The phone banks are operating Monday through Thursday and working on targeting phone numbers to be called. They are concentrating on voters that voted in the last 5 elections. This phoning is bringing in more volunteers into the headquarters. Targeted phone calling is our best bet for fundraising and volunteer recruitment. John Chendo is concentrating on tabling at 6 locations. These are: Wednesday and Saturday Davis Farmers Market Sundays at the Davis Food Coop Woodland County Fair Mall City of Winters Hispanic Community Center in Woodland Lyle reported on the ins and out of precinct walking, a workshop to be held on Saturday. He reported on results of walking Precinct 11 in Davis. They went out with 6 volunteers that had never done precinct walking before and knocked on 49 doors. Of these 28 stated that they were supporting Kerry and only 3 stated they were supporting Bush. There were 2 households leaning towards Kerry and 1 towards Bush. Lyle reported on the first tentative outings in Reno with bussing and carpooling to be done for this effort. To make it more appealing to the volunteers, some people have opened up their condos or vacation homes in Incline Village. This is being done to also conserve funds. The goal is to precinct walk to develop lists that phone banks can call in the future to remind people to vote for Kerry or to support local efforts in Nevada for the Kerry campaign. It was reported that Move-on was going to have a rally at the headquarter on September 11 for Fahrenheit 9/11. The event is scheduled for 7 to 7:30 PM. John reported that the tabling effort has been going well. The table at the Woodland Mall had been busy connecting with women voters and first time voters. He closed with the following faux Fox news headline-soundbite: “Bush blows up world. Kerry trails in polls.” John was asked pointedly to report on numbers. John reported that there are 50 people signed up to help with the tabling. There is 35 hours of tabling occurring each week with 2 to 3 volunteers at each tabling event. Lyle reported that there is an ACLU party for Kerry on Saturday night. Another event was mentioned where 30 to 50 therapists and lawyers attended in Winters to support Kerry. Convention wrap parties are planned in Winters and Davis. Also in Winters, Richard Rominger is hosting a fundraiser on the 17th at his home. Betty is sponsoring an event on the 16th with a do-op musical group. Lyle reported as to having 250 people on the volunteer list. He stated that at the 4th of July booth, he picked up another 14 volunteers. Bob Bockwinkel, Tony Gruska and Mike Syvanen manned the 4th of July booth. The bulk of the people came by from 7:30 to 8PM. Kingsley asked if the 250 volunteers all get called right away or e-mailed right away. Lyle stated that he had a list of 60 people that were interested in precinct walking that he had contacted. Bob Bockwinkel stated that there were 40 people that have been doing the phone banking. Betty asked with all of the volunteers, can we have some to man the headquarters from 9AM to 3PM. She and Mary Lou have been keeping the headquarters open during the weekdays during those hours. She was told to ask Julie Lacy for volunteers to help with the burden. NEWSLETTER Dan Kehew, the newsletter editor gave his report. The newsletter is 12 pages this month. He stated that the format is a tabloid format. The newsletter will follow the latest issue’s format and will have all the board members, club donors and sponsors and officers listed. It will also have all of the advertisements in it for the people that are up to date in their payments. Dan has been in contact with Air America and will feature content is support of that radio station, including an interview with Christine Craft. He stated that future issues will contain photos of the candidates and the volunteers working; a sort of grassroots photo theme. He has been promised pictures from the Mike Thompson fundraiser at Raley Field by Elly Fairclough and plans to have pictures from the 4th of July club booth. It was promised that the issue will feature more Yolo Beat Bush news updates and have positive Kerry news. Dan stated that the best positive information can be gleaned from the Kerry and Democrat campaign web sites. Along those same lines Lyle Smith stated that at the Fahrenheit 9/11 opening night at the Davis theaters, he was contacted by John Glickman and was told that he went to the web to get positive Kerry event information. Kingsley inquired about Lois campaign highlights appearing in the newsletter. He was told that this was definitely going to be part of the content of future newsletters. After the budget was passed, it was stated that Lois and other candidates will be for available for interviews and photo opportunities for newsletter content. The deadline for inclusion of articles for the next newsletter will be mid-month, from the 15th through the 19th. Dan asked people to contact him for an exact date if they are contributing material for the newsletter. Mary Lou asked about John Munn, Lois opponent. It was stated that the concern was more about the Machado-Podesto race. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to campaign for Podesto. The election could be close only because of the governor’s participation in the campaign. Our events are tailored to support the Democrats up for election in the City of Davis, which has a 70% voter turnout and votes overwhelmingly Democrat. With Davis secure this election, the question is about Solano County. Rhonda Gruska is the liason with Solano county and if anyone wants to help, they should contact her. CLUB E-MAIL LIST Richard Yamagata explained that the club list is primarily for informing the electeds of the Yolo Democrat Club meetings. That is the primary reason that the list was created. The secondary reason was to inform the club board of the club meetings. The third reason that evolved was to let board members post their opinions. Because the electeds are on this list, it was decided to limit the list only to announcements of club activities. The list is now shut down so that only 4 people, the board officers, can post to the list. Any person can subscribe directly to the list. Kingsley stated that this should be the policy because we do not want to have altercations on the list about club issues. The first reason is because the electeds are on the list and such postings could be viewed as demoralizing. The second reason is that he was on the Woodland Democrat Club list and postings over there have fractured the club, making it ineffective as a volunteer political entity. Betty reminded the board that not all people have e-mail. Kingsley stated that such people will be mailed information that has been posted to the list. He also stated that any posting will be made available at the headquarters, printed and possibly posted at the headquarters. VISITORS At this point in time, the two visitors were introduced. They were Brett and Marie Lee. YOLO COUNTY FAIR BOOTH Tony Gruska passed around a sign-up sheet for the Yolo County Fair Booth. The Yolo County Democrat Central Committee is looking for volunteers. The set up of the booth will take place on Tuesday evening, August 17th, from 6 to 9PM. Volunteer slots at the booth are available from noon until 10 PM from Wednesday through Sunday. Campaign headquarters working with John Chendo will probably be a source of volunteers for the booth. We need to coordinate with the central committee and all of the lists will be combined into a master list for this event. At this time, it is forseen that there will be no problem in finding enough volunteers to fill all of the time slots at the booth. NEW BUSINESS Lyle stated that some people will be having a shadow convention during the Republican National Convention. More information on this will be forthcoming. There will be a Veterans for Kerry event. NEXT CLUB MEETING It was suggested to have the meeting on August 2nd. There were objections to the time and place of the meeting, for it was stated that the meeting would interfere with volunteers using the headquarters if the meeting were held at the headquarters. The only reason that the Monday date worked out this month was because July 5th was a holiday. Betty said that the number of people on the board currently precludes having the meeting at someone’s home (average attendance of 16 people). It was generally agreed that the meeting will take place at 8PM on the 2nd of August. Tony will check with Julie Lacy and if there is no conflict with headquarter events, the meeting will take place at 7 to 8PM and the board members will be informed of the change in time for the meeting. Discussion continued on the topic of club money. Before the meeting ended Betty Wier wanted to know, what plans were there before the next meeting to raise club funds. Bob Bockwinkel asked Betty how much more money is needed by the club and how much money is expected to come in. Betty replied that only when there are newsletters published that money comes into the club. There are no club events planned for the next month up to August 2nd. Bob stated that we could raise month this month by telephoning the people that have not paid their dues yet, this year. Bob volunteered to telephone those that have not paid their dues if he was given the phone list. Tony stated that with the newsletter coming out and Bob telephoning that people will pay their club dues, we can raise some money in the next 4 weeks. Kingsley moved for adjournment. At this point in time Mary Lou asked about the set-up of the Democrat Booth at the Yolo County Fair. It was stated that if she or anyone else wanted to participate with the set-up and decoration of the booth for those people to attend the next Yolo County Central Committee meeting. Rhonda seconded the motion for adjournment. The motion to adjourn the meeting passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned at 8:08 PM. These minutes are respectfully submitted by:
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