Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
WASHINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATS
Meeting, Oct. 12, 2011
Nine Washington County Democrats met Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, in a second floor meeting room of the Washington Public Library.
Chairman Peter Morrison called the meeting to order led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes of the September monthly meeting were noted and filed for record.
Kay presented the treasurer’s report and distributed copies of the report, from Sept. 14 to Oct. 12. Cash on hand on Sept. 14 was $474.18. With income and expenses, cash available on Oct. 12 was $1,470.07. Five hundred dollars of the income was the grant which Pete had applied for and had obtained from IDP, to help with membership. For the fall luncheon alone (Oct. 2), income was $1,012 and expenses were $666.11. About 68 to 70 meals were served. The amount of $345.89 was cleared on the luncheon.
Mike Mitchell moved to approve the treasurer’s report, Bob Spenner seconded, and the motion carried. Pete said that the treasurer’s report would be filed for audit.
In 2008 we had $987.55 after paying the last check for post office box rent. Box rent this year is at $56. We’ll be better off going into 2012 than we were going into 2008 (even without that $500 grant).
Chairman Pete commented on the Second District meeting. It helped with some revenue and also in terms of costs on the day of the meeting (Oct. 2). He said it was really nice to have those people in Washington and it was a semi-productive meeting. A number of people from the new counties, which will be part of the new Second District, were present.
Committee Reports. Pete praised Kay for the fine job she did of heading up the luncheon and for the good report.
We don’t as yet have a platform committee and will need to establish that before the first part of January.
Old Business. Precinct designation is in a state of flux right now. All our precinct locations will, Pete thinks, remain pretty much the same. The auditor has the final say on that. There is a total of maybe three or four people who did fall into the “iffy” category. There are some questions that need to be answered regarding who would be eligible to serve as precinct captains -- must they be members of WCDP? Could they be from another precinct? Pete said those questions are for Washington County Auditor Bill Fredrick. Pete will talk to Bill.
Kay reminded us that everyone is going in as a temporary precinct chair, and permanent officers will be elected at the caucus.
Old Business. The Second District is hoping to have the district convention in Washington as the central location. They will need to select a site, and they have sent out district convention bid documents. We discussed some possibilities, such as Washington High School or Highland High School. The convention would be about April 28.
Our group wondered whether we should continue to pursue this and whether we could pull it off. The Second District would bring their own server and laptops and desktops. There would need to be a sound system at the selected site. We would need a mike and someone to operate the sound system. Kay suggested that that would be a good opportunity to make more money with a luncheon. Bob voiced his opinion that we should only consider this if the work and responsibility would not fall on Kay again, or Kay and one other person -- that if we did this, we would need people committed to work and to help. The last convention, it was noted, was in Fairfield.
Bob volunteered to contact people at the Highland school to see if something can be worked out, and to check on the possibility of arranging for some high school students to help with serving in exchange for a percentage of the income’s going to their school programs.
Kay said the convention would be an opportunity for 1) funds and 2) publicity.
Chairman Pete adjourned the meeting. The next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 9.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Stark, Secretary
