The minutes of the January meeting were approved as distributed and will be posted on the blog. Kay Ciha gave the treasurer’s report with updates on membership fees, donations and the Candidate's Fund. Bills paid include the Washington Evening Journal ($140.40) and Kalona News ($100) for caucus ads.
Report of the Chair:
Lorraine requested feedback on the caucus – what worked, what didn’t, and what should be changed in the future. At the Washington High School, maps were positioned at each entrance as well as in each of the precinct rooms. It was suggested that more maps be positioned at entrances due to the number of attendees scrambling to find their precinct locations. Most precincts, to save time, made motions to send all submitted resolutions to the platform committee without discussion at the caucus. Additionally, several precincts reported a challenge in keeping attendees in the room in order to discuss committees. There was a misleading belief among some that the caucus was only to count votes and wouldn’t last more than 30 minutes.
New Business:
The County Convention is scheduled for March 12 at the Washington Public Library with a prompt start time of 10:00 am. We will have rooms on the second floor to use. Washington County has a total of 65 delegates. Lorraine asked for volunteers for Arrangements, Credentials and Rules committees.
RAGBRAI will have an overnight stop in Washington on July 29. We’ll need candidate promotional materials for distributing and possibly a fundraiser item to sell to riders. Do we want to help coordinate lodging arrangements? It was suggested that we check with Johnson and Jefferson Counties on their processes in the past as RAGBRAI hosts. We should plan to have 150 names.
2nd District Convention Update:
The 2nd District will have a planning meeting at the high school on February 20 at 2pm in order to review and approve the site as the location for the 2nd
District Convention scheduled for April 30. The Washington County Democrats will be responsible for providing lunch on convention day.
Legislative Briefing:
The next legislative briefing will be Saturday, February 20, 10-12pm at the Washington Courthouse.
Committee Reports:
Affirmative Action: This committee is chaired by Gary Murphy. Committee members include Jackie Amigon, Sandra Johnson, Isabella Santoro and Harold Frakes.
Candidate Development: There are three supervisor positions up for election this year. Incumbents are Stan Stupes, Bob Yoder and Jack Seward. There are three candidates for the sheriff position, all republican.
Community Events: No report at this time.
Platform Committee: Steve Maxon will work with Platform Chair Matt Schaefer to schedule a meeting. Paper resolutions collected from caucus packets were given to Steve.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm. The county convention will replace the routine March meeting.
Attending: Lorraine Williams, Richard Gilmore, Robin Plattenberger-Gilmore, Sonya Housholder, Robert Spenner, Sayre Bachman, Kay Ciha, Isabella Santoro, Edward Conway, Elizabeth Harris, Kate Glinsman, Nan Stark, Fred Stark, Kimberly Davis, Patty Roe, Mike Roe, Terry Philips, Lynette Hultman, James Morrison, Martha Dahlin, Doris Park, and Steve Maxon.
