[Davis Democrats] DDC Board Meeting Minutes for September 4, 2007
G Richard Yamagata PhD
yamagata at virtual-markets.net
Tue Oct 2 13:16:21 PDT 2007
If you have corrections please submit them to yamagata at virtual-markets.net.
Davis Democratic Club Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, September 4, 7 pm - 8 pm
Place: Place: International House in Davis.
College Park and Russell Blvd.
This meeting was held at
Place: International House in Davis at College Park and Russell Blvd
Present (11 board members total present -- 11 votes present -- We had a
quorum) were:
OFFICERS -- EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BOARD MEMBERS
President: Arun Sen,
Vice President: Mike Syvanen
Treasurer: Betty Weir
Recording Secretary: G Richard Yamagata
Corresponding Secretary: Julia Sanchez
Membership Committee Chair: Carl Schmid
Publicity: Absent
BOARD CHAIRS AND MEMBERS
Past Publicity: Barbara Slemmons
Acting Past President: Bob Bockwinkel, Past-Past President and Newsletter
Advertising,
Acting Newsletter Editor: Absent
Scheduling Committee Chair: Absent
By-Laws Committee Chair: Absent
Board members: Adrienne Kandel, Pam Nieberg, and Barry Wilson
Ex-Officio Members of the Board: Absent
11 of 17 were present and
2 board members with medical absences.
A Total of 17 active board members on the rolls.
Guests: 1 Guest was present, Colleen Haley from Lois Wolk's campaign office.
Absent: Cecilia Escamelia Greenwald (3), Claire Black Slotton (0)(3 of 6),
Rick Gonzales (5), Publicity Mary Lou Hernandez (6 medical excused by
President), Past Vice President Kingsley Melton (8 medical excused by
President), Bill Ritter (1), Jim Provenza (1), Lyle Smith (1) -- (number
indicates how many meeting is a row have been missed. Excused medical
absences are not counted towards a quorum.) There have been 16 meetings
since the elections last year. By-laws state that board member cannot miss
3 meetings in a row or 3 out of 5 meetings in a five month period (meaning
you cannot just come to every other meeting and still remain on the board).
Absences can be excused by the President.
TOTAL: 12 of 17 Board Members were present.
Arun Sen called the meeting into session at 7:01 PM. The meetings started
with a political joke told by Barry Wilson.
AGENDA
The agenda had an additional item, called Kudos. The changed agenda was
moved for acceptance by Mike Syvanen and wasbapproved by concensus.
MINUTES
The July Minutes were presented by the Recording Secretary, G Richard
Yamagata.
MOTION/VOTE
The July minutes were moved for approval by Bob Bockwinkel and seconded by
Julia Sanchez. The minutes were passed unaminously by voice vote with no
changes.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Our guest, Colleen presented a flyer for Lois Wolk's Luau. The Keynote
speaker was Deborah Bowen for this event. Colleen asked for volunteers for
the event an publication on the mailing list and in the newsletter. It was
agreed that all of this would be done.
MINUTES AND REPORTS FROM OTHER CLUBS
This section of the meeting was not done, because of the 1 hour limitation
set by the location of our meeting.
BY-LAWS COMMITTEE
In absence of the chair of the Committee, Carl Schmid reported that the
by-laws committee met at the home of Betty Weir. There were seven people at
the meeting. They were: Acting Chair, Carl Schmid, President Arun Sen,
Vice President Mike Syvanen, Treasurer Betty Weir, Recording Secretary G
Richard Yamagata, Board Member Claire Black Slotton and ex-officio Campus
Dems President Max Mikalonis. The new by-laws were presented at the
committee meeting. Some small grammatical changes were made. The largest
change was initiated by Andrew Ramos, who came to our last board meeting.
This change makes the by-laws in compliance with State Party Rules.
MOTION/VOTE
Carl Schmid asked that the by-laws as amended and changed by the By-Laws
Committee be made permanent. This motion was made by Bob Bockwinkel and
seconded by Mike Syvanen. The motion passed unanimously.
TREASURERS REPORT
Betty Weir was present and made the following report. At the beginning of
June the club had $4262.65 in the bank.
For the month of August, the following was the state of our treasury:
August 1 Balance: $2147.10
INCOME
Dues $1421.00
Ice Cream Social $600.00
Newsletter ads $120.00
TOTAL INCOME $2141.00
GRAND TOTAL $4288.10
Expenses
Supplies: $30.22
PO Box $36.00
Postage $50.00
Newsletter $302.24
Other misc. $339.00
Reimburse buttons
& stickers $340.00
TOTAL EXPENSES $1097.46
September 1 Balance: $3870.64 + $6000 CD = $9870.64
We have over 200 paid members at this time in 155 households.
DETAILS
The expenses this past month were for post office box, post office mailing
costs and newsletter printing costs.
Bob Bockwinkel made the observation that the club began the year with a
negative balance. We now have close to $10,000 in the treasury.
Betty Weir noted that people have been very generous. Bob added that it
probably has something to do with who is president.
BUDGET COMMITTEE
The committee did not meet in August. Carl Schmid commented that $5000 does
the job for basic club expenses in a non-election year. We are in very good
shape. [The club's budget in an election year is usually $15,000. If we
raise the same amount of money next year, by November, we will exceed what
we need for running a campaign headquarters. Ry]
MEMBERSHIP COMMITEE REPORT
Carl Schmid reported that a lot of old members have renewed at the $100
level or more this year.
Pam reported that in her phone calling, 13 our of 20 households agreed to
renew. With this number reported, it was discussed, what to do with the 3
out of 20 that were unreachable via telephone. It was decided that we need
to send a form letter to these people and ask them if they wish to remain on
the newsletter list. Julia has a form letter, which will be sent out.
President Arun Sen will sign the letter.
Carl reported that 155 households have renewed. We have reached half of the
mailing list. Two-thirds of the people contacted by phone have renewed.
After a letter has been sent from the president and the chair of the
membership committee, the list will be purged of those that do not respond.
Betty stated that we place red dots on the newsletters of those that have
not paid. Betty does not want people to resent being hounded by mail by the
club. From this, Barry stated that we should continue to try to reach these
people via the telephone.
Bob asked about the 155 household number and Carl reported that represents
270 members. There are 1.7 people per household. There are 130 households
still left to contact, representing 220 more people. Carl acknowledged and
thanked Pam Nieberg, Julia Sanchez and Rick Gonzales for their telephoning
people to renew.
There was a discussion on projected members from the 130 households left to
contact.
Arun Sen suggested a letter to be sent to these 130 households with a
stamped return envelope. The people that will work in this are Arun, Carl
and Pam.
Arun asked for and received a round of applause for the people that worked
on the membership renewal drive. These are: Carl Schmid, Pam Nieberg, Julia
Sanchez and Rick Gonzales.
PUBLIC OUTREACH COMMITTEE
There is no board member assigned to this committee.
NEWSLETTER
The newsletter editor is Cecilia Escamelia-Greenwald and is being aided by
Bill Ritter. Neither were present at this meeting. Pam said that she would
like to volunteer to help with the newsletter. Arun stated that he has sent
2 other names to Bill Ritter of people from the club that want to help with
the newsletter.
SCHEDULING COMMITTEE
Claire Black-Slotton was not present at this meeting. President Arun Sen
stated that the October 2 meeting is at the home of Barry Wilson (1108
Dartmouth Place) starting at 7PM. The November 7 meeting, the day after
Election Day, is at the Blanchard Room of the Davis Yolo County Library,
starting at 7PM. The December 4 meeting will also be at the Blanchard Room
on the first Tuesday of the month, starting at 7PM.
Arun stated that he had to stand in line at the library, which started
forming at 10 til 10AM on August 4.
GENERAL MEETINGS
The Yolo County Bean Feed is the club's September event. Mike Syvanen is
volunteering to be a server. Mike stated that they are looking for
sponsors, so he paid for Sue Greenwald as a sponsor of the event.
Report on Central Committee Meeting
At the Central Committee meeting, there was a contentious issue reported by
Mike Syvanen. There was a motion to severely criticize Bill Copper at this
meeting. Bill Copper led a campaign to recall Helen Thompson and Mariko
Yamada, this past summer. This recall campaign has since ended. It was
stated at the central committee meeting that Bill Copper is an active
Democrat and in 2004, he walked Reno, Nevada precincts for Kerry. It was
argued that it was inappropriate to criticize Bill Copper and the motion was
tabled.
BACK TO BEAN FEED
Bob Bockwinkel stated that they are always looking for volunteers. Colleen
stated that is true also for Lois' Luau. They would like volunteers and
people could attend by volunteering to work at the event.
Julia Sanchez asked who is in charge of the event and it was stated that
Andrew Ramos was incharge. Set-up would begin at 2PM. Serving and ticket
selling will commence at 5:30pm. The public will start filtering in at 6PM.
Dinner will be served at 7PM and the program will begin at 7:30PM. Ending
time is estimated at 9PM. Master of Ceremonies will be Bob Bockwinkel.
The club is normally a sponsor. Bob asked for a motion that the Davis
Democratic Club be a sponsor of the Bean Feed.
MOTION
Pam made the motion that the Davis Democratic Club sponsor the Bean Feed at
the $250 level. G Richard Yamagata seconded the motion.
DISCUSSION
It was asked what does a $250 sponsorship mean? There are 4 tickets made
available for sponsors at this level. The club would get 4 tickets or it
can downgrade the tickets and make them available for students. The cost is
$35/person at the door. Barry asked if the club tickets were going to be
made available to loyal, but cash strapped Democrats and if so, how would it
be determined who would get the tickets. Bob Bockwinkel replied that anyone
that wants to volunteer to work the event will be allowed in for free.
VOTE
The question was called and the motion was voted upon. The motion passed
with no dissent.
OCTOBER BARBECUE
This event will be held at the home of Stephen Souza. [The date is
tentatively October 21 at 3 to 6PM.]
ELECTION NIGHT PARTY
There is no club election night party planned. It was discussed and agreed
that we should participate in election night parties. We should say that we
support the library tax. Barbara stated that we should show support for P&Q
and state that in the newsletter and encourage our members to attend those
election night parties -- but the club should not subsidize the party.
President Arun Sen agreed, that the club will not have its own party, but
club members should attend the proposition parties.
On a separate note, Julia Sanchez stated that if the club has a party, it
must have people assigned to serve at the party. There were no assigned
servers at the ice cream social. G Richard Yamagata stated that in the past
three years, that job has been assigned to the Davis High School Democratic
Club and that he had volunteered 3 years ago with Pam Nieberg and others and
was told that he and the others were not needed as a server. Because of
that re-assignment, the club has not asked for servers for the past 4 years.
This year, the Davis High School students were not invited and so there were
no servers. Rhonda and Tony Gruska had children in the high school as did
Bob Bockwinkel and since they have graduated, contact with the high school
students has been sporadic. It was stated that in the future, we need to
make sure that volunteers are assigned serving jobs for club events like the
Champagne Brunch, the Ice Cream Social, the Fall Barbecue, and the Holiday
Party.
DECEMBER HOLIDAY PARTY
This event is usually on the first Friday of the month of December. This is
December 7. G Richard Yamagata tried to call Doug Kaplan from the meeting
with no answer on his cell phone. President Arun Sen stated that he will
try to talk to Doug and find out when he wants to have this event. Julia
Sanchez stated that we will have a raffle at this event.
NEW AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Betty thanked the club for the Birthday Celebration for her at the Ice Cream
Social.
KUDOS
President Arun Sen wants to try to start a new tradition, ending the meeting
with Kudos. This will end the meeting on a positive note and to thank and
acknowledge people that did outstanding work on the board during the month.
It is the President's hope that these "KUDOS" will make it into the newsletter.
1. President Arun Sen thanked and acknowledged Bill Ritter for sending out
the newsletter announcing the ice cream social.
2. President Arun Sen thanked and acknowledged Claire Black Slotton for her
hard work and hustle at the Yolo County Fair Booth. She interacted with the
public and brought them into the booth.
3. President Arun Sen thanked and acknowledged Carl Schmid, Pam Nieberg,
Julia Sanchez, Rich Gonzales and Bill Ritter for their hard work on updating
the club newsletter lists. He also thanked Pam, Julia, Carl and Rick for
going through the membership list and attempting to contact people to renew
their members and congratuated them on their 67% renewal rate for membership.
ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
It was once again suggested that the board allow Measure P and Measure Q to
come speak for the board to endorse Measure P. It was also suggested that
the two Democratic school board candidates come address the board so it
could endorse them.
ANNOUNCEMEMTS
Arun Sen announced that he received a very unique gift. It is a stop watch
that counts off the seconds left of George Bush's presidency.
Bob Bockwinkel announced the Yolo County Democratic Central Committee Bean
Feed event on September 29th.
Colleen announced Lois' Luau at the Dixon May Fair.
The October board meeting will be at the home of Barry Wilson, 1108
Dartmouth Place at 7PM.
Arun Sen adjourned the meeting at 8:47PM.
These Minutes for September 4, 2007 are respectively submitted,
G Richard Yamagata
G Richard Yamagata PhD
CEO/President VME Inc. http://www.vme.net/ http://vme.net/bcards/bio.html
G Richard Yamagata is a member of the Davis Community Network Board of
Directors, Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Davis Democratic
Club, President of the board of Virtual Market Enterprises, Inc,
Secretary-Treasurer of the board of the Davis Progressive Business
Exchange and communications liason for the Independent Order of
Oddfellows Chapter 169 and the Business Link of Woodland and Davis.
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