[Davis Democrats] DDC Board Meeting Minutes for October 10 -- A Summary

[G Richard Yamagata PhD]

Greetings Davis Democrat Club Members,

I am attempting to fulfill my obligation of sending minutes to this list of
the last Davis Democrat Club Board Meeting on October 10 by the 15th of the
month as required by the board.  This meeting went on for 2 hours and I took
16 pages of notes.  It is going to take more than just one evening to write
all of these notes up in detail, which I usually try to do.  So, to make the
October 15 deadline, I am sending the important highlights of the meeting to
this list and the Editor of the Davis Democrat Club Newsletter.

               Davis Democratic Club Meeting Minutes 
                Tuesday, October 10, 7 pm - 8:59 pm 
     Place: Davis Branch, Yolo County Library in Davis.  
                        CONFERENCE ROOM
                     315 East 14th Street.

This meeting was held at the Davis Branch, Yolo County Library Conference
Room in Davis at 315 East 14th Street in North Davis. 
Present (12 board members total present -- 14 votes present -- quorum was
present) were:
President: Arun Sen,
Vice President: Absent
Treasurer: Betty Weir	
Recording Secretary: G Richard Yamagata
Corresponding Secretary: Julia Sanchez
Acting Past President: Bob Bockwinkel, Past-Past President and Newsletter
Advertising,
Newsletter Editor: Tanya Chalupa (Ex-Officio)
Publicity: Mary Lou Hernandez (In addition voting proxy for John Chendo)
Past Publicity: Barbara Slemmons
Past Vice President Kingsley Melton
Special Guest: Mel Trujillo (Expert on Parlimentary Rules, Ex-Officio)
Board members:  Lyle Smith,  Mike Syvanen, and Joyce Wilson and Bill Ritter
(voting a proxy awarded by Board Member Pam Neiberg).

Guests:  Richard Petersen, Luba Schmid, Carl Schmid, Julia Hunter-Blair,
Eileen Lindsay, Barry Wilson, Bill Julian, Jim Provenza

TOTAL:  12 board members and 10 members of the public at start of meeting.  
        16 board members and 6 members of the public at the end of the
meeting.  

Absent from Meeting:   Vice President John Chendo (but represented by
Proxy), Past President Tony Gruska; Pam Neiberg (but represented by Proxy),
Adrienne Kandel, and Rhonda Gruska.

Arun Sen called the meeting into session at 7:03PM.

AGENDA
The agenda was changed by Mike Syvanen by asking for item III Campaign
Headquarters Requests (including donations) to be moved after item IV
Election of New Board Members.  The revised agenda was approved MSB.

MINUTES
MOTION/VOTE
The acceptance of the September 12 minutes as submitted were moved and
seconded by President Arun Sen.  The minutes were passed by the board by
acclaimation and without any objection. 

PUBLIC COMMENT
There was a representative from the Debra Bowen campaign that came and asked
for money from the DDC.  There was a representative from the Frank Seiferman
Jr campaign that came and asked for money from the DDC to help with
headquarters training of volunteers.

MINUTES AND REPORTS FROM OTHER CLUBS
President Arun Sen reported on the YCDCC Bean Feed by recognizing this years
Williamson-Weir Award winner, Mike Syvanen.  We congratulated Mike and the
selection committee on their choice of Mike for the award, who has
contributed much to the party and the club with his volunteer activities as
an individual and as a board member of the Davis Democrat Club

There were reports from other clubs, the Yolo County Central Committee and
the campaign headquarters itself.  These reports were given by Lyle Smith,
Rich Petersen and Bob Bockwinkel.

TREASURERS REPORT
Treasurer Betty Weir reported that we have $9,947.05   This is after we have
paid for the rent on the Headquarters and paid for the Davis Enterprise full
page campaign ad and the Flatlander Ad.  It was asked how much in expensives
were needed for the remainder of the year.  It was estimated by Betty that
we have about $2500 in expenses for the final 3 months of the year.

Both Mike Syvanen and Jim Provenza stated that this is a pivotal time in
that the Democrats can take back the House of Representatives.  There are
key races just 30 miles away in 3 districts where there are Republican
incumbents that are on the virge of losing their seats.  Now is the time for
the club to try to exert all the resources it can to make this happen.

It was asked that $7500 be given to support key races important to the Davis
Democrat Club and the Democratic Party.  Bob Bockwinkel and Betty Weir both
stated that they had reservations for the money to be spent from the
treasury with such a small amount left over for operations for the rest of
the year.  Bob Bockwinkel is the treasurer of the YCDCC and Betty is our
club treasurer.  Bob also stated that the $2500 left in the treasury does
not pay for other traditional costs incurred by the club during a campaign
cycle, namely paying a small stipend to the Davis Campaign Headquarters
Coordinator.  At this point, Bill Ritter, a Former President of the Davis
Democrat Club, and former volunteer Davis Campaign Headquarters Coordinator
stated that he worked two campaign cycles in the early 90s and did not ask
for nor received a stipend from the club for his efforts.  It was stated by
Mike Syvanen and Jim Provenza that money for such campaign headquarters
expenditure should be solicited from the club membership, who could donate
to that specific expense as they see fit.  

Newsletter Editor Tanya Chalupa stated her concern about the expenditure and
spending down of the treasury with the view that the board was the guardians
of money given to the DDC in dues and donations.  To spend the club money
down to $2500 was a drastic action by the board.  To alleviate the concerns
of the general membership voiced by Tanya, Mike Syvanen made it part of his
motion tha an article will be submitted to the newsletter informing the
general membership of this spending down of the treasury and reason the
board felt compelled to do this at this time.  Mike Syvanen volunteered to
write this article.  

At this point, the question was called on the motion before the board.
There were two proxy votes, where people had their proxy statements carried
in by a board member and a former president of the Davis Democrat Club.  It
was allowed at this meeting that proxy voting would be allowed at this
meeting by President Arun Sen.  

MOTION/VOTE
Mike Syvanen made the motion that the DDC keep $2500 in the treasury for the
remaining 3 months of the year and that the club spend the balance of $7500
in donations to support various campaigns important to the club and the
Democratic Party.  The Board will inform the General Membership of The Davis
Democrat Club of this donation of club treasury revenues to political
campaigns with an article in the next newsletter.  The article will explain
why the board thought this expenditure of club funds was important at this
pivotal time in history.  This motion was seconded by G Richard Yamagata.
The vote was 9 yea votes and 3 nay votes.  The motion carried 9-3-2. (There
were two abstaining votes because these people felt not franchised to vote
because of the attendence requirements of the by-laws.  These people could
be crucial at a meeting where they are needed to be counted as part of the
board to meet the quorum requirements of the by-laws whether they vote or
not..) 

ELECTION OF NEW BOARD MEMBERS
At this point it was decided by President Arun Sen to consider people that
were present at the meeting and with resumes submitted to the board to be
considered for membership to the board.  The candidates present were:
Eileen Lindsay, Julia Hunter-Blair, Carl Schmid, and Jim Provenza.

It was stated by President Arun Sen that Eileen Lindsay qualified to be
voted upon because she attended the special emergency board meeting held on
October 2nd.  Also, Eileen will only be in the Davis area for one year.
Because of her long political resume, which included being a student of Paul
Wellstone, the board felt that she was qualified to serve.  

MOTION/VOTE
Bob Bockwinkel made that motion that the 4 candidates, Eileen Lindsay, Julia
Hunter-Blair, Carl Schmid, and Jim Provenza, be elected to the board.  This
motion was seconded by Mike Syvanen and Lyle Smith.  The motion passed 11 to
0 with two abstentions.   

(There were two abstaining votes because these two people felt not
franchised to vote because of the attendence requirements of the by-laws.
These people could be crucial at a meeting where they are needed to be
counted as part of the board to meet the quorum requirements of the by-laws
whether they vote or not) 

CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS COMMITTEE
FLATLANDER AD
The ad was put together by Lyle Smith with the op ed pieces promised at the
last board meeting.  Lyle showed how this ad was being used as a tool by
those walking precincts and therefore was an effective use of money, not to
mention the large circulation numbers of the Flatlander.

DAVIS ENTERPRISE AD
Betty Weir has put together 350 for the full page ad in the Davis Enterprise
on page 2 on the Sunday before election day.  The ad will be layed out and
put together by Bill Ritter.  

At this point Barbara Slemmons proposed that the club do something radically
different this time around.  It should spend the money in three ads with one
running every Sunday to target the absentee voters and to give the ad
repetition before the eyes of the public.  She supported her arguement with
4 points:
a.  Close to 50% of the Davis Democratic voters vote absentee.  Ads
published earlier than ballot mail-in dates are more apt to influence votes.
b.  Repetition is believed by advertisers to be more effective than "1 shot"
advertising.
c.  Size is still important and a 3 column by 10 inch ad is larger than 1/4
of a page.
d.  Every supporter's name will appear in one of the three ads in readable size.

Barbara suggested that the dates for the three ads would be Sundays:  10/22,
10/29, and 11/5.

The cost would be less -- $668/ad or $2004 total.  

Bill Ritter then stated that the club could retain its page 2 placement on
Sunday with a 1/3rd of a page ad.  He could work it out with Davis
Enterprise.  The cost would be the same as 1 full page ad or $3000.  

MOTION/VOTE
Barbara made the motion that the club spend the money for the full page ad
on 3 1/3rd page ads to run in the A section of the Davis Enterprise for two
of the ads and on Page 2 on the last ad.  The board would charge Bill Ritter
to make this happen with oversight by President Arun Sen and Treasurer Betty
Weir.  The schedule for the ads organized and layed out by Bill could be
10/15, 10/22 and 11/5 or 10/22, 10/29, and 11/5.  This motion was seconded
by Carl Schmid.  The motion passed 15 yeas with 3 abstentions.  

CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS REQUESTS
The bottomline of the report is that the Davis Campaign Headquarters is
lacking volunteers.  We need volunteers to do phone banking, precinct
walking and we need people to stop up to be Precinct Captains.  The most
important thing is to get registered Democrats to turn out to the polls.  

ACTION ITEM
Club members need to step up to volunteer to walk precincts and to do phone
banking to target registered Democrat voters.

ACTION ITEM
The Davis Democrat Club Board Members were asked to volunteer to do phone
banking and to commit 2 hours per week (2 hours per week worked on behalf of
the club is required by the by-laws of the club of each DDC Board Member).  

AGREEMENT
Lyle Smith will coordinate the distribution of lists with volunteer
activities of the campaign headquarters volunteers and volunteering board
members in regards to phone banking and precinct walking.  

CAMPAIGN MONETARY REQUESTS
Debra Bowen is a member of the Davis Democrat Club.  She is running for
Secretary of State.  This office determines the election and balloting
procedures of the state.  With that in mind, Lyle Smith stated that this is
an important race for the future of California.  It was requested that the
club donate part of the $7500 earlier approved to her campaign.  Debra
Bowen's representative, Bill Julian, only asked for $500.   The amount was
suggested of $1000.

Frank Seiferman Jr is battling a Republican for Supervisor in Woodland.
Kingsley Melton asked for money on his behalf, which would be used to train
campaign workers at the county campaign headquarters.  This training will be
invaluable for these workers if they remain active and work for the party
during the presidential election in 2 years in 2008.  Kingsley also stated
what is important is that the Republican candidate has a record of
supporting land use policies that are contrary to the welfare and values of
Davis (the Republican would have voted no on Conway Ranch, no on Yolo Wild
and Scenic, yes on The Wall, no on SMUD, etc.  You can read this at the
Republican's blog).  Also, if the Republican wins the Supervisor seat in
Woodland, he can use this as a base to make a run on the Assembly in 2 years
when Lois Wolks seat term limits out.  The amount was suggested of $500,
which was upped to $1000.  

Donations to local congressional races important for re-taking of the House;
I will now just reprint Mike Syvanen's article for the newsletter.

"We would like to give you an update on our expenditures for the November
2006 election. These are funds that you, the membership, have donated. The
executive committee decided to use our limited resources to support a
number of electoral races that lie outside Davis and Yolo County.  This is
something that we have not done in the past.

Our Congressional candidate Mike Thompson is now in a 'safe' race (assuming
that you vote!).  However, what was not predicted even four months ago is
that three adjacent congressional seats in districts that were considered
safe for the republican incumbents have recently become competitive.  They
include Charlie Brown's challenge to Doolittle in the CA-04, Jerry
McNerney's race against Pombo in the CA-11 and Bill Durston against Lungren
in the CA-03.

Charlie Brown and Jerry McNerney are now in statistical dead heats against
their Republican opponents. Durston has been closing in. This is a
development that only the most optimistic Democrat could have predicted
even 4 months ago.  This provides us with an opportunity to turn back the
Bush tide towards more war.

Given this unique opportunity for Northern California to help the
Democratic Party take back Congress, the Executive Committee of the Davis
Democratic Club decided in its meeting on October 10 to expend a major
fraction of our budget as donations to these three races.

We have made the following contributions: 

Charlie Brown -- $2000
Jerry McNerney - $2000
Bill Durston --- $1500

Because we have made these important contributions in addition to our usual
local election year expenditures, we will have spent down our savings as of
Nov 8th, and will need to replenish our account.  It would help us if you
could renew your membership for 2007 now.  If you do this, you must indicate 
on your check that the money is for 2007 dues.  We are also taking any
donations 
for the newspaper campaign ads in the Davis Enterprise.  Suggested donations
for 
those that wish their name in these ads is $50.  To pre-pay your dues or make a
donation, send your checks to 
Davis Democrat Club 
Attn: Treasurer Betty Weir
P.O. Box 73014
Davis, CA  95617

Mike Syvanen for the Davis Democrat Club Board of Directors"

The amount suggested at this point in time by Mike Syvanen was:
Charlie Brown -- $2000
Jerry McNerney - $2000
Bill Durston --- $2000

MOTION
Mike Syvanen made the motion that the $7500 previously earmarked by the
board to support and fund campaign important to the Davis Democrat Club and
the Democratic Party be donated as follows:
Charlie Brown ---- $2000
Jerry McNerney --- $2000
Bill Durston ----- $2000
Debra Bowen ------ $1000
Frank Seiferman Jr  $500

The motion was seconded by G Richard Yamagata.

SUBSTITUTE MOTION/VOTE
A substitute motion was made by Jim Provenza that the $7500 previously
earmarked by the board to support and fund campaign important to the Davis
Democrat Club and the Democratic Party be donated as follows:
Charlie Brown ---- $2000
Jerry McNerney --- $2000
Bill Durston ----- $1500
Debra Bowen ------ $1000
Frank Seiferman Jr $1000

Mike Syvanen volunteered to set aside his motion.  G Richard Yamagata moved
his second to the substitute motion.  The motion passed with 12 yeas and 6
abstentions.  

The time was now 8:59PM and the library was closing.  President Arun Sen
adjourned the meeting with one objection.  Half of the remaining agenda,
items 5 through 8 were not covered by this board meeting.  

NEXT BOARD MEETING
The next board meeting will be on November 14 at 7PM at the Yolo County
Library, either the Blanchard Room or the Conference Room.  

These Minutes are respectively submitted,
G Richard Yamagata

Please note that these minutes do not contain all of the words spoken by
those present and reflect only the motion results and action items agreed
upon by the board.  If anyone would like to see those, I can make those
minutes available upon request.  Otherwise, these are the minutes that will
be submitted to the board at the November 14 meeting.


G Richard Yamagata  PhD
CEO/President   VME Inc.   http://www.vme.net/

G Richard Yamagata is a member of the Davis Community Network Board of 
Directors, a member of the board of the Business Link of Woodland and Davis,
Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Davis Democrat Club, President 
of the board of Virtual Market Enterprises, Inc, Secretary-Treasurer 
of the board of the Davis Progressive Business Exchange and communications 
liason of the Independent Order of Oddfellows Chapter 169.

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