[Davis Democrats] September 12th Board Meeting Minutes
G Richard Yamagata PhD
yamagata at virtual-markets.net
Wed Sep 20 15:41:47 PDT 2006
Greetings Davis Democrat Club Boardmembers,
These are the minutes that are respectfully submitted to the board with
revisions:
1) There is a detailed report by Kingsley Melton on his activities for the
YCDCC and the campaign headquarters in Davis and Woodland.
2) There is a note about the Yolo County Democrat 8 foot banner and the
need for someone that is active in volunteering at the Yolo County
booth to takeover the storage and transportation of the banner.
3) There is a clarification that was submitted by Adrienne Kandel to a
motion about purchasing the Flatlander ad.
4) The Grand Opening of the Headquarters was completely changed in date,
time, and format. This is not a DDC General Meeting event. This is not a
potluck event. I was informed by Rich Pederson that the Grand Opening is
going to be on Saturday, September 23 from 1 to 3PM.
[Personal Note from the Recording Secretary: If you want to see what was
discussed for over 15 minutes in the minutes, please read that section of
the minutes near the bottom concerning the Campaign Headquarters Grand
Opening. I would like to discuss with someone why the Democratic process
for the Grand Opening of the Headquarters was subverted and why everything
was changed after we had taken into account a major religious holiday in our
formulating the date of the opening to Sunday, September 24. The reason
that I am upset is that the board went 49 minutes over time at this board
meeting on the 12th of September, spending a third of that time in
discussion and decision on the grand opening date and time -- then the plans
were unilaterally changed. To my knowledge, there has been no emergency
meeting of the DDC to change the decision reached on Tuesday, September 12
at the DDC Board Meeting. I would like to know who on the board did this
and by what process this was done. I am an officer of the Davis Democratic
Club and I was not informed of any of these changes until after the press
release was sent out this last Monday, September 18. There was a meeting of
the headquarters volunteers on Tuesday at 7PM, but even that body was not
part of the decision process, as the press release was published on Tuesday
afternoon in the Davis Enterprise. This was all done before the Tuesday
evening meeting. Someone acted as dictator or junta here and I want to know
who and why they did this. The minutes were published after Midnight at 1AM
on the 16th of September. Someone should have contacted me after the 12th,
so I could amend the minutes and announce the event and definitely should
have informed me after the 16th, when these minutes went out to the list. I
should not be the only person on the board that should be upset about this.
What I suggest is that in the future, the DDC Board not have anything on its
agenda in regards to the campaign headquarters, so that we do not waste the
DDC Board's valuable time on things like this. That is a decision, though,
that needs to be made by the executive officers of the club.]
Davis Democratic Club (DDC) Board Meeting
Tuesday, September 12, 7 pm - 9 pm
Place: Davis Democrat Headquarters 2006.
231 E Street.
Davis, CA
This meeting was held at the Davis Democrat Headquarters at 231 E Street in
downtown Davis.
Present (11 board members total) were:
President: Arun Sen,
Vice President:
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: Absent
Publicity: Mary Lou Hernandez
Publicity: Absent (Acting)
Parlimentarian: None (Ex-Officio)
Board members: Lyle Smith, Pam Neiberg, Adrienne Kandel, Mike Syvanen, and
Joyce Wilson.
Absent from Meeting: Vice President John Chendo, Past President Tony
Gruska; Past Vice President Kingsley Melton, Barbara Slemmons, and Rhonda
Gruska.
Guests: Carl Schmid, Rick Gonzles, Luba Schmid, Jim Provenza, Julia
Hunter-Blair, Joseph Weisenberg.
There was a total of 17 people present at this meeting. There was a quorum
of board members present. We currently have 16 active board members. This
puts a quorum at 9 board members. There were 11 board members present at
this meeting.
President Arun Sen called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.
AGENDA: Arun Sen presented the agenda to the board. The agenda was
approved MSB.
MINUTES OF PAST MEETINGS:
The minutes from the August 8th DDC board meeting were presented.
MOTION/VOTE
Bob Bockwinkel moved that the minutes be accepted as approved with no
changes. Julia Sanchez seconded this motion. The minutes were approved
with no objection.
COMMENTS AND PUBLIC COMMENT
Joyce Wilson came to bring her e-mail to the board, which stated her
objection to having the Yolo County Central Committee accepting $1000 from
Target as a sponsor of the Bean Feed.
Bob Bockwinkel, treasurer of the Yolo County Democrat Central Committee
(YCDCC), stated that he first learned about this when the mailer for this
event arrived in his mailbox.
Bob also offered to give Joyce Wilson contact information, so she could
contact the members of the YCDCC. Also, Betty Weir was present at this
meeting and was told Joyce's objection to this sponsorship.
Lyle Smith recommended that the YCDCC be contacted and told that the Davis
Democrat Club would like the "No on Target" people be granted the
opportunity to set-up an information booth at the Bean Feed. Lyle further
stated that Target gave a substantial campaign contribution to the
Schwarzenegger campaign.
Adrienne supported Lyle's recommendation.
ACTION ITEM
President Arun Sen will have the club Corresponding Secretary write a letter
stating the clubs position on having Target as a sponsor of the Bean Feed.
The letter will state that the YCDCC can ask Target to rescind their
sponsorship of the Bean Feed in view of the special interest conflict
concerning their donation to the YCDCC. If Target does not want to rescind
their donation, the "No on Target" grassroots campaign should be given the
chance to have an information booth at The Bean Feed. The letter will also
state that Target gave a substantial donation to the Arnold Schwarzenegger
campaign.
OTHER MINUTES AND REPORTS FROM DEMOCRAT ORGANIZATIONS
WOODLAND DEMOCRAT CLUB
Lyle Smith reported that the Woodland Club is working hard to make sure that
Frank Seiferman Jr is elected to Yolo County Board of Supervisors. He
stated that this is very important, for if Rexroad wins this election, he
will be poised to challege any Democrat running for Lois Wolks seat, when
she term limits out. Lyle went on to report that the Yolo County Campaign
Headquarters was a great event, that was well attended. There were 3 Davis
Democrat Club Board Members present at the grand openning.
YOUNG DEMOCRATS
Lyle Smith reported that Rich and Kandice are working 30 to 40 hours per
week to register new young voters. They are looking for more 30 year olds
to join their efforts in Yolo County. As an aside, Lyle reported that John
Chendo is tabling in Woodland to sign-up new voters and he suggested that
the Davis Democrat Club do the same at the Davis Farmer's Market.
DDC PRESIDENT REPORT
Arun Sen reported that he is working on a number of things for the club:
mainly working on procedure on how we conduct our meetings and select and
elect our board members. He is working towards tightening the by-laws from
our informal and loose interpretation of our old by-laws. Once he has
formalized all of this, he will present his work to the board.
YDCC REPORT
There were 5 people present in the room that were present at the YDCC
meeting. Bob Bockwinkel gave the report on the meeting. He stated that the
main topic at the meeting was how the County Headquarters in Woodland was
doing well with twelve to sixteen volunteers constantly at the headquarters
actively working on precinct walking and phone banking.
CENTRAL COMMITTEE REPORT BY KINGSLEY MELTON
Davis Democratic Club- I picked up 10 cell phones today from Metro PCS.
They are paid for and active until November 10th. They are all charged and
ready. They will be kept at the Davis Headquarters unless there is a
specific night of phonebanking scheduled elsewhere in Yolo County.
There are sign-up sheets available to be a precinct captain or for
upcoming phone banks. Precinct sign-ups are located next to the precinct
map on the wall. Phone-banking sign-ups are availabe on Tuesdays and
Thursdays on the September calendar, also on the wall. Volunteers should
write there names and phone numbers.
Yolo Central Committee-- Had a successful Grand Opening in Woodland
attended by John Chendo, Lyle Smith, Lois Wolk, Mariko Yamada and Katie
Villegas were just a few that attended.
Frank had his first precinct walk in Woodland last Saturday. Precinct
walkers also left Democratic Doorhangers provided by the state Democratic
Party.
Bean Feed-- Remind folks about the Yolo County Democratic Bean Feed on
September 30th at the Veteran's Memorial Center. For more information,
contact Katie Villegas, 916-375-1132
Misc.-- I will interview a potential UCD student-intern to help at the
office on Thursday. It is my goal to have 3 interns this fall to help with
the election effort.
UCD Dems-- are currently planning their fall registation efforts to enroll
more members. I will be helping them in there efforts.
To the Davis Dems:
Sorry I could not attend tonight. My best friend is getting married and
he drove from San Jose tonight to ask me to be his best man. I will be in
the Davis office daily, and will continue to coordinate our efforts.
Please excuse my absence, I will not make it a habit.
Sincerely,
Kingsley Melton
YCDCC campaign headquarters coordinator
TREASURER'S REPORT
Betty Weir reported that we have $17,259.76 in the bank. We currently have
248 paid members.
ICE CREAM SOCIAL
We had 60 to 70 people in attendence at the Ice Cream Social. Betty
deposited $706 from this event with $100 in dues.
It was agreed that we should continue to charge $10/person. Betty sat at
the door, collecting money. Julia stated that we had a Baskin Robbins
employee, that decorates also the cakes at the shop, volunteer to serve the
ice cream. Julia and Bob both stated that she did an excellent job that
added to the atmosphere of the ice cream social. It was stated that she was
not charged admission fee because of her contribution to the event.
It was agreed that the only improvement on the event should be more effort
in getting people to attend the event. It was also stated that we had
enough ice cream for the 70 people (according to records, we should have had
8 gallons of ice cream at the event to feed 70 people).
TREASURER'REPORT revisited
Betty Weir went back on the agenda to present to the board a copy of the
FPCC Report. She showed the club the report that she files twice a year,
the last time being in July. She show how it is filled out and how the
filled out form is mailed to the County Clerk, Freddie Oakley, who sends it
on to the Secretary of State. It was asked what level of government
mandates that this is done. It was said at the meeting that it is the
State, but it is actually a Federal law that mandates that this information
be collected, recorded and stored by the States.
COUNTY FAIR
Carl Schmid went over the pictures that his wife, Luba, took at the fair.
One major point was that he was working at the booth and his wife could not
find the booth and had passed it a couple of times. This was because it
blended into the background and had no significant signage that was clearly
visible. Luba went on to comment on how the campaign pins were not
displayed prominently at the booth and with her wearing them, she was able
to sell a significant number of them during the two hours she was present at
the booth. Carl stated that the booth needs things to hook the public, like
the free helium balloons that were offered by the gentleman from the
Woodland Club that was present at the booth. Carl also stated that the
volunteers at the booth need to be engaging.
The eight points presented were:
1. Booth: More prominent/accessible location (Rick Gonzales can help with
this)
2. Banner: Larger and more visible Yolo County Democratic Banner
3. Flags: CA and US at the booth
4. Pins and Bumper Stickers: large felt board with prices clearly marked
-- perhaps free or at cost?
5. Balloons: Free balloons with messages -- e.g., "Vote and Register Democrat"
6. Political Literature: provide a rack for literature
7. Booth Volunteers: Wear something specific to identify them -- e.g.,
shirts and/or hats with "Yolo County Democrat" or "Vote Democrat" or
wear pins for sale.
8. Voter Registration: provide at least one chair and space on the table
so that people can register to vote.
Rick Gonzales stated that the Democrat booth had more traffic than the
Republican booth. He also wants people at the booth that interact with the
public. He also wants the YCDCC to spend the money for 2 booth spots at the
fair and he said that he can help with booth placement for the YCDCC.
Betty stated that the club needs to present our suggestions to the central
committee.
Mary Lou Hernendez stated that she wants a formal invitation by the YCDCC
with a set time to be at the booth to help set-up the booth at the fair.
This is what is needed for her and the others to become active in setting up
the booth to her expectations.
Mike Syvanen stated that he wanted visual displays for the active campaigns
that are running for the campaign cycle, not personalities that have been
elected and are not actively running.
Bob Bockwinkel made a motion that the Davis Democrat Club purchase a large 8
to 10 foot banner to donate to the Yolo County Central Committee to be used
at the fair. After the motion was seconded, discussion ensued.
Mary Lou Hernandez stated that the club should not be paying for a banner
and that it was the responsibility of the YCDCC to purchase the banner. She
also stated that there should be a banner. Mike Syvanen stated that 8 years
ago, he saw an 8 foot banner and helped hang it at the booth. G Richard
Yamagata concured that he saw such a banner as recent as 4 years ago.
[Secretary Note: Robin Souza e-mailed G Richard Yamagata and informed him
that the 8 foot banner was in storage at their house in the garage. The
banner was defaced 4 years ago and has since been repaired. Robin offered
to give the banner to someone else that is active in working at the booth at
the fair to store the banner and transport it to and from the fairgrounds.]
MOTION/VOTE
Bob Bockwinkel made a motion that the DDC purchase an 8 to 10 foot banner
next year for the YDCC. The motion was seconded by Pa Nieberg. Adrienne
Kandel made a motion to amend the motion that the club not spend more than
$25 for the banner, not the $225 that they usually cost. This motion died
for want of a second. The question was called on the original motion to a
vote by President Arun Sen and the motion failed 3 yeas to 8 nays.
After the vote, Bob Bockwinkel stated that he did not understand the message
that the club was trying to send to the YCDCC. He stated that "We [the
board] send complaints and yet we will not send money or materials to help
with the campaign booth."
There was no other suggestions as to how to proceed on this issue with the
YCDCC, other than Betty's that DDC Board Members that feel strongly about it
should go to the YCDCC meeting and state their opinions at those monthly
meetings.
CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
Bob Bockwinkel found the campaign headquarters for the committee. It was
painted by his friend, Guy Turner, who volunteered paint and time to paint
the office. The old color was a bright reddish color and the new color is a
grey-white eggshell color. The club is putting out a folding inverted "v"
placard sign out on E Street announcing that the headquarters if behind Cafe
Roma. The club is open from 9:30AM to 1PM on Monday through Friday. On
Tuesday and Thursday it is open during the afternoon with John Chedo and
Betty Weir manning the headquarters separately on those days. John Chendo
have put pins and numbers on the precinct map with a master list for people
to sign to state which precincts they will walk. Bob encouraged for those
present to sign up on the precinct chart to walk and distribute materials.
There are plans to start phone banking on Thursday, September 14. The
campaigns that we are concentrating on are Phil Angelides, Deborah Bowen,
and John Garamendi. Thursday is also the date for the Phil Angelides rally
in central park in Davis. There is a dinner at 5:30PM and rally at 6:30PM.
Phil is expected to stop by at 6:30PM in Davis. [note: Phil was unable to
make it, but one of his daughters and his wife made the campaign stop for
this event in Davis.] The Davis headquarters will be distributing materials
for these elections and phone banking for them.
It was asked if there was any way to get Phil Angelides down to the
headquarters for a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the headquarters and get
press from the Davis Enterprise. Bob Bockwinkel stated that this was
logistically not possible. [Bob proved to be more than correct with Phil
being too tired to stop off in Davis as he was non-stop campaigning in
Northern California since 7AM on Thursday morning and on his way from the
Bay Area to Sacramento at 6PM.]
It was discussed by Bob Bockwinkel that he had gotten special pricing for
Phil Angelides campaign t-shirts from the Ink Monkey (total cost was close
to $5/shirt). Bob wanted to sell the t-shirts for $5/t-shirt to people that
would wear to the rally to show unity of the club and people that work and
visit the headquarters, but various members of the board felt that it was
more important to collect the money at $10/shirt. The decision was that the
headquarters would sell the shirts that Bob Bockwinkel had made at $10/shirt.
PARLIMENTARIAN
President Arun Sen has talked to Mel Trujillo and he has consented to being
parlimentarian. G Richard Yamagata was asked about this position and he
stated that the position is ex-officio and the parlimentarian is not a board
member that can vote at the DDC Board Meetings. Arun stated that Judy
Reynolds has also been contacted about the position should Mel not be able
to make the meetings. [John Chendo telephone G Richard Yamagata and
informed him that Judy Reynolds has withdrawn her name for consideration
because she has too much on her plate in terms of commitments to other
organizations.
NEW BOARD MEMBERS
The following people showed up for their second consecutive board meetings:
Carl Schimd
Rick Gonzales
Jim Provenza
The following person showed up for her first meeting:
Julia Hunter-Blair
All of these people have paid their dues to the club and have mailed in
their application form. Arun Sen stated that these people will be voted in
at the next meeting, if they should attend the next meeting. Arun stated
that he is going to establish a maximum and minimum number of DDC Board
Members. He also stated that the application form will be revised to
include which committee the board members plan to volunteer to support with
the Davis Democrat Club.
After a question was brought up by Adrienne Kandel, Arun Sen stated that he
wanted a mechanism to eject members from the board. There is already a rule
that a person missing 3 board meetings in a row is no longer an active board
member.
Mike Syvanen mentioned his tenure on the by-laws committee with John Chendo,
Rich of the Young Democrats, Arun Sen, Betty Weir and G. Richard Yamagata.
We met 6 times over a 5 month period and nothing was agreed upon within the
committee meetings nor at the board meeting when the revised by-laws were
presented to the board.
Arun stated that he will work to revise the by-laws in regards to board
member selection.
Joyce Wilson asked if the club had to mail the revised by-laws to the
Secretary of State. Betty stated that we send the by-laws to the County
Central Committee. [It is my understanding and experience that the
Secretary of State needs to have a copy of the by-laws of any non-profit
group that is chartered and recognized as tax exempt by the IRS and the
State of California.]
Bob Bockwinkel stated that this is not the time to start meetings for the
by-laws committee with election season upon us and the election 45 days
away. There was general agreement on this statement and it was said that
the by-laws committee would start meeting again after January 2007.
FALL BARBECUE
It was discussed that we have had at least two Fall Barbecues at Stephen
Souza's home. Last year there was a barbecue at Stephen's home that was a
fundraiser, but it was not an official club event. G Richard Yamagata
stated that the club has had a barbecue at the campaign headquarters the
last two times the headquarters was openned on L Street. It was stated that
Stephen Souza is busy working on the SMUD campaign for annexation of Yolo
County. It was discussed that we could have the barbecue in Davis Central
Park. It was finally decided that we would have a Potluck/Headquarters
Grand Openning Event. We will ask people to bring food and to come down to
the headquarters to sign-up to walk a precinct of do some phone banking.
The date for the Potluck will be September 24 from 1Pm to 4Pm. This will be
discussed more, later in the meeting when we discuss General Meetings for
the Club.
NEWSLETTER
It was agreed that the board was very satisfied with the newsletter. That
was the good news. The bad news is that Tanya Chalupa will be talking on a
new job and will not be able to work on the newsletter after January 1. She
will make a disk with all of the design elements and templates for the
newsletters to make the job easier for the next newsletter editor.
Mike Syvanen stated that we need an article in the newsletter about ABC News
distribution of material to the public schools through Scholastic Books of a
revised history blaming 9/11 World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist
attacks on Bill Clinton. Arun stated that he will give Tanya a call to see
if such an article can be inserted into the newsletter this month.
NEW BUSINESS
The Flatlander newsprint magazine contacted the DDC about advertising. The
Flatlander has a circulation of 11,000 households. Jim Leonard, a Green
Party Member, was the person that contacted the club. There was an
objection to placing ads in the paper, because as a Green Party vehicle, the
paper will probably not support Democrat candidates, but Green Party
candidates. Lyle Smith spoke in favor of advertising in the Flatlander. He
stated that the Green Party and the Democratic Party both favor the same
propositions and both support the same public policy positions. A half page
ad only costs $350, a deal when compared to advertising in the Davis
Enterprise. Adriene Kandel was also insupport of a Flatlander ad
CONDITIONAL ON ITS TRYING TO PERSUADE READERS WITH BULLET POINTS ABOUT THE
CANDIDATES AND THEIR STANDS, RATHER THAN JUST BEING A SLATE OF NAMES. Bob
Bockwinkel supported the idea that not only could the club purchase an ad,
that it could write a letter to the editor and try to get an op-ed piece or
article published in the Flatlander covering the Democrat Club position on
the propositions and issues on this upcoming November ballot. Lyle Smith
volunteered to write a letter to The Flatlander featuring support for Phil
Angelides, Deborah Bowen, and John Garamendi, Proposition 85, and SMUD
Annexation of Yolo County. Lyle would publish 3 bullet points on each
candidate or Proposition 85.
MOTION/VOTE
Lyle Smith asked the DDC Board to officially support the position, No on
Proposition 85. This motion was seconded by Mike Syvanen and the motion
carried unanimously. The corresponding secretary is to write letters to
various media outlets announcing the DDC position on Proposition 85.
MOTION/VOTE
Bob Bockwinkel made a motion that the DDC Board officially endoarse measures
H and I, supporting the annexation of Yolo County by SMUD. Mike Syvanen
seconded the motion. The motion carried with 9 votes for support and 1
abstaining vote.
MOTION/VOTE
Lyle Smith made the motion that the club purchase a half page ad in The
Flatlander to public the Yolo County Democrat Slate Card. This motion was
seconded by Adrienne Kandel. There were 9 votes in support and 1 abstaining
vote and the motion carried.
NEXT GENERAL MEMBER EVENT
The next General Member event will be the Potluck for the Davis Democrat
Headquarters opening on September 24, Sunday, at 1PM to 4PM. Members will
be invited to come down to the headquarters and share food and break bread
with each other in proparation for precinct walking and phone banking. This
will be an informal gathering of the club membership in support of the Davis
Democrat Campaign Headquarters.
MOTION/VOTE
Bob Bockwinkel made the motion that the club spend the money for a full page
ad in the Davis Enterprise. G Richard Yamagata seconded the moton and it
passed 11 yea votes.
Betty Weir and the phone bank crew will be telephoning members to ask if
they will allow their name to appear in the ad. Betty will also be asking
for some funding of the ad as she calls club members.
NEXT MONTH'S MEETING
Next month's board meeting will be at 7 PM on October 10. This is the
second Tuesday of the month. The meeting will be held at the Davis Democrat
Campaign Headquarters.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dan Berman spoke about the Yolo For SMUD campaign. To contact him about the
campaign, Dan's phone number is 757-6609. There was no motion presented for
the club to support this position.
Jim Provenza announced his "Back to School Blues" fundraising event on
September 10th.
ADJOURNMENT
Arun Sen adjourned the meeting. The meeting ended at 8:39PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Recording Secretary
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