Minutes October 4, 2022

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting
October 4, 2022
Bomber Mountain Civic Center, Room 108

Call to Order
Greg Haas called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

Attendance
Greg Haas, Suzi Black, Vikki Chenette, Dudley Case, Sharon Case, Lois Petersen, Casey Meyers, Mary Van Auken

Secretary Report
No changes to the minutes were suggested and minutes were approved.

Treasurer Report
Suzi Black reported the amount of money taken in at the Tri-County Labor Day Picnic, and she also reported on the balances in the JC Dems General account and Scholarship account.

Dudley Case paid for the Scholarship ad in the Buffalo Bulletin, which was $270 and also paid for the two ads in The Mini, which was $130.

Mary Van Auken volunteered to write and send thank you notes to the Scholarship donors.

Old Business

  1. Tri County Labor Day Picnic – Lois Petersen
    Over 100 people attended the picnic and due to all the clean-up work after the picnic we got our $360 deposit back.
    Four Democratic candidates attended and spoke at the picnic: Sergio Maldonado, Mark Hansen, Martha Wright, and Theresa Livingston.
  2. Democratic Party Adopt-A-Highway Sign – Lois Petersen
    This will be discussed at the November meeting
  3. SCC Review – Lois Petersen
    1. State candidates are getting a lot of help from the WDP.
    2. Democrats who switched party affiliations during the election to vote for Liz Cheney need to switch their party affiliation back, especially precinct committee men and women since they lost their positions when they switched parties.
    3. Joe Barbuto, WDP Chair, spoke about women’s reproductive rights.
    4. There is a Rural Initiative to help get Democrats better organized in rural areas, since Democrats have not been doing well recently in rural areas.
    5. Democrats should practice under voting if you know the people you want to vote for.

New Business
Johnson County VAN Precinct Lists – Dudley Case
Before the August meeting Dudley ran the list of Democrats in each precinct and then distributed the lists to people at the meeting so they could make calls to encourage people to attend the Tri-County Labor Day Picnic and to also try to get people’s email addresses.  The VAN lists only have a person’s physical address and phone number.

Getting to Work – Greg Haas

  1. Greg wanted to brainstorm on how to get more precinct committee people candidates on the ballot.
    One idea Greg had was to pick a precinct which has no committee people and set up an event for the precinct members and try and recruit a precinct committee man and woman.
  2. We also need to follow up with people who attended the Tri-County Event and with people who could not attend the event about purchasing raffle tickets for the quilt and helping candidates.  We could follow up with them using the VAN lists and the list of attendees.
  3. We also need to help candidates by writing postcards, sharing their webpages and facebook posts, making donations to their campaigns, helping them canvass or talking up their campaigns with voters.
  4. Vikki Chenette moved that the JCDems donate $100 to Martha Wright’s and Mark Hansen’s campaigns, and donate $50 to Jen Solis’s, Stephen Latham’s, Kim Bartlett’s and Hank Szramkowski’s campaigns. Mary Van Auken seconded the motion.  After some discussion the motion passed.
  5. Vikki Chenette moved that the JCDems should make donations to Sergio Maldonado’s and Lynette Greybull’s campaigns.  Mary Van Auken seconded the motion. After some discussion the motion passed.
  6. Suzi Black moved that the JCDems should donate $250 to Sergio’s campaign. Lois Petersen seconded the motion.  After some discussion the motion passed.
  7. Suzi Black moved that the JCDems should contribute $100 toward an ad in the Buffalo Bulletin for the Greybull campaign if they want to run an ad in the newspaper. Vikki Chenette seconded the motion. After some discussion the motion passed.

Announcements from the Floor

  1. Tara Nethercott’s name could be written in as a candidate for Secretary of State.
  2. Mary Throne’s name could be written in as a candidate governor.
  3. There is a Candidate Forum at the Johnson County Public Library on Wednesday, October 5 at 5:30 pm which will feature City Council and Rural Healthcare District candidates. And on Thursday, October 6 at 5:30 pm there is a Candidates Forum for Cemetery District and JCSD1 School Board candidates.
  4. Vikki Chenette will be selling Quilt Raffle tickets for the Scholarship Fund until May 1, 2023.
  5. Greg Haas said he is hearing good things about JCDems hard work from various people around the state, including WDP.
  6. Mary Van Auken said she has a lot of Democratic postcards that we can use.
  7. Greg Haas asked for volunteers to go to meetings for the City of Buffalo, Johnson County, the School District, etc. and report back to the JCDems.

Upcoming Meetings
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 1 at 7:00 pm in Room 108 at the Bomber Mountain Civic Center.

Adjourn
Greg adjourned the meeting at 8:53 pm.