Minutes from Oconee County Democratic Committee July 15 meeting

The Oconee County Democratic Committee needs to step up to the plate and do much more than bike rides and ice cream socials if they have any hope of electing any Democratic candidates this fall. Pat Priest has gone above and beyond the call of duty in doing a huge variety of projects and goals with next to no help from anyone in the committee. It is time to register voters for November. It is time to drop of voter registration forms at churches and schools. It is long beyond time to let people know it is OK to be a Democratic party member again in Oconee County.

Minutes

Oconee County Democratic Committee meeting

July 15, 2008

Oconee County Courthouse, Watkinsville, Georgia

 

 

Vice-Chair Jonathan Veit called the meeting to order at 7:33 pm, as Chair Becky Vaughn was going to be late.

 

A quorum was declared present.

 

Minutes:  The minutes from the June 5, 2008 meeting were approved unanimously after a motion by Diana Jeffreys and second by Rita Bennett.

 

 

 

Community Service:

o        Adopt-a-Road:  The next road cleanup will be in August so that the OCHS YDs can participate.  Exact date will be determined at our August 7 meeting, to give Karen Solheim time to check with her YDs for availability.

 

Fundraising Opportunities:

o        Yard Sale:  The Yard Sale will take place on Saturday, October 18 (date of Fall Festival) and will again be held at Rita Bennett’s house at School St. and Second Street, across from Rocket Field.  Jonathan agreed to send out a notice asking people to begin saving their stuff to donate.  Rita and Diana will co-chair again.

o        Tour de Pottery:  The bike ride will be held in the fall in conjunction with the OCAF Perspectives event, which runs the weekends of 8/30, 9/6, and 9/13.  The pottery studio tour is 9/6; however, the studio tour is going out toward Danielsville, whereas we would prefer to keep the bike ride in the Oconee County area and focus on Oconee County potters.  Jonathan, with Tony’s help, will contact local potters to see who would be willing to open their studios to coincide with the bike ride.  Jonathan is also going to approach OCAF (with Sarajane’s help) about our staging the bike ride at OCAF, to help draw people to the Perspectives show and sale.  Tony will also see if he can recruit someone to design a T-shirt.  We have developed a list of publications/websites/organizations through which to promote, as well as a list of potential sponsors.  Becky will invite candidates to come with literature.  One suggestion, still under consideration, is renting/hiring a van to drive non-bicyclists to the pottery studios.  This van, as well as the SAG wagons, would also carry purchases for the bicyclists.  The date is tentatively Saturday, September 6, with September 13 as an alternate.  Jonathan will email any developments between now and our next meeting.

 

Becky Vaughn arrived and took over chairing the meeting from Jonathan

 

Public Awareness—Pat Priest:

o        Book Group:  The next meeting will be held on Thursday, July 17 at the Five Points Deli on Epps Bridge Parkway starting at 6:00 pm to discuss Founding Brothers.  The book group discussions for August and September will focus on the autobiographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.  Pat will issue a challenge to other organizations (e.g., Lion’s Club) to read and discuss these two autobiographies.

o        Movie Night:  Events continue to be scheduled when good movies at Ciné are to be shown.  A showing of “Darius Goes West” will be given on Friday, July 18.

o        Sunday Series:  The program presented by Rich Clark on June 29 was great.  On July 27, the director of St. Mary’s EMS will talk about emergency medical services in Oconee and Clarke counties.  A possibility for a future program is a program on bicycle commuting.

o        Athfest:  Several committee members helped staff the booth at Athfest which was a collaborative effort between Clarke, Madison, and Oconee Democratic committees.  Six people gave names and email addresses to sign up for our email list, but so far, only one has signed up from the invitation Herb sent them, and one other will sign up when she returns mid-August from an overseas vacation.

 

Other Business:

o        June 14 Caucus:  Thirteen returning committee members were re-elected at the caucus, and three new committee members were elected (Welcome, Tony, Ann, and Robert!).  We have two vacant posts:  Post 3-3 (Athens Academy and City Hall voting precincts) and Post 4-3 (Civic Center and North Oconee).  The committee can elect/appoint people to fill those slots.

o        Ice Cream Social:  An ice cream social has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday, September 28 at Harris Shoals Park (this will also be part of our monthly Sunday Series) as a fundraiser and opportunity for local candidates.  Becky is going to ask Pat Adams if she would chair the event.  Several committee members can make ice cream churns (electric and manual) available, and a competition to choose the best flavor was suggested (perhaps even between Dems and GOP!).  No one (that I noted) agreed to reserve the park with City Hall.

o        Fall Campaign:  We need to ramp up our efforts in support of Bobby Saxon and Rich Clark (county BOE).  Fundraising/publicity events are already planned in the county for both candidates (Stoneburner/Wyatt for Saxon, and Fred Johnson & his wife for Rich Clark).

o        GADCC Dinner:  The annual dinner for the Georgia Association of Democratic Committee Chairs is scheduled for Saturday, September 13, in Dublin.

 

Next meeting:  Thursday, August 7, 7:30 pm (gathering and conversation beginning at 7:00 pm).

 

As there was no further business and everyone was eager to go upstairs to the courtroom to check on election results, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Herb West

Secretary

 

 

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