Hi Folks,
Just another reminder about our meeting this Thursday at 7:00 PM. Once again, Todd Kobus has agreed to organize the ZOOM virtual meeting, which the committee appreciates. Todd will be on-line at 6:30 PM to help anyone who is having difficulty getting on-line. If you are having any problems logging into ZOOM, feel free to call Todd at 508-954-9372
Join the Zoom Meeting by opening the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/377577806
ATTLEBORO DEMOCRATIC CITY COMMITTEE
May 2020 Meeting Agenda
Secretary Report – Louise (was emailed)
Treasurers Report – Jackie
Fundraiser
Speakers:
James Arena De-Rosa
Jessie Mermell
Jake Auchinclos
General Discussion:
Attleboro Democratic City Committee
Meeting Minutes of Thursday, April 3, 2020
Due to social distancing restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting was held via Zoom. The meeting began at 7:03 pm.
Members Present:
Todd Kobus, Ellen Parker, Bill Bowles, Marilyn Powers, Jackie Romaniecki, Liz D’Uva, Mary Flaherty, Jim Hawkins, Diana Holmes, Ty Waterman, Jan Waterman, Paul Jacobs, John Corrigan, Ben Cuoto, Marilyn Moucharite, Shelley Stark, Charlie Adler, Barbara Clark, Debbie Scott, Laurie Sawyer
Reorganization Results:
Ward 1: Del Kelly, chair; Laurie Sawyer, secretary; Marilyn Moucharite; treasurer
Ward 2: Paul Jacobs, chair; Barbara Clark, secretary; Shelley Stark, treasurer
Ward 3: Ellen Parker, chair; Marilyn Powers, secretary; Todd Kobus, treasurer
Ward 4: Jackie Romaniecki, chair; Jan Waterman, secretary; Ty Waterman, treasurer
Ward 5: Mary Flaherty, chair; Dave Downs, secretary; Ben Cuoto, treasurer
Ward 6: Jim Hawkins, chair; Diana Holmes, secretary; John Corrigan, treasurer
City Committee: Bill Bowles, chair; Ellen Parker, vice-chair; Jackie Romaniecki, treasurer; Louise Collins, secretary; Shelly Stark, affirmative action chair
Secretary’s Report:
Earlier this week, ADCC members had been sent an electronic version of the March 2020 meeting minutes. Bill Bowles made a motion to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Diana Holmes and unanimously approved. Respectfully submitted by Louise Collins.
Treasurer’s Report:
As of our last meeting date on March 5, 2020, we had a balance of $4,667.93. We made a payment of $7.49 to Bill Bowles for Brunch expenditures. We collected and deposited $325.00 as advance ticket sales for the Brunch. (If you desire to have this refunded please contact me at jackirom@yahoo.com. There are several of you who made this purchase but have yet to respond.) For a current total of $4,985.44 as our account balance. We received a donation of $100 through ACTBlue but the check for $96.05 (100 minus the ACTBlue fees) has not been deposited due to the “quarantine”.
Respectfully submitted by Jackie Romaniecki.
Scholarship:
Jackie made a motion to donate $200 to Attleboro High School for a scholarship, recipient to be chosen by the High School. Shelly seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. Jackie will send out the check tomorrow.
Brunch:
Due to the pandemic, the brunch scheduled for March 28 was cancelled. As this is our major fundraiser for the year, we need to consider other options. One is to have a virtual online appeal, asking people who would have come to the brunch to donate $25 (the cost of the brunch ticket). Jackie says if there is anyone who had already purchased a ticket and would like a refund, just let her know. Ellen will send out an email in this regard. Ty mentioned that September is a big time for primaries, perhaps if we held some sort of event in mid-August we may get a good response. Todd came up with the idea that we could let people know that if we raise $2000, Jim Hawkins will send out a video of himself playing the accordion. Mary agrees with Todd that having some sort of draw is good, likes the accordion idea. Bill made a motion to authorize Ellen to seek donations in support of replacing income lost by not having the brunch. The motion was seconded by Todd and unanimously approved. Ellen says she will send an email to the state committee and others involved in the Massachusetts Democratic party asking for donations. Discussion of planning a different event will be taken up again in the May meeting.
There was some discussion of trying to set up a Zoom meeting with some of the candidates. Will wait to see how the pandemic plays out, may be difficult to get candidates to commit to a specific time.
General discussion:
Diana is concerned that elections will be delayed, worries we are getting set up for hearing that the country is not stable enough for a November election. Says we need to support vote by mail option.
The state committee will put Markey and Kennedy on the ballot. Convention will most likely be cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Mass. Democrats caucus will be held virtually, or by mail in, on April 25. People can go online to Mass Dems and register to go to the caucus. When you register, you will be sent a ballot in the mail, can send that in.
Ty is a delegate to the national convention, wants to be a Sanders delegate. But if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination, Ty will support whoever does get the nomination. It was brought up that many Bernie supporters support Bernie, not necessarily the Democratic Party. But many of the items Bernie supported in 2016 are on the 2020 convention platform, hopefully that will keep Bernie supporters active even if he does not get the nomination. Biden won’t support Medicare for All as it is currently proposed, Bernie does support it. Whichever candidate is successful should adopt from the one who isn’t. If we don’t do that, the only one who benefits is Trump. 30% of people will support Trump no matter what he does or doesn’t do. We are going to need the young vote (20-35 year olds), this is where Bernie can come in. Democrats need to do everything we can to get out the vote from all demographics.
Re Trump’s daily coronavirus task force press conferences: Ben says CNN has been cutting away, so he switches to FOX. Some pundits say not worth televising because of Trump’s inaccurate rhetoric, that he is just spreading misinformation. Ben does not think they should cut away because he wants to know exactly what Trump is saying, the network analysts can afterwards discuss what parts were accurate/inaccurate.
At the next meeting in May, we can start concentrating on electing a candidate to represent our party, and start showing the difference between our nominee and Donald Trump. This Zoom meeting was primarily for the regulars since it is the reorganization meeting. Next meeting could try to have a speaker scheduled, and open the meeting up to the full list. Todd says he will be happy to walk people through how to join a Zoom meeting and get everything set up for them. Marilyn suggests we get a link out before the meeting and have people register.
Ben says over the course of the next year he would like to have a presentation from all of the Attleboro city councilors, both Republican and Democrat. Ellen says we would need to look into the ramifications of having a Republican at our meeting. Charlie says he would like Paul Heroux to come and talk about how he brings progressive ideas to non-partisan city issues, have him do a State of the City discussion.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 pm. The next meeting will be held on May 7, 2020.
Respectfully submitted,
Louise Collins
