Framingham Democratic Town Committee
Minutes of May 23, 2004 meeting
Held at Framingham Green from 7pm to 9pm.
Attendance
Members: Steve Blesofsy, Debby Blumer, Rosalie Cotton, Jerry Desilets, Pat Dunne, Barbara Gray, Bill Haberman, Donna Howland, Chris Lorant, Barbara Mcgovsky, Kathie McCarthy, Stephanie Mercandetti, Terene Micciche, Joan Rastani, Chris Ross, Marilyn Safian, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Chery Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid
Associate Members: Karen Spilka, Shelly Strowman, Edwina Weston-Dyer
Norma Shulman advised that the new meeting location at Framingham Green might not be available on a regular basis. The resident sponsor did not attend the meeting, however Norma acknowledged him for making the space available to the DTC. A few options for future meetings were offered such as the meeting room at the fire station, however no firm decision was made.
It was announced that an audio tape recorder would be used by the new secretary for recording the minutes of the meetings for transcription purposes; there was no objection from the assembly over the use of this device.
Norma acknowledged and thanked the outgoing officers for the service to the DTC. The outgoing President, Steve Blesofsky, acknowledged his officers and on their behalf expressed appreciation for the opportunity to have served the DTC.
OLD BUSINESS:
Outgoing treasurer Bill Haberman gave his final Treasurer’s Report. Bill reported:
Cash on hand 4/18/04 $1028.49
Dues received 85.00
Income from T-shirt sales 470.00
Sub-total 1583.49
Expenses (meeting room) 50.00
Cash on hand 5/23/04 $1533.49
4 members still owed dues for 2002-03
8 members owed dues for 2003-04
8 new members owed dues, (1 owed $15, 7 owed $5. One of the new members paid her $5 before meeting started to Donna Howland.)
There are 9 paid associate members.
Alan Silver reported that the audit of the treasury was in order, all financial records were consistent with the bank statements. Alan asked the membership to congratulate Bill Haberman for his services and a job well done.
The change of officers’ form needs to be completed. It is in Parwez Wahid’s possession. (This can likely get done during the by-laws subcommittee meeting.)
Minutes of the April 18th meeting were accepted.
Decision on proceeds from T-shirt sales. The T-shirts that were in the DTC’s inventory were all sold. Chris Lorant has a few remaining that he is selling and he may be contacted by anyone interested in a T-shirt.
Norma Shulman reported she had an additional $30 in sales, adding to the amount reported by Bill, the DTC now has $500 income from the T-shirt sales. Expenses for the T-shirts totaled $297.36, leaving proceeds of $202.64. Norma is to be reimbursed for the T-shirt expenses.
Motion was offered that the DTC reimburse Norma for her expenses and send the $200 to the Kerry campaign; motion was seconded. An amendment to the motion was offered that $250 be sent to the Kerry campaign as the DTC treasury has sufficient funds to permit this contribution. The amended motion was accepted and voted upon, the motion passed with no opposition or abstentions. The T-shirt distribution on Marathon Day was considered successful as numerous T-shirts were seen being worn along the race course. Even runners were acknowledging the Kerry T-shirts.
Future location for meetings remains uncertain, suggestions are welcome. Meetings at the Framingham Green function room are subject to the meeting being sponsored by a resident of the Green. Suggestion was made for the fire department meeting room, however Norma advised that it is no longer available. Members should also investigate the suggested location first to determine availability and viability before suggesting it to the Committee.
Norma added that the Framingham Green remained an attractive option if the issue of sponsorship can be resolved. The community room at the Green offers a kitchen that would allow serving light refreshments during meetings. This would also be useful in attracting residents from the Green to attend DTC meetings and consider membership.
Also the Framingham Green policies allow for elected members of a town committee to hold informational meetings for constituents during a non-election year.
The By-laws subcommittee will be staffed by the immediate past and present officers of the DTC. Committee members may attend the sub-committee meetings as well. The first meeting will be on June 13th hosted by either Bill Haberman or Donna Howland. Some printed copies of the by-laws were available and an electronic (soft) copy would be sent to all members with the minutes of this meeting.
Sample by-laws are available at the Mass Dems website. Members may visit this website to review the sample by-laws and compare with the DTC by-laws. (The link to the website is given at the end of these minutes.) Suggestions on updates from the members are welcome; input should be sent to Parwez Wahid.
E-mail buddies are needed for 3 Committee members who do not have e-mail access. Members not receiving email are sent the minutes and meeting notices by regular mail, however they are unable to receive last minute updates and other fast developing information. An e-mail buddy would typically phone their partner upon receipt of any e-mail updates from the DTC and relay this information. The 3 members needing email buddies are Archie Lyon, Mary Murphy and Caroline Ray. Debbie Blumer offered to act as e-mail buddy for Archie. Two more volunteers are needed; any Committee members interested can contact Norma or Parwez.
Another request was made to remind all committee members on the Mass Dems credit card. By filling out code F07 in field A, a $40 contribution will be made to the Democratic Party and of that $10 is given to the DTC. The card can be applied for on-line at www.juniper.com/1445. (This was mentioned at the state convention as well.)
NEW BUSINESS:
Mat Helman will head the program sub-committee. Norma gained some ideas for DTC programs during the state convention. Suggestions for future programs are welcome. Norma also showed the buttons she had purchased during the convention and added that she would be willing to sell some of these to anyone interested in purchasing the items; proceeds would go to the state party.
One idea on future programs was to discuss privatization of public functions.
Another sub-committee to consider would be a hospitality sub-committee that could arrange for refreshments at meetings. This would be particularly useful for attracting Green residents.
It was also mentioned that if meetings are held at the Framingham Green, the DTC could make a donation to the Green’s tenants’ association, as the DTC would not be charged any rent for holding meetings when sponsored by a tenant. The idea of a unity breakfast was also raised. This would be held in the 2MN Senate district following the state primaries in September. A sub-committee for this program would need to coordinate with the other town committees in the 2MN district for holding the unity breakfast. It was mentioned that David Magnani was already considering such an event.
Joan Rastani also mentioned the plans for an event to honor David Magnani’s service in the Senate. This would be a dinner celebration that will be held on September 29th at the Framingham Sheraton (formerly Sheraton Tara) Hotel. Proceeds from the event will go towards two of Dave’s favorite charities, one local and one global. This function would also serve to foster unity in the party.
Question was raised if the unity breakfast would be redundant. It was suggested that the unity breakfast be moved to October closer to the elections.
Norma presented a packet of information that was distributed at Fuller Middle School when Governor Romney visited. Norma made a video of the Governor’s presentation and hopes to have this available soon.
It was suggested that the legislators who attended the Romney presentation at Fuller should have a follow-up response discussion. Norma would video tape this discussion as well.
PROGRAM:
Russell Ashton of the Democratic State Committee addressed the audience on behalf of the John Kerry campaign. Russ described the excitement that the Kerry campaign has generated across the state. He talked of the importance of voter registration and holding house parties to support the Kerry campaign. He left several copies of voter registration forms, also in several languages. During his visit to Lowell he was able to get several Spanish speaking persons to register. This outreach effort would be very important to show inclusion.
Another important document Mr. Ashton presented was an absentee ballot and again he stressed the importance of getting this to people who anticipate being away during the election day. It was pointed out that the deadline for voter registration is 20 days prior to any election. Bumper stickers were another important item to distribute to get Kerry’s name more visibility.
Ashton talked about the upcoming convention in Boston and the need for volunteers to help out. It was mentioned again that locally the Metrowest Alliance had been founded as a volunteer team to work at the convention. Another effort to consider is canvassing in New Hampshire.
A question was raised on the issue regarding Kerry delaying his acceptance of the nomination, specifically how to address this subject it comes up during canvassing. Ashton replied that he had no specific answer at that time. The best answer that seemed to be offered was that delaying the announcement would level the playing field for the candidates.
Returning to the subject of house parties, Russ Ashton again stressed the importance and value of these. The amounts raised would need to be large sums, but the more house parties held that raise a few hundred dollars would add up to more substantial figures. Chris Lorant (who hosted a house party the previous day) offered some contact information on getting more house party information. He also announced several upcoming meetings for the Metrowest Alliance, Stop Bush and the Kerry Meetup. He also announced dates for the ZBA meetings at the Memorial Building.
Russ Ashton mentioned the forms he brought could also be downloaded from the Secretary of State’s website on mass.gov. Norma mentioned that absentee voting can also be done at the town clerk’s office at the time the absentee ballot is picked up.
Much of the information that was shared on voter registration and absentee ballot could also posted on the Framingham DTC website, that Mat Helman maintains.
Chris Lorant also mentioned upcoming canvasses on June 12th and July 10th.
UPDATE ON JULY CONVENTION:
Many who had volunteered through the website had not heard back on their volunteer status confirmation. It was mentioned that the information is still being entered into the system and people should be hearing something soon. A representative (Megan?) would be visiting to meet the Metrowest Alliance to give more information on the convention.
Getting to the convention could be a problem due to the traffic restrictions. The idea of getting a bus was offered.
STATE CONVENTION:
Norma described he own experiences from the convention that she felt was very positive. She obtained a resource list that will be included in the minutes. This lists various sources of information for sample by-laws and the Mass Dems guide, an email newsletter subscription.
Other feedback:
Joan Rastani attended the Campaign Track, which consisted of several concurrent sessions. She found the workshops to be useful. At one of the workshops, Congressman Markey made an appearance and spoke for several minutes.
Also in the Campaign Track, Steve Blesofsky found quite interesting the amount of opposition research gathering that is done in addition to the candidate’s own research.
The Issues Track was described as very useful, but also containing a great amount of information that could hardly be covered in the amount of time given. A suggestion was offered that such workshops should always have a bullet point handed out distributed at the end of the program that covers the highlights of the session. This information could also be posted on a website.
REPORTS FROM HILL:
Karen Spilka commented that the budget should be completed in the House and Senate by the end of June. It will then go to the Governor who may veto parts of it, however it should all be finalized before the national convention in July. Some of the major issues in the budget concerning health care and education should survive the various levels of reforms between the House and Senate.
OTHER ITEMS:
Barbara Mcgovsky announced her resignation from the DTC, she is moving to Florida.
Lyn mentioned that the warrant for town manager did not pass. Norma added that on the charter commission, the people elected were those who had town-wide name recognition. It was recommended that those who oppose a city form of government not sign the petition unless the charter has some recognition of the town form of government.
Some discussion on participating on the Flag Day parade, June 13th. There was a suggestion to authorize $200 towards the parade, another suggestion to use the $200 of the $250 discussed earlier towards the parade. This money would be used purchase a large “KERRY” sign and march in the parade in support of John Kerry.
A motion was made to authorize $200 of the $250 towards the parade if the DTC can organize a fair sized group to participate. If the group cannot be organized, the money will be sent to the Kerry campaign as originally discussed.
An opposing comment was offered that the entire $250 could be better spent if it were donated to the campaign as originally discussed.
There was additional discussion on having people line the parade route wearing Kerry items like T-shirts, buttons and caps and also carry signs. Norma will call the Kerry campaign office for suggestions on how best the $200 can be utilized with respect to the parade.
Vote was taken on the motion to authorize spending of the $200 if it was seen as a viable action based on information from the Kerry campaign and also the efforts of the DTC. The motion passed 14 to 2.
(In a follow up note, Norma Shulman contacted the Kerry campaign office regarding participation in the parade. The office advised that unless the candidate himself is marching it would not make sense to have a group participate in the parade. The entire $250 that was authorized will be sent to the Kerry campaign office. The campaign office did indicate that Kerry bumper stickers and other such items would be sent to the DTC for distribution to the spectators during the Flag Day parade.)
Links:
Field services manual – http://www.massdems.org/Contact/FieldManual.pdf
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