ATTENDANCE: Merrill Ring, Zephyr Tate-Mann, Debi Evans, Ned Freed, Carol Whitson, Ted Radamaker, Laura Lo, Gar Byrum, Lois Thompson

Business:

MSA (Debi) the meeting Agenda was approved.

MSA (Gar) the Minutes of the February meetings were approved.

MSA Treasurer’s Report.(Ned) Debi read Merrill’s final treasurer’s report for February receipts ($490) and expenses ($213). The current balance of all bank accounts is $8645.79 plus HQ funds of nearly $17000 – with approximately $12,600 due to our Club.

Discussion Items:

Debi brought up the need to move the Treasurer accounting to Kinde Durkee in order to be sure that the filings and accounting were done in accordance with the applicable laws. Carol and Debi will review previous minutes for similar discussions where this may have been approved.

Expenditures – currently all expenditures need ExComm approval. Zephyr suggested amending the By-Laws to allow Treasurer or President to approve up to $200-250 between meetings.
Zephyr also noted that we have not seen a request for reimbursement of the projector purchase.

Zephyr requested Committee Reports: Issues Committee did not report. Lois, Peace and Justice Committee, reminded everyone of the upcoming Iraq War Memorial Vigil to be held on March 20 at 4:30 -6:30, and passed out flyers.

Ted volunteered to collect the cash at the monthly luncheon meetings.

Laura said that she will create a recap of the luncheon speakers to include in the Voice. Ned and Zephyr suggested videotaping our speakers and putting the tape on our website. Zephyr also suggested that we may want to use a forum approach for some of the issues discussed at our meetings.

Zephyr recommended re-appointment of Ted, Lois, Ned and Laura to the Executive Committee. She would also like to appoint other members of the Club to the Executive Committee. We will also be actively soliciting our members to serve on various Ad Hoc committees. Hopefully this will spread the duties over a greater number of people and utilize the talents of more people, thus creating a stronger and more vigorous club.

Zephyr’s goal as President is to greatly increase the Claremont Dem Club membership base. She believes that we can more effectively solicit or encourage registered Democrats in the area to join and participate in our activities. Ned Freed and Larry Schroeder have both volunteered their homes for mixers where prospective members will be invited to join. We also need to have someone verify that the people who do join the club actually are registered Democrats.

Current Officers should review ByLaws for a full list of our duties.

Discussion of Emails and Communications:

Ted requested that Merrill send him information on the upcoming speakers for email distribution.

Zephyr received a letter from a Club member who complained that the selections that Ted chooses for distribution are too partisan; occasionally a complaint has been made that they are too numerous; other members have expressed their gratitude for the information that Ted culls from numerous sources. Ted stated that the objections are usually because of the quantity of emails, not the content. Ned and Ted suggested that perhaps our membership form should have a choice of ‘NO EMAIL’, ‘CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS ONLY’, ‘GENERAL INTEREST’. Ned said that he can prepare a disclaimer for the ‘General’ List and put in both an Unsubscribe option and a Club Announcements only option. Also, it may be possible to put in a link to the Forum section of our website so that members can take their comments there.

Debi will ask Bob Gerecke to help with updating the membership list so we can make an accurate count of dues payers as well as solicit volunteers for our Ad Hoc committees.

Debi will have a friend who is familiar with Disability laws review the restroom access at El Ranchero Restaurant

Zephyr and Debi discussed the need to put our Resolutions in proper format. We should try to get our last approved Resolution to the Party Central Committee. Ivan is trying to get onto the Resolution Committee for the LACo committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon

Carol Whitson
Recording Secretary