Many of us are emerging from our post-election depression with a renewed determination to work for progressive change. The Benton County Democrats' newly-elected executive committee met on Dec 7th to lay out the BCDems committee structure for the next 2 years. Please consider stepping up to work on one of these committees. Contact the chairperson to tell him or her that you would like to help. The 12 committees and chairpersons are listed below. After the list of committees, there's a "help wanted ad" for one additional volunteer.
Bylaws & Rules committee - Tanya Shively 929-6498 stanya22@msn.com
Will propose amendments to the bylaws for consideration by the full central committee.
Campaign Services & Candidate Development committee - Betty Malone 929-2289 sunrise@peak.org
In between elections, the campaign services committee morphs into an office-holder relations and candidate development committee.
Communications committee - Davi Richards 745-3866 davirichards@hotmail.com
Davi says "We will be looking at new ways of: keeping BC Democrats informed and united through our newsletter/bulletin, website, e-newsletter, and public media; developing our message(s) and getting our message out to the public; raising the visibility of the Democratic Party in Benton County; keeping our volunteers engaged and active; starting new outreach programs to underserved constituents in BC(Hispanics, elderly, poor, other?); networking with other Democratic organizations in the state and nation and with other progressive organizations wherever; figuring out how to shift toward using more e-media and less paper while at the same time improving our overall effectiveness; strengthening our new networks by fun and socializing - discussion groups, book groups, regular informal social meetups."
Finance committee - Biff Traber 753-6735 Biff.Traber@comcast.net
Responsible for the party's financial planning and monitoring.
Fundraising committee - Sara Gelser 753-8075 sgelser@yahoo.com
Responsible for fund-raising projects and thanking donors.
Legislative Process committee - Paul Hohenlohe 753-3474 pjhohenlohe@yahoo.com
Paul says "This committee will serve as a two-way avenue of communication between the Benton County Democrats and our elected representatives at the local, state, and national levels."
Party Development committee - Marion McNamara 752-5556 marion.mcnamara@comcast.net
Marion says "This committee will focus on the personal and political (remember, the personal IS political) development of Benton County Democrats. We will plan and implement a series of activities that give us opportunities to build relationships and networks-- social gatherings, training, discussion groups, anything that helps us become more effective agents of change. And, as the name 'party development' would suggest, we will have a lot of fun doing it. Mother Jones said, If I can't dance, I don't want to join your revolution. I say, bring your dancing shoes to this committee...."
Platform & Resolutions committee - Dave Conklin 753-2464 conklind@peak.org
Dave says "This committee is responsible for maintaining the county Democratic platform, by holding the platform convention and by considering amendments and additions to it from time to time. This committee should be the first place somebody goes when they«ÉŸre mad as hell and aren«ÉŸt going to take it anymore. It is in this committee«ÉŸs charter to take up new issues from any source, and propose resolutions for action by the central committee. This is the committee which, had it existed in early 2003, would have been the venue for folks opposed to the impending US attack on Iraq to demand action from the Democratic Party. This committee should select strategic issues and recommend action, in the form of resolutions for consideration by the Central Committee itself."
Precinct Organization/Voter ID committee - William Switzer 990-3731 katewill@comcast.net
This is where the precinct captains are. Precincts may be divided into subprecincts of more manageable size. The objectives for the precinct captains and their subprecinct leaders are 1) to know the people in their turfs well enough to eliminate the need for explicit election-time Voter ID work, and 2) to recruit motivated people of all parties to help with our action projects. Another function is to let the county elections office know when voters move away, so that they can be pruned from the voting rolls to make meeting double majority requirements easier.
Technology Infrastructure committee - Todd Barnhart 740-0196 barnhart@subboy.net
The folks on this committee are responsible for the website engine, our listserves, and meeting the technology needs of our headquarters and precinct organizations. Our very promising GIS stuff should be nurtured by this committee.
Voter Registration/Election Integrity committee - Carol Sweeney 753-2464 carolswe@peak.org
Registering new voters thru the Field HQ and other venues was a valuable tool in this last campaign both for increasing Democratic registrations and also for recruiting and engaging new volunteers. It is a neighborly, non-confrontational way of maintaining a presence in the community for the Democratic Party. This committee also has responsibility for working to improve election mechanics and assure election fairness.
Young Democrats Liaison committee - Mike Van Laere 929-3988 vanlaere@proaxis.com
Liaison to OSU Democrats and other student and young voter groups.
Help wanted: G2.
BCDems also needs a volunteer who will be our "G2" - the person who keeps track of what the Republicans and the other parties are up to, reads the public record financial reports they file, visits their websites regularly, etc. If that's a role you'd like to play, contact our chairman, Mike Van Laere, 929-3988 vanlaere@proaxis.com.
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