Minutes of Meeting
April 13, 2010
Present: J. Bakey, D. Sirotkin Butler, K. Campbell, A. Coolidge, M. Crewe, M. Cummings, J. Dalton, P. Deal, R. Elwell, C. Friedman, K. Haase, G. Hooper, A. Kraus, W. Logan, I. Rhodes, E. Schwartz, T. Shannon, R. Smith, B. Weniger, P. Schwartz, K. Donnelly, S. Belkziz, J. Axelrod Lehrich, D. Collins, E. Greene, L. Bishop, Gloria Zarr, Sean Harrington, Lisa Pedulla, Jennifer Thacker. (30)
Each attendee introduced him- or herself to the group.
The minutes from the meeting of March 18 were unanimously accepted.
Ed Schwartz, Treasurer, reported that the current ADTC bank account balance is $11,082.07.
Jennifer Thacker and Lisa Pedulla (having previously been nominated at the March 18 meeting) were elected as Associate Members of the Committee by a unanimous vote.
Aimee Coolidge, Chair, reported that volunteers collected around 300 signature from Arlington, and that Barbara Weniger had taken the papers to the Town Clerk’s office to be certified. She asked everyone to fill out a volunteer card as a start to getting the Arlington campaign organized.
Tim Shannon noted that President Obama had given Deval Patrick a ringing and eloquent endorsement at the DNC fundraiser held in Boston last week, which he and Lynn Bishop noted had about 10 Arlington people present, half of them event volunteers.
Janice Bakey, chair of the Nominating Committee, reported that the following members had come forward as candidates: Aimee Coolidge (Chairperson), Mary Cummings (Vice Chairperson), Ed Schwartz (Treasurer), Kim Haase (Secretary), and Tim Shannon (Affirmative Action and Outreach Advisor). She asked for nominations from the floor; none appeared. Motion made and approved unanimously to elect the nominated slate as officers for 2010-2012.
Tim Shannon announced that he would be serving for only a couple of months, because he has accepted a job with a law firm in Portland, Maine. Aimee thanked him for his years of services as Treasurer and Vice Chair, and thanked Mary for the hard work, energy and enthusiasm over the years that she brings to her new position. She thanked Ed and Kim for their diligent service as well.
Tim Shannon, chair, turned the floor over to Dick Smith, who asked the Town Committee to join as a co-sponsor of Stand Against Racism, a weekend of local events April 30 through May 2 that are part of a national movement initiated by the YWCA. The events include a showing of the film “Freedom Writers,” a community rally, and a community conversation about race. Motion made and approved unanimously to make the Arlington Democratic Town Committee a co-sponsor of the Stand Against Racism events.
Aimee invited comment on the question of what the Committee should do about requests from people (Committee members and others) to come and speak about various issues. The officers have been making decisions based on the relevance of the topic to supporting the Democratic Party. She asked for feedback on whether members wanted discussions and what they thought the goals of these discussions should be.
A wide variety of views were expressed. Some people were concerned about the amount of Committee time that discussions might take up; they should happen at some meetings but not all, or possibly as occasional public forums outside a regular meeting. Some noted that issue discussions could potentially bring in new members, but that they could also be divisive. Some suggested that legislators and/or Committee members might talk about specific bills that they were involved or concerned with. Several noted that discussions would need a structure and time limits as well as advance planning and announcements. One member suggested that the structure might depend on the purpose: discussions meant only to advance our knowledge of issues should take place outside regular meetings, while those meant to lead to some official action should take place within regular meetings. Some members spoke in favor of discussions whose primary goal was to educate members on the issues and provide us with good talking points, while others preferred discussions whose goal was a specific action, and others could see a purpose to both.
Aimee said that the officers would try to digest the results of the discussion and come up with some ideas by the next meeting.
Mary and Kim had nothing to report.
Ken Donnelly reported that someone from Congressman Ed Markey’s office, as well as all Arlington legislators, would be doing a forum on senior health care. The event is Friday, 4/16 at 1 p.m. at the Library.
Joe Dalton announced that he was collecting signatures for Congressman Markey.
The next regular meeting will be Thursday, May 13, in the second-floor meeting room of the Community Safety Building, 112 Mystic St., at 7:30 p.m. At this meeting we will start planning for the office for the fall campaign.
The planned date for the next meeting is Wednesday, 6/16.
A motion to adjourn was made and approved unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim Haase
Secretary