Johnson County Democrats Executive Committee Notes

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

1. 1.       Scott Heldt, David Cox and John Blesz from the Braley Campaign stopped in to give us an update.  There was a good turnout to the Bruce, Blues and BBQ event (44 unique counties were at the BBQ) and the campaign raised over $50,000.  They are working on getting an office in Iowa City – there is currently one in Cedar Rapids.
   1. a.       They are looking for people to become more involved.  They would like someone to host a house party (not a fund-raiser) in Iowa City.  They would like to have one in Johnson County prior to November.  You provide the place and a simple offering (wine and cheese?) and the campaign and jcdems will get out the info.  Contact scott.heldt12@gmail.com if you are interested in hosting a party.
   2. b.      There will be a Phone Bank for Bruce Braley from 6PM – 9 on November 6, 2013 (Wednesday) from 6-9 PM at the Iowa City Public Library Room D.  You will need to bring your own phone but there will be scripts available to us. If you have any questions please contact scott.heldt12@gmail.com. 
   3. c.       Please help the Braley team out if you can – we need to get his name out there and get people involved so that we can win this race!
   4. 2.       ICE Update
      1. a.       Data Management Working Group met with people from VoteBuilder and we are the first in the country to get passwords on My Campaign. There are videos for the working group to learn from and the working group will work on creating instructions for people who enter the data.
      2. b.      The JC Secretary was added to the website so that they can post the Exec Notes and Central Committee notes to the website.  Karla Smith will also get access to the Website.
      3. c.       Karen Disbrow would like to do more PR and is looking for an English Major or Journalism Major who can help her.  She is also looking in to if the IDP has ideas of when to send Press Releases.  If you are interested in helping Karen out please send an email to info@jcdems.org and I will forward it on to her.
      4. d.      As soon as we get information about something of interest to Johnson County Democrats it needs to be put on the calendar/website and Facebook.
      5. 3.       Harkin Grant
         1. a.       No information yet
         2. b.      Outreach events will be mainly after the caucuses.
         3. 4.       Parades
            1. a.       We did well – we always had a nice group.
            2. b.      A lot of people (parade watchers/kids) weren’t happy we weren’t handing out candy.  Some parades didn’t allow us to hand out stickers and most kids weren’t impressed by our business cards (although they were a great outreach for the adults!)
            3. c.       Homecoming Parade – huge turnout – we had more people in our group than any other group!  It was a nice mixture of all the Democrats running for office.  There were t-shirts for most of the candidates currently running for office for people to wear.
            4. d.      An idea was to make up a few signs for the JCDems to carry in the parade with the candidate signs to inform people of our group.  Perhaps we could come up with a sign that we could also get put on T-Shirts to sell as a small fund-raiser.
            5. e.      We Need a Parade Committee for next year.  If you are interested please send an email to info@jcdems.org and we start compiling a list.
            6. 5.       We need to have a fundraising/finance chair and committee.  The job description I have found on the website says “The Fundraising Committee shall carry out fundraising projects and shall otherwise assist the Committee Chair in fulfilling his or her duties.”  If we can get a chair and a good group of people interested in working on this group it should make things easier for everyone.  If you are interested in the position of chair or as a member of the group please send an email to info@jcdems.org and we will pass that on to the Executive Committee.
            7. 6.       BBQ Review- we roughly made about $11,000 after expenses (Peter will have a more exact amount at the Central Committee)
               1. a.       We had about 265 people and had to set up more tables which was fantastic!  All four Democrats running for Governor were there as well as Secretary of State Candidate Brad Anderson, IDP chair Scott Brennan, and more.
               2. b.      We need to start planning the BBQ earlier – start planning right after the Hall of Fame.
               3. c.       The date for the 2014 BBQ has already been set for October 5^th 2014.  Get it marked on your calendars.  We already have Building C reserved and may need another building if we get a big speaker.
               4. d.      If you have things that you liked about the BBQ or constructive things that you did not like or that we could do better please send an email to info@jcdems.org and we will get them to the BBQ Committee.  We do this for the JCDems and would really like everyone’s involvement in making it the best event it can be.
               5. 7.       Caucuses
                  1. a.       John Deeth is chairing.
                  2. b.      Caucus Committee includes John, Rod Sullivan, Karen Disbrow, Mike Carberry and Gerene Denning.
                  3. c.       We will need volunteers for the caucuses – if you are interested please send an email to info@jcdems.org and it will be forwarded to the committee.  The roles and responsibilities will be rolled out as we know them.

8.       The JCDems chair Mike Carberry has announced that he is planning on running for Johnson County Board of Supervisors.  He has gotten pressure to step down as chair but he is still the chair and is planning to stay the chair as long as he can.  If he does need to step down we will need to elect a new chair.