Minutes of the Carroll County Democratic Central Committee

June 9, 2017

In attendance:  Don West, Frank Rammes, Tom Scanlan, Joan
McGrath, Corynne Courpas, Chuck Harrison, Dorothy Scanlan,
Anne Stoner, Zach Hands
Guests:  Christian Orr, Frank McGrath

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Don West.

Pledge of Allegiance

Chair's Report

	The CCDCC sponsored the movie, ''Lincoln'', at the Carroll
	Arts Center.  The movie was terrific; unfortunately the
	crowd was light.  Don attended the MDP Executive Committee
	meeting on June 5th.  The state party is encouraging central
	committees to become involved in community activities.  A
	new executive director, Stephanie Potter, has been hired. 
	There has been some turnover on the diversity councils, and
	a progressive council has been added for a total of nine. 
	The Democratic National Committee has proclaimed a ''summer
	of resistance and renewal''.  The Frederick County CC gala is
	on June 28th.  Corynne, Frank, and Anita will attend.  Sadie
	Allgeier has resigned from the central committee.

Secretary's Report

	The May minutes were approved. Corynne moved to approve; 2nd
	by Frank.

Treasurer's Report

	The May Treasurer's Report was approved.   The current
	balance in our checking account is $7,587.19.   Frank moved
	to approve; 2nd by Zach.

Activist Groups

	VOCAL

	There were only four people in attendance at the June 3rd
	meeting.  The discussion focused on where to go from here. 
	They may have a booth at some of the carnivals or at
	Fallfest.

	Carroll CAN

	Carroll CAN's June meeting will be June 25th from 3-5pm at
	the Westminster library.

Club Reports

	CC Dems:  The club would like to have declared gubernatorial
	candidates attend the annual July picnic. After the summer
	hiatus, the next meeting will be September 11th (the second
	Monday of the month).  The club is seeking speakers for its
	fall line-up.  Frank may ask Neil Ridgely to be September's
	speaker.

	South Carroll Club:  No report.  A flag wave is scheduled
	for June 14.

	Young Dems:  No report.

Subcommittees

	Local Politics:  Dick Weaver has filed to run for
	commissioner again in District 1.  Tom Gordon, a hardline
	right-winger has filed to run against Dennis Frazier in
	District 3.  Tara Battaglia and Mary Kowalski have filed to
	run for school board.  Virginia Harrison intends to run
	again for school board.  About a half-dozen people have
	filed to run for the Republican Central Committee.

	Annapolis:  No report

	Communications:  No new updates other than keep doing what
	we've been doing.  We are getting close to have 1,000
	''likes'' on our Facebook page.

	VAN:  No report

	LGBTQ:  It is Pride month. There are a number of Pride
	parades scheduled:  the DC Pride parade on June 10th;
	Equality march on June 11th; and the Baltimore Pride parade
	on June 17th.  PFLAG is sponsoring a movie at the Carroll
	Arts Center on June 16th:  ''Danish Girl''.

	Interns:  We have a new intern from Winters Mill High
	school: Lily Gavin. The plan is for Zach and Mitch to meet
	with all three of our new interns in July to talk about what
	issues they are most passionate about and what their
	assignments might look like.

Events

	The CCDCC Fall breakfast is scheduled for October 14th.   
	Anita may try to recruit Elijah Cummings to be the speaker.

Old Business

	Two Year Plan:  We have a great start to our two-year plan
	thanks to the efforts of Christian Orr. Don suggested that a
	separate category for GOTV initiatives be added.  We will
	spend the next month reading over the plan and bring
	suggestions to the July meeting.

	Bylaws:  The Board of Elections has received our updated
	by-laws.  Katherine Berry, Election Director, also
	communicated that for the 2018 election the same voting
	equipment will be used.  There will be a second site for
	early voting in the south part of the county. In 2020, there
	will be three sites for early voting.

	Town Hall:  No report.  However, we want to keep this idea
	alive.  The focus of the town hall should be the opioid
	epidemic—something that should be a nonpartisan issue.

New Business

	Fallfest:  We have submitted our application but have not
	yet heard anything.

	Messaging presentation by Liz Jaffe at the Western MD
	summit:  she gave a great presentation on social media
	messaging and promised to share her slide show but has not
	yet done so.

	Candidate Recruitment and Training:  We discussed having two
	events.  The focus of the fall event should be recruiting
	and the focus of the spring event should be training.  The
	one in the fall should be broader in scope, in terms of
	information.  We should develop agendas for both. We need a
	positive spin, but we also need to be realistic.  There was
	discussion around having more informal social
	gatherings—like house concerts. We also need to talk about
	what the role of the CCDCC will be for the 2018 elections.
	For example, will we have a headquarters? Finally, it is
	important for central committee members to actually run for
	office, too.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. Our next meeting will be
July 13, 2017 in the Large Meeting Room of the Westminster
Library.

Respectfully submitted,

Dorothy Scanlan
Secretary, CCDCC