East Fishkill Democratic Committee

Meeting was called to order at 7:07, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

(At this point Laurette noted that there were only 10 members present, not enough for a quorum, so not votes would be permitted.)

Secretary Anu Bhatia was not present. Dianne Averill served as acting secretary. Laurette Giardino moved to accept the May minutes. Rick Witt seconded. Motion passed.

Richard Dennison gave the treasurer’s report. Kelly Hoffay has been getting the statements in the mail. She will change the address to our postal box. Our balance is about $146, which includes a check written for the postal box that was not cashed. Richard will look into this. Our actual balance is a little more than $100. Sudpita Ray made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Seconded by Laurette. Passed.

Candidate Ken Dow was to have spoken next, but he was not present.

Dianne Averill, chairman of the membership committee, spoke about how generic business cards were printed for the committee (just ask for some). Also about the idea of sending mailings to neighborhoods that are having issues (such as Lake Walton) to try to increase membership.

Ed Fitzgerald noted that we don’t have the budget to do mailings, and we should call people instead.

Dianne suggested printing generic postcards with no specific information and targeting neighborhoods in crisis. This way the printing prices could be kept lower.

Ken Dow arrived and was given the floor at 7:17. He is the candidate against Steve Saland for State Senate. Dow spoke until 7:29, at which time we moved to questions and answers. These concluded at 7:38.

Al Marotta and Cindy Dubinski, from the by-laws committee spoke. Al, who is also on the county by-laws committee said that the county committee will not meet until after July 4. He has copy of current county bylaws and the by-laws of the Pawling Democratic Committee so we have a beginning point. However, since our by-laws must follow the county’s, he suggested we hold off a bit on our discussions until we see where the county is going. Judy LaCombe motioned to stall work on our bylaws until later in July. Rick seconded. We have tabled the bylaws discussion until after the county committee meets.

No one was present from the Cannizaro committee to make a report so it will stay on the agenda.

The chairman opened the floor to discussion about new member recruitment and growing our base

Richard says we should do a telephone campaign, calling people to get information.

Discussion was then opened on the topic of filling our vacant seats. Judy suggests going after people who are active in the community; people who are vocal, who have opposed development and who are community leaders. She says she has long targeted Tim Leed.

We discussed how this area has been a bedroom community. Judy says one of the things that the committee is now doing is countering that. Judy has been active in Taconic issues, and has names and information. Judy joins the membership committee.

We discussed how committee members want to be in the districts in which they live. We will figure out what that is for everyone, we will all resign, and in September get voted back in properly.

Michael will make a generic resignation letter.

Discussion ensued on future committee members and how we want to handle people who don’t live here. We discussed membership requirements and the potential of making requirements a bylaw.

Rick made a motion to table the discussion until the next meeting. Sudipta seconded. The motion passed.

Al made several announcements:
We as a committee are responsible for keeping route 376 clean from 52 to 82. We will look into scheduling the cleaning for a weekday morning. Bill Dahncke will call Michael about a date and he will post it on the website.
Volunteers are working on Fishkill Creek. Apparently the mile-a-minute vine has been spotted. Help has been requested from the Cornell Cooperative Extension.
East Fishkill Community Day is Sept. 20.

Michael received an e-mail from Ira Margulies of the Young Democrats, which is having a fundraiser on June 19. Info is on the web site.

Rick made a motion to adjourn. Laurette seconded. The meeting ended 8:05.

Tags: Minutes

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