Nashua Democratic City Committee – Minutes from Caucus Mtg. 4/17, and mini-meetings 5/3 and 5/4

Minutes from the Nashua Democratic City Committee Caucus Meeting – held April 17, 2017, at the Nashua Senior Center and of two small get-togethers, on  May 3 and 4, 2017,  when  Chairman Cleaver had an opportunity  to informally discuss upcoming NDCC organizational issues with a few of the people that will be working with him.

The April 17th Meeting was called to order by Dave Tencza, Chair of the NDCC.  Representatives from the State NH Democratic Committee also attended, and included: Ray Buckley, NH Democratic Party Chair, and Erin Turmelle, NHDP Political Director.    The meeting was very well attended!

Election coverage

Dave Tencza opened the meeting.

John Lisle (NDCC member):

Introduced the need to vote on amendments to by-laws changed in last meeting. These amendments concerned term limits for chairman and executive board members. Discussion and voting on term limits followed.

Ray Buckley (Chair – New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) introduced Amy Kennedy (Executive Director – NHDP):

Discussed how to get involved with the Democratic party.

Erin Turmelle (Political Director NHDP):

Presented the statistics from the 2017 campaign showing how well Nashua did with volunteer involvement, Get Out The Vote (GOTV)  initiatives and voter engagement.

All presenters remarked on how happy they were to see the meeting so well attended.

Ray Buckley opened the elections for executive board and at-large delegates.  Candidates for executive board seats and at-large delegates made brief speeches, (excepting the uncontested seat) and voting was held.

Attendees broke into wards for individual ward elections.

Newly Elected Officers for the Nashua Democratic City Committee are:

Skip Cleaver, Chair

Mike Pedersen – Vice Chair

Sue Newman – Secretary

Deidre Reynolds – Treasurer

Members At-Large for our NH State Democratic Committee are:

Linda Gathright, Dave Tencza, Joanne St.John, and Gary Hoffman

The NDCC WARD officers and At-Large members are as follows (and listed in order of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer):

Ward 1:  Atlant Schmidt, Jim Mason, Elaine Thomas, June Haskel.    At-Large: Aron Insigna, Michael Joseph, Andres Caamano

Ward 2: Gloria Timmons, Joanne St.John, David Darnell, Pam Jordan.  At- Large: Theresa Moler, Harvey Keye, Jordan Thompson.

Ward 3 – Jane Buck, Dan Weeks, Sonia Prince, Daniel Schrock.   At-Large: Vicki Donchess, Dick Dasilva, Suzanne Vail

Ward 4 – Manny Espitia, Bernadette Haloran, Brittany Wheeler, Fred Davis.   At-Large:  Mary Gorman, Megan O’Leary, Kathy Belbin

Ward 5 – Jack Kelley, Tessa Ali, Dan Toomey, Michael Pedersen.    At-Large:  Sharon Bosse

Ward 6 – Matt Coyman, Tristan Husby,….TBD *, Faith Chamberlin.   At-Large: Tanya Prather, Ken Gidge, Allison Palm

Ward 7:  Francis Arias, Ray Guarino, Judy Blachek, Gary Hoffman.    At-Large: Louis Juvis, Diane Raymond, Brad Brusso

Ward 8:  John Lisle, Will Bateson, Johanna Lisle, Joe Foster.    At-Large: Suzana Moreira, Patricia Casciano, Roy Goodman

Ward 9:  Sumathi Madhura, Vivian McGuire, … TBD*,  Alicia McNichols.    At-Large: Richard Schwartz, Adrian George, Jamila Scales

*TBD – to be determined

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Chairman Skip Cleaver is VERY interested and motivated in getting our NDCC Group engaged in getting our City Democratic message out.    The informal get-together on May 3, was attended by Chairman Cleaver, Will Bateson, Mike Pedersen and Sue Newman (Sec’y) – to go over ideas for better ‘communications’.    Will is very experienced and shared several ideas.   Rich Green, Cat Tanguay who has assisted him, and Jan Schmidt have been exceptionally helpful to all of us.  (I apologize if I’m omitting people who have also helped in so many ways with our NDCC media presence so far.)    Our goal will be to get effective exposure on social media, and to be better organized and managed – as we move forward.    There was also discussion on how to deal with levels of access to sites, and establishing guidelines/rules for posting on the various sites.     Rules and guidelines for general social media posting, will be drafted and discussed by the Executive Board of the NDCC, and ultimately voted on.   Will and Mike Pedersen will collaborate on our NDCC guidelines to establish   ‘fair, clear and enforceable rules’ for members to follow when using social media.  There might also be a “Private” Facebook page.     A  Mail Chimp program has our large mailing list, and is able to be used when doing mass e-mails to members.     There will be discussion also as to how to manage our group’s ‘internal’ communications vs. broad communications, and the use of press releases.  The thought is for our group to NOT be dormant between elections!  There was also brief discussion about leadership development and continuing candidate recruitment, training and development.  The Communications Committee will be evolving.

On May 4th, Skip met with Joanne, Deidre, Linda and Sue – to discuss, in general, how he would like to see specific NDCC committees get established.    In addition to a specific Communications Committee, committees for Fund Raising, Activities, Recruitment, and Community Outreach were brought up.    Our main “Big Event” fund raiser will again have Joanne St. John as the Chairperson.    Community Outreach can have a wide ‘scope’ ,  ideally dealing  with the local NAACP, our Latino Community, Adult Learning Center, Rotary and Lions Clubs, League of Women Voters,  a possible Soup Kitchen “Team”, etc.    There should be LOTS of opportunities for the NDCC to participate in, for the betterment of our community and to promote our Democratic Party ideals and candidates.

Our June Meeting is scheduled to be held at the Senior Center – and we will also look at the possibility of using the Library’s Chandler Wing areas for future meetings.

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And….On this past Saturday, May 6th, there was a NDCC Spaghetti Cook Off!    From what I saw on line today, it seems that Representative Trish Klee, who proudly represents Ward 3, – is a WINNER – in SO many ways, I might add!   Nikki Arguin will give an update and report on this event.  Thanks to everyone who helped with this event!

Submitted by:   Sue Newman – Secretary for the NDCC