6:45 pm, County Building Cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San José

The Call to Order was 7:15 PM

Absent: Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Francis La Poll, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, John Dutra, John Laird, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, Anselmo Chavez, Mike Honda, Frank Bosche, Jim Boynton.

Excused: Thelma Spaziani, Aldyth Parle, .

Alternate: Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Sally Lieber, Drina Collins for Manny Diaz, Jim Brady for Rebecca Cohn, Jon Kessler for John Vasconcellos, Teresa Daley.

Donovan Bayuga, Melinda Waller, Carolyn Curtis, Parris Correa, Verna Johnson, Kim Williams, Sue D’Amico, Virginia Frank, Laura Goenne, Chris Stone, Genni Gerard, Scott Lipton, Jennifer Myronuk, James Keenan, Anthony Mastroberto, Betty Siemer, Lee Sturtevant, Peter Szego, Aurelia Figueroa, Diego Barragan, Dennis Austin, Thelma Thompson, Pat Kirk, Jay Jackman

Assemblymember Joe Simitian, candidate for 11^th State Senate District Seat, 2004 spoke to the membership about his candidacy, including a description of the areas included in District 11. Assemblymember Simitian also distributed handouts of his resume and referrals and answered questions about the district map and the parcel tax.

Introduction of Monte Sereno City Council Member Barbara Nesbit. Discussion of her candidacy for Assembly District 21.

Motion by Phyllis to add to the new business section of the agenda a discussion on the State Budget crisis and a report of the Democratic Convention

Motion to approve as amended, seconded, carried   

5.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES    (Minutes are posted on  www.scc-democrats.org)

Addition of date to minutes.

Motion to approve, seconded, carried

Presentation to the Board from Jennifer Myronuk on the creation of a Newsletter and on improvements to member and volunteer recruitment.

Discussion and planning of the new member orientation for 6:00 on 4/3/03.

Discussion on the need for an executive board retreat.

Discussion of minutes and agenda.

No report

No report

Balance 752.36
38 paid members

Please remember to email your reports to me or they will not be included in the minutes.

Will be doing many registration booths this spring, summer, etc. to get Democrats registered and involved in the 2004 elections

Great turnout at the JJ dinner. Thanks to Grace Fong at the Flower Cottage for the table decorations, and to Jacquie Heffner, Martin Gorfinkel, and Madge Overhouse for their leadership roles. And thanks to all the volunteers who assisted them for all of their hard work on the event! We had 672 reservations and set 600 places. So far we have collected $45,292 and expect $16,300 more to come in. We are expecting to collect a total of $61,592, $19,000 of which will cover the expenses for the evening. The evening’s profit should be around $42,000.

Still gathering info on upcoming races and candidate recruitment. There are many statewide initiatives of interest. One initiative, which already qualified to be on the ballot, is a facilities measure for another education bond, and two additional initiatives of interest, which have not yet qualified to be on the ballot, deal with changing the voting requirements to 50% or 55%. Both of these initiatives include a suspension of living expenses and other pay for legislators for each day they go over the required date to pass the State budget.

No report

Emy is working on getting someone to speak about the campaign finance lawsuit. She discussed and distributed handouts of resolutions passed at the State Convention. Additionally, Emy commended Dennis Chiu for doing a great job on his resolution and announced that Dennis’ resolution was the one voted on by the committee. She announced that two other resolutions came from our county as well.

Announced that a new club, the San Jose University Democratic Club had all documents in order for accreditation. Motion to accredit San Jose University Democratic Club was made and carried.

Presentation about the club by Aurelia Figueroa and Diego. The explained that the club’s goal is to get more college students to participate in the party and the upcoming elections. This is the first time a Democratic club has existed here in 10 years.

State Convention was the best attended in years. The next Executive Board meeting will be June 13 &14 at the airport Hilton. The next convention will be in San Jose. Madge was re-elected at the convention. The Region 5 District lost Assembly District 20 and added the 24^th; now the Region 5 District includes 21, 22, 23, and 24.

The Western caucus is on May 16^th and 17^th for more information call 408-390-4748.

State Convention Rural Caucus will do a pilot project to reach out to Democrats in commonly Republican areas. Today, Chris met with District 24 (Los Angeles) State Senator Romero’s Chief of Staff. The Senator’s office wants to meet with DNC to bring together the Democrats from Sacramento

Carolyn Kuhl is up again for Supreme Court. Dianne Feinstein had letters of support for Kuhl, who is completely anti-choice. Claudia urged Central Committee members to write to Feinstein to withdraw her support for Kuhl.

On April 2^nd, the Republicans failed again to vote in judicial nominee Miguel Estrada.

On March 13^th, the Senate passed a ban on partial birth abortions.

Locally, Sally Lieber and Tiffany Reynolds spoke to the Pro-Choice Coalition about Sally’s resolution opposing the partial birth abortion act.

We need to be aware that innumerable attacks are occurring within the State and Country that are chipping away at all of the pro-choice improvements and rights.

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our March taping was with Madge Overhouse.

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A April 10th and May 8th with Madge. The show we tape in April will be aired April 24th and May 22nd.

Palo Alto now airs our show twice a week, at 6pm Monday and again at 6pm Saturday.

We could still use more good Democrats on the crew. No prior video experience is necessary.

San Jose Channel 15A, 8:00pm every other Thursday (serves part of Cupertino) (408-918-3200):

2003:
Apr 10 DTV 98 Madge Overhouse
Apr 24 DTV 99 Niko Clifford
May 8 DTV 98 Madge Overhouse
May 22 DTV 99 Niko Clifford

See http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm for the full schedule.

Convention in Fresno 26^th-27 at Piccadilly Inn in Fresno

No report

African-American Democratic Coalition: No report submitted

American Sikh Democratic Club: No report

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: No report

Clinton*Gore Action Network: No report

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): No report submitted

The Evergreen Democratic Club held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 1^st:

Vice President, Norm Tarowsky presided. There were 48 members in attendance.

Reports included: Pat Le Rocker-The JJ Dinner- Eight Evergreen members attended this very enthusiastic event honoring former Representative Don Edwards.

Beverly Wharton reported on the SCCDCC meeting. She also attended the Democratic State Convention in Sacramento. She attended several Caucus panels- Seniors, Women’s, Rules. There were several declared candidates for President in 2004 that made speeches before the Convention. The most enthusiastic response was for former Governor Dean who ran as a "Democratic" Democrat.

The Women’s Caucus was the last one scheduled on Friday and, in spite of great interest, the "party time" events caused the attendance to evaporate. The Women’s Caucus needs better scheduling.

The Club’s speaker was Dr. Constantine Danopoulus, from the Political Science Dept. of San Jose State University. The subject was "The Relevance of the United Nations".

This is a timely and critical subject. Dr. Danopoulus gave a history of the United Nations and its purpose as a forum to maintain peace. Since it does not have any military troops it has never had the responsibility to use force. The present refutation to bypass the UN efforts by the United States is a serious problem, but hopefully, the major objectives of the UN will prevail.

Assemblymember Manny Diaz will be the speaker at the May 6^th meeting.

The Evergreen Democratic Club signed up to support the "Singer Payer Health Plan".

High Tech Democrats: Alyson Abramowitz No report submitted

PDC noon time lunch at Chef Chui’s. Dr. Staner will be the speaker about American policy in the Middle East

PYD's lunch at the State Convention was an outstanding success.  It was extremely well attended, and several elected officials paid us a visit.  On March 27th, PYD held a "Post-Convention" seminar, where members watched video of and commented on the speeches of Presidential hopefuls at the Convention. PYD's next event, an evening of pool, will be held on April 24 at 7pm, in Mountain View (please contact PYD President Genni Gerard or Michael Markman for details).  On April 26, PYD will participate in a day of seminars sponsored by PYD and other various young democratic organizations around the Bay Area ("CBAY" or Coalition of Bay Area Young Dems" is the regional organization hosting the event).  Likely speakers will include Mayor Willie Brown and Congresswoman Barbara Lee.       

No report submitted

Drina Collins reported for the Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum. The SVLDF had a great representation at the California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento. They hosted a reception at the Sheraton Grand

Hotel and over 100 persons attended, including Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Assemblymembers Manny Diaz and Sally Lieber.

The SVLDF will hold a luncheon on May 23rd at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. The state democratic chair, Senator Art Torres, will be the keynote speaker. All are invited to attend. Ticket information is available from Teresa Guerrero-Daley, Joe Coto, or Teresa Alvarado. Email: SVLDF@aol.com

This is the year of Gilroy with 4 out of 7 seats up including the Mayor's. We hope to work with Labor on this year's projects.

The next meeting for the Club is the 26th of April in Gilroy location is TBA.

The Club has been asked to expand into South San Jose with Drina Collins being the lead on that.

No report submitted

None

Election of DSCC Executive Board Members

Nominations:

Jay James nominated Herb Engstrom

Tom Cochran nominated EmyThurber

Keith Garvey nominated Jim Thurber

Barbara Nesbit nominated Anne Mack

Motions to elect slate made and carried

Presidential candidates gave speeches

Emy Thurber reported that this was the best convention she had been to because of all of the energy of the candidates and concerns of the Democrats. The Resolutions passed at the convention are listed on our website.

Anne Mack commended Emy Thurber for her hard work on the Iraqi Resolution. Ann stated that it was a well-written and strong resolution.

Sandra Soto agreed with the great feelings at the convention.

Keith Garvey asked that the members give special recognition to Hal and Loretta Riddle for being given the Region 5 Award. Additionally, announced that the Region 4 award went to Fran Cochran.

Barbara Nesbit went to the Nancy Pelosi dinner and believes that we should be proud to have such a strong Democrat in such a high position.

Deep trouble no one wants money to be taken from his or her area. Need Republicans to pass the budget. Propose that the Party have a campaign starting now to select whatever number of votes we need in Republican districts and begin to educate the Republicans in an attempt to get their votes for the budget. Believes we should target Bruce McPherson. Expressed need to start right away due to the May revise.

Steve Preminger announced that this should be researched with the regional director and the Board to bring forth ideas that we may bring to the next meeting.

Phyllis stated that the Legislative members that she met with were asking for party help.

Lee suggested we think about people we know who live in districts represented by Republicans and ask them to write letters to their representatives.

David suggested also targeting Guy Houston

Betty Siemer, a concerned Democrat, spoke to the group about the Democrats losing the House. She believes that we lost the house because we were not organized enough. She is desperately afraid of what is going to happen to the whole world. And expressed a need to become an army to protect our fellow mankind. The group had a discussion on this.

Mike Markman proposed that we take one of the upcoming DCC meetings to discuss this. Could also start meetings at 6:00

Steve acknowledged the groups sense of urgency and stated that the executive board will get together to set up a meeting that is inclusive for the Central Committee members to focus on the issue and will bring it back to the DCC meeting in May. A possible meeting date may be May 3^rd.

Jay James, President of San Benito Building Trades, announced that June 7^th is the Labor Council COPE banquet.

Carolyn Curtis announced that the Howard Dean "meet up" meeting had 60 people show up (12,000 people signed up for Dean.). You may go to C-SPAN.org web site to view Dean’s speech. House parties are being organized. Please view www.deanforamerica.com or svfordean.com for more information.

The next Executive Board meeting will be on April 22^nd at Tom Cochran’s house at 6:00pm

21^st AD to do refreshments for next meeting.