Present: Elaine Jones, Bob Knight, Alan Olson, Lou Hammann, Clodius Willis, Will Lane, Virginia Ciliotta, and Wendy Mizenko.
Letters Received. Elaine read a letter praising our DFA organization from Peter Boving and a letter of inquiry from new members Roger and Rosalie Dillan. It’s hoped that these individuals and other Obama supporters will want to become active in this organization.
National DFA Materials. Elaine displayed some materials sent to us by DFA, one of which was a blank card to send to Howard Dean thanking him for his work as Democratic National Party Chairman. DFA is urging us to visit our local congressmen (newly elected and incumbents) to encourage support of the progressive agenda. Elaine mentioned a communication from Chuck Pennacchio stating his belief that this may be an ideal time for success with the PA initiative to provide universal health care to all PA citizens through Single Payer legislation. Some interest was expressed in visiting Rep. Dan Moul on this issue. Others thought it was a good time to visit Todd Platts. This idea will be explored further.
What’s Next? Elaine raised questions such as: What does this election mean for us? The world? Our DFA? She asked each Committee member to express his/her thoughts about priorities for the future. Bob Knight said the most important task before us is candidate development, noting that our down ticket candidates did not do well in the election. Even Phil Avillo, a very strong candidate who ran a good campaign, did not make enough headway in this Republican dominated area. Bob feels we must start now looking ahead to 2010. Elaine noted that Marianne Crouthamel, current head of the Candidate Development Task Force, has indicated a reluctance to continue in that capacity due to considerable family responsibilities. Elaine encouraged her to try to hang in noting the importance of her contributions in the past. At the same time, Elaine plans to contact Maggie Abbott who has indicated a keen interest in candidate development. She will need more help. Roger Lund wants ACDC to work with DFA in this endeavor. Bob said no matter how well we groom candidates, Democrats are at a disadvantage in this red area. Ginny mentioned that ACDC received an email from another candidate (Susan Kiskis, Democratic candidate for State Senate in the 31st District) reiterating this concern and indicating an interest in forming a coalition of neighboring counties to focus on this issue and what can be done about it. Roger Lund replied indicating an interest in joining such an effort. Ginny suggested that perhaps the DFA could also get involved.
Alan Olson agreed that candidate development is a #1 priority noting the difficulty of recruiting candidates and then coaching them. He also feels that our work of discussing and promoting major issues should also continue since it can bring out more supporters and, possibly, potential candidates.
Wendy Mizenko, too, agreed that candidate development is important. She also mentioned Single Payer health insurance as a very significant issue and one which could bring out people on both sides. She noted receipt of an email from the Obama Campaign, together with an evaluation form, asking for input into what we want the movement to do as we move forward. Wendy feels we should tune in to this and to what Obama wants from us. Clodius agreed noting that we may want to adopt the issues promoted by Obama as our issues. Will Lane agreed and noted the most striking thing about the election was the incredible bi-partisan success of the Adams County Conservation Bond issue, which won 3 to 1, despite the economic downturn.
Will Lane is interested in reaching out and talking to people outside the DFA community. He feels he can do that by partnering with other groups in the community. For example, he mentioned a program planned by the Musselman Library of Gettysburg College scheduled for the spring semester consisting of speakers, book groups, films, etc., focusing on a variety of issues. Will wants to contact groups throughout the county and get them to attend these programs. He is interested in environmental, economics, and energy issues, for example. He wants to help stimulate conversations about these issues within the community. He thinks DFA could partner in this effort and take advantage of these programs. Will thinks many people out there are ready to be active and that it is really a time to grow!
Clodius Willis thinks we can be more active by promoting issues, noting that we could also get into town issues, or, perhaps, the National Park dialogue. He also feels we must be realistic in that we are not going to change Adams County into a Democratic county any time soon.
Ginny Ciliotta agrees with Bob and Wendy regarding the importance of candidate development, but is unsure as to the best way to go about it. She also feels we should pick one issue to really focus on, such as the health care issue, and reach out across party lines for support. If we are successful with such an issue, this could garner more support from Republicans should their lives actually improve as a result of our influence. Ginny mentioned hearing an Obama spokesman talking on radio about the goal of using the Obama Campaign contact base as a sounding board and outreach movement to help garner support for his programs, i.e., health care, in particular. She also thought that focusing on bread and butter issues rather than supporting only very progressive candidates exclusively might not be a practical path to attracting Republicans to our side. Elaine mentioned Dr. Dwight Michael and his determination to push the “One Payer” initiative, stating that we need to support him in this effort. We need to encourage the DFA Task Force to think big on this issue. Bob Knight asked about where farmers get their health insurance noting that this is an important constituency in Adams County. Health Care for All PA is having a conference on the issue in Harrisburg on December 6th.
Lou Hammann thinks we should de-partisanize some of these issues, for example, the health care issue, and the conservation issue. He feels the Iraq War is no longer a priority issue. When all the votes are counted, Barack Obama will have achieved a landslide of the popular vote. This gives us the opportunity to de-politicize many of our issues, maybe focus on three or four of them and aim them at audiences without the partisanship angle. We can do both education and advocacy.
Elaine Jones said we are no longer trying to take our country back. Rather, we are trying to help Obama transform the country. We need to transform ourselves as we do this. Obama will need every bit of help he can get from us as his boots on the ground. If we look at our four priority issues, some of them have changed as a result of the election. For example, ending the Iraq War seems like a real possibility now. so we may need to change our focus as well. Bob still feels we need to concentrate on candidate development so as to have people to elect who will support the issues we advocate. Elaine said now that we have a leader who is in favor of our issues, we need to find ways to make them succeed. How do we do that? More citizen lobbying? Do we, for example, concentrate on health care and make Pennsylvania the model for a future universal program?
Even if a candidate we support doesn’t win, if he carries the ball on an issue, makes it prominent throughout the community, that alone would be helpful to our cause, according to Will Lane. He also said we need to start at the grass roots level, municipal elections, for example, build a base, get young people involved and grow from there. All agreed that we need to find people with the appropriate background and experience to be candidates.
Candidate Development Committee. Bob Knight and Ginny Ciliotta agreed to be part of this task force. Elaine will talk to Maggie Abbott about it; she’ll also talk to Roger Lund and find out what ACDC might be planning in this regard. We may ask Roger to address our DFA Meetup in February.
Elaine summarized that we seem to be in agreement that the overall focus of DFA should be in line with what Obama is promoting. What could we propose to our general membership at our December meeting in line with this idea? There was some discussion about changing our name to something broader, somewhat less connected to the Democratic Party. Elaine said her idea of growth is to tap into our large DFA mailing list and to the many local supporters of Obama to get them to be more active in our activities. Wendy said perhaps we need to partner with other organizations to work together on issues. Will agreed with this concept. Clodius suggests we start to call some of these people inviting them to participate, ask them to be on a task force, etc., to get them more involved. Wendy said she would like to focus on that… have a brochure, go to business fairs, participate in any venue where we could promote ourselves. She will work towards this but wants to assure that we have an action plan to make things happen rather than having large audiences in attendance to hear a program on a major issue without an action plan to actually do something about the problem.
Elaine said that if we come out of our December meeting with a framework for an action agenda, she will reach out to all the members as well as all the Obama supporters to become active in supporting the action strategy. Wendy recommended that we continue this discussion at the December Meetup; then the results of both discussions can be the basis for the Steering Committee to build that framework.
Elaine mentioned a recent mailing from the Friends Committee on National Legislation which lays out a plan of action for the new government to follow to regain the legitimate balance of power outlined in the Constitution. She said that this approach is a good way to address the issue of addressing the extension of Executive Power which has developed over the last eight years.
Perhaps at the next meeting we could talk about our four priorities for 2008 and decide what we want to do going forward. Alan Olson said the Iraq Task Force may need to change its focus somewhat given the changed status of the war. Ginny said perhaps the task force mission should be broadened to include Afghanistan and Iran. We need to look again at the Mission Statement in light of the election. Should we revisit what we need task forces to do?
Elaine said she would like to have at least three people be responsible for the program planning. Wendy said she can do the logistics, but can’t do the program itself. Elaine and Lou Hammann will work together on the December program.
The Website. After discussion about the timeliness of updating the website, Clodius described what he can do … i.e., the technical changes that are needed such as changing the banner, moving the last Minutes to the Past Meetings category, etc. What he does not want to do is the content. Therefore, we need to find someone to provide the content. Do we want to invest some money in hiring someone to do this? Will Lane mentioned Rosie Bolling‘s husband who designs websites with the suggestion that he be contacted to see if he might volunteer for this job. Lou Hammann said he would ask him, since he’s a neighbor. The consensus was to tell people at the general meeting that we recommend operation of the website become a priority for 2009.
Clodius volunteered to host the next Action/Steering Committee meeting on December 17th.
Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm. Virginia Ciliotta, Recording Secretary
The program/meeting ended at 8:35 PM.
Virginia A. Ciliotta
Recording Secretary