Cohasset
Democratic Town Committee
Meeting
minutes January 8, 2011
Members Present:
John McSheffrey, Joe Stanganelli, Tom Callahan, Kevin McCarthy Chartis
Tebbetts, Margy Charles, Virginia Najmi, Ned Tebbetts, Agnes McCann, Donna
McGee, Gail Collins, Helene Leib, Peter Pescatore, Theresa Polhemus, Deb Howard,
Mary Lou Clark, Judith Chute
Treasurers Report:
Peter Pescatore reported on the Committee’s finances as follows:
Scholarship fund
$4,283.00
General Fund
2,772.12
Total
$7,055.12
Movie Night:
Movie night will continue with “Mr.
Smith Goes to
Voter Outreach:
Members of the voter outreach sub-committee will attend the coming South
Shore Democratic Caucus meeting, February 3rd at which John Walsh will speak on
the 2012 elections. Some concrete
ideas should be forthcoming from that meeting.
Sub-committee members will report back to the Town Committee at the
February 5th meeting.
Members of the Town Committee brainstormed a number of
ideas for voter outreach in the next two years, some of which are below.
Ginny Najmi reported on information she gathered on voter canvassing.
For the 2012 election she recommended that there be a core of canvassers
already organized and pre- trained to canvass designated neighborhoods prior to
the election. Democrats outside the
Committee should be encouraged to join the core of canvassers. Democrats should
have a clear, understandable message and encourage interviewees to offer their
ideas and concerns.
Ginny will develop a list of principles for canvassing.
Other ideas were:
*
In order to be effective we need to be well informed on issues and
know what our
message is and stay on that message.
* We
need to show we know about issues such as environmental concerns, healthcare
issues, political/social issues, local issues of importance and, as well,
that we are
dedicated to the democratic principles of social responsibility to those
in need.
*
Important to convey our principles to young people which they can relate to and
appreciate
*Our voter
outreach planning process must have carefully defined goals.
*A two
year timeline or plan must be developed.
*We
need effective communication with Democrats and Independents where possible.
Use of e-mail for such purpose might be effective.
We need a database to which we
can
message.
*A
response team could be developed to react to issues with immediacy.
*Develop a pre-election canvass of some type for which we would need a
clearly
defined focus/goal and message.
*Develop a mailing to registered Democrats in Cohasset to inform, educate
and
invite participation
*
Education forums, movie nights, and community outreach efforts should continue
as
a form of education and communication with the citizens in our community.
A
suggestion was made to have a forum with Democrat and Republican
participants to
debate issues of interest to the public.
*A
forum on Medicare was suggested with a speaker to answer the many questions
Medicare recipients have concerning the new healthcare plans.
*A suggestion was made to developed a forum on alternative, governmental
structures for towns, such as representative town meeting
Tom Callahan will act as the Town Committee’s
forum’s director for future forums.
The voter outreach sub-committee will have a report with a
plan for the March Town Committee meeting
Education Forum:
Betsy Connolly is working on an education forum on Cohasset schools which
she anticipates will be held in March.
Helene Leib will assist Betsy to line up speakers.
New member:
Joe Stanganelli was nominated and elected as a member of the Town
Committee. Welcome Joe!
There are additional openings for new Cohasset Democratic
Town Committee members.
Please come enjoy
“movie night’s” feature,
“Mr. Smith goes to Washington” Jan. 21 at 7p in library.
Cohasset’s
Democratic Caucus, to elect delegates to convention June 4th in
will be held Feb. 5
in meeting room of Paul Pratt Library at 9P
Next meeting of the
Cohasset Democratic Town Comm. is Feb. 5th, after Caucus
END