Paul McNamara

by Paul McNamara, 2010 President

Greetings Fellow EDC Democrats!

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I would also like to share with you some of the exciting ideas for this year that your E-Board has worked on these past months.

This is an off-cycle Presidential election year and so the Club’s political action and activism efforts become even more important than in the non election years. To that end, the Board has conducted quite a bit of analysis to determine the best way to achieve these imperatives.

Club Product – Political Activism; Club Engine – Membership

After much discussion, the Board returned to these truisms of the club. Our role is to inform our membership and affect positive change where and when necessary. That activism is resourced principally by a robust, diverse and participatory membership. The Board concluded that without a strong “engine” very little product can be achieved. So this year, we are determined with your help to increase the membership of the EDC not only in sheer numbers, but in the demographics of its rolls. That is not a trivial task and needs the creative input of the entire club in its achievement. So we enter this year knowing full well we have our work cut out for us, but at the same time we know that the end result will be worth the effort.

Political Activism

One only needs to read the news to know that we are faced as a community and a nation with challenging decisions over this next year. These decisions are long term and affect ourselves and the future generations of our families. These decisions require careful thought, and engaged debate in order to find the best solution. As a club, EDC has participated and engaged in a number of efforts in the past ranging from electoral candidate support to issues of community importance. While those efforts were important and effective, in this epochal time we need more. So the Board has carefully developed a strategy that allows us to be even more impactful on the issues of the day. This strategy of course needs a higher level of activism from the club. So we concluded that this challenge of increased activism is one of our main goals for the year. We ask all to accept this challenge and commit in what way you can to support this important undertaking.

Structure

Finally, the Board has reviewed how we do business at the meetings and how we interact. The Board has some refinements to our way of doing business that we believe will make for a more efficient and productive club. At our first meeting on the 16th of January, the Board will present to you the Annual Plan which contains the goals for the year. This is your time to give us your feedback and express your views on what this club should be and what it is. So please mark your calendars and attend! We need you!

In sum and on behalf of the Board, we all look forward to serving and working with you the membership of the EDC. It should be a challenging, exciting, and fun year!!