Greetings Fellow EDC Democrats!

Paul McNamara

January turned into a very productive month to include a well-attended general membership meeting. I would like to thank all of you who attended and showed such strong enthusiasm and support for the annual plan.  Its approval gives us the basis and structure we need for a strong and successful year.   Additionally, by an overwhelming majority, we welcomed back Chris Nava to the Executive Board as our VP of Political Action.  Her experience, dedication and passion for the issues make us lucky to have her.

Finally, the meeting realized one of our first goals and that was to increase the activism of the club.  We had a number of volunteers sign up at the meeting to serve on the various committees.  Of note, Grace Sloan was nice enough and if I might add brave enough to take on one of the tougher jobs – volunteer coordinator.  This role has remained unfilled these past few years and it is critical to any club to have someone take on this responsibility.  And if I might make one final comment, volunteering is not signing your life away. There are many short term and short hour events that need a helping hand.  If you have just a little bit of time, we could use your help!

Club Product – Political Activism; Club Engine – Membership

If you’ve been following the EDC website, you will see that a number of issues are heating up as we get further into this election year.   We’ve already had a number of Action Alerts and the issues list is growing.  To stay informed and learn how to address these issues stay tuned to the website.  We should have shortly a fleshed out Program for the year.  The draft already looks great and we are hoping to publish the full schedule by the February meeting.

Additionally, we have discussed a number of ways to increase and diversify our membership.  One idea that serves two purposes is the “North County Forum.”   Again it is listed on the website but I want to emphasize that this event is an opportunity to hear State level democratic candidates and at the same time invite people to join our effort.

Finally, I want to acknowledge how fortunate we are to have Margaret Liles with us.  As I’m sure you’ve read on our website, she has the won “Best Tolerance” letter as part of the North County Forum letters to the editor competition.  Margaret’s passion and knowledge of the issues is a model for all of us.  Well done!!

Council of Clubs – Central Committee

We attended both meetings this month and there is a lot of activity in the works.  We will discuss this activity at our General Meeting.  But it is important to note that your Democratic Party is hard at work.  There are two things that I would like to point out. One is the Roosevelt Dinner, which is Saturday, April 10^th.  This is a great time to see some of the local Democratic luminaries in a setting of camaraderie and sense of purpose.  Also, we are soliciting nominations for the annual wards.  A website posting will be forthcoming on this.

In sum we’ve had a great start and so let’s keep up the momentum.  Finally, when we next see Jason Everitt, he will be a married man and I would ask you to offer him and his new EDC recruit, Carly, your heartiest congratulations!

Respectfully, Paul McNamara, President