May Minutes
Baxter County Democratic Committee
Meeting Minutes
Baxter County Library
5/6/23
Chair Derek Huber called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m.
Donnie H Led the pledge.
Derek Huber mentioned that there is a Non-Partisan Gun Violence candle vigil on May 13th put on by the Unitarian Universalist of Mountain Home.
Minutes: Called for any changes to April minutes, there were none. Called for approval of minutes, Jess Vanderstek made a motion, Mary O’Sheild 2nd, all in favor. Minutes accepted.
Treasury report: Derek H gave treasures report: current account balance is $1,873.36.
Update: Ashley collected $176 in donations at this meeting.
Update on Action Steps and Committees - Derek:
Legislative and Local Beats: Online
History: Coming up - Mike B
Election Workers: Bob B. There has been a good turnout for voting so far this election. They are going to do an audit of this election. They will hand count to prove that the machines are accurate and paper ballots are not the way to go. For Election Worker Committee, a new cycle starts at the beginning of next year, then they can start training the new workers.
Update on VAN: Still waiting on VAN. We will have training on this soon so we are ready for candidates next year. Austin Ross will be here for our August meeting and will provide the VAN training.
Slack Communications: internal communications invite coming via email
External Communications:
Derek laid out the plan for external communications using our committees to drive our content for all purposes relative to the committee. In Slack, there are channels set up for each committee to discuss their individual areas such as legislative watch, local beat, election worker, and historical. Examples of these are on the website. Everyone on the committee is invited to participate in the general chat. We will start a field team/committee in August and add that to Slack at that time as well.
Guest Speakers:
Steve Grappe from the Rural Caucus of AR and CAPES (nonpartisan citizen referendum against LEARNS Act. Gave updates on what the Rural Caucus is doing and what is going on with LEARNS and the fight against it.
2nd Guest Speaker Lisa House with the A+For Education committee and Mountain Home School Board to talk about voting yes for our community and talked about rumors vs facts.
Vice Chair JoAnn B. Meeting Adjourned at 11:32 a.m.
Next Meetings:
June 3rd: Back Forty 10:00 a.m.
July 1st: Back Forty 10:00 a.m.
August 5th: Baxter County Library 10:00 a.m.
(VAN training with Austin Ross)
