SDSA Board Minutes

March 10, 2008

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM by Roberto and Lynne.

Members present: Antonia Padilla, Jeanne Belaire, Larry Stallings, Lynne Armstrong, Pat McGuire, Cris Ramirez, Roberto Flores, Chris Forbrich, Bryan Gerard and Ruth Dalrymple

Members absent: Olga Hernandez

Guest: Dan Graney

Pat moved to accept the minutes from the last meeting as read by Bryan Gerard. Motion passed.

Bryan presented a motion from the Endorsement Committee to invite the candidates for the office of sheriff to speak at the next membership meeting. Each candidate will have three minutes to speak and no questions will be taken from the audience. Each candidate will have four minutes for others to speak on the candidate’s behalf. Five minutes will be allotted for the actual vote by the membership. Pat seconded the motion and it passed.

Lynne, reporting for the Membership Committee, indicated that an $80 check from Wanda Lyman mailed in January had not yet cleared. Ruth explained that she discovered several checks that she inadvertently did not deposit; Wanda’s was one of them.

Larry made a motion from the Political Relations Committee to research the possibility of setting up a Yahoo group to keep members informed and provide a forum for exchange of ideas. In addition Larry will look into the possibility of recruiting volunteers to approach candidates and those in political office for an interview and possibly post the information on the web site. Pat seconded the motion and it passed.

Cris, Board Development Committee, reported that five SDSA Board terms will expire this year. These terms belong to Roberto, Lynne, Jeanne, Bryan and Olga.

Antonia, Voter Registration and Mobilization Committee, indicated that she would begin to look into setting up voter registration drives, especially at LGBT events. First Fridays at Blue Star was also mentioned as a possibility.

The Communications Committee will schedule a meeting to discuss the web site and information it contains.

Bryan moved that Chris Forbrich be appointed web master of the SDSA web site. Pat seconded and the motion passed.

Lynne announced that Jamie Lewis has agreed to oversee the dinner for the SDSA Awards Banquet.

Lynne reported that the new city Equal Employment/Anti-Harassment Policies did not include gender expression/identity. She will be making an announcement and comments about this at the next membership meeting.

In order to help defray some of the cost of air travel that our National Stonewall Board member has incurred, a motion was made by Pat to transfer $1500 from the Contributions-Other Expenses category in the budget to the Travel Expenses category. Bryan seconded and the motion passed.

Ruth, treasurer, reported that our current balance is $8,880.13. She also indicated that the Budget/Finance/Fundraising Committee meets the fourth Tuesday of each month.

The Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus (TSDC) is looking for members to fill positions on the various committees. Dan will e-mail information on the positions and committees.

Because of time constraints and the extensive amount of research required for the Grow to Win grant offered by Nation Stonewall, Bryan moved that we not apply for the money at this time. Cris seconded and the motion passed.

At 8:50 PM Cris made a motion to adjourn, Bryan seconded and the motion passed.

Respectfully submitted,

Cris Ramirez,

Secretary