SDSA Membership Minutes

November 19, 2007

Co-chair Roberto Flores called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM at Grady’s Restaurant.

Andy Lopez, candidate for county sheriff addressed the membership and asked for their support and votes in the upcoming election.

Roberto introduced John Courage who gave a presentation about the True Courage Action Network. The goal of this group is to promote civic education, investigate redistricting, and primarily, advocate clean elections or publicly financed campaigns. The critical issues will never be addressed until big money can be eliminated from campaigns. John showed a video demonstrating that publicly financed campaigns work. He announced an Information Meet-Up to be held on December 12 at Picante Grill at 7:00 PM for anyone wishing to be a part of this effort. John answered several questions from the membership.

There was no treasurer’s report.

Dan Graney, Endorsement Committee, announced the upcoming Candidate Forum at Kenwood Community Center. He gave a brief explanation of how the Committee works and presented the list of Friendly Endorsements. There was some discussion by the members, especially with regard to Ruth Jones McLendon. Peg McPhail moved to vote for each of the endorsements separately. Dee Villarrubia seconded. The motion passed. All of the Friendly Endorsements were voted on separately and all were approved: Charlie Gonzales, Judy Zaffarini, Leticia Van de Putte, Trey Martinez Fisher, Ruth Jones McLendon and Mike Villarreal. Peg also suggested listing the Friendly Endorsements on our web site.

Lynne welcomed Judge Monica Guerrero and thanked her for agreeing to be Mistress of Ceremonies at next year’s banquet.

Cris Ramirez, Board Development, announced Board positions that would be available for the year 2008. Two executive board positions, treasurer and secretary; Ruth Dalrymple and Cris Ramirez, respectively, will seek another term. Four at-large positions will be available; Antonia Padilla will seek another term. Joe LaMonica, Travis Peterson and Richard Moon will not run again. The following members have expressed an interest in running for these positions, Chris Forbrich, Michelle Meyers, Pat McGuire, and Larry Stallings. Anyone interested in running for any of these positions can contact Cris for an application. Elections will take place at the January membership meeting. Nominations from the floor will also be accepted, at that meeting.

Olga Hernandez, Membership Committee, announced that we currently have 177 members.

Lynne Armstrong introduced George Page, Governor of HRC, to explain HRC’s position on ENDA. He reiterated the position that HRC has taken that a bill that includes transger people will not pass. Currently they are working on educating congress about transgender people.

Nancy Russell asked about Shannon Bailey, TSDC Chair. Lynne responded that she would attempt to get information on this and she would put this item on the January agenda. Mark Spencer asked what we could do locally to promote ENDA, and where does the city stand on this. Lynne will look into this and will also place this item on the January agenda.

A Thanksgiving turkey was auctioned off.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Cris Ramirez,

Secretary