SDSA Membership Minutes

February 16, 2009

Co-chairs Roberto Flores and Lynne Armstrong called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM at Grady’s Restaurant.

Four new members were introduced as well as two guests.

Lynne announced that t-shirts were available for a $10 donation.

Peg MacPhail made a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting as presented, Bryan seconded and the motion passed.

Treasurer, Larry Stallings, reported that we have a current balance of $5802.18. He passed out copies of latest statement for members to review. Cris Ramirez made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report as presented, Richard Moon seconded and the motion passed.

Mark Spencer, Budget and Finance Committee, reported that the committee would have its next meeting on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 at the home of Larry Stallings.

David Plylar and Peg MacPhail, Endorsement Committee, reported that thus far there were 35 candidates, including 7 for mayor, that were running for citywide positions. They discussed policy changes approved by the Board stating that letters and questionnaires will be sent to every candidate and that the candidate forum is open to the public and the media. The forum will be on Sunday, March 29. This Wednesday, questionnaires will be sent to all the candidates that have filed. Peg discussed the importance of looking at school board elections and targeting the candidates running in the major school districts in the next year.

Lynne, Political Relations Committee, announced that after the election the co-chairs would be making appointments to meet with the newly elected candidates.

Diane Stallings, Program, Fundraising and Events, reported that the committee is looking at two possible dates for the annual banquet, October 3 or October 10. Someone has donated the cost of a small band to play at the banquet. Committee members are also looking into different caterers for the event.

Antonia Padilla, Voter Mobilization and Registration Committee, will request that someone from the Bexar County Elections Department come and deputize voter registrars at the next membership meeting.

Linda Allen, Webmaster, reported that she had set up the TSD website and that she is in the process of transferring the SDSA website to Joomla, a new program. She also reminded the members that renewals, as well as new memberships, and contributions can now be done online, at the SDSA website, through Act Blue.

Lynne thanked Michelle Meyers for her service on the SDSA Board and announced that David Plylar had been appointed to fill her vacancy.

Travis Peterson announced that 5 people had volunteered to help with the Peace Officers Training and that the next training would take place in March.

Dan Graney, TSD Chair, encouraged SDSA members to attend the TSD Conference, as well as Lobby Day, to be held the first week in March, in Austin.

Yvonne Jonas, PFLAG, invited members to New Beginnings Lutheran Church, to tell their stories during the meeting. She also stated that Spanish PFLAG meets at 6:00 PM, the first Thursday of every month at the same location.

Diane Stallings introduced the guest speaker for the evening, Alyssa Bergen, from the Texas Climate Emergency Campaign. She informed us that if we follow current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations as much as half of Africa’s food production will be gone by 2020. The Himalayan glaciers will be gone by 2035 and over 40% of the world’s people will lose half their water. If we stopped all emissions today, there are enough present emissions that the changes underway won’t be reversed for over 1000 years. This year the US Congress will pass a bill and in December the UN will sign an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocols. The quality of the UN agreement will be largely determined by the US bill as the developing countries of the world are of the opinion that the US has profited greatly from its emissions and must take the lead. TCEC recommends that the coming congressional bill have emissions cuts of at least 25-40% under 1990 levels by 2020. TCEC also wants the National Science Academy or the EPA to be empowered to make recommendations to the US Congress if we need to make deeper emission cuts.

Bryan Gerard thanked all who donated to the Warrior and Family Service Center.

Olga Hernandez, Membership Committee, announced that Valerie Grace would no longer be on the phone tree committee. Olga asked for volunteers to help out with this.

The meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Cristina M. Ramirez,

Secretary