Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of April 1, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Esther Hopkins, Donna Howland, Shahid Khan, Chris Lorant, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Terene Micciche, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Gerry Heng, Beverly Hugo, Laura Medrano, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Laura Wells, George Wells, Shirley Rovezzi, Amar Sewsankar, Kate Donaghue, Donna Kramer Merrit, Rep. Pam Richardson

Business

Treasurer’s Report (Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 1/21/07	1241.91
Dues Received	70.00
Dividends
Other Income - State Committee
Net Income	1311.91
Itemized Expenses
Norma Shulman; Web Page	44.75
Parwez Wahid Caucus Printing	33.27
CVC Charge	1.00
Net Expenses	79.02
Balance as of 3/11/07	1232.89

Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from March 11 accepted.

Programming Committee was formed. The members: Sarah Micciche, Laura Medrano, Elsa Avis, Pam Roberts.

A motion was passed to donate 100$ to the Green’s Tenants’ Association.

Laura reported the success of the March breakfast meeting, where 391$ was raised.

Norma and Elsa reported on their investigations into buying a canopy for the FDTC for events like Flag Day. The options range from getting an old canopy from the town (if the town replaces its old canopies) to buying a new one for prices ranging from 69$ to more than 200$. They suggested waiting a month or so in hope the prices come down.

Parwez is considering holding an Independence Day barbecue on June 30 or July 11, to which Lt. Governor Tim Murray would be invited.

Nancy announced that membership dues for 2007 - 2008 are due.

The hospitality committee for the next meeting - Pam Roberts and Beverly Hugo.

Announcements:

Gerald Heng talked about the organization Universal Health Care Education fund which has an office in Boston and is advocating for national health care, in the model of Germany or Canada. Illegal immigrants especially have a big problem obtaining health care, because of their language problems, unfamiliarity with the system, and their lack of time to attend to their health. He discussed the many flaws of the Massachusetts plan - the deductibles are too onerous for low income residents, and the 30,000$ a year income level threshold which you have to be under to get state aid in buying insurance is ridiculously low. Our Democratic values mandate finding a better, more inclusive solution. In May they’ll have another meeting on this.

Kate Donaghue, representative of the Middlesex and Worcestor Democratic Coalition, member of the Democratic state committee, member of the Deval Patrick committee, member of the Jamie Eldridge for Congress Campaign:

Thanked the FDTC for the donation to the brunch, and the attendance of several members

Announced the Hudson Town meeting with Deval Patrick on April 25, Comedy night on April 19 hosted by the Maynard DTC

Invited people to go to the website www.devalpatrick.com

Jamie Eldridge is running for the 5^th congressional district. He was a coordinator for the Deval Patrick campaign, has been very active doing grass roots work, and Kate highly recommends him as a candidate. She is asking for Framingham volunteers - it‘s right next door!

Guest Speaker - Donna Kramer Merritt

Donna Kramer Merritt is from the Climate project, an organization dedicated to fighting global warming, headed by Vice President Al Gore, and she’s also an associate publisher of Body & Soul magazine, a subsidiary of Martha Stewart’s Living. She gave a video presentation about global warming. Some points:

She was inspired by the movie "Inconvenient Truth" to volunteer for the Climate Project. After being accepted, she went through several months of training, with 150 others, including Cameron Diaz (and Al Gore).
No credible scientists remain who refute the fact of global warming and humanity’s part in it.
The anticipated rise of the seas, even in the best case scenarios, will put parts of Boston under water.
There are actions we all can take to make a difference - go to www.theclimateproject.org.
She’s available to give presentations to organizations, civic groups, etc., so if you’re interested, please contact her at donnam@bodyandsoulmag.com.

Special Guest - Amar Sewsankar

Amar played a song from his anti-war CD that he composed himself about peace.

Report from the Hill - Rep. Pam Richardson

Rep. Richardson talked about the overrun in the school expenses, caused because of the unexpected arrival of 84 children this year. There is a circuit-breaker that funnels funds, but this didn’t trigger it. It costs Framingham 8000$ a year to educate the average student, and 4 times that much for special needs. Next year Framingham will get more funds, but this year we’re facing "heinous" cuts in the words of Norma Shulman. She urged everyone to attend the School Committee meeting taking place that week.

Next Meeting - May 6, 2007

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com