Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of September 9, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Kathie McCarthy, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Christopher Broyles, Bob Edwards, Claire Farragher, Beverly Hugo, Lloyd Kaye, Laura Medrano, Rep. Pam Richardson, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Alan Frankel

Guest Speaker: Major Peter Capuzzi

Business

  1. Treasurer’s Report from Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 6/10/07

1486.86

Dues Received

155.00

Dividends

Other Income:

Net Income

155.00

Itemized Expenses

Web-Site:

26.85

Net Expenses

26.85

Balance as of 9/9/07

1615.01

 

 

Dues as of June 9:

  1. Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from June 10 accepted.
  2. Norma Shulman gave a report on the FDTC table at the Friday Concerts on the Green: 18 people filled out voter registration forms; and flyers with the Democratic candidates’ websites ans brochures with health insurance information were handed out. The Children’s Primary was a big success with 313 participants who voted for the Democratic candidates. The votes were tallied in the final concert and an article about it appeared in the Tab. Final results: Clinton, 141 (45%); Obama, 65 (20.8%); Edwards, 35 (11.2%); Biden, 15 (4.8%); Dodd, 13 (4.2%); Gravel, 11 (3.5%); Kucinich, 8 (2.6%); Richardson, 6 (1.9%); LaMagna, 2 (0.6%); other, 17.
  3. Former state Sen. David Magnani is resigning from the FDTC because of his new position as executive director of Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, a statewide organization recently created to support and promote the state's 25,000 nonprofit groups. That job means he can no longer be publicly involved in partisan politics, so he is leaving the FDTC and resigning as area coordinator for Barak Obama. David Magnani invited any local non-profit to contact him. By the way - the Chief Operating Officer in Massachusetts Nonprofit Network is going to be our own Stephanie Mercandetti. Congratulations!
  4. Rosalie Cotton, living half of the year outside Framingham, is changing her status to Associate Member.
  5. There are now 4 vacancies in the FDTC. Any registered Democrat in Framingham is eligible to seek election to these four vacancies. Nominations will be taken from the floor of the meeting. A candidate must be nominated and seconded by a member of the Framingham DTC. If more than four candidates are nominated balloting will conducted, the top four vote recipients will be declared the winners.
  6. The state party has determined that this year’s caucus should be between the first Saturday of February and the following Sunday.
  7. There are members who can’t attend meetings during the weekends and so Parwez is sending out a survey to see if we can change the day of the week we have our meetings. The votes have to be in by September 30th.
  8. Pam Roberts and Rochelle Sivan volunteered to help Parwez with the maintenance of the FDTC website - http://www.framinghamdems.org.
  9. Parwez Wahid, as a Democratic State Committee member is expected to raise 100$ for the campaign of Niki Tsongas, who won the primary in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, and the question was whether to use the FDTC funds for this purpose. Points from the debate:

Norma Shulman moved to donate the 100$ from the FDTC funds. Joan Rastani seconded the motion and it passed with 7 ayes.

  1. Pam Roberts gave a report on the Issues committee which was created in May to draft policy papers to be presented to the FDTC. The 4 Issues committee members chose the following 4 topics to concentrate on, which they divided among themselves. They are looking for volunteers and interested parties to participate in the conversation, so if anyone (not just FDTC members) wants to help shape the papers, please contact me or any other Issues committee member.

Announcements:

  1. Chris Ross is resigning as Membership and Outreach Officer, so a replacement is needed.
  2. Bob Edwards returned as an Associate Member. Welcome!
  3. There will be a Pasta Dinner, November 4th, an hour before the regular meeting
  4. The Holiday party will be on December 2.
  5. Alan Frankel - Co-Chair of the Committee Advisory Board for Boston Progressive Talk Radio talked about the organization.
  1. Hospitality for next meeting - Elsa Avisa and Laura Medrano

Report from the Hill - Rep. Pam Richardson:

Program: Our guest speaker was Major Peter Capuzzi, an ex-marine who has served more than 10 years in the Marines. Major Capuzzi returned from Iraq this April, and has been a civilian since August 1. He currently lives in Framingham and is Elsa Avisa‘s son-in-law. Some highlights:

Next Meeting - October 14, 2007

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