WCRC meeting – March 2009

With no speaker this time, business was the rule of the evening at our monthly affair.

Pleasingly there was no real drop in attendance though and once we dispensed with the usual business of the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, club president Marc Kilmer took a moment to thank the two officers who chose not to seek re-election this year (George Ossman and Helen Shockley), then joined his fellow officers in being sworn in for a new term by Wicomico County GOP Chair Dr. John Bartkovich.

We then heard the minutes and received the treasurer’s report.

Because we had no guest speaker a number of reports and items of business were placed on the agenda. First up was Mark Biehl giving the Lower Shore Young Republicans report and clarifying the purpose of an upcoming fundraiser. The May 23rd affair will be for the benefit of the LSYR club but the hope is that State Senator and Congressional hopeful Andy Harris will be the keynote speaker. Prior to that their next meeting will be on April 9th at the Flavors of Italy on East Main Street in Salisbury.

Bartkovich then moved to the podium to give a Central Committee report. Referring to a decision last month to help fund a local student’ s trip to the Teenage Republican convention, he called it money well spent on the possible future growth of the party.

Another upcoming event John alluded to was the annual Tawes Clam Bake in Crisfield July 15th. As always we’ll assist in sponsoring a tent with other local Republican entities. We’ll also begin a new effort to communicate with new Republican registrants with more details to be ironed out at the April WCRC meeting. It was part of a bid to “think of terms of 2010” and about getting a message out which reflects Republican principles.

Before our next meeting April 27th the club will have its annual food booth at the Salisbury Festival. Bob Miller again make his pitch for volunteers which means it’ll soon be time for me (and several others) to put on my baker’s hat and make some brownies for the enjoyment of hungry festival goers. They go well with the hamburgers, hotdogs, and corn on the cob we also sell.

Nick Loffer stood up to announce the new Americans for Prosperity group in Maryland. It’s a group interested in maintaining the principles of capitalism, which otherwise seemingly are under an unceasing assault by the current administrations in both Annapolis and just down U.S. 50 in Washington, D.C. The group seeks to be “on the front lines” in reversing the “terrible” policies of spending and debt, with part of that effort rendering their assistance to some of the “tea parties” now springing up across the nation.

Another arm of that effort is the “No Strings Maryland” website and petition asking Governor O’Malley and the General Assembly not to take any stimulus money with provisions requiring action by the state. I signed the petition and added my two cents, so I encourage readers to do the same.

Mark McIver spoke next and brought up the recent formation of the Eastern Shore Republican Club, which is meant to foster communication between counties. Their next meeting is March 29th in Cambridge and several who were at the WCRC meeting had already attended the group’s initial meeting.

With the announcements complete, we moved next into some new business. One of them was whether to support the recent and upcoming spate of tea parties occurring across the nation, including one here on April 15th. It was decided that perhaps the effort was better left as one of covert rather than overt support since a number of those organizing the impromptu protests weren’t heretofore political activists, just citizens mad as hell who couldn’t take the financial mismanagement anymore.

We then decided to form two committees to take care of separate items of business. One would be formed in order to prepare a strategy the WCRC should follow for 2010 – including (but not limited to) how to get out the vote, a headquarters, voter outreach, raising our community profile, and how to allocate our resources in the most effective way. This committee is expected to have its work completed by this fall.

The second committee will look into the feasibility of offering a scholarship to a local high school youth and what parameters should be placed on such a scholarship if one is provided. This came after a fairly lengthy discussion as well.

Our final order of business was moved much more rapidly, as we’ll put together a request form for financial items. The idea is to have these on a standard form which can be reviewed by the club’s executive committee then placed on the docket for member approval at the next meeting as appropriate. The Central Committee would be exempt.

Overall it was a briskly-paced meeting with a nice combination of presentation and discussion. As of this writing our April 27th speaker is slated to be Delegate Page Elmore, who will give a rundown of this year’s General Assembly session.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.