Joyce Akins called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m.  After the pledges, Joyce asked candidates present to come up and speak briefly.  Candidates included D. Crewshaw,S. Peake, C. Spain, T. Gaither, B. Kessler, and reps for S. Schechter and A. Green.

Joyce then introduced Gerry Birnberg, our speaker for today.  Birnberg discussed the early voter turnout, which already was a 50% increase.  He compared Harris County politics in 2003 to 2010 and the Democrats have come a long way.  The question is "Was it Obama being at the top of the ticket the cause of this success?"  It was not an Obama surge in Texas--the National Democratic Party did not spend any money in Texas--the key actually was straight party voting--and this will dominate the 2010 elections.

 The second key was the coordinated campaign--carefully screening qualified candidates for all judicial and county administrative offices--which resulted in a ticket of excellent candidates who reflected the rich diversity of Harris County.  In addition, HCDP did a lot of grass roots work.

The must have to win number for Harris County is 333,000 Democrat voters and we do know who the voters are so HCDP will focus on those self-identified Democrats.  Volunteers are always desired!  Winning the county, the state of Texas, is key to keep Democrats in office.  Q&A followed Birnberg's comments.

Business--The October 2009 and January 2010 Minutes were read and approved.  The Treasurer's report was read and approved.

It was noted that the Primary is March 2 and there are precinct conventions at 7pm that night in each precinct to elect delegates to the state convention.  The state convention is March 20.  Resolutions for the party platform--this procedure starts at the precinct convention. Volunteers are needed for the State Democrats Convention.  It was suggested the Sharpstown Democrats Club present copies of our health reform resolution to other precinct chairs for possible inclusion at their precinct conventions.

Joyce stated that SD17 has requested a donation from the club to help with the state convention.  We passed the "hat" and will add money from our treasury to donate to SD17 and SD13.

Elections--Joyce presented the names of those running for club office and asked for nominations. None were given.  We read the list of member names and gave out ballots only to members.  The slate was voted--Joyce Akins, President, Joe Mumbach, Vice President, Guylene Ebersole and Treasurer, Mary Haper,  Secretary.   Kenneth Jenkins, Aster Eyob and Silvie Adams were elected members at large.

The meeting adjourned at 12 noon. 

Our next meeting is Saturday, March 27 2010.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Haper

The February  monthly general meeting will be at Bayland Park Community Center from 10:00AM to Noon on Saturday, February 27.  Our special invited speaker will be Gerry Birnberg, Chair, Harris County Democratic Party .  Gerry will fill us in on all the latest March 2nd Democratic Primary Election news and preparations for Precinct and Senate District Conventions.  I'm sure Gerry will also give us an overview of the county-wide plans and strategies being employed by the Party to increase upon the terrific gains that were made in getting Democrats elected to local, county and state elective offices during the 2008 elections.  Gerry is an excellent speaker and this is a great opportunity to meet him, hear his views on the Party's future prospects and an opportunity to thank him for his dedication and tireless work to help take back political control of Harris County by fellow Democrats and to turn it blue once again.

We have also been notified by the office of the Honorable Al Green, US Congressman, Texas 9th CD, that the Congressman will be also be stopping by the meeting to say hello to the SDC members.  If you know Congressman Green, you know that he will have some interesting and illuminating comments on the latest issues and happenings from the US Congress and how they will effect us locally.

The main item on the regular business meeting agenda will be the election of new officers and board members for 2010.  Please remember that in order to vote in the SDC elections you must be a current dues paid member so if you want to vote, don't forget to pay your dues!  At $10 per calendar year it's one of the best bargains around.  Dues paid members will be given an official ballot at the check-in table when you sign-in.  Any dues paid SDC member is eligible to run for SDC office.

As always you are encouraged to come early at 9:30AM to meet and greet local candidates, visit with club members, share the latest political gossip and enjoy our usual snacks prior to the meeting.

See you on Saturday - please don't be late!

The meeting was called to order by Joyce Akins, Club President, at 10:15 a.m.  Joyce introduced Mike Laster who was  moderator for our  "The Future of Health Care" long-awaited panel discussion.

Panelists were David Lopez, Ken Kenegos, Dr. Margaret Nosek, and Dr. Jim Granato.  Several questions were prepared in advance and asked of the panel as time was limited.  The first question was "Why do we need health care reform?  What's wrong with the system?"

Some comments from the panelists included:  Advocating basic health care for everyone.  Administrative costs are 30% of health care dollars:  free up some of this money for actual care.  Health care is a right...but what do we want...what do we want to pay for....who makes the decision?....ethics and morals comes into play.  Need to modify our behaviors--smoking, drinking, obesity, and drug abuse.  We need more competition in the supply of medical care--not monopolistic care....allow for interstate competition but would that be a race to the bottom?....to the states with the worst legislation?   Not advocating that doctors work for the government but promoting competition at the delivery of health care...this is part of desire for a single payer system.  Q&A followed the discussion.

After the panel, several March Primary candidates were introduced:  Gordon Quan, Kathy Stone, Mark Eisenberg, Boris Miles and reps for Chuck Silverman and P. Walters.

 Mike Laster thanked the club for their support on his candidacy for Houston City Council and he is going to continue to work hard for Sharpstown despite his loss.  Mike also talked about how all votes do count--he lost precincts by only 16 votes at some.

Bert Anson, Chair of SD17, announced the need for precinct chairs and the need for volunteers.

Joyce announced that club elections are coming up and the members will be presented a slate of candidates next month.

The meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.  Our next meeting is February 27, 2010.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Haper, Secretary

The January 2010 monthly general meeting will be at Bayland Park Community Center from 10AM to Noon on Saturday, January 23rd.   The highlight of this Saturday's meeting will be our long anticipated panel discussion on "The Future of Health Care" in the United States.  Our distinguished panelists are David Lopez, Ken Kenegos, Dr. Margaret Nosek and Dr. Jim Granato.  The discussion will be lead and moderated by our past SDC president Mike Laster.  There will be a brief open questions from the floor segment at the end of the discussion.  We are very fortunate to have such a distinguished panel of experts so this should be an extremely interesting and informative meeting.

Our regular business meeting will follow the health care panel discussion.  Agenda topics will include announcements related to our officer and board member elections to be held at the February 27th meeting and plans for this years activities.

This is going to be a very busy meeting with a tight schedule and the meeting will start promptly at 10am so please plan to arrive early for the meeting no later than 9:45AM.  A meeting flyer is attached.  We want to have an excellent turnout for this important meeting so please help to publicize the event among your friends and invite them to attend the meeting with you.

As always you are encouraged to come early at 9:30AM to meet and greet local candidates, sign petitions, visit with club members, share the latest political gossip and enjoy our usual snacks prior to the meeting.  See you on Saturday - please don't be late!

Joyce Akins called the meeting to order at 10:06 a.m. Approximately 30 persons were in attendance.

Joyce introduced special guest Scott Hochberg who discussed the upcoming election and in particular the Texas constitutional amendments on the ballot. Those of particular concern included ones on open beaches, VA hospital expansions, eminent domain, property taxes, and establishing a fund to build research facilities in Texas universities to compete with other states.

Several candidates were present and introduced themselves: Steve Herskowitz, Jo Ellen Snow, Ray Reiner, Mary Acosta, Bob Thomas, Paul Simon, Herman Litt, Diane Trautman, Gene Locke, and Jay Burnett.

The September minutes were read and approved. The Treasurer's report was given and accepted.

Joyce recapped the JRR dinner where she did hand-deliver our club's health care resolution to our federal representatives.

Joyce discussed club membership dues which are only $10/annually and encouraged paying up and/or joining the club.

This meeting is the last meeting in 2009. January is our health care panel meeting. David Lopez and others have been invited and Mike Laster will moderate.

In February we will elect officers and any interested in running should contact Joyce or another board member.

Other ideas for 2010 discussed were: March primary, Census 2010, Credit Recovery, Candidate visits, and the Innocence projects.

In order to save the postage and copying expenditures, it was asked that each member let a board member know if they want the monthly flyer by email or by regular mail.

We thanked Joe Mumbach for the snacks and Sylvie for the coffee set up. The meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

The next meeting is January 23, 2010.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Haper.

The October 2009 monthly general meeting will be at Bayland Park Community Center from 10AM to Noon on Saturday, October 24.  Our special invited speaker will be Scott Hochberg,  Texas State Representative District 137.  Rep. Hochberg will discuss the numerous Texas constitutional amendments on this November's election ballot.  Come early at 9:30AM to visit with club members, share the latest political gossip and enjoy our usual snacks.