Joyce Akins called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m.  She introduced our guest speaker, Jamaal Smith, HCDP Coordinated Campaign Manager who talked about "Our Strategy to Win in 2010".

The Harris County ballot for November is the longest in the U.S. with 138 elections on the ballot.  Democrats need to reinforce straight ticket to win.  There are 65 judicial candidates locally.  We need to be successful in turning out surge voters--they are the uncertain voters.  We approach them in several ways, personal invitations to community events, email and text messages especially to younger voters, and provide information on the various Democrat clubs.

Eight field offices are open and more are planned county wide.  Based on four levels of engagement, based on the 2008 election, tiers have been determined:  Tier I--65% Democrat voters plus 10K raw votes; Tier 2--65% plus 5-9K raw votes, includes Hispanic voters; Tier 3--competitive races (i.e. Scott Hochberg for one), moving targets--apartments, etc.; and Tier 4--Republican districts with a high number of Democrat voters--mostly the outlying areas.  Candidates are emphasizing independent voters and soft Republicans.

The county expects just under 700,000 voters in November and to win Democrats need 52% of the vote.  The Texas Voter Database, also known as VAN, is being used to target voters based on various points.  More users to VAN are desirable.  50 to Victory is a timeline to contact specific voters.  Younger voters are not even aware that Bill White is running for governor.  The clubs are targeting 500+ voters and precincts are also targeting certain voters.

Field offices are in need of office supplies--suggested we volunteer at the Alief office to help Kristi Thibaut; these offices are trying to make 500 calls a night.  There are 375,000 base Democrats and 210K will vote this way for sure.  So we target the remainder by making eleven "touches"--email, regular mail, knocks on their doors and two phone calls.

 What can you do specifically?  Call your friends and neighbors to show up and vote; send out postcards; have a phone bank party; block walk; always vote straight ticket; volunteer at the field offices.

Our next speaker was Scott Hochberg, rep for State District 137.  "Do you want four more years of Rick Perry?"  Under Perry, college tuition in Texas as doubled, he balanced the budget by bankrupting the Texas Tomorrow Fund. Under Perry, electric rates are higher, insurance costs are up, and education has deteriorated.   Per research done by Georgetown University, Texas will soon be Number One in the percentage of jobs for high school dropouts!  This does not build a good state for us.  Scott stated that we export over 7,000 students to other states.  Our 20-30 year olds are less educated than previous generations.  Perry has taken the state in the wrong direction.

Minutes of July 24 were read and approved as read; the Treasurer's report was given by Joyce, our balance is $689.51 as of 8/23/10.

Joyce announced that the October 8 JRR Dinner speaker is Tim Kane; we may be able to give one free ticket to a club member.  Joyce wants a Sharpstown club table.  Jamaal Smith offered to pay for one more ticket--to be given to a member who does the most phone calls, door knocking, etc.

Next month's speaker is Al Green; questions for Rep. Green should be forwarded to Joyce as soon as possible.

Joe Mumbach reported on the Sharpstown High School project.  SHS has a magnet program for Leadership and SHS is also part of the HISD Apollo program.  Staff at the school has been replaced and upgraded in the hopes of turning around the school quickly to a performance school.  The days are longer and the school year is longer and 35 new tutors and 42 new teachers are there.  Joe has approached the school to teach the kids how to do a voter registration drive as part of the Leadership course.  He is looking at a September (18th?) date to do this and provide tee shirts, hot dogs, etc.

Our next meeting is September 25 and Gene Cope and Dan Harris  volunteered to bring refreshments.

Thank you to Aster Eyob for today's refreshments and Sylvie Adams for the coffee service.

The meeting adjourned at 12 noon.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Haper, Secretary