0LOWER PROVIDENCE REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES APRIL 9, 2014 @ SHANNONDELL PRESENT:
Donofrio, Dotts, Corcoran, Eckman, Frey, Gaugler, Hackett, Hager, Kearney, MacFarland, McFarland, Tyson, Van Horn. There were no guests in the audience.
PRESENT VIA PROXY:
Basile, Perrone,
ABSENT:
Bursner, Dougherty, Eskie, Mandracchia, Sorgini
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm. 1. Presentation and Approval of the February 12, 2014 meeting minutes. Ms. Kearney presented the February 12, 2014 minutes and motioned to approve. Ms. Donofrio seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Ms. Kearney mentioned that we effectively had held no March meeting because our March meeting was just endorsements in conjunction with Area 4’s meeting on March 5, 2014, so there will be no minutes issued by LPRC for that meeting. 2.
Financial/Treasurer’s Report. Mrs. Tyson walked the group through the report, and mentioned that she had been able to switch our account from a fee-based one at Santander (formerly Sovereign Bank) and to a new one at T.D. Bank that did not charge us fees because she was able to get them to consider us as a nonprofit entity. There was a discussion of the amount available to us and the need to fundraise to better support our efforts and candidates this year. Some money owed to us has been collected; Worcester Township still owes $100 towards money spent last year for the school board candidates. Mr. Van Horn explained that usually $1000 is allocated for the Methacton team, with LP contributing $600 and Worcester $400. Last year Worcester only paid us $300 of the $400 commitment. Mr. Hager asked about the expense for our web site and if it could be done less expensively. We went with the provider we have now because a few years ago there weren’t many options. Ms. Kearney explained that it can be; she has used the same provider in the past and they provide the basic website template which you populate with minimal effort and they provide that plus the hosting. She added that the websites she maintains are all self-designed on existing free sites, and the only expense is about $10-$15 a year for the domain name and about $60-$70 for hosting annually (detailed analytics would cost another $60 or so but would produce meaningful data around where our traffic is coming from and what they click on to view, which we don’t have now). Mr. Hager indicated he would like to look into reducing our annual spend for our website. The balance shown includes the Sunshine Fund.
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Mr. Hager motioned to approve the treasurer’s report, and Mr. Frey seconded. The motion passed unanimously. 3.
Key Dates. Mr. Van Horn provided upcoming key dates and events. Upcoming events include the MCRC Spring Reception and Dinner (April 10) and the costs for each, as well as the upcoming Area 4 fundraiser at Chadwick’s on Saturday morning, April 12. Advertised guests Jim Gerlach and Pat Meehan cannot make it, but Ryan Costello and Mike Vereb will be there. Let Doug know if you are going so he can give an accurate count to the facility. In addition MCRC has scheduled campaign training for our Area (along with two others) for Monday, April 14 from 6-7 pm in Trappe. If you can’t make that one, there are still 2 more remaining on other nights in other areas. In addition to an MCRC update, PA GOP spokesmen will present their ‘precinct captain’ program and mobile app for use in collecting and recording data about voter contacts. They would like each committeeperson to sign up as a precinct captain, but if you won’t be walking your districts they will have someone do it. Someone will be there from the Corbett campaign to give an update on that, and Russ Bono, Montco’s new sheriff, will also be introduced. During a discussion about the regional MCRC meetings, Mrs. Tyson explained for those who had not attended that the Pennsylvania GOP folks were also there and explained their “precinct captain’ program, and their new phone app for data collection, and what types of data they expect us to collect as we go door-to-door. Modeled on the Obama election campaign GOTV program, this program takes it a step further in that instead of using paid helpers or people from other areas to canvass and gather data, we are attempting to leverage people embedded in their voting districts – ideally committeepeople – to collect this information and record/report it. The information will be used to target mailers to specific population segments (ie someone with an NRA bumper sticker would get mailers that focus on that issue). Ms. Kearney added that it’s essentially grassroots data mining. Mr. Van Horn reminded everyone that the cutoff for new voter registrations is the Monday after next, April 21.
4. Fundraising 2014 (Spring and Fall). The Committee discussed when and how many fundraisers to hold this year to raise funds and what events to consider, evaluating the potential effort required to do versus the anticipated funds that could be generated. Mr. Hager mentioned we have four state reps and two state senator candidates within Area 4 that need our support. Ms. Eckman mentioned a couple of ideas we could consider. One is similar to something Rep. Kampf is doing in Tredyffrin Township’s Wilson Farm Park, a family oriented movie night in the amphitheater. That could be done inexpensively if we rent the Township’s band shell or some similar facility. Another is an event that her spouse’s FOP has put on, a magic show event also centered around appealing to families. The group also discussed something similar to what was done years ago as relayed by Mrs. McFarland, a fancy dinner evening out with music and dancing. We could make a candidate or elected official event the reason for the celebration (such as a retirement or award). Mr. MacFarland also suggested some ideas from his experience with the Marc Smalls 5K run in Lower Providence and what is done for Small Steps in Speech (some of which we are already doing). 2
There was a brief discussion related to fundraising dates and when best to schedule them since everyone’s Committee events all tend to bunch up around the same times of year and when combined with candidate fundraisers there are almost always date conflicts. You can never hope to avoid everything on the calendar so you have to try to pick something that works best and go with that. The group discussed a desire to stage two events this year, one in the June timeframe (family focused event) and another in the September timeframe (fancier dinner type event), and to work toward the January one next year. Ideally we’d like to get some of the candidates to the fall function. The group will have to work in smaller subcommittees to get these events done. Other options were discussed, including the suggestion by Ms. Dotts that some sort of bake sale similar to what a group that she works with does (an indoor flea market, with vendor tables, refreshments etc.). They made $450 from the bake sale and about $1000 from vendor tables at their last event. The group decided to hold both a spring and fall fundraiser this year Ms. Tyson would still like to plan on a winter fundraiser for next January, something along the lines of a winter carnival, issuing kids a wristband when paid. While Ms. McFarland felt that with a winter like what we just had, it might be impossible to try to schedule, Ms. Tyson felt that when you have kids house-bound for that many days in a row parents are often looking for something to get them out of the house to burn off some energy so if we have an event like that it could be very welcome and popular. Ms. Kearney suggested that perhaps we can find a local corporate sponsor to donate the indoor space to be used for this purpose since there are limited options (and usually a cost). The Committee also discussed the legality of raffles versus silent auctions. . 5. Old Business. The group discussed a spring mailer, timing, cost of postage, and MCRC’s decision not to provide separate runs of green ballots for mailing unless specifically requested by a committee. Mr. Hager believes that deadline is already passed. We will still have them available at the polling places. Ms. Kearney suggested we scan it and put it on our website for those voters who use that as a resource. We won’t reach all of them that way but we can direct those that will do so to look online and they can print their own. 6. New Business. Ms. Eckman mentioned the shredder event that Reps. Kampf and Vereb are hosting. 7. Next Meeting. May 7, 2014 @ Shannondell. All business before the Committee having been concluded, Ms. Donofrio motioned to adjourn the meeting; Mrs. Dotts seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:31 pm. Respectfully submitted, Janice Kearney, acting secretary 3