From: Jeffrey Fields

Hey Dems,

The A-Team met on April 27th and is pushing forward with our various
projects. We

Next Meetings: Wednesday May 11th @ 6 pm
@ El Ranchero Restaurant, 21 Sturgis Corner Drive, Iowa City

Wednesday May 25th @ 6 pm @
@ Flannigan's Bar & Grill, 501 1st Ave, Coralville

The Big Picture: We discussed focusing our efforts on two general
areas: Registration (of voters) and Recruitment (of activists). We
agreed that during non-election cycles, our time would be better spent
on Recruitment with more limited Registration efforts.

Recruitment: This is the really big, really exciting news. Starting
now (yes, right now), we're focusing our efforts on recruiting people
of difference for appointed/elected positions on state, county, and
local levels.

Juneteenth Civic Engagement Event: We're not sure if this will be a
lunch, dinner, tea, or something else, but it will be on or about
Juneteenth (June 19th or the third Saturday in June). The likely
dates/times are Thursday June 16th (evening), Saturday June 18th
(evening), or Sunday June 19th (afternoon). For those who are not
familiar, check out www.juneteenth.com.

The idea here is to host a "by-invitation-only" event for people of
difference who have a confirmed interest in elected/appointed
positions. Though we will be using a by-invitation-only model in
planning this event, it will be open to the public. Rather than simply
advertise to JCDems or in press releases, we will actively seek persons
of difference who are interested in elected/appointed positions. And
we will personally invite these interested persons to this event. This
will take some effort on all of our parts.

The agenda and format for this event will be similar to the Electing
Progressive Women group here in Johnson County. We'll share the exact
agenda when we get closer to the date. This event will be our
launching pad. The general plan is to get together three or four times
a year to check in and meet new candidates.

Outcomes: Our goal is to have one person of difference per month apply
to a board or commission or register as a canidate for elected office
or be elected to the central committee. This may not seem like big
numbers, but this is not currently happening in Johnson County. Thus,
our goal is to mentor and/or assist with 8 applications, between May
1st and the end of the calendar year.

Mentorship Teams: A benefit of the Civic Engagement Group will be to
match group members with mentor teams. Mentor teams will be comprised
of three people: an Executive Committee member, a local elected
official, and a county/state elcted official. Obviously, there is
flexiblitiy here, but we want to give our group a network of expereince
to rely on in applying/campainging for positions.

Voter Registration: For the summer we are going to limit registration
efforts to particular "events of difference", such as Cinco de Mayo (we
need help with this) and Pride Fest (June 18th, 1pm to 5pm), and the
Evert Conner Center ADA Celebration (date?). St. Patick's church has a
Cinco de Mayo event on Friday May 6th. I'll forward details when I
know more.

African American Ministers: James and I are still working on this
project (yes, we've been slow). One of the new goals of meeting
African American Ministers will be to ask for referals of church
members who might be intersted in the Juneteenth Group

Delegating A-Team tasks: The A-Team has lofty goals. We need help
achieving them. James and I are putting together a "To Do" list. If
you have a particalur skill, interest, or contact that would be of
assistance to any A-Team project, please let one or both of us know.

Thank you. All feedback/input is welcome.

Respectfully,Jeffrey FieldsJCDemAction@yahoo.comAffirmative Action
Co-ChairJohnson County Democratic Party319-339-0994 (Office/Mobile)

--

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please send an email to petidomo@unifex.dyndns.org with the
following line in the body of the message:

unsubscribe jcdems-announce

- posted by John @ 9:43 PM