Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting Minutes
October 1, 2024
Bomber Mountain Civic Center, Room 108

Call to Order:

Chair Greg Haas called the meeting to order at 6:02 pm, followed by the attendees’ pledge renewal of allegiance.

Agenda:

Agenda approved

Attendance:

8 voting members of the Central Committee.

Secretary Report:

Approval of September 3 meeting minutes.

Treasurer Report:

Treasurer presented treasurer’s report.

Chair Announcements:

• Yard Signs – Two HW “Saddle Up” signs left. Received generous donations through distribution of the signs. Have Morrow and Cameron yard signs if anyone wants one. Contact Greg.
• Early Voting for Stateside Voters in Wyoming starts October 8th.
• Clerk did more testing of voting machines. 4 JC Dems were present.
• Rural Strong is hosting trainings.
• Short discussion about Constitutional Amendment that will be on Nov 5 Ballot

Old Business:

• Follow-up comments about SCC weekend that happened in Buffalo on Sept 6 & 7.
• Listserv – Chair explained use to room.
• Updates for William D. McIntyre Scholarship

  • General – Committee met and discussed future fundraising ideas. Application form was updated. Will meet again on November 15th, 2024 at 11am in Study Room C of the Johnson County Library.
  • website & application – Chair still hasn’t update the number of awards given last year. But he has updated the application forms, both print version and web versions.

New Business:

• Adopt-a-Highway will happen this coming Monday at 10:00am. Meet at the Bomgaars parking lot. Bring gloves, a picker-upper-thing if you like, good shoes. Vests and trash bags will be provided.
• JC-FFF – Three Dems are still rotating, monthly, to fill the public free food dispensers. This is a good opportunity for others who would like to pitch in and volunteer. Get in touch with Linda (or Greg) if you’re interested. Packing food bags at JC-FFF will be March 5th, 2025. Time TBA.
• Voting Postcards – WDP is sending postcards for volunteers to complete and mail to Wyoming Voters. Greg has more info. Complete packages have everything you need except optional card decoration and postage. Postage paid by volunteers. All 80 cards on their way were spoken for at the meeting. Greg will request another few packets. Fun activity, especially for those who can’t make it to the Adopt-a-Highway or food dispensary projects. Fun to do as a group!
• Sheridan is hosting a Rally for Harris-Walz Oct 19 at 12:00 noon. J C Democrats are invited and encouraged to participate. For more info, contact Sheridan Dems or Lois at 684-9160 as she plans to attend and may be able to facilitate carpooling.
• Motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously to cancel November’s CCC meeting. Next meeting will be in December. November’s regular day falls on Election Day and will be canceled. Three CCC members are election judges and would not be present.

Other Business:

• Motion was made and seconded and passed unanimously to fund postage (approx $120.00 for sending a letter to all registered Dems in Johnson County with information about voting and JC Dems contact information.

Upcoming Meetings:

• Next Monthly CCC Meeting – December 3, 2024 at 6:00pm. November meeting is Canceled.
• County Party Round Table is Postponed until December.
• Comms Call – Tuesdays at 7pm 1st and 3rd Weeks.
• Lunch forums are still on hold.
• JC Library Auction Nov 1 at 6pm
• Somebody is going to be discussing electronic ballot tabulation machines and demonstrating hand-counting of ballots at a “voting security” seminar in the JC Library’s Fraley Room on Saturday, Oct 5, 2024 at 10:00am.

Adjourn

• The meeting was adjourned at 6:52.

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting Agenda (Draft)
October 1, 2024 at 6:00 PM
Bomber Mountain Civic Center, Rm 108

Draft Agenda

6:00pm Call to order and Pledge

6:02pm Approve/Amend Agenda

6:04pm Minutes (Chair) & Money (Treasurer)

6:07pm Chair Announcements

Yard Signs

Early Voting

Clerk’s L & A Testing

Rural Strong

Ballot – Amendment A

6:08pm Old Business

Follow-up on SCC weekend

Listserv

Updates for Scholarship site

McIntyre Scholarship update

• General
• website & application

6:20pm New Business

Adopt-a-Highway

JC-FFF

Voting Postcards

Possible Rally

Next Monthly Meeting is Election Day

6:30pm Announcements from the Floor

Upcoming Meetings

Next Monthly CCC Meeting – Nov ???, 2024 at 6:00pm

County Party Round Table – October Meeting Postponed at 6pm Sept 11, 2024

Comms Call – Tuesdays at 7pm 1st and 3rd Weeks

Lunch forums

Other?

6:39pm Adjourn

Apparently somebody or somebodies are creating and distributing crude and vulgar anti-Trump buttons, or pins, in various places around Wyoming. The Johnson County Democrats knows nothing about them, who’s behind them, and does not participate in that kind of hateful activity. There has been no indication that any Democratic Party in the state is involved or behind the distribution of those button and pins. To distribute those, anonymously, seems, to us, quite cowardly.

Kyle Cameron and Scott Morrow, candidates for U.S. House and Senate, respectively, have accepted invitations to participate in these two N.E. Wyoming Candidate Forums. Gillette on Sept 24 and Sheridan on Sept 25.

• LWVCC – Gillette Public Access Channel 192 Sept 24 6pm

  • Live (I think): https://play.champds.com/gillettewy/live/6
  • Archive: click here

• Sheridan Chamber Stream of Candidate Forum Sept 25 6pm

  • Live: https://www.youtube.com/@sheridancochamber
  • Recorded: https://sheridanwyomingchamber.org/

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting Minutes
September 3, 2024
Bomber Mountain Civic Center, Room 108

Call to Order:

Chair Greg Haas called the meeting to order at 6:05 pm, followed by the attendees’ pledge renewal of allegiance.

Agenda:

There were no additions to the agenda.

Attendance:

8 voting members of the Central Committee. 2 Guests.

Secretary Report:

Approval of August 6 meeting minutes.

Treasurer Report:

Treasurer presented treasurer’s report.

Chair Announcements:

• WY HD 40 race: Candidate did not receive enough write-in votes to move to the general ballot. Candidate reported contributions and expenditures.
• County party round-table zoom on Sept 11 will invite WDP’s collaborative campaign program members and union leaders.

Old Business:

• Motion was made to reserve $300.00 for print ads in Johnson County for candidates.
• SCC Event on Sept 6. Plans were made for fundraising, desserts, setting up and evening’s schedule was outlined.
• No changes regarding McIntyre Scholarship. Chair Haas was reminded he’s been asked to place statistics about awards on the scholarship’s web pages.

New Business:

• Motion was made, and passed unanimously, to let jcdemswyo.org domain name expire and to utilize the free domain name johnson.wyodems.net. A site redesign was approved. Greg will update website notify the central committee as that and email changes progress.
• Volunteering date set with JC-FFF: March 5. More discussion about that at upcoming meetings.
• Resolution on the Discontinuance of the Use of Slack for communication between County Parties and WDP was passed unanimously.
• Discussion about the Wyoming Edition of the Harris-Walz yard sign was held. People can purchase a sign at the WDP website. Chair Haas will have a supply for Northeast Wyoming as the current inventory is coming to Buffalo for the Sept 7 SCC meeting. Order your sign through WDP or contact Greg.

Upcoming Meetings:

• Next Monthly CCC Meeting – October 1, 2024 at 6:00pm.
• County Party Round Table at 6pm September 11, 2024.
• Comms Call – Tuesdays at 7pm 1st and 3rd Weeks.
• Lunch forums are still on hold.

Adjourn

• The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:20 pm.

Johnson County Democratic Party Meeting Agenda
September 3, 2024 at 6:00 PM
Bomber Mountain Civic Center, Rm 108

Agenda

6:00pm Call to order and Pledge

6:02pm Approve/Amend Agenda

6:04pm Minutes (Chair) & Money (Treasurer)

6:07pm Chair Announcements

WY HD 40 race

County party round-table zoom will invite WDP’s collaborative campaign program members.

6:08pm Old Business

Bulletin Ads

Sept SCC Meeting

• fundraising
• deserts
• set-up
• Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum

McIntyre Scholarship update

6:20pm New Business

Website and domain name.

Volunteering to pack bags for JC-FFF.

Resolution on the Discontinuance of the Use of Slack

6:30pm Announcements from the Floor

Upcoming Meetings

Next Monthly CCC Meeting – October 1, 2024 at 6:00pm

County Party Round Table at 6pm Sept 11, 2024

Comms Call – Tuesdays at 7pm 1st and 3rd Weeks

Lunch forums

Other?

6:39pm Adjourn

Resolution on the Discontinuance of the Use of Slack by the Wyoming Democratic Party for Communicating with County Parties.

Whereas the Wyoming Democratic Party (WDP) consists of volunteers across a large geographic area;

Whereas those volunteers represent the entire range of skills related to computers and information technology;

Whereas WDP staff spends an outsized amount of time on educating, training, selling and pushing the use of technology tools;

Whereas WDP desires to “meet people where they are”;

Whereas WDP desires to retain communications and a knowledge base for and by all those in the conversations for reflecting and planning;

Whereas several County Parties are already managing their own communications systems;

Whereas County Parties require simplification of communications tools;

Whereas the onboarding new volunteers needs to be streamlined;

Whereas the number of complaints about certain communications tools far exceed the celebrations; and

Whereas the number of logins and accounts required to participate in WDP communications is burdensome; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the Johnson County Democratic Party:

1. urges WDP to discontinue the use of Slack as a means of communication between the WDP and County Parties;
2. urges the WDP, should it find it needs an asynchronous chat tool, to replace Slack with one of the other services also already in use, such as Zoom, Google or email or with one that does not require the creation of an account, such as Signal or WhatsApp.
3. urges County Party Executive Committees to communicate at least monthly with all other County Party Executive Committees and to do so outside of non-federated proprietary tools and systems (e.g. Facebook, X, TikTok).

Passed unanimously Sept 3, 2024 JC Dems CCC meeting.
Mover: Lois, Precinct 03-01
Seconder: Suzi, Precinct 03-02

JC Dems are honored to invite the Wyoming Democratic Party SCC members to a welcome reception between 5:30 and 8:30pm on September 6, 2024 at Papa Bino’s Restaurant, downtown Buffalo! This Mexican Food Restaurant will offer both indoor and outdoor mingling and dining. They will have their beverage menu available. Food will be on the table and donations will be accepted at the “door”.

Papa Bino’s
343 N Main St, Buffalo, WY 82834
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pyzJKs5XzCbi3GQS8

Parking is available on the street(s), in the parking lot by the DFS and Engineering office and the parking lot across the street to the north.

The restaurant is walking distance from “downtown” Buffalo, a branch of Bond’s Brewery, the Historic Occidental Hotel & Saloon, etc.

A tour of the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum is being arranged. 5pm to 7pm. (see ActBlue page for more info.)

Announcements and Greetings will happen at 7:15pm at Papa Bino’s. Free Trivia game (with prizes!) will commence at 7:30pm.

Greg Haas has offered to give people a lift (3 at a time) at 5:30pm from the Hampton Inn and at 8:30pm back to the Hampton Inn.

The following is a letter to the editor first published in the July 25, 2024 edition of the Buffalo Bulletin. This is the opinion of one voter and does or does not represent the entire Johnson County Democratic Party. But it is absolutely worth a read! -ed

Dear Editor,
I want to express gratitude to the Buffalo chapter of the American Legion Post 13 and the American Legion Auxiliary for hosting a candidate forum on July 18th. Also I extend that gratitude to each of the candidates who were able to attend and share their views.
I will say I was saddened to listen to one candidate for HD 40 who was sharing their personal experiences in our nation’s capital and said “…has watched the left infiltrate everything” as if the democrat party is one of our foreign adversaries, such as Russia. I was taken aback to
hear such a one sided exclamation about U.S. citizens who obviously feel differently about some topics than the speaker and are probably happy that their elected officials are working hard to have all sides represented in our government. Candidate was also sharing falsehoods about how money is spent in our Wyoming State government.
Our community is such a friendly, helpful and caring place with many real republicans who don’t have to spread misinformation or degrade anyone who does not agree with them. My sincere hope is that this candidate is a rarity.
Democrats are United States citizens and patriots.

-Linda Wilson, Buffalo, WY