Minutes of grassroots meetings

Of the Thurston County for Obama group.

Information : Obama experience & achievements Issues & Positions info from Obama L.A. group Networking : Seattle's Obama MeetUp.com group Local Tidbits : Poster for Mar.11 Olympian article

APRIL 19 : Meeting 5:30 PM Location : Olympia Community Center. 5:00 - Sign ins and issuing of yard signs, buttons, stickers. Social time with "60 Minutes" Obama appearance viewed on dvd. 5:30 - Debby Pattin welcomes group and outlines objectives. 5:40 - Due to large amount of newcomers present, Richard May presents about Obama's experience, electability and qualities, then a dvd is played of Obama speaking highlights. 6:00 - Trudy Springer presents to group about an inspiring story from the internet. 6:05 - Many attendees questions and comments. Thurston 1st vice chair Elizabeth Shepard clarifies PCO and caucus info. Phone tree is discussed for those without internet. Discussion leads to a man standing to speak then being asked to the front to tell his story. He is an Iraq war veteran, lifetime Republican who fully supports Obama. His family was converted to Obama by another lifetime Republican who gave them Audacity of Hope book. 6:15 - Walt Bowen, a Dean 2004 organizer and ex-chair of Thurston Dems presents his views on Obama and the election. 6:20 - Debby Pattin and Richard May give overview of project and volunteer opportunities to promote Obama locally. Colm Gent and Christie Gibson step up as local event co-ordinators, attendees make suggestions for visibility. 6:35 - Meeting breaks APRIL 19 : Steering Committee meeting 7:00 PM Location : Fish Tale BrewPub In attendance : Trudy Springer, Debby Pattin, Bob Pattin, Richard May, Dr.Sandy Berry, Elizabeth Shepard, Colm Gent, Adrienne LaFlam, Sen.Ken Jacobsen 7:00 - Cash totals from the event were sorted and dispersed. After defraying the cost of merchandise, and renting the room and a/v, money was within $10 of even. The Thurston Obama group now has $50 cash on hand. Additional materials were left with Debby Pattin for local use. 7:10 - Ken Jacobsen re-affirmed his official endorsement and said he was available for events. The not-yet-confirmed Obama visit to Seattle was discussed. Objectives for events and visibility were considered. Unifying all Thurston area Obama groups into one stronger group was agreed as an important goal. MARCH 10 : Kickoff Meeting 4PM Location : TESC Library room 4300. 3:50 - Sign ins and yard sign issuing as people take seats. 4:00 - Slight delay of meeting start due to latecomers. Location was far from parking and not easy to navigate. 4:10 - Russ Olsen welcomes group, defines some purpose, and introduces Richard May. 4:15 - Richard May describes the objectives of visibility for Obama support, and the goal of the senator winning the local precinct caucus on Feb. 9 in Washington State. Richard walks the group through literature that was handed out, regarding Obama's voting and other achievements, his electability as augmented by independent and republican swing support. 4:25 - DVD played of highlights from several Barack Obama speeches. Sound quality was muddy in some brief spots. 4:40 - A show of hands was asked if all attendees would commit to attend their precinct caucus. Nearly unanimous. Several questions from the group were discussed such as campaign merchandise and online retailers of it, and party affiliation requirements to attend local caucuses. Russ Olsen brought microphone around to the 5 persons who spoke. 4:50 - Zach Smith speaks, partially from prepared notes. He covers some party and committee perspectives. 4:55 - Debby Pattin speaks about caucus concerns and PCO related matters. She also describes her personal witnessing of Obama's well known 2004 speech in Boston. 5:05 - Richard May takes additional questions and elaborates about the Obama campaign's house party project intended for March 31. 5:15 - House party kits are issued to several people. Online contributions are made from laptops. Yard signs and bumper stickers were issued. Meeting end. MARCH 10 : Steering Committee meeting 6:30 PM Location : Fish Tale BrewPub In attendance : Trudy Springer, Debby Pattin, Bob Pattin, Richard May, Dr. and Mrs. Sandy Berry. 6:30 - Cash totals from the event were sorted and dispersed. $235 was collected. $150 was used to defray the cost of renting the room and a/v from TESC. $50 defrayed yard sign and bumper sticker costs. $20 defrayed printing of meeting announcement leaflets. $15 was retained as petty cash by Debby Pattin for future expenditures. 6:45 - Next meeting time was discussed. Overall the assessment was that attendees would be more likely to enjoy a weekday meeting after work, such as 6 PM. Debby pointed out also that her research showed less costly meeting rooms available mid week. Several days were discussed, and Thursday April 19 was decided on. 7:00 - General discussion was had of the strengths and weaknesses of candidates for 2008 and 2004, and other general political issues. 7:30 - State Senator Ken Jacobsen was at the location and offered to formally endorse Barack Obama for president. Richard issued additional materials to Trudy. Meeting end. This page will update.back to MAIN PAGE

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Thurston County for Obama is an unaffiliated grassroots group Contributions count toward all applicable maximums and are not deductable. TC4O is not affiliated with or funded by any one party or candidate.