Meeting Minutes—September 19, 2009

The Independence Caucus held a meeting on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. at the Pontiac Coffee House in Springdale. Several of the normal members were away for various activities and obligations, and some had received the erroneous e-mail cancelling the meeting, so the numbers were down. There were about 25 people in attendance. David Keller called the meeting to order a few minutes after 10:00, and opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer. We had new attendees introduce themselves and David explained a bit about the Caucus and its structure, beliefs, objectives, and past success for their benefit. There were many people asking what we are doing to increase the exposure of I-Caucus. Unfortunately, any kind of exposure like this takes money. We hope to pursue the postcard invitation idea soon. David reported some items of news/interest as listed below. Several people made generous donations to Bernie’s campaign and the advertising for his October 6 event. Thank you!

I-Caucus News

* In response to requests, I-Caucus sent vetting questionnaires to 2 more candidates this week—Fred Ramey and Buddy Rogers. We had already given the vetting questionnaire to Conrad Reynolds, so this makes a total of 3 senate candidates that have received the questionnaire. We hope to eventually be able to endorse a senate candidate.
* We need many volunteers to submit letters to the editor regarding problems with both parties. There were some examples on the back table which everyone was invited to take and either use verbatim or modify and submit to editors. There is also a “Boozman Fact Sheet” available for people to have facts to write their own letters. Letters to editors should be kept short and concise. If anyone who could not attend this meeting wants these items e-mailed to them, please e-mail Christine at ninekellers@pgtc.com.
* There will be another gun show on November 28-29, which is the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving, and we need volunteers to man the I-Caucus booth there. The last gun show was a great opportunity to meet a lot of folks and get some exposure for I-Caucus. We had one man volunteer for the entire day of Saturday November 28! We still need more people on that Saturday so there would ideally be at least 2 people at all times at the table. If anyone can volunteer an hour or two or whatever, please e-mail Christine Keller at ninekellers@pgc.com, or call (479) 422-8999.
*We have not forgotten about the postcard invitation project. It will be discussed in the steering committee meeting on Friday 9/25/09.

Bernie’s Campaign News

*We need volunteers for the next 2 weeks to help canvass neighborhoods with flyers inviting people to Bernie’s town hall meeting in Bella Vista, Riordan Hall, October 6, 6:30 p.m. David has neighborhood maps to give to anyone interested so we do not overlap neighborhoods. There are plenty of flyers too. If you live in the Bella Vista/Bentonville area and would like some flyers, you may call Patsy Wooton (479) 236-8915. She will be unavailable Wed. 9/23 and Thurs. 9/24, so you can call Christine (479 422-8999) instead on those days. We need people to sign up for a particular area and report back. If anyone wants to hit some businesses too, that would be great. We will have 5 radio ads as well (paid for by donation from a friend), and some newspaper ads in the Bella Vista paper.
*Bernie has had some opportunities to speak this week with very positive response, but we need more opportunities for him to be heard. If anyone has contacts in the other counties of District 3 or venues (or organizations) where Bernie could speak, please contact him through his web site or Susie Doerr (479) 466-2772. Does anyone know any editors that might be willing to interview Bernie?
*Bernie has literature at the Benton County Fair Republican booth and will have literature next week at the Boone County Fair this coming week also. He will be attending a fair out in Marion County soon, as well as numerous speaking engagements. We have had great success at the Pope County Fair as well. A fellow tea partier from the Russellville area has volunteered his time each day this past week (September 15-19) to speak to people at the fair and hand out voter applications. Steve Estrada is there today to help out on the busiest day of the fair. Thank you, Steve! They are playing a dvd of Bernie’s speeches continually on a tv at the booth, which is right across from the Democrat booth. MANY positive responses there at the fair!
*Susie is planning a town hall meeting at a hotel in Harrison on Oct. 17. We need help publicizing it. Anyone know people in the Harrison area?
*Patsy talked about her canvassing campaign for October. She needs volunteers to help canvassing each Saturday in October, but she emphasized that you don’t have to work all 4 Saturdays—even one would be great! Any and all Saturday volunteers would be most welcome. We hope to reach Sebastian and Crawford counties during October. Patsy said that you do not have to speak to anyone, and we can cover many houses quickly leaving literature on doors. Please e-mail Patsy at patsy.wootton@cox.net if you can help.

We announced that there are cd-roms available which contain all the videos from the Independence Caucus web site. Anyone who would like one should contact Scott Van Horn.

The meeting was adjourned shortly after 11 a.m. with several staying afterwards to mingle and talk. Our next meeting will be on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. at the Pontiac Coffee House again. We need everyone to come and bring friends with them! That is the best way to grow this movement! We plan to have meetings on 1st and 3rd Saturdays of every month from now on. We hope we can count on you to help spread the word.

What a great meeting we had yesterday! We filled the room and now have the best problem we could hope for – the need for a new, larger venue. The Logistics Subcommittee is on the hunt for a larger room; however, our next meeting will most likely be at the Springdale Library. Keep an eye on our “meetings” link on the main page, for any updates about location.

The ongoing recruiting contest is helping to expand our membership. Whoever brings the most new faces to a meeting will walk away with the prize! Marg Kahler and Kay Strickland were our first two winners. Thanks, ladies, for your hard work and helping to educate the community about what we are doing.

If you missed yesterday’s meeting, keep your eye on the “meetings” link and you will find a link to the minutes, so you can catch up.

Our next General Membership meeting is Saturday, July 11th at 12:00pm. The meeting will take place in the Shiloh Room of the Springdale, AR Library. Those of you who are new to the Independence Caucus should find the meeting to be informative. We have a lot of exciting things on the horizon, including announcing our first candidate for national office and organizing our first Town Hall meeting. If you are looking to truly get involved in taking back control of our government, please be at this meeting. We need your help and input! If you are already a member and have been to previous meetings, please be sure to attend this one as well.

We look forward to seeing all of you there this Saturday.

We were honored to be allowed to have a presence at two area Tea Party events. Arkansas Unite invited us to have a table at their rally being held at the Washington County Fairgrounds. The good folks in Bella Vista who organized the Patriot Parade and a “We The People” rally, invited us to have a table at their event as well. Mother Nature had some tricks in store for us all that day, but in spite of the downpour at both locations, many participants stuck with it and demonstrated their patriotism and love of country. Our own General Bernie Skoch was the keynote speaker at the Bella Vista event. The crowd responded to his words with enthusiasm.

The Arkansas Independence Caucus would like to thank all of our members who participated in these events by representing our group and talking to people in the crowd. We were pleased with the response we received from attendees and excited to get the word out regarding our overall goal - to remove compromised incumbents from office and replace them with fiscally responsible candidates. We would also like to extend a thank you to the Chairmen of each event, for inviting us to participate and educate the good citizens of Arkansas about our group’s mission. Thank you, Laurie Masterson, Jim Parsons and Kay Strickland for all you do for our community!

The Arkansas Independence Caucus participated in the Rodeo of the Ozarks parade in Springdale, Wednesday July 1. We learned a lot by participating in this event. Turning a trailer into a patriotic parade “float” is not as easy as it sounds. Wind is your enemy. You have to watch where you step on a parade route where there are more horses than vehicles. And lastly, 700 pieces of bubble gum is not enough to satiate the kids lining the streets!  We had a great time though. Many thanks to all of you who pitched in to help with this effort!

Next up – July 4th Tea Parties and Parades. The Arkansas Independence Caucus will see you in Bella Vista and at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Fayetteville. Have a safe 4th, everybody!

The Arkansas Independence Caucus was invited to hold an event at the Tanyard Pavilion in Bella Vista Friday night. Scott Van Horn gave a PowerPoint presentation about the Caucus. Bernie Skoch was a featured guest speaker, and he addressed many issues involving federal spending. We had a good crowd and after the presentations, the audience got involved in asking questions and raising topics for discussion.  Although folks were expressing outrage with our current government, everyone seemed to enjoy the camaraderie of being in a large group of like-minded people! We hope to have some new faces at our next meeting as a result of this event.
 
Our next General Membership meeting will be June 27th at the Springdale Library, from 12:00-1:30pm. Members should keep an eye on their email for an announcement about a recruiting contest. Challenge yourself to bring a few guests to this next meeting, and you may be the one walking home with the prize! We have many events coming up soon and hope to see lots of participation from our members. Don’t forget to check the calendar here on our home site.

We had a great meeting today. Significant progress was made with our governance structure. Bernie Skoch volunteered his leadership to chair the steering committee, which now consists of the following individuals:

• Bernie Skoch
• Cathy Missouri
• Judy Stevens
• David Keller
• Christine Keller
• Jerry Friend
• Patsy Wootton
• Tim Skoch
• Jim Bulgier
• Wyman Satchel
• Susie Doerr

The committee has begun defining our strategic  goals, which is great, because once we have those identified, we can start to take action!

A few other things were discussed, including:

• Possible fundraising opportunities
•  Advertising venues, including  fliers and “pass-along” business cards
• Upcoming events where we can begin to build our community presence.

Thanks to everyone who attended today’s meeting!  Our next meeting will be on the 30th of this month (see the Meetings page).  We have decided that as our attendance increases, it is not practical to meet every week, so for now we will be meeting on a bi-weekly schedule (though the steering committee will continue to meet weekly).

This weeks meeting will be held at Applebee’s in Springdale (details). Applebee’s is also hosting a fundraiser breakfast that morning – the fundraiser is unrelated to our group, but feel free to show up early and eat pancakes!

Several people have expressed interest in obtaining DVD’s of (1) the I-Caucus videos from ourcaucus.com and (2) the brodacast from Thursday evening. It looks like we will have them available to distribute at the meeting – we hope you enjoy them and use them to share our cause with your friends!

Agenda highlights:

• News from I-Caucus headquarters
• Comments on Thursday’s broadcast
• “This Week in DC”
• Future meeting plans
• Website notes/ideas
• Recruiting brainstorm
• Full agenda »

Here is our first post on our shiny new blog! We hope this blog will prove to be a useful portion of the Independence Caucus Arkansas’ website. Here we will announce events and developments surrounding the Independence Caucus here in Arkansas, as well as any changes to the online tools available here.