A special meeting was held on April 19th at Sid’s Restaurant to help Humboldt County Delegates prepare themselves to attend the State Convention being held in Reno on May 17th and 18th. Don Rogers opened the meeting at 6:20pm and turned the meeting over to Cindy Trigg, Democratic Rural Organizer and Melanie Crosby (Retired Deputy Atty General for Douglas County and Rural County Organizer for Team Derby). Below are some of the points she made as she covered the anticipated agenda and how things will work.
- In addition to the Delegates, only 1100 Alternates and 500 Visitors will be allowed at the Convention. Therefore, it is extremely important for ALTERNATES to REGISTER ASAP. Alternates need to check the Convention Info Page frequently and register as an Alternate as soon as the Registration form is posted.
- If you’re a DELEGATE and for some unforseen reason you’re unable to attend the convention, contact Dinah Jordan (Credentials Chair for the Rurals) at 775-881-8238. She should be able to explain what the “replacement” rules will be and whether you can provide a local person with a written “replacement” authorization, or whether the credentials committee will make the decision as to who will replace you on the convention floor.
- Cindy emphasized that it is important that the rural organizations come together and work/vote as a group to ensure our views are represented. The hardest vote will be for “whom” our “ONE” Rural Representative to National will be since that person will be casting a vote for the presidential nominee.
- The Convention opens on Friday, May 16th at Noon for dissemination of informational packets to registrants, for various committee meetings and for receptions and entertainment activities. Credentials, Registration, and Platform Resolutions committees will be meeting that afternoon in different rooms. If you can, you might want to observe the Platform Resolutions meeting. You wouldn’t be able to “vote” on the resolutions, but you may be able to have a limited opportunity to comment on resolutions important to the rural counties. Various receptions will be held that evening as well as a dinner/dance. Convention business will be conducted on Saturday/Sunday.
- PAY ATTENTION TO DEADLINE TIMES in your convention agenda. Take a highlighter with you and highlight all the deadline times in your agenda so you can keep track of them.
- For example, there is a deadline to sign up go to the National Convention. You must submit your name BEFORE that deadline. The preliminary agenda they had at our meeting listed that time as 10AM on Saturday. If you attempt to submit your name after the deadline has expired, you’re just flat out of luck … end of story.
- Another deadline involves when delegates for nonviable candidates must align. The preliminary agenda they had at our meeting listed that time as NOON on Saturday.
- Another deadline involves electing who will be the single MALE Delegate to National from the Rurals (apparently a female went last time). The preliminary agenda they had at our meeting listed that time as 2PM on Saturday.
- Again, and they repeatedly emphasized, PAY ATTENTION TO DEADLINE TIMES!
- The Legislative Platform will be voted on later in the morning or in the early afternoon on Sunday. Keep in mind that a large number of Clark County Delegates will most likely be catching planes on Sunday morning to return home. That means that Rural Delegates could potentially have a huge influence over which legislative platform issues get approved for submission to the National Committee/Convention. Rural Delegates should plan to stick around on Sunday for the vote on Platform issues.
- Check your agenda for a “Rural” Democrats meeting … no time had been announced for the meeting as yet.
Other notes of interest were:
- Nevada had 5 members in the Electoral College
- Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee has one seat on the Nevada Central Committee
Melanie also talked about moving forward with plans to support Jill Derby’s bid for Congress and the need to defeat Dean Heller. She indicated that polls now indicate Dean Heller’s support across the district has declined 35%. That bodes quite well for Jill who is beginning to gain some speed and who was recently endorsed by the Blue Dog Democrats. Volunteering to join “Team Derby” locally were: Elaine Kochever, Vickie Rock, Nicki Schumacher, Brad Heese, Don Rogers, Carolyn Rogers and Beatrice Asher.
Attending the meeting were: Ed Kochever, Elaine Kocheaver, Nicki Schumacher, Gordon Schumacher, Roger Rock, Vickie Rock, Carolyn Rogers, Don Rogers, Brad Heese, Sunny Johnson, Dee Holzel, Cindy Trigg, Melanie Crosby