March 21, 2005

PRESENT: Sandra Bradbury

Chuck Durand

George Keller

Bill Lack

Carl Mumpower

The meeting convened at noon at Café on the Square.

George noted there are four known Precinct Chairmen who do not have E-Mail. We want to do without paper this year when we can because so much money was spent in the past on paper copies. Minutes will be posted on the Web and paper will be the exception only.

Log onto http://www.buncombegop.org/min/ for minutes.

User name: member

Password: bcgop

The recent convention was surprisingly costly. The newspaper ad, which is required by the North Carolina Plan of Organization, was about $575, but it got a lot of response. We then had to notify all Precinct Chairs. It cost $200 to produce blue cards and $750 to mail them. Expenses were $1,525. We took in about $600, which gave us [$925] net. We spent $327 ($1 for each delegate) for the NCGOP to mail their package. Look at our website in the middle of the front page for a link to the convention site.

Pledges are working. About 17 people have signed up for more than $1,100 a year. We have already collected more than $500, so there is a stable income from this. For the Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner, two-thirds of the money was spent to feed people. Pledges are all profit.

We have $9,500 in the bank to date. George was not sure whether the $500-$600 from the convention has been deposited yet. The Central Committee needs to talk about how to spend money. We want to hold $300 to keep us liquid. It takes that much to get a dinner going. We need about $2,000 a year for fixed costs. The storage room costs $100 a month and is full of items for headquarters (eg., furniture and election materials).

Many people think we should have a semi-permanent or permanent headquarters all year. Meetings could be held there and eliminate the storage room. There is a street-front in West Asheville for $600 a month, which is the best property anyone has found yet, but we cannot afford that right now. The subject of whether to look for a place will be brought up at the next Executive Committee meeting. We could install seven or eight telephones to use for municipal elections into 2006, when we would probably need a larger place. With 800 square feet we might be able to handle election work for all local candidates. This would be separate from Congressman Taylor’s location. The consensus was that it would be good to have a place this year.

There was discussion about where the Central Committee should meet and whether we wanted evening or lunch meetings at Magnolia’s or Café on the Square. The Central Committee could meet six times a year and the Executive Committee six times a year (every other month for each group). Evening meetings were preferable to the majority of the group. Carl noted that parking is easier at Magnolia’s.

Wes Adams is doing most of our web work. He has suggested having an Asheville platform, a Buncombe County platform and a Federal platform. George said some people had responded to the request for suggestions for an Asheville platform.

The Sheriff’s race is coming up in 2006. The County has a buy-out plan going on right now. Sheriff Medford is not physically well and he may take an early out. It will be up to the Executive Committee to recommend a replacement since it is a partisan race. Several well-qualified people have already talked to George about the job.

Chuck suggested having focus group meetings within precincts. Get someone who is “ticked off” about something in their neighborhood. They could start a calling campaign. He suggested setting up something for several small groups. Bill noted that we are under-represented in the City of Asheville. There was some discussion about possible Republican candidates for City Council.

There was further discussion about getting all registered Republicans together in the city for a rally to hear Republican candidates speak. A booth could be set up to register voters, hand out literature, talk about issues and get to know people. We need to try to get young people involved.

Carl said we have to differentiate from the competition. We have an image of being unprincipled with regard to abortion and taxes and this is exceptionally obvious nationally. We are in control on all three levels. Our principles have been laid aside for convenience. That is one way we can differentiate. The local Republican Party can make a sincere commitment to basic principles and live up to them. We can get pledges and challenge our State and National representatives to live up to them. He noted this is a good idea if we have something to sell.

George remarked that he would like to see passenger rail service back in Asheville, but so would the Democrats. Chuck believes specific principles take courage and “smarts”. Alice Keller had told George we should think about taking care in spending our money, set priorities first then find programs. It was noted that appropriate City and County services could be merged. We would have to raise County taxes enough to get to what the City is spending on children. Carl said the City can have special subsidies.

Other ideas were to stop involuntary annexation and encourage new jobs. There were some comments about City parks, but Carl said we do not need to get into that issue. Carl also suggested not bringing up City district elections. There are strong arguments for the County.

George recently went to a John Locke luncheon in Raleigh about teaming up to get things done. He thought this theory would relate to the Civil Center (he is on the Civic Center Board).

Chuck talked about accountability and visibility and said the Democrats do not want to expose themselves to that since a candidate can easily be attacked on that issue. George said because of the need for accountability, we are having our books audited when they transfer from Jeremy to Nancy Day. Non-profits have to be careful with their accounting. Chuck said the Street Department (trash pickup) has no accountability and wanted to know who got those contracts. He also asked where the accountability is for ABC.

The following points were suggested for the Asheville platform.

• Focus on the common good. (Democrats pander to special interests and there is a parade of people frustrated by that.)

• Take care with people’s money.

• Principles over politics.

Carl said they can make most decisions on what has impact on the largest number of people. Chuck noted the universal driver in history is quality of family life. Carl said we are trying to get us united on common ground. George wants five platform items to put on a banner. Carl noted we do not have the unity and discipline for something to happen through group discussion. As a leader, George needs to make ground rules. We have to inspire people.

The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

The next meeting will be Monday, March 28, at Magnolia’s.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandra Bradbury

Secretary Buncombe County Republican Party