DATE: 8 June 2007

TO: Attendees of the 13 June Howard County BRAC Task Force Meeting

FROM: Kent Menser, Howard County BRAC Executive Director

SUBJECT: Howard County BRAC Task Force Meeting to be held at the Fort Meade Golf Course Clubhouse at 3:30 PM on 13 June 2007

INFORMATION: Installation access: The Howard County BRAC Task Force Meeting will be held on 13 June at the Golf Clubhouse on Fort Meade. In order to access the installation you will need to have an appropriate government identification card or be on the access list that Howard County submits to the installation. Additionally, at the gate, you will need a picture ID and vehicle registration. The gate guard will match your ID with our list. NOTES: PLAN FOR 20 MINUTES FROM THE TIME YOU ARRIVE AT THE GATE UNTIL YOU ARE SEATED IN THE MEETING! THAT SAID, THE MILITARY POLICE ARE VERY PROFESSIONAL AND THE MAX SPEED ON FORT MEADE IS 35 MPH.

Directions to Fort Meade and the Golf Course Clubhouse:

The June meeting of the Western Howard Democratic Club will be held on Tuesday, June 19 at the Howard County Conservancy, 10520 Old Frederick Rd. (Rte. 99), Woodstock, just east of Woodstock Road. Refreshments and socialization starts at 7 p.m. and the program at 7:30 p.m. Meetings are held downstairs in the Gudelsky Environmental Center.

Racheline Bonaccci, Director of Howard County Tourism, will be the featured speaker. Special guests will be the Future Democrats of America students from Mt. Hebron and Centennial High Schools who were our special guests at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

Mark your calendars! Future Meetings. All meetings scheduled at the Howard County Conservancy, starting at 7 p.m.

In an effort to practice citizenship as well as political activism, the Western Howard County Democratic Club is joining the American Red Cross in sponsoring a Blood Drive on Saturday, June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Howard County Conservancy Gudelsky Environmental Education Center. The center is located at 10520 Old Frederick Road (Rt. 99), Woodstock, Md.

Red Cross T-shirts will be given to all Donors and first-time ever WHCDC T-shirts will be given to all volunteers and high school students who volunteer or donate. Jim Adams is coordinating the drive for the WHCDC.

“We’re interested in demonstrating that we are concerned, interested and involved members of our community. This is our opportunity to contribute to our community with a gift of life.” Adams commented.

He is asking the club to set a goal of 60 appointments for this first club special project.

Prospective donors are asked to schedule donation times at any 15 minute interval starting at 9:30 a.m. through 1:15 p.m. Plan to be involved for approximately one hour from the time of your appointment.

To schedule your appointment, please contact Jim Adams at 443-520-8800 with your preferred time ASAP and no later than Wednesday, June 13. Be prepared to provide your name, telephone number and e-mail address and preferred time. High School students should contact their school club coordinator. If there is a problem contacting either of these, call Mearl Grabill at 410-800-8984 for your appointment.

Thanks to the 300 plus Democrats in attendance at the Ten Oaks Ballroom, the Howard County Democratic Central Committee's 2007 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was a great success.

Party-building was the central theme of the “state of the party” remarks by HCDCC Chair Michael McPherson and Western Howard County is a primary focus for that effort. The Central Committee announced a new initiative, the Neighborhood Contact Program (NCP), seeking more than 300 volunteers to contact every Democrat in Howard County. WHDC member Byron Macfarlane is the Central Committee member responsible for Elector Districts 3 and 4 NCP efforts.

To illustrate change in the county, the Western Howard County Democratic Club had more than 50 people in attendance including 18 members of some of the high school democratic clubs in the area.

Following a year of meeting informally under the leadership of organizers Clyde Robinette and Romayne Smith, and Marty and Barbara Wasserman, the Western Howard County Democratic Club adopted a set of bylaws (see our website) at the April meeting and elected offers and established membership fees at its May 15 meeting.

Inaugural officers include: Clyde Robinette. President; Bill Hudock, Vice President; Jim Mellicant, Treasurer, and Mearl Grabill, Secretary. Their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are listed elsewhere.

These four officers plus the chairs of the five Standing Committees will serve as the Executive Committee. The Standing Committees include: Ways and Means, Issues/Platform, Voter Services, Membership, and Communications. Club officers will serve as a primary contact in each Standing Committee and will have a lead roll in identifying leadership and shaping initial goals and objectives.

One of the highlights of the very successful Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was the presence of 18 high school students from three high schools: Mt. Hebron, Centennial and Glenelg. Participation was late in developing but added a special meaning for both the students who participated and the adults in attendance.

A special thanks goes to three individuals who helped get the ball rolling: Ann DeLacy, president of the Howard County Education Association and founding sponsor of the Mt. Hebron High School Democratic Club; Pat Gordon, Howard County School Board member and grandmother of Alexandra Gordon, president of the Centennial High School Democratic Club; and Jim Mundy, a faculty member at Glenelg High School and former Democratic candidate, who recommended a student representative from that school.

Attending students include:

Mt. Hebron High School: Sheila Sengupta, President; Yanran Chen, Sai Divakaruni, Graceb Freund, Brittani Love, Jeff Pfeifer, Rachael Richardson, Adam Russell, Stuart Russell, and John Tapp. Ms. Erin Dantzler, faculty sponsor.

Centennial High School: Alex Gordon, President; Ben Blake, Alison Gocke, Andy Gocke, Jeff Huang, and Lauren Simenauer.

Glenelg High School: Lauren McDaniel, student representative.

For purposes of defining the WHCDC service area, Western Howard County is defined as those 40 precincts that are included in Council District 5, Legislative District 9A (State Assembly) and Legislative District 9 (State Senate). For all practical purposes, that includes a crescent-shaped area west of Folly Quarter Road, north of U.S. 40 and south and west of Clarksville to the river, including Dayton, Fulton, and parts of Laurel and Scaggsville

By precinct, that includes the following precincts:
Election District 1: Precincts 01-04 and 01-05
Election District 2: Precincts 02-01 to 02-03, 02-05 to 02-19. 02-22 to 02-24.
(All of BOE District 2 except for Precincts 02-04, 02-20 and 02-21)
Election District 3: all, Precincts 03-01 to 03-05.
Election District 4: all, Precincts 04-01 to 04-04
Election District 5: Precincts 05-01, 05-11, 05-19 and 05-20.
Election District 6: Precincts 06-03, 06-25, 06-28, 06-32.

So defined, candidates for these offices share constituents with Council District 1 (Courtney Watson) and Team 13 (Md. Senator Jim Robey and Md. Assembly members Shane Pendergrass, Frank Turner and Guy Guzzone.) Courtney Watson is our Democratic representative on County Council.

Rallying around the 2007-2008 focus on “Party Building”, Central Committee Chair Michael McPherson announced a new grassroots initiative to develop and strengthen the Democratic Party at the neighborhood level. The Central Committee is looking to recruit, train and develop some 300 volunteers to serve as the “eyes and ears” of the Party throughout the county, with special emphasis on Western Howard County, traditionally a Republican stronghold.

Selected members of the Central Committee will serve as leaders for each Electoral District. As described elsewhere in this newsletter, Western Howard County races (Council District 5, Assembly Legislative District 9A, and Senate Legislative District 9) involves all precincts in Electoral District 3 and 4, all but four precincts in Electoral District 2, five precincts in Electoral District 5 and four precincts in Electoral District 6.

Western Howard County Democratic Club Meeting Minutes - May 15, 2007

Our next meeting is Tuesday June 19th at the Howard County Conservancy. Our special guest will be Racheline Bonacci, Director of Howard County Tourism Office. We will also hear about the Neighborhood Contact Program that will be a top project for WHCDC. Please join us if you can….

Submitted:
Clyde Robinette and Romayne Smith, Club co-founders.

Hi WHCDC Friends,

Wow! There are so many exciting things going on in the club. We are really starting to take shape, with officers elected and committees beginning to form. The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was a total success thanks to Mearl Grabill’s efforts to fill the tables. Our club got a lot of recognition from the party. Ken Ulman raved about our organization and the attendance at meetings. Governor O’Malley was aware of our progress and was very appreciative of our efforts!

The Blood Drive is this Saturday, so look on the website for information and sign up to give. Jim Adams has organized the drive, so please call him at 443-520-8800 to set up a time to give. I’ll be there around 9:30 with the other early birds. I hope to see you all there!!

Speaking of the Club website, you have got to check it out at http://westernhowarddems.com and bookmark the page. Jim Mellicant has done a superb job in setting it up for us!! Please be patient with us as we work out our communication system. We have an email list we are using for communication right now and we are trying to coordinate it with the Google Group. We apologize if you get a couple of emails about similar topics while we work out the bugs. The best source of up-to-date information will be the website.

Our last meeting in May featured Brad Heavner, Executive Director of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. Brad reviewed the outcome of environmental issues in the 2007 State Legislative session just ended in Annapolis. He was very pleased with the progress we made and is optimistic that we will continue to make progress on a number of fronts in future sessions. The information Brad shared is summarized in the minutes from the meeting.

Our next meeting (June 19th) will be a busy one!! Our special guest will be Racheline Bonacci, Director of Howard County Tourism Office. We will also hear about the Neighborhood Contact Program from Cathy Zomlefer and Michael McPherson from the Democratic Central Committee. The Neighborhood Contact Program will provide us with an opportunity to reach out to other Democrats in western Howard County that will be a support to the club as well as to the party. It is a real win-win situation for us, so I am very excited about the program.

Things are really moving along quickly. The presidential primary is already starting in Howard County. If no clear winner emerges from “Tsunami Tuesday”, there is a good chance that Howard County and Maryland will have a say in which candidate will be on the ticket in November 2008!! You want to be here for that!!

I hope to see you all soon!

Clyde Robinette
President, WHCDC