Meeting Minutes 10/7/09

Produced by Breanne Miller - YDU Secretary

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Young Democrats of Utah

Board Meeting

October 7, 2009

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Present: Justin Daniels

Breanne Miller

Mark Hymas

Brett Garner

Matt Miller

Carmen Rodriguez

Nick Daskalas

Ofa Pilivi

Crystal Young-Otterstrom

Sarah Day

Curtis Haring

TJ Ellerbeck

Jason Myers

I. Welcome at 7:03 pm

II. Endorsements/Invites

a. District 3

i. Stan Penfold

1. Community Council, AIDS Foundation, Greater SLCC, character of the neighborhood, progressive

ii. Phil Carroll

1. Read from his website

http://www.rughsterdesign.com/carroll/vision/

iii. Shall we endorse?

1. 12 present: For (7) Against (2) Abstain (3)

iv. Endorsement

1. Stan (8) Phil (0) Abstain (4)

b. District 7

i. Soren Simonson

1. Read letter

ii. Lisa Ramsey Adams

1. Read letter

iii. Shall we endorse?

1. 13 present: For (9) Against (0) Abstain (4)

iv. Endorsement

1. Soren (12) Lisa (0) Abstain (1)

c. Justin will seek information from the Murray mayoral candidates

d. We will walk 10/17, 10/24, 10/31

i. Justin will schedule each campaign days

III. 3rd Annual DL/YDU Bar Crawl

a. Friday, October 16th - 8:00pm

b. Starting at the Republican Woodshed, Burt’s, Bayou, etc.

IV. Next Event

a. Comedian

b. Bowl-a-thon

c. Spaghetti w/ Granato

i. Redwood Road Granato’s or Union Hall

ii. Nov. 14th

iii. $25/person, $15/YDU Members

iv. $5 off for non-YDU members on Act Blue, advanced purchases

v. Justin will contact Jim Judd to see if it’s available, Granato’s is back up

vi. Speakers – Peter Corroon, Sam Granato, and Soren/Stan if they win

V. Service Project

a. Jason will plan October project

VI. Caucus Meetings

a. Mark wants to have meetings for remainder of year

VII. New Board Positions

a. College Vice-Chair: Nick

b. HS Chair: Carmen

i. Co-Vice Chairs: Molly/Zach

c. YP Co-Vice Chair: Naziol

d. Mark will seek out new Treasurer and report back next week

VIII. New Media Committee

a. All is well, FB is a touch quiet

b. Need blog writers

IX. Bio’s

a. Turn them in by next week

b. Send a good headshot, too

X. Round Table

a. Crystal

i. Get your newsletter articles in!!!

ii. Can we change the meeting time to 6:00pm?

iii. Next week’s meeting will be at 6:00pm to test it out

iv. Utah Cultural Alliance is having a panel, check the FB invite!

b. Brett

i. Bought his flight for the Orlando convention (Nov. 20-22)

c. Justin

i. YDA Convention – Orlando (Nov. 20-22) – No trainings, just meetings and meet/get to know your new YDA Officers (for now, may change)

d. Breanne

i. SW Regional Meeting? Where is Toni? Brett will check on it.

e. Jason

i. We got a lot of thanks from the Road Home. Thanks for those who attended.

f. TJ

i. Civic Engagement Conference at the U

1. Lobbying suggestions – start early! Before the session, esp.

2. Greg Bell is moderate, opposes same-day voter reg, getting a website for online registration

a. Get Colleges going on promoting on campus???

3. Need specific time limits for our spaghetti dinner speakers

g. Mark

i. Next meeting at 6:00pm

ii. Convention

1. Sent letters to Reid, Pelosi, Udall, Barney Frank, Stephen Colbert. Heard nothing back, will make follow up calls.

2. Crystal will talk to Diane in Pelosi’s office

iii. Jason donated all the arts and crafts, so chip in if you can

iv. Got $1,250 in donations

v. $500 from Ralph Becker, too

XI. Breanne

a. Don’t forget to chip in for the hotel room from Chicago!

XII. Adjourn at 8:11pm.



See ya’ll Wednesday, the 14th, at 6:00pm!

The Myth of the Liberal Media – Everyone is Bias

As Glenn Beck’s “9/12” project seemed to exemplify, there are different styles and ways that the media can report on a story. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly obvious that factions of the media are out-and-out lying about its content – in the case of the 9/12 protests, estimates of turnout ranged from 60,000 to two million, depending on who you talk to. That is a rather large difference in opinion, to say the least, and some media outlets/pundits went so far as to publish purposefully misleading photos to push their agenda.

This is just one example of how the media has become bloated and out of control. Phrases such as “liberal media” only exemplify this fact, if only because it proves that “the facts we use” are more important that all of the facts.

It is a fact that Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the gang tout a very conservative viewpoint that is not representative of the American people. Likewise MSNBC, Maureen Dowd, et al are very liberal and do not represent the American people.

And people are starting to notice.

The Pew Research Center recently reported that only 29% of Americans trust the mainstream media, down 10% in 2007. The principal cause for this distrust? The media is dominated by special interests that make their reporting inherently bias. To further this point, “fake” news, such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are much more trusted – presumably because viewers know where the news ends and the jokes (read lies) begin.

But, despite the obvious disharmony between fact and statement, people still complain about the “liberal media” running the show, and enough people parrot this “fact” to create a perception that conservatives have no say in the political discussion (the discussion of death panels, Obama’s place of birth, the legitimacy of torture, and other various right wing topics aside). In politics, and reporting, perception is reality – the myth of the liberal media lives on and our country takes a step backwards because the media allows it to.

And we see this over and over again. The media will latch on to some convoluted story that an intern picked up on the internet and run with it…even after it has long since been discredited by other outlets. The source that reported this obviously false fact will simply claim that “you won’t see this on the other networks” to cover their tails, and the network simply allows the story to run until they no longer make money off of it. In many ways, modern “journalism” is not far removed from modern tabloids.

The simple fact of the matter is that media is amazingly polarized. Yes, there is a liberal media…but there is also a powerful conservative media at play in American politics. One thing that should be agreed upon is that it is harmful to our democracy. Media has always been for profit, however corporate media and the 24 hour news cycle have created a monster that has mutated the fourth branch of government into a monster, and its power to persuade the masses only makes it a greater threat to our freedoms.

Original post can be found at www.blueinredzion.com

Softball Game - Davis County Democrats vs. Republicans

The 6th annual softball game between the Davis County Republicans and Democrats. At 5pm, there will be a combined Potluck BBQ/Picnic for members of both parties. And our softball game will begin at 6pm. Anyone interested in playing or attending please contact Richard Watson at 801-540-3146 (D's) or Kathy Wilson (R's) at 801-776-3023. A good time to put politics aside and have some fun with our neighbors and friends.

To RSVP, visit the Facebook event page by clicking here.

YDU Young Professional Caucus Happy Hour at Green Pig

Join the Young Democrats of Utah's Young Professional Caucus at Green Pig on Thursday, September 17 from 5-7pm. Have a great time mingling with other Young Dems and enjoy the Green Pig's Whiskey Night, with whiskey drinks just $3!

To RSVP, visit the Facebook event page by clicking here.

Topaz and the Constitution

By Brett Garner -

Last month, I visited the site of the Topaz Internment Camp northwest of Delta, Utah. For many Utahns today, the history of this location is unknown; the fact that there is nothing left there but rusty nails, cracked concrete foundations, and massive ant hills makes that understandable. Most people would rather we forget when we decided our Constitution, at least parts of it, were not applicable. Later we realized our mistakes, we apologized, and we paid for it, literally. Nonetheless, all of the internees were loyal Americans; they served and some died in our military; others became amazing members of our communities.

However, today we hear echoes of those voices who stirred up hatred and intolerance in the name of security. Those who say our Constitution, the document they may at one time call divine, seconds later call irrelevant.

They are wrong, just as they were wrong in 1941-1945. In the years ahead their arguments will sound as ridiculous, racist, and unpopular as they were in a previous time of unrest.

If you believe the Constitution is a sacred document, as I do, you cannot support abandoning it when the times get tough, even when they are very tough. It is at those times precisely when we need to hold on to it strongest; we need to demand our elected officials not countenance trifling with its most basic provisions. If we do not, we will not only crack our freedoms like the foundations of Topaz’s barracks, but we will not succeed.

Meeting Minutes 9/9/09

Produced by Breanne Miller - YDU Secretary

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Young Democrats of Utah

Board Meeting

September 9, 2009

Present: Anna Thompson, Breanne Miller, Mark Hymas, Brett Garner, Matt Miller, Chris Warton, Crystal Young-Otterstrom, Curtis Haring, TJ Ellerbeck, Juli Huddleston

I. Welcome at 7:02pm

II. Visitor –Yossof Sharifi

a. Running for SLC Council, District #3

III. Softball Games

a. Field people didn’t get back to Mark until today.

b. Cancel it? Practice before the Davis County game?

c. Mark will try to get a refund, and if not we will practice there.

d. Davis County Game

i. Sept. 19th 5-8pm

ii. Founder’s Park, Syracuse

iii. Justin, Anna, Curtis, TJ, Brett

IV. Wasatch County Party Executive Cmt. Meeting

a. Mark went. It was really, really, really good!

b. Mark thinks going to these meetings are the way to get out county chapters going.

i. They have 9 young people who would be willing to be contacts

ii. Suggested having a social event to get things going.

c. Where are we with our 9 in 09 goals?

i. 9 chapters will be basically impossible, but 9 strong contacts is

d. Rudy has a high school contact and will be recruiting people via a gov’t class. We should go with them to represent.

i. Also going to talk about getting a chapter at their UVU campus

ii. Mark will be going up there Oct. 5th and 6th Class starts at 7:55am. Heber.

1. Monday – Curtis, TJ

2. Tuesday – Anna, Mark

V. Beyond the Division

a. ACLU’s “Critical community discussion”

b. Sept. 25th @ UVU New Library, 1-3pm

c. Discussion re: equality

d. Pride in Our Community wants us to attend and help advertise by passing out flyers.

i. Contact Eric (via Mark) if you want to help: 801-809-6151

ii. Justin is volunteering!

VI. Next event

a. Fundraising idea

i. Spaghetti Dinner w/ Granato

1. He’ll provide the spaghetti and the venue (store on Redwood)

2. Sam, Peter, Nicole

3. Justin will call Rob to try to plan it

b. Bar Crawl

c. Convention

i. Use your contacts!

VII. New Media Committee

a. Going well, all schedules have been met, except the blog

b. Blog- need more authors

i. College prez’ as authors? Mark will talk to Carmen and Sarah to reach out to them

c. Send events to Curtis for posting

VIII. Stan Penfold – via Crystal

a. “He’s really cool”

IX. Financial update

a. Looking up!

b. $851.22 deposited

c. $1300 in commitments

d. Current balance is about $450 (including that recent deposit)

e. $5,000 owed to Justin as of 9/15

f. Mark and Justin will be contacting previous donors this week.

g. Board will be provided with an chart of current money and outstanding debts

h. Will discuss treasurer position next week

i. Justin and Mark both committed to doing 10 hrs/wk in fundraising.

j. We all need to recommit to fundraising

k. Mark will email fundraising letter out and get is the change for change flyers.

X. Round table

a. Mark – YP happy hour 9/17, 5-7, Green Pig. National Equality March in D.C., Oct. 11th, Mia wants people to meet here there. Turn Fair Boundary Petitions in and get more! Fill out board contact sheets.

b. Breanne – contact and follow through on important things. Asks those who committed to helping Lisa to do so in her race!

c. Juli – nice to have candidates, but limit their time please.

d. Crystal – next new media cmt will have website training on 9/30.

e. Curtis – submit blog post ideas to Curtis

f. Justin – Newsletter assignments due next week! Email to Crystal.

g. Chris – Miss Utah wants to come, Chris still isn’t clear why. Chris selling wristbands for Two Good Legs w/ details on the FB.

XI. Adjourn at 8:25pm.

See ya’ll Wednesday, the 16th, at 7:00pm!

Young Dems help at Utah Food Bank

Last Wednesday the Young Dems spent their evening at the Utah Food Bank. This is the first of many future service projects the Young Democrats will participate in in support President Obama's service initiative to help our community, state, and nation.

Here are a few pictures!




The Young Dems next service project will take place at The Road Home On Wednesday, September 30 from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. If you would like to participate, contact Justin Daniels at justin@youngdemsofutah.org.

If you would like more information on President Obama's service initiative, visit serve.gov.