March 6, 2025, Central Committee Minutes

Fayette County Democrats Central Committee
March 6, 2025
Democrat Headquarters, 426 N Central Ave, Connersville IN

1. Call to Order

• Time: 6pm
• Presiding Officer: Sheila Sturgeon, Party Chairperson

2. Roll Call & Establishment of Quorum

• Members Present: (20) Brian Gilbert, Mary Ann Morris, Jay Halveland, Wanda Fisher, Terry Sturgeon, Sheila Sturgeon, Harold Gordon, Pat Gordon, Jerry Gobin, Pam Gobin, Jaime West, Vane Lashua, Kayla Limburg, Time Sholze, Beth Sholze, Donna Ruf, Gary Ruf, Melinda Sudoff, Amanda Melville, Mike Melville
• Members Absent: (26) Tammy Legere, Jake Lattimer, Ed Herrell, Lorinda Herrell, Becky Gibson, Rick Beckman, Ruby Siler, Diane Rose, Mike Schonfeld, Sarah Grubbs, Emily Allen, Ellen Gibbs, Jennifer Repp, Jeannine Eldridge, Dale Strong, Brady Lattimer, Audra McGuire, Craig Pennington, Jackie Pennington, Pam Fields, Chris Fields, Warren Sudoff, Donna Schroeder, Destini Mitchell, Aaron Mitchell, Brian Durham
• Guests/​Observers: 7
• Quorum Established: Yes

3. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

• Motion to approve by: Brian Gilbert
• Seconded by: Tim Sholze
• Approved: Yes

4. Reports

• Secretary’s Report
  • None
• Treasurer’s Report Treasurer’s report 
  • Motion to approve by: Vane Lashua
  • Second by: Jay Halveland
  • Approved: Yes
• Committee Reports
  • Women’s Club
    • No report, Diane Rose absent
    • Next meet­ing Thursday March 13, 2025, at 7pm
  • Men’s Club
    • No report
    • Next meet­ing Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 7 pm
    • First break­fast of the year will be Saturday March 22, 2025, and the price will be raised to $7
  • Election Board
    • No report, Jeannine absent
  • Fundraising
    • No report
  • Building Committee
    • Report Given By: Amanda Melville
    • There are 2 press­ing issues cur­rent­ly, and dis­cus­sion about the pri­or­i­ty of each hap­pened. The 2^nd and 3^rd floor win­dows need to be replaced. Terry had bids done for those, and Amanda will be apply­ing for an Urban Enterprise Special Exception Grant for the cost of that expense (bids were between $4200 – 5200). The oth­er press­ing issue is the sink­ing floor in the East end of the build­ing (the cor­ner of the kitchen). Jay, Gary, Terry report­ed that the beams in the base­ment that sit in the foun­da­tion have rot­ted at the ends and have slipped out of place. The floor needs to be jacked up and new head­ers and an I‑beam put into place. Once that is com­plete, we will need to repair/​replace the sub­floor on the kitchen and into the bath­room. For now, jack­ing the floor up is a pri­or­i­ty, and a work day was set to assist with labor. That date is Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 9 am.

5. Old Business

Discussion about Zoom meet­ings- Terry is going to con­tact District or State to see if there’s any way we can use the organization’s account to con­duct Zoom meet­ings. As of now, it’s not a very viable option due to kinks in screen mir­ror­ing, 45 minute time lim­its, set­ting up and send­ing out links because we use the free ser­vice and not a contract.

6. New Business

• We received a $350 dis­burse­ment from the Livingood Grant appli­ca­tion. The check will be arriv­ing next week. That will be put into the build­ing fund in the check­ing account, and will like­ly go toward new windows.
• Reorganization went well. County Chairperson: Sheila, Vice-Chairperson: Terry Sturgeon, Treasurer: Mike Melville, Secretary: Amanda Melville
• For the cel­e­bra­tion for the 250^th anniver­sary of the US, Donna Schroeder has asked for vol­un­teers. She wants to get the his­to­ry of the Democrat build­ing to dis­play for the anniver­sary so peo­ple can stop in and learn about his­to­ry and take dona­tions. It was sug­gest­ed to talk to Brad Colter about the his­to­ry. Donna will also know more infor­ma­tion to assist. Was sug­gest­ed to ask the library if they can help find­ing old­er pictures
• With the reor­ga­ni­za­tion, Annette Craycraft will no longer be in District 6.
• Annette told Sheila that con­cern­ing the Precinct Committee list: any­body who hasn’t been to a meeting/​involved in 12 months can be removed and replaced. There are 12 or so spots with these ghost mem­bers that Sheila will look at remov­ing if there are peo­ple inter­est­ed in tak­ing them over and play­ing a more active role
• Terry Sturgeon dis­cussed again on Google, the phone num­ber for the Fayette Co Dems is the same (dis­con­nect­ed) num­ber as before, and can­not get it changed. Metronet hold­ing the num­ber for us. Terry has recon­nect­ed the phone line so the num­ber can be active. Terry is get­ting calls from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers about what to do. Terry is going to turn on and will­ing to pay out of pock­et. He has to turn the inter­net on at the same time because it’s a com­bo bill, and costs around $100/​month. He is think­ing about sit­ting down at the build­ing dur­ing the day to be avail­able for the community.
• Terry urged mem­bers to vis­it oth­er coun­ty meet­ings to net­work. He’s been talk­ing to Johnson Co. and wants to work with them. Districts are list­ed on our web­site. Encouraging to reach out and work togeth­er- wants to have meet­ings to pro­vide a unit­ed front and share ideas. Wanda asked if the State has not con­tact­ed Sheila with activ­i­ties. Sheila replied that they had not, and men­tioned that the State needs to start list­ing those activities
• For offices up for elec­tion in 2026: our web­site has posi­tions list­ed, with infor­ma­tion about what each posi­tion does. All PCs need to be recruit­ing for per­sons inter­est­ed in running
• Sheila thanked the new faces for com­ing and their inter­est in PC spots. She said there are 6 more peo­ple inter­est­ed that she has talked to already, but couldn’t come to this meet­ing. Sheila will be meet­ing with them to assign chair positions.
• Amanda has signed up to serve a meal once a month at the Lords Kitchen (in the Haven build­ing behind Frazee). We are com­mit­ted to tak­ing the 2^nd Thursday of each month.
  
  Amanda and Mike have pledged to pro­vide the meat for the meal this month. Food signup sheet around
• Amanda reports that the Fayette Co Drug Coalition and Connection Café have expressed inter­est in a part­ner­ship with the Democrats. The Drug Coalition is seek­ing new board mem­bers, and would like to invite us to vol­un­teer, if any­body is inter­est­ed. Their next meet­ing is Friday, March 7, 2025 at 9 am. Due to the late notice and the time, Amanda can­not attend, but Terry said he would in her place.
• Sheila announced that the Democrat Committees will be reorganized 
  • fundrais­ing, fair, bin­go, build­ing, com­mit­tees will be reor­ga­nized, and a sign-up sheet was passed around.
• Amanda is try­ing to start a newslet­ter for mem­bers. Can do mail­ings from VAN address­es, but will need to get the word out for an email sub­scrip­tion signup.

7. Public Comment/​Open Discussion

• Mary Anne said that of equal inter­est for 250^th- his­to­ry of Democrats in Fayette Co. (not just the build­ing his­to­ry), and we would need to pull infor­ma­tion from build­ing stor­age (upstairs or closets)

8. Adjournment

• Motion to Adjourn by: Gary Ruf
• Seconded by: Beth Scholze
• Time Adjourned: 6:50 pm

Minutes Submitted by:
Amanda Melville
March 20, 2025