Happy New Year
Post date: Jan 01, 2011 4:41:54 PM
Well, we had an action packed 2010. We witnessed a new beginning for campaign organizing with the Coordinated Campaign efforts touched off by the Dan Onorato campaign. From what I understand, this is the first time that this kind of effort was done in this area. It helped each candidate get the most bang for the buck and streamlined the voter contact. It seems like we might be seeing this kind of campaigning for other cycles. We also witnessed many special guests like Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and others. Lastly, we introduced our own website which will allow us to share important information between ourselves and our visitors.
Unfortunately as we know, even though our candidates did great in Montgomery County, they did not prevail in the state. We noticed a good increase in voter turnout in many areas, and many of our fairly new Democratic voters came out to vote in an off-cycle election where they had not in the past. The numbers mostly show that our organizing is getting better.
The year 2011 promises to be no less busy. We have a slew of local and County elections to work for in this election cycle, and with your hard work we may see a Democratic majority for the Court House. Your respective areas will be very busy with your local races, but I ask you to remember up ticket as well. No doubt we will see many a candidate, county and local, vying for attention at our area meetings. We need to continue our work toward getting new Democrat Committee People on board, as well as recruiting new volunteers and as always increasing turnout at the polls. Let’s focus also on building our emailing list so that we can begin to unite Area 11 voters and engage them in the process.
Speaking of meetings, I would like to announce a few changes. First with regarding to location, we are going to meet throughout the area due to a concern voiced by West Norriton Committee Person Howard Custer who suggested we meet outside of Norristown for a few meetings. As a result, we will be holding meetings for January, February, and March in West Norriton, meetings for April, May, and August in East Norriton, and meetings for September, October, November, and December in Norristown. I hope this won’t confuse you too much, and will allow some people to reduce their commute to the meeting a little, and perhaps generate more attendance.
But the really exciting news in addition to the meeting locations, is that this year we will feature a special guest at each meeting to vary the type of information discussed so that you can hear a different stimulating topic each month. We can all use a little new knowledge about the Democratic process and gain new insights from the experiences of others. I will announce the topic and the speaker when I send a reminder and agenda for the meetings. If anyone has ideas about a topic they would like to hear about let me know and we can put it on the agenda for a future meeting.
Lastly, I hope that 2011 promises to bring new people, fresh experiences, and much prosperity for each and every one of you. Thank you for all the work you have done in 2010, and I look forward to a successful election cycle with many Democratic majorities in 2011. As with last year for those who can schedule vacation days from work, please schedule May 17th and November 8th this year for Election Days. Important dates for this year have been added to our Area 11 calendar, so please reference that when making plans.
Our meeting dates and location for 2011 are listed below. All meetings will start at 7pm:
January 12, 2011 held in West Norriton
February 9, 2011 held in West Norriton
March 9, 2011 held in West Norriton
April 13, 2011 held in East Norriton
May 11, 2011 held in East Norriton
June 8, 2011 held in East Norriton
September 14, 2011 held in Norristown
October 12, 2011 held in Norristown
November 9, 2011 held in Norristown
December 14, 2011 held in Norristown
Other important dates to keep in mind:
February 15 - First day to circulate and file nomination petitions
March 8 - Last day to circulate and file nomination petitions
March 9 - First day to circulate and file nomination papers
March 15 - Last day to submit objections to nomination petitions
March 23 - Last day for withdrawl by candidates who filed nomination petitions
April 18 - Last day to REGISTER before the primary
May 10 - Last day to apply for a civilian absentee ballot
May 13 - Last day for County Boards of Elections to receive voted civilian absentee ballots
Hope to see you at the first meeting!
Democratically yours - Olivia
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