We honored Frances Wyrick, past president of DWBC and long-time board member, for her many years of service. Thank you, Frances!

MEMBERSHIP
We had 284 paid members at the beginning of the meeting, up from 182 at the same time the previous year.

FINANCES
We have $3,849.06 in the treasury and $4018.75 in the Small Donor Committee account. We contributed $500 each to County Commissioner candidate Ben Pearlman from our treasury and $7800 from our Small Donor Committee to $2000 each Dianne Primavera and Brandon Shaffer (the maximum allowed), $1500 each to the committees to elect majorities in the Colorado House and Senate, $50 each to Ron Tupa and Paul Weissmann, $100 each to Mary Keenan and Jennifer Mello (CU Regent-at-Large candidate), and $500 to the Boulder County Democratic Party.

ELECTIONS
We elected the following to serve for the 2005-2006: President, Britta Singer; Vice President, Lynn Guissinger; Secretary, Kathy Cook Treasurer; Anita Polner; and Nominating Committee for 2006, Janet Miller-Reynolds (Chair), Betty Hoye, and Marion Selbin.
PROGRAM: Women in Politics

Heather Lurie of the White House Project and Pat Waak, Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party

Heather Lurie told the audience that the White House Project has field offices in four states including Colorado. The Project sponsors the Women in Leadership Program which will offer a leadership training seminar for women interested in running for public office. The seminar will be held at the University of Denver on June 17 and 18.

Heather gave some disturbing figures to show how far women are from parity with men in public office. Although women are the majority of the US population, they comprise only 14% of the members of Congress. Eight women are currently governors and the US has had only twenty-four female governors in our total history. The United States is 60th in the world in the percentage of women in government. Colorado has the most women in the state legislature of any state and Joan Fitz-Gerald is one of only two women to be president of a state senate.

Pat Waak opened her remarks by adding that only nine women chair a state party.

The Colorado party is drafting a strategic plan for the next six years. Hillary Hall co-chairs the drafting committee. All counties are also drafting strategic plans to assure that Democrats continue to build on the momentum of 2005.

Pat believes that we must build on our core values which include support for individuals not special interests, right to jobs, health care and the environment. We need to carry this message to our neighbors. Evidence shows that people make political decisions on the basis of emotions and how their neighbors feel so we must reach out. In answer to a question about why we should not emphasis the environment, Pat said that people in the southeast and southwest parts of the state have reservations about the environment as a core value. Polls show that health care is the number one concern for people nationally and the economy is the number one concern for Coloradoans. A member asked what the polls show as the impetus to get independents to vote for Democrats? Pat answered that the party had not done polling on the issue but was trying to get candidates to share their poll findings on the subject. Polls are expensive and the party does not have the money for extensive polling.