A Letter to Humboldt County Democrats

Hello.  For those of you who may not know me, my name is Vickie Rock.  I’m a new transplant to Humboldt County, and I’m the Interim Secretary/Treasurer of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee.  I thought I would take a bit of time to update you about where you can find additional information and what you can expect on February 23rd.  That’s when we hold our County Convention to select 12 Delegates who will attend the State Convention.

We’ve created a Blog that you can check from time to time for updated information.  Currently, you can find our meeting minutes, information about how the Nevada Delegate process works (under the documents tab), and our proposed Bylaws (also under the documents tab).  As time goes on, and as we get closer to the election, we’ll continually update our Blog about happenings that are occurring throughout the county.  Here’s a link to that site: 

http://humboldtdems.wordpress.com/

Here is some logistical information about the county convention:

  • Location:  Sonoma Heights Elementary School, 1500 Melarkey St, WMCA
  • When:  Saturday, February 23, 2008
  • Gavel Drop:  Promptly at 10:00 AM
  • Early Registration:  Friday, Feb 22, 2008 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Sonoma Hts Elem
  • Saturday Registration: Saturday, Feb 23, 2008 from 8:00 AM to 9:59AM

If you still have your “pink” delegate form, you should bring it with you to Registration.  If you have lost yours, we do have the “yellow” forms to verify you were selected as a Delegate.  At registration, you will need to specify which candidate you support, or that you are “uncommitted.”  That information will be used on Saturday morning by Credentials to “seat” Delegates and Alternates on the Convention floor.

Any registered Democrat whose residence is located in Humboldt county is eligible to attend the convention.  However, to be seated as a Delegate (or an Alternate), you must have attended the County Caucus.  Delegates who were selected at the caucus will be entitled to vote at the County Convention.  Humboldt County is entitled to 90 Delegates.  So, if a Delegate who was selected at the Caucus fails to register/attend the County Convention, an Alternate will be seated in place of that absent delegate.

In selecting Alternates, we will attempt to seat an individual from the same precinct who has the same preference as the absent Delegate.  If no one is available to fill the Delegate’s seat from that same precinct, we will seat one from another precinct.  We will select Alternates based on their precinct, candidate preference (to maintain the original distribution of delegates per candidate), and registration time.  So, it’s important for Alternates to register early (on Friday evening) indicating they will be attending the convention.  Remember, if you attended the Caucus, you could be eligible to serve as an Alternate should one or more of your Precinct’s Delegates be unable to attend the Convention.

NOTE:  Only Delegates will be permitted to vote on business and elections conducted at the Convention.

We expect that folks from the out of town Precincts will register on Saturday morning, so if you live in town, you might want to try to register on Friday evening to eliminate any registration and seating delays on Saturday morning.  As indicated above, the gavel will drop promptly at 10 AM and we will begin conducting the business of the Convention.

On the agenda is:

  • Welcome to the Convention speaker
  • Report of the Credentials Committee certifying a Quorum
  • Adoption of the Rules for the Convention by the convention body
  • Approval of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee Bylaws (found on the Blog site above)
  • Election of Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee Officers (Interim Chairperson Nicki Schumacher will be stepping down, so if you’re interested in having your name placed in nomination … please let me know)
  • Submittal/Reading/Approval of Democratic Platform Resolutions that will be taken to the Nevada State Convention (a number of resolutions were submitted at the caucuses and additional resolutions can be submitted up until the submission window closes promptly at 11:00 AM on 2-23-2008).  I’ll try to get copies of the resolutions we currently have on hand up on the Blog site in the next few days.
  • Election of 12 Delegates who will represent Humboldt County at the State Convention on Saturday, May 17-18, 2008 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV.

To expedite matters, you may want to peruse the information on our Blog site (the link to the site above), at some point before the Convention.  That way, we can move through the business at hand more expeditiously, and thus, not take ALL day to do it.  We recognize that all of us have lives and that we need to respect everyone’s time which is a precious commodity.

We’re planning on having food and refreshments available at the convention site for a reasonable fee.  Funds after expenses will be added to the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee treasury.  We’ll also conduct a 50/50 raffle for those who might want to take a chance on winning a few bucks.

I’m sending this email to those people who filled out a delegate card and who were kind enough to list an email address.  That means this note is not going out to each and every democrat in the county.  So, if you have a friend or a neighbor who is a democrat and who might be interested in attending the convention, I do hope you’ll share this information with them.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Convention,
Vickie Rock
Interim Secretary/Treasurer