November 22, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Alcona County Republicans

Meeting Minutes

November 22, 2021

Opening:

The Meeting called to order by Carrie Mullins at the Chosen Ranch Community Center (CRCC) at 7:09pm.

Present:

Carrie Mullins, Chairman

Jeffrey Dobbs, Vice Chairman

Jessica Dobbs, Secretary

Chris Wagener, Treasurer

Drew Wagener, Deputy Treasurer

Jaynee Germond, Youth Vice Chair

Greg Anderson, Sergeant At Arms

Kris Anderson, Trustee

Molly Adkins, Trustee

William Sickner, Trustee

Jim White, Trustee

Rich Germond, Trustee

Absent:

Larry Brozowski, Trustee

Business:

Pledge of Allegiance & Invocation Given

To start the meeting, we stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance, and an Invocation was given by Gary Wnuk.

Appointing Precinct Delegates

Six members of the community came forward at this meeting to become Precinct Delegates. You can find their names and townships below. Each one was nominated, accepted the nominated, and was approved unanimously by all present to become a Precinct Delegate within each respective township. They also took their Oath of Office after being appointed as Precinct Delegates. Congratulations everyone!

• Jody Whipp – Caledonia Township
• Jason Stodart – Caledonia Township
• Joe VanDeweghe – Caledonia Township
• Tim Pawloski – Hawes Township
• Katherine Pawloski – Hawes Township
• Judy French – Harrisville Township

RNC and the Log Cabin (LGBT) Coalition

The RNC did this move for vote, and for other reasons too. This was mentioned at the meeting to simply be put onto everyone’s radar. Some feel that this alienates the Grassroots Republicans.

Endorsements Possibilities

We will be thinking about, discussing, and potentially endorsing candidates before the convention in April. Here are the candidates that are under consideration:

• Attorney General:
  Matt DePerno vs Tom Leonard
• Secretary of State:
  Kristina Karamo vs Beau LeFave
• Governor:
  Ryan Kelley/Tudor Dixon vs James Craig

Should we choose to endorse any candidates, we will of course, send out notifications of such endorsements.

Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner Announcement

The 2022 Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner will be held in Alpena, jointly with the Alpena Republican Party, at the Aplex building. The date is April 2, 2022. Be on the lookout for more details!

Secure MI Vote.org Petitions Announcement

Carrie has gathered 20 petitions, and has received them from Steve Yoder. This is for working towards election integrity and security. Basically, there are a few points to this:

1. Require partial social security number for voter registration
2. Require photo ID for in-person voters
3. Require Driver’s License, State ID, Partial SSN or Photo ID on Absentee Ballot Applications
4. Require voters who don’t provide this ID to present ID in person within 6 days after election to have their vote counted
5. Provide state-funded IDs to applicants with hardships
6. Specify minimum times clerks must accept absentee ballots for in-person or dropbox delivery
7. Prohibit officials from making absentee ballot applications available except upon voter request
8. Prohibit donations to fund elections.

More than likely, this initiative will go to the ballot and have to be voted upon by the people of Michigan Go to www.SecureMIVote.org for more information.

Redistricting and Maps Announcement

Go to www.michigan.gov/micrc and check out the 9 proposed maps from the group (and some from individuals). “CD – Birch v2”, Sen. – Palm”, “Rep – Magnolia” are the most desired maps for the MRP. However, none of them are really “desirable”. You can see Gerrymandering happening with Midland, and Detroit, is of course, the worst of all.

But, go onto the website, look at the maps, place a pin, and then comment on the map that you want to. We recommend that you be negative about the individual spots, but positive on the map as a whole (in your comments). There will be 45 days of public commentary. After that period, 65 days until it’s law.

Treasurer’s Report & Minutes Report

Motion for these reports to be waived at this meeting by Jaynee. Seconded by Drew. All in favor unanimously, and so passed.

Reimbursement for Carrie Mullins for FFA Packets

Chris Wagener to write a check to Carrie Mullins for $170.91 that was used to mail the Full Forensic Audit packet to everyone in Lansing. Approved unanimously.

Resolution Opposing the National Popular Vote Compact

This resolution was included with the handouts at the meeting. Will include in the minutes as an addendum below. But basically, this resolution is to keep the Electoral College in place. This resolution was unanimously approved by the Executive Board members present.

Resolution for Party Unity through Transparent Vote Counting at April Endorsing Convention

One of the best things to ever happen if enough Republican Parties pass and enforce this. This resolution will be scanned and added as an addendum below. But the Executive Board unanimously voted upon and passed this resolution. Precinct Delegates who were present also unanimously voted on and passed this resolution.

Canvassing with the Tureks and/or SideKick App

Tureks FOIA’d (Freedom of Information Request) the list of voters, and it came in a huge excel file. Now they have it sorted out by Township, Road, and Street Address in numerical order. There are 241 pages to this excel file. The Tureks will hand this out to whomever wishes to help the canvassing effort. Basically you want to make sure there aren’t any voters registered to vacant land/buildings, farm land, etc.

There is also the Campaign SideKick App, but there have been reports of it not working well with many phones. We recommend to do this the grassroots route, versus using the application. We also want to note that the app will pay you $0.25 per entry that you do within the application.

Vaccine Mandate Declaration Continued

The Alcona County Board of Commissioners failed our county yet again. They did not pass the “Declaration in Support of Vaccine Awareness and Medical Autonomy”. Jeff Dobbs and Bob Turek have been working together to try to get this thing passed. First as a resolution, and then after many failed attempts, as the declaration attached below. We hope in the future, to get something passed at the County level about this very important issue.

Good of the Order

These are comments by those in attendance:

• Jim White wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
• Bob Turek mentioned what they were trying to do with the Declaration, which is to not only protect our freedoms, but also to see exactly who would vote on it and how. (Especially since this was the 4th time trying to get something similar to this passed.) Carolyn Brummund talked to Lisa and said she thought someone else would have voted for this to pass. He feels that now it is time to shame the County Board of Commissioners who voted not to pass this each and every time. He hopes that Jeff will write a Letter to the Editor to thank the two who voted for his declaration. And after that, to write another one that shames the three who did not.
• Richard Germond noted that Jaynee might run for School Board in Alcona County. He said we need to get the vote out for her and the other person running for the other open spot. We have to also be wary about splitting our vote. (Too many candidates running for only 2 positions.)
• Gary Wnuk wanted to comment that he does not see any good coming out of the RNC with the Log Cabin coalition.
• William Sickner wanted to add to the School Board discussion, and said that Jim Slavinski might be running for School Board as well, but is waiting until 2022 to announce.

Tentative Agenda for the Next Meeting:

• Discussing Items From Winter Break
• Planning LRT Dinner
• Discussing April Endorsing Convention
• Other Agenda Items to be Added as Needed

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn, called by Gary, seconded by Jaynee at 7:31pm. Next open meeting to be held on March 28, 2022 at 7pm at the Chosen Ranch Community Center.

Minutes submitted by: Jessica Dobbs