Cumberland County Democrats

A Message From Jim Boyle:

First, I want to thank the voters of Gorham and Scarborough for turning out to vote on a day that started out at 5 degrees and ended up at one below zero! This special election was a quick turnaround; just about ten weeks from the resignation to the election. But I met with hundreds of voters from Gorham and Scarborough in that time, and I appreciate all the feedback I received. From talking with citizens on their front porches and door yards, the top issues I heard about were the partisan divide in politics, the need for more renewable energy, and keeping students, teachers, and staff in school and safe.

I’ve been out of the legislature for seven years, and until October I hadn’t planned on running for office, so it will take me some time to get up to speed on what bills are in front of the legislature in the emergency session that just started about a week ago. In general, I will look to support bills related to pandemic safety, renewable energy, energy efficiency, improvement to child protective services and tribal sovereignty.

Jim won a three way race with 57% of the vote! This was the first, but definitely not the last, campaign of 2022.

Congratulations again to Jim!

I am reaching out to share some of the recent changes in the CCDC Executive Team. Our Chair, and Second-Vice Chair, have recently resigned, and we thank them for their contributions. Normally, our First-Vice Chair would step into Acting Chair capacity, however Larry is taking a break from the Committee for now. This leaves me, the CCDC Secretary, to be Acting Chair in the interim.

Marcia Sullivan was recently elected as CCDC Treasurer, and Nancy Green and Angel Butts remain as Committee Chairs on our Executive Committee moving forward.

We hope this will be just a temporary period, and we will look to hold an election and fill these vacancies soon. As an all-volunteer organization, this work can be very time consuming, and we are so grateful for folks who dedicate their time and efforts to our small, but mighty committee.

While I only hold this role temporarily, I invite those with questions, comments, feedback, or concerns to reach out to me and the whole Executive Team at the CCDC Chair email address: chair@cumberlandcountydemocrats.org. Your contributions and your input are extremely important to us.

In addition, we will be setting up a CCDC Executive Team “Listening Session” in the coming weeks so that CCDC members can have a forum to speak to the Executive Committee directly about how our committee can be more effective and strategic, moving forward. The Listening Session is not meant to replace a General Meeting, or provide a forum for questions, debate, or answers, but simply a place for folks to express ideas, proposals, and suggestions for a bluer county.

A key thing to be aware of is that we will not be holding biennial municipal caucuses in March as we traditionally have. Given the uncertainty with the COVID pandemic, State Party leadership has suggested that it would be too risky to ask Democrats to gather indoors in March. But not to worry! We will be able to do all of the things we do at caucuses, and then some.

First, we will nominate and elect our State Delegates through an online process in late February and early March. Watch your email for an announcement from the State Party Thursday!

Second, we will plan on an in-person State Convention in Bangor in May, while developing plans for remote participation no matter what, and fully remote participation if need be.

Finally, we will gather locally at Local Organizing Meetings when the weather is warmer, probably springtime, when COVID is hopefully less severe, and when meetings can be held outdoors, to conduct the local business we usually do at caucuses, including elections.

We suggested at the last General Meeting that we would come back together on Sunday, February 13th. To prepare for multiple elections and the Caucus period, we will more likely meet towards the end of February. Thanks, and talk to you soon.

Joe Zamboni, CCDC Acting Chair

P.S. If you’re not currently volunteering with us, I encourage you to consider it, as we have quite a bit of work ahead of us this year.

Cumberland County Democrats! Let’s squeeze in one more meeting before we begin celebrating, Sunday December 12, from 3-5. It will be remote, by zoom video. And here is the link to register:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please note that this is not the link to connect, it is a link to register. We ask you to register in advance. If you want to be sure of participating you must register no later than 15 minutes before the start of the meeting (that is 2:45 Sunday December 12), and trying to connect no later than the start of the meeting (3:00). If you do these things after these deadlines you may or may not get in.

Here is the Agenda:

1. Approve the Agenda.

2. Approve minutes of last meeting.

3. Posted in facebook group is the tragic news of the passing of Bill Birthisell. Bill was an amazing person whose loss can not be overstated. He was also our treasurer. We can not replace him, but we have to try. So there will be an election for CCDC Treasurer. Duties include keeping track of our finances, paying bills, filing finance documents with Maine and the US. The Treasurer is required to attend the every-other-monthly membership meetings of the CCDC. And as a CCDC Executive Committee member is very strongly encouraged to attend the every-other-weekly meetings of the CCDC Executive Committee. Only requirements are being a registered Democrat in Cumberland County – you do not need to be a present member of the CCDC.

4. The CCDC’s facebook policy.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWOFFmufxG2Scv2tDgLOB0A

Greetings Cumberland County Democrats! The October membership meeting is October 17, from 3-5. It will be remote, by zoom video. Please register in advance for this meeting. Here is the link to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsf-itrTkiG9DcVj8ufLtDba61qatozeDu

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please note that this is not the link to connect, it is a link to register. We ask you to register in advance, that gives us an idea of how many voters we are likely to have. We have had a problem with people trying to register at the last minute or trying to join after the meeting has started, and then getting upset when they don’t get in or don’t get ballots. The Executive Committee has therefore set as requirements if you want to be sure of participating you must register no later than 15 minutes before the start of the meeting (that is 2:45 Sunday October 17), and trying to connect no later than the start of the meeting (3:00). If you do these things after these deadlines you may or may not get in.

This is another not normal meeting, it is a meeting called to do a few particular pieces of business.

Here is the Agenda for October 17:

1. Approve the Agenda.

2. Approve minutes of last meeting. See them here. https://mcusercontent.com/ea06e9f1866940d907cd15bd6/files/f323dd8b-d3ee-f775-3c0d-2a86537a3d31/CCDC_Sept_2021_minutes.pdf

3. Treasurer’s report.

4. We are sad to say that Marcella Marino has found herself too busy to continue as Cumberland County Democratic Committee Vice Chair, so we need to elect her replacement. The Vice Chair is an important part of the CCDC Executive Committee. The EC meets roughly every two weeks and deals with emergencies and plans membership meetings and future events. The Vice Chair should also attend the CCDC membership meetings. And the Vice Chair may be asked to do other things by membership or by the EC. The only requirements for being on the EC is that you be and stay registered as a Democrat in Cumberland County. You do not need to be a present member of the CCDC. If this sounds like a role you would like to fill feel free to let me know in advance, and send me a short biography that I will distribute to membership. Nominations will also be taken at the October 17 meeting.

5. How public do we want to make our membership list? There is an official list of CCDC members. To this point that list has not been public. Do we want to change that? Make public just names and towns? Names, towns and contact information? Make available to the world? To just CCDC members? To persons running for CCDC office who want to reach voters? Something else?

6. We will continue a review of Facebook policy for the CCDC. Last meeting we looked at a proposal from the Cumberland County Democratic Committee Executive Committee. What follows is that proposal with modifications suggested my Membership in September, and some guidelines that were established by previous CCDC Chair Rachel Hendrickson. None of this is existing policy, it is all up for discussion It can be discussed as a whole or in parts. We will vote on policies that will accomplish what CCDC needs in order to have a Facebook presence that is fair, member-chosen, and will let us be effective.

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1)The new CCDC Maine Facebook page (the Page) at https://www.facebook.com/ccdcmaine will be used to communicate official CCDC business such as meeting and event information and to promote other Party activities. Anyone with access to the internet will be able to see what is posted to the Page.

2)The Page will be maintained by a person or persons elected by the Membership under the direction of the CCDC Executive Committee (the Moderator[s]). Anyone can submit material to be posted to the Page, but all posts must be pre-approved by a Moderator according to the Codes of Conduct.

3) Clear Codes of Conduct for both the Page and the Group will be developed by the CCDC and approved by the membership. These guidelines will be pinned to the top of the Page/Group’s Wall, where they will remain visible to all readers.

4)The CCDC Facebook Group (the Group) settings will remain Private. New members will be limited to current CCDC voting members (the CCDC Membership) only.

5)All members of the Group can post to the Group and comment on the posts of others. Posts are visible only to members of the Group.

6)The Group will be used for internal discussion of CCDC business matters and as a place where members of the CCDC Membership can discuss issues of interest to the Party.

7)Current members of the Group who are not voting members of the CCDC will be contacted via Facebook and given the following options:

7a. Attend a CCDC meeting prior to 31 December 2021 and become a voting member to remain in the Group.

7b. Continue to follow the activities of the CCDC by Following the Page.

8) Members of the Group who are not CCDC members will be removed from the Group on 1 January 2022.

The following sets of guidelines are based on protocols developed for the CCDC under Rachel Hendrickson’s leadership. If approved, they will serve as Codes of Conduct that will remain pinned to the top of the Page/Group’s Wall, where they will be visible to anyone who visits those sites.

Guidelines for the public PAGE:

1) The CCDC Facebook Page is a public Page maintained by the CCDC; that is, while any member of the public may see it and comment on it, only Moderators approved by CCDC membership may post to it.

2) The purpose of this Page is to provide Cumberland County Democrats with CCDC, MDP, and town committee information, to complement Democratic campaigns once primaries are over within the guidelines of the MDP Charter, and to offer a place for information and discussion of issues of political concern to CCDC FB members.

3) Anyone can submit material to be posted to the Page, but all posts must be pre-approved by a Moderator. Approved messages will be posted as soon as possible. Posts must adhere to the following guidelines:

3a) The CCDC maintains neutrality in contested primary elections at the local, state, or national level. An attempt to run a campaign from this Page may appear to be an endorsement. Thus, this Page may not be used as the campaign page for any candidate. Candidates may announce their candidacy, but then refer members to their campaign page or website. They may announce an event, but again refer members to the external site for information and discussion.

3b) Presentation or discussion of an issue or candidate must be free from personal or ad hominem attacks. Expressions of support for an issue or candidate are acceptable, but refrain from attacking those who disagree or who support an opposing view or candidate.

4) In comments, consider whether the CCDC FB Page is the correct place for an issue to be raised. A discussion on FB, no matter how passionate, rarely settles anything. There are frequently more appropriate venues, and members may be referred to those venues by moderators. Remember, the Page is visible to everyone on the internet. Attacks on FB can end up in an opposition election ad.

5) If a FB member is getting close to a violation in a discussion, a Moderator will warn the member privately through Messenger or another means and may delete the post. If a thread is moving past the original topic and getting into negative attacks, a Moderator will warn the group without singling out individuals. Individuals who persist will be blocked from the Page, and their posts may be deleted.

Guidelines for the members-only GROUP:

1) The CCDC FB Group is a private, members-only group; that is, only members can post to it, see what is posted to it, or comment on those posts. Posts to private groups are not to be shared outside the group.

2) The purpose of the CCDC FB Group is to provide a forum for CCDC members to discuss the internal business of the CCDC, MDP, and town committee, to discuss how the CCDC might complement Democratic campaigns once primaries are over within the guidelines of the MDP Charter, and to offer a place for information and discussion of issues of political concern to CCDC FB members.

3) Discussions of any issue or candidate must be free from personal or ad hominem attacks. Expressions of support for an issue or candidate are acceptable, but refrain from attacking those who disagree or who support an opposing view or candidate.

4) Consider whether the FB Group is the correct place for an issue to be raised. A discussion on FB, no matter how passionate, rarely settles anything. There are frequently more appropriate venues, and members may be referred to those venues. Though this Group is private, there is no guarantee that material posted here will not be shared outside the Group. Attacks on FB can end up in an opposition election ad.

5) If a FB member is getting close to a violation in a discussion, a Moderator will warn the member privately through Messenger or another means and may delete the post. If a thread is moving past the original topic and getting into negative attacks, a Moderator will warn the Group without singling out individuals. Individuals who persist will be removed from the Group, and their posts may be deleted.

6) Group members who witness possible violations of any of these Codes of Conduct are encouraged to report the incident(s) in a private message to the Moderators.

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7. Discuss how often CCDC wants to meet. Under my leadership we had aimed for every other month. We have now met in consecutive months, and with public elections in 2022 we could meet in November too. Do we want to meet monthly? Stick with every-other and add as desired?

These agenda items involve voting. Only people who are currently members of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee will be allowed to vote. Voters will receive a separate email invitation BEFORE the meeting. If you are not presently a CCDC member and want to be, the next item on the agenda for October 17 will be

8. Electing new members to the CCDC. Election by membership is subject to being eligible for membership – being registered as a Democrat in Cumberland County. If you are elected in October and are eligible to join you will be eligible to vote the next time the CCDC meets.

9. Announcements.

Normally I can estimate how long a meeting will take. I do not know how long discussion of Facebook policy will take. If it takes a while I hope we can finish our meeting by 5:00. If it is quick and we finish our business in one hour or less we can end early

Thanks to Barry, Christina, and Maurie for staffing and decorating our booth at the Cumberland Fair. And to Craig, Harlan, and Seth for providing additional staffing.

Available on YouTube as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE4DR0kPfic

Greetings Cumberland County Democrats! The September membership meeting is a 5 days from today, September 12, from 3-5. It will be remote, by zoom video. And here is the link to register!

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Sep 12, 2021 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdu6vqzguHNXx9uCnlsV37WFMM1TpOA89

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please note that this is not the link to connect, it is a link to register. We ask you to register in advance, that gives us an idea of how many voters we are likely to have. We have had a problem with people trying to register at the last minute or trying to join after the meeting has started, and then getting upset when they don’t get in or don’t get ballots. The Executive Committee has therefore set as requirements if you want to be sure of participating you must register no later than 15 minutes before the start of the meeting (that is 2:45 Sunday September 12), and trying to connect no later than the start of the meeting (3:00). If you do these things after these deadlines you may or may not get in.

This is not a normal meeting, it is a meeting called to do three particular pieces of business. Some things that we normally do at a meeting we will not be planning on doing on September 12. Which is why we are planning on meeting again on October 17 at 3:00 to discuss upcoming elections and other Party business. Reminders and links for the October session will be sent out in October.

Here is the Agenda for September:

1. Approve the Agenda.

2. Approve minutes of last meeting. See them here.  https://mcusercontent.com/ea06e9f1866940d907cd15bd6/files/aabcea75-daec-45b0-3d91-a799710284e9/Minutes_CDCC_General_Meeting_June_2021.pdf

3. Treasurer’s report.

4. Elect a non-male member to the Democratic State Committee. Depending on the results of that election we might also be electing someone of any gender to be Alternate to the State Committee. If you have an interest in serving feel free give me a short biography no later than September 10 and I will circulate it to membership so they know who you are. You do not need to give me a biography or decide in advance, nominations will be taken from the floor.

5. We will review a Facebook policy proposed by the Cumberland County Democratic Committee Executive Committee. We will discuss it. It can be discussed as a whole or in parts. We will vote on policies that will accomplish what CCDC needs to have Facebook presence that is fair, member-chosen, and will let us be effective.

The CCDC Executive Committee opens the discussion of CCDC social media policy by proposing the following:

1. The CCDC Facebook Group (“the Group”) settings will remain Private. Membership will be limited to current CCDC voting members (“the CCDC Membership”) only. Posts are viewable only to members of the Group.
2. All members of the Group can post to the Group and comment on the posts of others.
3. The Group will be used for internal discussion of CCDC business matters and as a place where members of the CCDC Membership can discuss issues of interest to the Party.
4. The new CCDC Maine Facebook page (“the Page”) at https://www.facebook.com/ccdcmaine will be used to communicate official CCDC business such as meeting and event information and to promote other Party activities. Anyone with access to the internet will be able to see what is posted to the Page.
5. The Page will be maintained by a person elected by the Membership under the direction of the CCDC Executive Committee.
6. Current members of the Group who are not voting members will be contacted via Facebook and given the following options:
   1. Attend the 17 October 2021 CCDC meeting and become a voting member to remain in the Group.
   2. Continue to follow the activities of the CCDC by Liking the Page.
7. Members of the Group who are not part of the CCDC Membership after the October meeting will be removed from the Group on 18 October 2021.

Again, this is not the policy, it is a proposal. The policy/policies will be what members choose.

6. We will discuss the Cumberland County Fair. We are registered to have a booth at the Fair, as we have been every year when there has been a Fair. Unfortunately, continuing Covid means this is not a normal year. The Fair starts September 26. We need to decide if we want to be there – that is, if it is safe or good policy to be in this public gathering.

Here is the Fair’s Covid policy for 2021:

By entering the 2021 Cumberland County Fair, you agree to comply with all State, Federal, Local or Organization mandated guidelines for COVID-19 Safety and/or other mandates which may be in place at the time of the event, including wearing of face coverings and social distancing. Participants acknowledge that the Fair brings some risk and do hereby assume responsibility for their own well-being as well as that of any person whom they are guardian of/responsible for. Participants understand, agree, and hereby consent that failure or disregard to follow all protocols in effect is sufficient grounds to be excluded from participation in the Fair by Cumberland Farmers Club (CFC) or any Fair personnel or authority, and by entering provide implied consent in advance to leave and exit the event, without protest or refund, upon request by CFC or any Fair personnel or authority. Entrance provides implied consent to accept the risk of being exposed to, contracting, and/or spreading COVID-19, and agree to hold harmless and release Cumberland Farmer’s Club (CFC) or any other sponsoring organization(s) and all their subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, licensees, representatives and successors (Released Parties) from any and all losses, causes of action, liabilities, expenses and claims for damages.

It is OK for us to decide that we should not be there. Other County Democratic Committees have chosen to not be a part of their normal local fairs. We can make that decision too, but we can decide that we will do the Fair. If we decide to do the Fair we should also decide what we want to do there – have a fun presentation, have a political presentation, or just do a Covid presentation.

If we decide to do the Fair I expect many of you to volunteer to take a shift at our booth at the Fair. It is not fair (sorry, no pun intended) for us to vote to do the Fair but not share in the responsibility or risks. So if you support us doing the Fair please come to the meeting knowing when you can take a shift, or several shifts.

These agenda items involve voting. Only people who are currently members of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee will be allowed to vote. If you are unsure if you are eligible to vote you can contact me BEFORE the meeting. If you are not presently a CCDC member and want to be, the last item on the agenda for September 12 will be

7. Electing new members to the CCDC. If you are elected in September this will make you eligible to vote the next time the CCDC convenes.

Normally I can estimate how long a meeting will take. I do not know how long discussion of Facebook policy will take. If it takes a while I hope we can finish our meeting by 5:00. If it is quick and we finish our business in one our or less we can end early, knowing that we will have two hours of more normal business on October 17.

Please send me your suggestions, corrections or problems. If you want to contact me please use my email address, which I check many times a day, rather than the CCDC email address which I forget exists. See you September 12 at 3:00. And please remember to register so we have some idea who is coming.

Yours for a Bluer Cumberland County,

Seth Berner

CCDC Chair

sberner@gwi.net

775-2452

Happy Continuing Summer, Cumberland County Democrats! I again hope you are not too overheated to make a membership meeting. In June membership voted that our next meeting would be in September, and so we will be meeting Sunday, September 12, from 3-5. It will be by zoom, like the last few meetings. A link will go out soon. This will be a meeting with one primary focus, and two secondary focuses. There is much more to do which is why we will be meeting again probably in October (!!), so save your excellent ideas for meeting topics till October. For September this is what we need to do.   1. I am having to make this announcement each month. This time it is Lois Reckitt who is stepping down from the State Committee. Lois is serving us brilliantly in Augusta, and wants to be able to devote her time to the Legislature. This means there will be an election for a non-male identifying member of the Democratic State Committee from Cumberland County. There may also be a second election too. If Meghan Casey, our present Alternate, chooses to run for the open seat and gets elected there will be an election for Alternate. This can be filled by someone of any gender.  Think if this is a way you would like to serve the Cumberland County Democratic Committee.     DSC spots can be filled by anyone who is registered as a Democrat in Cumberland County. You do not have to be a member of the CCDC to be on the State Committee. If you know that you would like to run for a spot on the DSC you can let me know and send me a brief biography and I will circulate it to membership before the meeting so they know something about you when it is time to vote. Nominations will also be taken at the meeting. If you run for but are not the winner in the first election and there is a second election you can run for Alternate. The State Committee meets every other month, a two hour meeting on the 3rd Sunday from 1-3. Recent meetings have been by zoom, but at some point meetings will go back to in-person. Most meetings are in Augusta, but meetings may be hosted by other counties. It is not known now if remote participation will continue to be an option, so interested persons should assume that once every other month they may need to leave Cumberland County. Materials for meetings are circulated by email in advance. Reading the materials and attending meetings are the primary duties of State Committee members, but members are always welcome to find other ways to assist and strengthen the Maine Democratic Party.   Only established CCDC members will be allowed to vote. If you are not sure if you are a voter you can check with your town Democratic Party Chair, or with me. If you know that you are not yet a voter it is easy to become one, just attend a CCDC meeting, at the end say that you would like to be voted in as a member. Once I confirm that you are a registered Democrat living in Cumberland County you will be eligible to vote at the following meeting.   2. The CCDC will have a booth at the Cumberland Fair, unless Covid shuts us down. Two years ago we let the public vote on issues that were important to them. It was very popular and brought lots of people to us. (Last year we were shut down by Covid.) We’d like to get ideas that will be just as popular this time. Tell us what you’d like to see Cumberland County Democrats do at the Fair. As always we will need volunteers to run our booth so please find times during the last week of September when you can be the smiling face of CCDC Fairgoers see. 3. The primary focus of this meeting will be discussion and decisions about how the CCDC facebook presence will be conducted. Issues that arose recently forced decisions to be made by the CCDC Chair. At the earliest opportunity the CCDC Executive Committee replaced the Chair’s decisions with its collective decision. In September membership will decide how our Facebook presence should be operated. Again, only CCDC members will be permitted to discuss and vote. I understand that this is an issue of interest to persons who are not members, but if you have not bothered to become a CCDC member, or are not eligible to become a member, you should not expect to have a say in how the CCDC operates.   The meeting will be Sunday September 12 from 3-5. It will be by zoom. Details will be coming. I hope to see all of you there. If you want to contact me please use my personal email address given below. I tend to forget there is a CCDC email and don’t check it very frequently. Seth Berner CCDC Chair 775-2452 sberner@gwi.net