Minutes of the May 13, 2017 meeting

Meeting Called to Order:The West Citrus Democratic Club met on Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 1 PM at the Riviera restaurant in Crystal River. Lew Chandler, VP, convened the meeting and then introduced four new members:

  • EJ and Pat Biernesser
  • Kent and Joey Barkhous

Guest Speaker: Lew next introduced Lorrie Van Voorthuijsen of the Hanley Foundation. Lorrie a teacher by trade and lectures on anti-drug subjects in schools and across the county. She said parents who didn't think they needed the course were very glad they took it.

She said by the time a child reaches 18 years, he or she has seen half a millionalcohol ads. A doctor in New Mexico talked to twelve students at a university and offered them free beer if they would consent to be videoed. The twelve students drank beer at a bar but only three of them were given beer with alcohol. They all exhibited the same symptoms of intoxication, thus showing signs of the placebo effect and the Pavlovian response to all of the alcohol ad that had influenced them over the years.

A breathalyzer test then showed who had beer with alcohol. During the discussion, every said they had had fun and assumed their more relaxed behavior was due to alcohol.

Lorrie described this with the slogan, “it's the thinking, not the drinking” that causes the effects ofalcohol. Follow-ups to the programs are every two years; this is only the second year Lorrie has given the programs in our area schools, so she does not yet have data on the effectiveness of the program, although it has been seen in other schools that have conducted the program for a longer time.

Business Meeting:

Casino Night: Ted Voorthuisen

  • Ted reported that the event was a success.

DEC State Committee Man:Joe Adams

  • The rent for our new office in the Crystal River mall was donated by a generous donor.

Young Democrats Introduced:

  • In attendance were two of the officers from the Young Democrats club, Carly Zervis (Vice President) and Kate Gould (Secretary).

DEC State Committee Woman:Susan Reeder

  • Went to the March for Science. There was a picture in the Chronicle.

Undivided Press: David Koller

  • Democratic candidate for Congress in 2016, brought copies of Undivided Press, one of his new projects. He suggested that we take them and drop themeverywhere.

Indivisible: Lynne Garrison

Three events have been planned:

  • On Tuesday, May 17, members of our issues committee will be at Daniel Webster's office from ll:00 am to l:00 pm. They are joining with a Villages group.
  • On Thursday, May 19, member are joiningother groups in St Petersburg from5 PM to 9 PM in a rally about Trump's taxes.
  • On June 3, member are joining other groups in St Petersburg from noon to 3 PM in St Petersburg in a rally about Trump's taxes. Florida Junior Senator Marco Rubio and Florida District 11 Representative Daniel Webster will be there.

The FDR/LBJ Dinner/Dance

  • Scheduled for June will be delayed until fall.

DEC: Wendy Williams, DEC chair:

  • We need volunteers, especially to help man the DEC office in the Crystal River Mall.
  • State side, the Democratic party is revising bylaws. Small counties need to have a voice. You can submit your comments to Wendy via . Please get comments in.
  • Currently the Florida Democratic Party bylaws do not allow proxy votes. It will be considered.
  • There is aBlack Caucus convention upcoming on May 19-21, 2017 in Orlando
  • There is a Young Democrats convention upcoming on May 19-21 in Tampa.
  • There are more caucuses up and running, including a Veteran’s Caucus, a Progressive Caucus, an Hispanic, a Labor Caucus and more.

Treasury: Jack Mulder reported on the current finances.

Website, Social Media: Nancy Keefer

  • While still working to improve it, the website is up and running at
  • If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can reach out through the website or email her at
  • You can follow the new Twitter account, which is @WCitrusDemClub (
  • The Facebook page is also available at

Voting Reports:

  • How your representatives voted is posted each week in the Chronicle. Need someone to collect voting reports. Nancy Keefer volunteered.

Young Democrats: Carly Zervis

  • The Young Democrats need some seed money to start a bank account.We passed the hat for them.

Comments:

Dan Luce:

  1. Town Halls; could have town hall meetings for Citrus and Marion counties, one every two months.
  2. Veterans
  3. Illegal votes: People voted twice for Trump. They voted in the North and again here.

The meeting was adjourned at 2 p.m.