News from the Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee

We had a good turnout and and got fired up at Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting. I'll be posting more information summarizing what I learned at the meeting, to help answer questions about our Democrat party and our function as members. Meanwhile, our Executive Director Bill Luckett summarizes some of the important highlights of the meeting:

The Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee convened today Casper College in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium, to elect state officers finalize the delegate selection plan for 2012 state and national conventions.

Central Committee members elected, by acclamation, the following leadership for a two-year term and to lead the party through the 2012 election cycle:
Chuck Herz of Moose as State Chair
Jodi Guerin of Laramie as Vice Chair
Sherry Shelley of Riverton as Secretary
Leslie Petersen of Wilson as Treasurer

The Central Committee amended the 2012 Delegate Selection Plan to hold County Conventions on April 14, 2012, in every county seat across the state. The selection of this specific date will make Wyoming eligible to earn two bonuses in the size of its delegation: one by virtue of waiting until April to hold its “first-step” events in the presidential selection process, and the other for holding its events on the same date as neighboring states. The Nebraska Democratic Party is currently planning to hold its event on April 14, and the Democratic parties of Kansas and Idaho are also considering whether to schedule their events on the same date, pending votes by their respective state committees.

After approving the amendments, the Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee today voted to formally adopt and submit the plan to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee for approval. Under the plan Wyoming will elect 19 delegates and 2 alternates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In addition, the state should be eligible for four bonus delegates, pending the formal approval of the plan by the DNC.

The Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee is composed of the Chairs, Vice Chairs, State Committeemen, and Committeewomen from each county, State Chair and Vice Chair, State Secretary and Treasurer, National Committeeman and Committeewoman, Legislative Representatives selected by the House Caucus and Senate Caucus, and the Young Democrats Chair, Vice Chair, State Committeeman, and State Committeewoman.

Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee Meeting, April 30, 2011

The following is a letter from Bill Luckett, Executive Director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, regarding the upcoming Central Committee meeting in Casper. I would like to see a good turnout from Platte County, and encourage anyone interested to attend.

Folks,

The Central Committee of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on Saturday, April 30. The meeting will take place at Casper College, in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium in the McMurry Career Studies Building, which is at the extreme south end of campus. Directions: take Wolcott Street (which runs parallel to Center Street, just one block east) southbound toward Casper Mountain. Wolcott Street’s name changes into Casper Mountain Road, but it’s the same street. Go past 15th Street, past College Drive, past T-Bird Drive, and then take a right. THEN, take an immediate left onto Lisco Drive, circle around for 5 to 10 seconds, and turn left into the parking lot. The attached map should help some – just know that on this map, SOUTH is up, so our meeting place is at the top of the map.

Members of the Central Committee include county chairs, vice chairs, state committeemen and state committeewomen. But note that this meeting, like all of our meetings, is open to the public, AND we are going to focus heavily on training for county party leaders, so you may want to encourage others from your county who are not technically members of the Central Committee to attend. They’ll be most welcome. We also especially hope any members of the Legislature who are not technically members of the Central Committee will attend.

In addition to the training, the major orders of business will be to elect state party officers for the next two years and to approve our state party’s Delegate Selection Plan for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Attached is a tentative agenda.

The Leadership Group of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on the previous day, Friday, April 29, for a session on Party strategy, as previously announced. That meeting is planned for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday the 29th in the downstairs conference room of the Stratton Real Estate/Blue Cross Blue Shield building at 231 E. Midwest Ave., which is between Wolcott and Durbin streets just a half block south of 2nd Street. The Leadership Group and others who’ve indicated interest in attending will get further information on this session early next week.

I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!
Bill

Bill Luckett
Executive Director
Wyoming Democratic Party
(307) 473-1457 (office)
(307) 631-7638 (cell)
luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Democratic spring cleaning...think fresh!

I'm probably like many people in that my interest in politics is sometimes cyclical, following the ebb and flow of the elections. I'm quite obsessive in the preceding months up to election day, and then feel the need to focus on other interests. This would explain the lack of posts on this site since November. I've spent some time recently updating the sidebars, adding in contact information for our new Platte County Democratic Party officers, as well as our elected officials information.

As I come back to posting here, I find proof that I am not alone in the lack-of-updating department. I've browsed around on the sidebar links and see that many of our Democrat related sites could sorely use some fresh information. Our state party website is a good example. I don't know at this time how big of a team Bill Luckett has to help run the site, and I see that his blog info is new, which is great. But searching around the site I find "The Statesmen" link brings me to a 2007 .pdf file, the calendar page is empty, and I grimaced at the link titled "Wyoming for Kerry".

Now how about those "Young Democrats of Wyoming"? Surely if anyone would be hands on regarding the web it would be the tech savvy under thirty-five crowd, correct? Surprisingly, I had trouble finding them on the web. A google search leads me to the DNC webpage, which links to a "Party Builder" page, which was a dead end. How about the social sites? YDWY has a group on Facebook. The last "recent news" comes from last springs state convention, and the most recent wall post is dated September 5th, 2008. With 87 members (at the time of this post) I would expect at least one mention of the Obama win, or disappointment expressed over our state Democrat losses, yet there is not.

I look at how this would be perceived by a person looking to be involved with the Democratic party. How does this look to someone seeking to stay informed and perhaps converse with other fellow Democrats in the state? My fear is that the outdated info leaves doubt that the party is engaged. When we are trying to encourage people to join and participate, I think it is in our best interest to keep these sites fresh. It is not my intent to criticize, I know it is not easy to find the time to do this. But I do think it is important. We have some great new leadership in the party, and I am hopeful that the lines of communication will be open and utilized.