February 2017 Club Meeting
21 February 2017
Guernsey County Republican Club Meeting Minutes
7:01 PM – President Robert Morris called the meeting to order. Commissioner David Wilson delivered the invocation and President Morris led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance.
President Morris then gave a brief report about the scholarship committee and it was noted that the scholarships are completely funded for 2017.
Vice President Sheila Cochran raised a question with the club about future meeting space with a more reliable Wi-Fi available. The club has the potential to bring in higher profile speakers, given the proper set up, but no official motion was made.
Treasurer Nelson Roe then gave his report on the state of the club finances, within which contained two new points of action to be taken. The first being Treasurer Roe’s belief that it is necessary to separate the club general fund and a scholarship funded into separate accounts. It was decided that Treasurer Roe would get more information and report back to the club with the steps needing to be taken. The second was the need to purchase a laptop for the club to facilitate independent and durable accounting and provide better A/V support for club meetings. It was decided that the officers would a couple of quality options and present them to the club. Gayle Heinton moved that a search for a laptop be initiated with options being presented to the club at the next meeting. County Recorder Colleen Wheatley seconded that motion and it passed unanimously at 7:11PM.
Secretary Michael Segrest, having made the minutes available prior to the meeting, presented them for approval. Mrs. Heinton made the motion for approval and Board of Elections Director Sandra Miller seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously at 7:12 PM. Secretary also presented mock ups of the logo design and business card design, with no criticism of either, the design will be completed and presented for approval.
Elected Officials in attendance were then invited to speak:
County Prosecuting Attorney Joel Blue spoke about his transition into the job and said that it was going well. The office was working through the backlog created by the transition and an Assistant Prosecutor was hired, who will be focusing on implementing cost saving methods.
Director Miller stated there would be no primary elections this spring, as no one filled to challenge, and that everyone that did file, was certified.
City Councilman Bryan Conaway said that the primary focus, at the moment, is the 2017 budget. He also added his praise to the development that was going on downtown that Mayor Tom Orr spoke about in the previous meeting.
Commissioner Wilson spoke briefly about new State and Federal provisions that will cost the county some revenue and impose some additional costs. He praised the his colleagues in the commissioner’s office for setting a standard of prudence with previous oil and gas revenue, that should help carry them through these changes.
Recorder Wheatley said that her office was seeing increased activity and that the Northeast portion of the county was especially seeing increased interest.
Recorder Wheatley then gave the report for the Central Committee. The Lincoln Day Dinner will be held Wednesday March 15, social hour beginning at 5:30pm, at the Guernsey County Senior Center. The cost will be $25 and it will be necessary to RSVP by March 13. The guest speaker will be State Auditor and candidate for Secretary of State Dave Yost. If you would like to provide items for the Chinese Auction, you can drop them off at Recorder Wheatley’s office anytime before the event.
Vice President Cochran then introduced our special guest speaker: Craig Brown, who has been leading a campaign to get the Ohio legislature to formally recognize native Ohioan and first African American to play Major League Baseball, Moses “Fleetwood” Walker. Mr. Brown would like the legislature to name October 7 in honor of Mr. Walker.
The meeting was closed and adjourned at 8:09 PM.