Committee or Club? Because our 70th AD DAC covers a district and is state chartered, it is technically and legally speaking, a "Committee." However, it functions like a club! We don't mean to be confusing, but in casual conversation we tend to refer to ourselves as a club.

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What: General Meeting for July, 70th AD Democratic Action Committee and Democrats of Greater Irvine
Where: Marie Callender's, Culver Plaza, Irvine, at Culver Drive and Irvine Center Drive
When: Sunday, July 18th, registration from 4:30 pm, speaker 5:00 pm, food and fellowship, 6:00 pm.
Who: Henry Vandermier, speaking on Proposition 14.
How Much: $18 for complete meal, $9.00 for pie and beverage, $5.00 beverage only.

I am pleased to announce the speaker for our next general meeting, which will be Sunday, July 18th, at Marie Callender's in Irvine. We will start registration, as usual, at 4:30 pm, and our speaker will begin at about 5 pm after we order our food and get settled in with beverages and good conversatiion with our neighbors. At about 6:00 pm our food will be served, and we will finish up with announcements and more conversation.

Marie Callender's is located in the Culver Plaza shopping center, which is located on Culver Blvd at Irvine Center Drive. You can order a complete meal, which includes beverage, corn bread and pie, beverage and pie alone, or just a beverage. All prices do include sales tax and tip. Please sign up in advance at Act Blue at http://www.actblue.com/page/july2010/ if you want to pay with a credit card. It's very helpful to us if you do that. Also, don't forget to renew your membership at http://www.actblue.com/page/2009membership/ if you have not yet done so. Our club does a lot of worthwhile things in addition to bringing you good speakers. We have recently donated substantial amounts to the campaigns of Barbara Boxer, John Chiang, Beth Krom and Melissa Fox. If you don't pay in advance, bring a check or cash. No credit cards will be accepted.

So, on to the speaker and the topic: Our speaker will be Henry Vandermier. As president of the California Democratic Council, Henry has worked hard to provide tools and services for our Democratic clubs and has succeeded in resurrecting an organization that had, over the years, virtually fallen into anonymity. By working together with a variety of progressive organizations such as PDA, Progressive Majority, TBRC, etc., he has been able to provide Democratic activists across the state with access to free training, organizational skills/tools and education on progressive values.

Henry also served a very successful term as Field Director, and as Interim Executive Director of the Orange County Democratic Party. He instituted the Welcome Wagon program for new Democrats, and significantly energized monthly meetings during his tenure.

Henry will be speaking about the fall-out from the passage of Proposition 14. What will it mean for the Democratic Party in general, and the Democratic Party specifically in Orange County and our own somewhat conservative area of Assembly District 70? What can we do to improve our chances to have a Democratic candidate on the ballot in general elections? We certainly don't want 2010 to be the last general election for the foreseeable future where we will be able to cast our vote for a Democrat for Assembly or the State Senate!

Come to the meeting, bring a friend or neighbor, and enjoy good Democratic company and gear up for the important election of November, 2010.

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Our discussion group on Saturday morning has incorporated, from time to time, members of the newly formed "Coffee Party." At one of the last meetings, most of the group reached a consensus that we should work on improving the impact of the health care bill in California. The bill to establish a Single Payer type plan is once again before the Legislature. It has passed before, but the Governor vetoed it. The obvious task is to elect a new Governor who will sign the bill, or elect enough members of the Legislature who support it to override a veto.

Your participation is welcomed. We need both ideas and action!

Remember, it's every Saturday morning, 9 am, under the trees in the center of the University Center shopping mall right across from UC Irvine on Campus Drive. The Center is anchored by Trader Joes on one end and Steelhead Brewery on the other, and we are near the Fed-Ex Kinkos.

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The Community Health Care Stories proejct of our Saturday morning Kaffee-Klatch group just doesn't seem to want to end. Every week we have a new group asking to tell their stories! This Saturday (June 20th) we had a representative of the Catholic Worker homeless project in Santa Ana who is asking our help, as a club, and who will also help us get stories from people in that community. If you would like to help needy people get health care, by helping them fill out necessary paperwork, please let us know. Available times to volunteer in Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 to 6:00 pm. Please contact us at democraticaction©me.com if you can help.

Right now, you can see the first four of the approximately 30 stories we have. We have three spontaneous stories from people who have personal stories to tell, and one small business owner who talks about what healthcare reform would mean to his company. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JydBMn0R6gE

You can see some of the activities of the Kaffee-Klatch on http://groups.google.com/group/democraticaction/
Please join us on Saturday mornings at 9 am in the plaza area of University Center. You can park near the Towers and enter where you see FedEx-Kinkos.

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