CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
JULY 5, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by DIANE LANG
Invocation by EULA PARKIN

BOB CAVANAUGH welcomed Bev and Bob Stone, new attendees to our meetings.

BEAUFORT JULY 4TH PARADE
BOB reported that from the majority of comments made and attitude of the spectators, our float was very well received.  He thanked KENNY and NANCY BOCK for use of the newly refinished trailer and decorations, flags, buntings, fringe, etc.  Thanked all who had helped decorate and participated. Just goes to show what we can do when we all pull together.  He commented on TIM BUCK, who made a great Uncle Sam, EULA PARKIN for the use of her driveway, which had made it very convenient to the parade route, and PEGGY GARNER for the signs she had made.
ROMA WADE told of the one young lady who placed her hand alongside her eyes, like blinders, when she walked by his table where he was selling our shirts.  RUTH PARKER and TOM AUSTIN had commented on two people in the crowd who refused a copy of the pocket Constitution, saying they did not want any of our propaganda.  Other than those, all other reception seemed to be favorable, with many thumbs up and cheers, as we rode by.
NANCY was asked ‘what supplies do we have left,’ (ie. shirts, hats, etc.)  NANCY said we still have a lot of shirts, but she has not had time to inventory the sizes.   We are totally out of the little flags though.  She reported that we had made $410.00 on items sold.  Question was raised ‘if we had had more tables set up selling the shirts, could we have made more’?  Roma said possibly yes, however; we had to set up in front of a store and he had gone up and down the street trying to find a location to set up.  Most said they would prefer we not set up in front of their place, due to creating dissension or possible conflict among some of their customers.  Thus he had once again set up in front of his friend’s place of business where they had set up a couple of years ago.
BOB said we might need to check into what is required for our participation in the next parade, which would probably be held in Morehead on Veteran’s Day in November.  Everyone agreed that the parade was a really good idea and thought we should start getting ready with a possible theme and any items we may need, but also be looking about locations to have sales tables.  NANCY asked ‘what is the protocol for veterans wearing their uniforms in these parades’.  Is it allowed?   She thought it would be a good idea to have all the branches of service honored on our float.  There was a lot of good natured joking about getting into their uniforms after all this time, so someone recommended that we get flags to fly representing each service – it would be cheaper than trying to get all those un-fitting uniforms altered to fit.
ERIC BROYLES said he had been impressed with a parade in Washington where the uniforms through the ages had been worn.  They had fife and drummers which was impressive also.  BOB told him he could be in charge of getting all that together if he wanted to, but he thought all those old uniforms would be a “little bit” hard to come by.  BOB did say he was surprised that there were no bands in the parade Monday.  DIANE LANG said she had been told it was hard to get bands together since school was out.  NANCY said that was the main thing missing was the music.
BOB turned the floor over to SCOTT CARPENTER to conduct a flip chart discussion of pros and cons on the parade.  SCOTT said he was a visual kind of guy and came from the old school of using charts and graphs.  He preferred to put ideas on the board for discussion in depth.  First of all were the costumes we had in the parade.  TIM BUCK in the Uncle Sam costume was a tremendous hit.  The ones in period costume up front holding the “We the People” banner and flag, were great also.  NANCY said her husband felt like they were not a part of the TEA Party float, more of an entry by themselves.  BOB said it appeared to him they were walking too close to the double-decker bus ahead of us.  NANCY said they were told to keep up with the bus.  We need some way to tie them with the rest of the group.  NANCY said we might to get some of the group riding on the float to dress up in the same period costumes also.  DIANE said maybe we could have a couple of TEA party members in the red shirts walking ahead of the “We the People” banner.   BOB said he could see the change in wearing the period costumes for the 4th parade, but that would not apply to the parade in November for veterans’ day.  The 4th was about the declaration of independence.  Veteran’s day would be more about the current day’s uniforms – World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, etc.  If you are still on active duty, then you can not participate in these political events.  HOWARD GARNER said ‘back to the ‘We the People’ banner and its’ problem…couldn’t we just add a small section on each side with the TEA Party emblem’ or a tea pot to identify the connection.  BOB said ‘the members in red shirts passing out pocket Constitutions and flags were back by the float’.  ‘Maybe if they were up closer to the banner, we would not have had that problem.’  Maybe they should have been more dispersed on the sides (from ahead of the truck to the back of the float).  That way it would have all been linked together.  ROMA said maybe we could have two people carrying a “TEA PARTY” banner ahead of the “We the People” banner.  EULA asked how many there had served in World War II, the Korean War.  She was surprised to learn no one in attendance had fought in WWII.  She said she had grown up then.  Some joking about ages went on, until BOB reminded us that the TEA Party was not about the military.  We support the military, not necessarily the wars going on, but support our men and women in uniform.  He does not think we need to make some sort of military statement in every parade, that we follow the theme of the parade or reason for the parade.  PEGGY GARNER said she thought if we marched in the Veteran’s Day Parade, we should use ‘Freedom is NOT Free’ as our idea for the float.  BOB said “Are we going to have a ‘Freedom is Not Free’ banner?”  PEGGY said we probably should.
SCOTT asked if we could get back to critiquing our float in yesterday’s parade.  He again thanked KENNY BOCK for the great job he did in redoing the trailer.  The blue sides and red plywood flooring was perfect.  The flags were great, but did everyone understand what each of the flags were or stood for.  He had heard several people asking what kind of flag was that.  Some asked about the red and blue striped flag – what kind was it?  Maybe if we use them again we should have a flyer or some kind of information explaining the significance of each flag.  NANCY said all the flags on the float had been flown right before the Revolutionary War.  SCOTT said we did not need to discuss them right now, but it should give us something to think about if we used them again.  He thought we might could have used even more flags on the float; maybe at least 2 to 4 more.  BOB said for the Veteran’s Day parade we could have more flags (one for each branch of the military, maybe a MIA flag, etc.)  KEN LANG said for next year’s 4th of July parade, maybe we could have a “We the People” flag made up.  He started to discuss the table for sales, but SCOTT requested we stay on the parade itself right now.  Keep that thought and we would discuss that next after we finish up with the parade.  SCOTT wanted to know if everyone who rode on the trailer was comfortable and safe with the seating.  All replied yes.  No problem with flags hitting us in the face or things like that.  No complaints.  SCOTT wanted to know if the riding of motorcycles was something BOB wanted to encourage.  BOB said he had no problem with Roy or anyone else riding their motorcycles.  ROY MUSSER had come up on his and asked if he could just ride behind the float, rather than on the trailer and BOB had said yes.  TOM AUSTIN had said he wished he had thought about riding his and would have liked to have done so.  LOU KUKULENSKI had also voiced his interest.
EULA commented on the length of the Morehead City Memorial Day parade.  It’s a long parade; from the Catholic Church to the 2nd or 3rd block on Arendell.
SCOTT brought us back to the discussion on the 4th parade.  He thought having our address sticker on the backs of the pocket Constitutions was a fabulous idea.  Wanted to know if anyone knew how many had been handed out.  It was estimated about four to five hundred from the float and about two boxes (estimated at 500) at the sales table.  SCOTT also wanted to know if we wanted to pass out anything other than the Constitution and flags, like maybe a flyer with TEA Party information.  KEN said he didn’t think we should pass flyers out from the float area, because they might just end up thrown down and create trash and possibly be considered political.  He thought maybe we should come up with a fact sheet to pass out at the table where we sold our shirts.  He had been working on something on Agenda 21 last week, but couldn’t get the data formatted like he wanted.  He felt we needed to come up with fact sheets, like on Carteret County Education, NC State Legislation, 20 vetoes by the Governor, etc.  Things we can put out on the table for people to take and read.  BOB said he agreed to having them on our table would be OK but not appropriate for us to hand out from the float.  Maybe we should have some of our business cards on the table also, giving time and place of our meetings.  NANCY said perhaps we could add that information to the address labels we put on the pocket Constitutions; thereby eliminating anything that could possibly get lost or blow away.   ROMA said he thought we could easily pass out a thousand or more Constitutions at a parade the size of Morehead’s.  ERIC said we could save ourselves some money by contacting our representatives, and senators, who graciously give bunches of the Constitutions to their constituents free.  They each send out about 500 copies.  BOB said let’s get some from them, and next month ask again, saying we have handed all those out.  We’ll stockpile them for the next parade.
SCOTT asked if he had heard someone talk about having music on the float?  BOB said there will be bands in the Veterans’ Day parade.  NANCY said the only music she heard in the Beaufort parade was a guy with a guitar singing God Bless America and another guy with a boom box on his shoulder…and maybe some music from the ‘belly dancing float’.
SCOTT questioned about the taking of photos.  Did we have someone lined up to take pictures to go on our web-site.   Answer was not really.  Some people had phones with cameras, like TOM AUSTIN, but no one had been asked to film the event.  RUTH PARKER said she had taken some, and NANCY said a friend of hers had taken some, but she hadn’t seen them yet.  We need to have someone lined up for the next parade to make sure we have a record of the event.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN said he would like to have a sign made up saying “Even Santa is a member of the TEA Party”.  SCOTT wanted to know if we were happy with the posters we had or did we need more.  PEGGY said she had only had time to make the three that were used.  Two of them had been posted at the table with the shirts (The Crystal Coast TEA Party supports Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets, Limited Government) and (The Crystal Coast TEA Party does not pledge Allegiance to any Political Party).   The other poster said GOD Bless America and was held by someone riding on the float.  NANCY said she would like for us to have one on each side of the truck and would have used the GOD Bless America there if we had had another.  PEGGY said she would try to have them made up before the next parade.  HOWARD said we need to give PEGGY time to prepare any posters we want, so to please get her whatever information you want on a sign early.  Discussion of how many more posters we could use.  Have the two at the sales table, one God Bless America and one more for the other side of the truck.   BOB did not want to tie up the walker and riders hands with posters.  They were needed to hand out flags, Constitutions and candy.  PEGGY said she had only had the opportunity to make one ‘TEA PARTY TAXI’ sign, but had received a lot of comments on it.
HOWARD said we went through about a half bushel of candy.  PEGGY said she and RUTH had bought about $70.00 worth and some friends of PEGGY’s had donated about 6 bags more, so we had about $100.00 worth of candy for this parade.  We had enough to pass out all the way through the parade, with very little left, by pacing ourselves toward the end.  If we pass out candy in Morehead we need to start stocking up now.  GRACE said we usually could get a good deal after Halloween.  Often the businesses will give deep discounts just to get rid of it.  CLAYTON said he had gone in and told the manager if he would give him a decent price he would take all the left over candy off his hands and usually he could pick up baskets full for around $20.00 or so.
SCOTT asked if there were anything else we could think of to improve our float for next time.  CLAYTON said ‘yes, glass enclosed and air conditioned’.  It was hot out there.
SCOTT continued with the sales table pro and cons.  FRED DECKER said they had passed out two boxes of Constitutions and it was estimated to have between 200 and 250 in each box, so we determined about 500 had been handed out to the crowd at the table booth.  Since ROMA was in charge of the table, he said the only thing he could think of to improve it would be to have a larger table.  Several volunteered a six foot table, but ROMA said that would have been too big for where they were set up in Beaufort.  He said he could have passed out more small flags if they had had them.  KEN said he could get a four foot table for next time if ROMA wanted.
Discussed where and how many tables we should set up in Morehead for the parade.   Could possibly use as many as three tables for that parade.  It was suggested we set up in the park, but BOB thinks we need to spread out, not confine ourselves to one spot.  KEN said we need to find out first if we can set up tables and if so where are they allowed.  Will we need some kind of permit?  Is it a county law that we have to have our booth set up in front of a store front or private property?  ROMA said he felt that Morehead would be like Beaufort, in that the store owners would not like to have someone they consider political setting up on their space.  ROY said we are not political, but ROMA said they don’t understand that.  They consider us political regardless of what we say.   BOB wanted to know if we could set up on the railroad tracks.  Some said we might get run over and another said the railroad would not be running during that part of the day.  NANCY said she had been concerned over the attitude of some about the TEA Party being political so she had called to verify our setting up a table on Front Street.  The lady she talked to wanted to know if we were non-profit, and if we were only going to set up that one day.  If we decide to enter a float next year we may have to get an ‘itinerate license’, which would not cost anything, so we may need to do that in Morehead.  We need to check.  We still need an answer as to whether these booths need to be on private property and have permission from the owner.  GRACE said she would ask about it when she made application and arrangements for us to be in the parade.  She gets the information every year so she is more up on what is needed.
SCOTT wanted to know if there was anything else we needed to discuss before closing.  ROMA was asked if we needed any more shirts and he said it may sound strange but he definitely needed more 3X, 2X and Extra Large.  NANCY said she would have to take an inventory and see what we had left.  BOB said Extra Large was considered Small in Carteret County, just look around the room.  Question was raised if we wanted to change the logo on our shirts.  BOB said let’s get rid of the ones we have right now and then discuss which charities we would like to sponsor.  NANCY said maybe we could come up with one generic logo to cover several charities.  There’s another group in Jacksonville called ‘Hope for Warriors’ that uses the same emblem as Wounded Warriors.   Need to think on it.  NANCY had checked in the past and there will be no increase in cost if we do change.  There are several charitable organizations that need assistance.  BOB wanted to know how we did on selling hats.  ROMA said not too good, maybe around 5 or so.  More people were interested in the shirts.  Did sell a few of the stickers we had available (Don’t tread on me and Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots).

EULA reported on the July 2 event that was to be held in France did not happen.  Also reported on information she had gotten on Arab Spring.  ERNIE GUTHRIE feels we need to get out the United Nations.

HOWARD reported on Norman Sanderson’s request that when the Redistricting discussion came up for a vote, he would like to have a big crowd come up to Raleigh in support.  BOB reported on the rally in New Bern last Friday and the lack of support received by our politicians.  The redistricting has put us in District 7, with the eastern end of our county remaining in District 3.  The rational for the redistricting is to have more Republican districts.  True we had a victory in the 2010 election but nationally we didn’t do so good.  The only seat we picked up was Etheridge’s and we wouldn’t have gained that if he hadn’t grabbed that student and created a bad scene.  Hope is that the redistricting will protect Rene Ellmers who took that seat.  Mike McIntyre (D) just did win over the Republican who ran for District 7.  By shifting western Carteret County into District 7, the hope is McIntyre will not be around after 2012.  Several Republicans holding seats are RHINO’s and need to be looked at carefully at the next election.  Remember we are for the most conservative candidate.  BOB reported that ERIC had sent out several letters recently requesting information for the TEA Party.   He would like ERIC to bring these requested items up before the meetings so we are informed as to what is being requested and why.  We need to make group decisions since we are a bottom up not top down organization.  Main thing ERIC was interested in was why there were no hearing meetings on redistribution close to us.  The closest one is Wilmington.  Since the census determined more people had moved to the center of the state and the population had decreased on the coast, the districts were going to have to be bigger to include more people.  The Carteret County paper has a map on Sunday’s front page showing the Federal redistricting.  BOB said he had not seen a map of the North Carolina redistricting.  Much discussion followed on pros and cons on redistricting.

ERIC will be attending the Morehead City Council meeting next week.  Will give report at the following meeting.

AGENDA 21 – STEVE BEST was asked by BOB to read and review Agenda 21 and report on a chapter at each meeting.

BOB reported on the now defunct TEA Party in Jacksonville.  They had been anti-Muslim more than anything else, and did not have a mission statement with emphasis on Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets, and Limited Government.  Still have some who are asking for help and information.  We are still talking about getting a group started down east but as of yet have not been successful.  FRED and GRACE are still hoping to get someone interested in promoting a TEA Party there.  It takes a group of people to strap that responsibility on and keep the interest going.  BOB believes the reason our group remains strong is because we meet each week and it has become a habit.

BOB started a discussion on illegal immigration.  Many different opinions were offered.
SUSAN RYNAS said she had moved here from California due to the influx of Mexicans who had taken over her state.  She was afraid the same thing was going to happen here.   A very good discussion and various ideas were offered.  But most agreed that we do need to SECURE the BORDERS.

Secretary’s Note:  (Wish I could elaborate on some of the opinions and ideas offered, but the meeting ran longer than usual and thus the minutes are long also.   It was a very interesting conversation, especially BOB’s discussion on NAFTA.  Stay informed by attending the meetings each Tuesday night at the Golden Corral.)

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER