CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS MINUTES
OF
JANUARY 10, 2012

Meeting was held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting was called to order at 6:00pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by HARRY THOMPSON
Invocation by HARRY THOMPSON

Chairman BOB started with a “Happy New Year” to all.  He is looking forward to some political changes in the local landscape this year.  ’I presume you all have seen the local paper where we have three county commissioners who are not going to run for reelection, so Fred is going to keep us up to speed on  what is what and who is who’.  He then asked for a report from FRED DECKER.  FRED said he thinks the biggest problem is Gregg Lewis.  He has been hearing that Mr. Lewis is going to back Renee Coles for County Commissioner.  If he does, then we are going to run Scott Carpenter against her.  He has already agreed to it.  FRED said Pat Joyce had told him about a year ago that being commissioner was interfering with his business and he was going to have to give it up (commissioner).  He guesses Holt Faircloth and Doug Harris just got tired.  Did anyone ever hear of a Larry Land (?) that ran for school board last time?  He ran against David Carr.  FRED is going to try to get hold of him (he lives in Beaufort) and see if he might be interested in running for commissioner.  As far as the school board goes, he is trying to talk ERIC BROYLES in running for the Morehead position.  He has been talking to a guy in Newport, Bob Harden (?).  He doesn’t know if anyone here has heard of him or not.  He is an investment banker for Merrill Lynch, office in Bank of America.  Everybody in Newport knows him and he is trying to get him to run.  As for County Commissioner, David Horton would be the same area as Scott would be.  KEN LANG asked FRED about the seat he was proposing for Scott; that would be which commissioner’s seat he would be running for?  FRED said the same one Rene Coles would be.  KEN said he thought we should encourage SCOTT to run for that seat regardless of who else would be running.  KEN said as far as he had been able to determine that other than the potential of Rene running, he had not heard of anyone else mentioned.  He said some of the commissioners had told him they did not think she was going to run.  He did not know if that was true or not, but only what he had been told.  Regardless of whether or not she does, he feels we should keep talking to SCOTT and encouraging him to run.  We definitely need someone, of the TEA Party persuasion, in that seat (either Pat Joyce’s or Doug Harris‘s).  FRED said he was not that familiar with people in Beaufort for who to encourage to run for Holt’s seat.  HOWARD GARNER said he had heard that Doug Harris might be encouraged to re-file, but he believes in term limits.  KEN said he believes we can probably encourage him to stay on  using the argument that to turn three commissioners over at one time, without some assurance we are going to have people running that will maintain that conservative voting block that we have.   This would be a bad time for him to leave.  BOB said we will not know for sure until the end of February (end of the filing period) who is definitely running.  BOB asked SCOTT what was his opinion on all this.  SCOTT said the bottom line is he is here for the younger generation.  That was why he got out of the Army and came back to Carteret County with his family.  After serving 26 years in the Army in combat, he saw where his life was at and he is here now to try to help out his community.  He has already served as President of the Home Owners Association where he lives in Brandywine.  He just put his name in today about serving on the big board there in Brandywine.  Bottom line is he is here to serve.  He has had three commands and gone the extra mile and he is here now to go that extra mile for his family (number one) and his community (number 2).  BOB asked SCOTT’s wife how she felt about this.  She said she supported him in any way he needed and with anything he wanted to do.  She knew he was capable of doing whatever was necessary.  BOB said to SCOTT that he had said he was here for the younger generation, but to us, he was the younger generation.  HOWARD said being here for the younger generation was fine but not to forget us old folks.  We have fought a lot of losing battles along the way.   FRED said he had one more thing.  We had talked about not backing Walter Jones, but unless we can find out his voting record for the last three or four years, we have no talking points.  We can’t just call someone and ask them to vote for someone else and not be able to explain why.  We need something he has done or voted on that will convince voters to vote our way.  The main thing he (FRED) had gotten upset with Jones on was he had voted with Charlie Rangle so many times.  He was the only Republican that campaigned for Rangle.  BOB said Lisa Marley (?) recently had written a good article on her blog, announcing her support for Frank Palombo and had a whole list of bills that Jones had voted for.  FRED said that is what he needs.  If we are going to make phone calls, he needs that type of information to pass out to our callers.  HOWARD wanted to know who Lisa was.  BOB said her blog was “Truth or Dare” and she was from Dare County.  She is also precinct chairman in one of the districts up there for the Republican Party.  She is also Frank Palombo’s Treasurer.  BOB had introduced them down in Wilmington at the Republican convention.  She has a lot of pull up there in Dare County.  FRED said if he could get a line on that type of information he could do a write up to pass out to our callers, so we will all be on the same wave length.
BOB said while we are talking about Frank, he wanted to know if we all remembered Captain Steve Miller who has attended several of our meetings and writes letters to the editor.  He is doing an in kind type of contribution and has rented the Train Depot here in downtown Morehead on the 24th of this month, which is on a Tuesday, two weeks from tonight,  and is going to have a rally there for Frank Palombo.  Frank’s campaign chairman called BOB today and wanted to know if we could get organized and get some TEA Party members down there.  BOB said he would be willing to convene our meeting there that night.  Because of all we need to cover, he is not going to be able to attend the Republican meeting tonight and asked FRED to pass on to them about Frank being down at the Train Depot on the 24th, from 7 to 9, and Lockwood is going to advertise it on his radio program.  Frank has a new press secretary, Ingrid Johannson, and she will be networking with her press cohorts to get  publicity also.  FRED said another thing he needed to mention…the Republican Party is having a Reagan Day Dinner down at the Senior Center he thinks on a Saturday evening (somewhere around the 20th of February).  The speaker is going to be a former Marine from Wilmington who ran against Mack McIntire.  KEN said it was on a Saturday  because precinct meetings are on Saturdays.  FRED said it might be on the 13th.  ( Secretary’s note: Saturdays in February fall on the 11th and 18th, not 13 and 20).  HOWARD said he thought the speakers name was Pantero.  KEN and FRED said yes that was the man’s name.  Belva wanted to know where the event was going to be held and was told at the Len Mann’s Center (Senior Center).  FRED said if anyone needed a ticket to please see him, he would have the tickets with him at our next meeting.  STEVE BEST asked how much the tickets were and FRED said $20.00 each.  While some may think this is high, we need to know this is the only fund raiser the party has.  Also, if he could get someone to take over the party leadership, he would like to do that and get rid of Gregg Lewis, but he hasn’t found anybody to take that on.  KEN asked when Gregg’s term was up that it seemed to him he was elected not that long ago.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN said ’not long enough as far as he was concerned’.  KEN said he had been told they thought he had until 2014, but he wasn’t sure.  FRED said he wasn’t talking about county commissioner but Republican Party Chairman.  KEN said he thought we needed to find out what that time was, before we start looking for a replacement.   FRED told about a gentleman from Harkers Island that asked who did you have to talk to around here to volunteer.  FRED told him he’d better shut up before someone heard him. (Created several chuckles.)
BOB reported on the death of Walt Shaw who came to our TEA Party rallies, and was a real strong conservative.  BOB said it seemed to him that more people than usual died around the holidays.  HOWARD said he had always heard ‘a warm Christmas, a fat grave yard’.
HOWARD reported that on the 28th of January, the Civatas  is conducting a campaign training seminar/workshop in Raleigh.  The fee is $25 per person and lasts from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon.  Four of us, (Ken, Diane, Peggy and Howard) have already pre-registered.  KEN said he thought it was the 21st.   NANCY BOCK checked and said it was the 21st.  Howard had written it down on the wrong day in his calendar.  BOB said we need to come up with another voter recommendation list like we had last time.  We had such great success with that.  Maybe we can learn more ways of making a difference at this workshop.
BOB asked HARRY if he had gotten any more information on the John Locke thing.  It is supposed to be part two of the workshop we held last year.  Workshop #2 is ’What would the Federalists and Anti-federalists say about the current political and economic crises?’  They have several ways to deliver their workshops and would like to discuss the option that will work the best for us.  (1) A four or five hour workshop that takes place on a Saturday; (2) Two separate evening sessions of about 2 hours each and (3) an individualized schedule that works best for our organization.  Harry said he thought what we had last year worked good for us in the auditorium.  Everything they needed to make the presentation was available.
Plenty of room and comfortable seating.  Consensus was: option (1).   HOWARD told HARRY that he had done a good job organizing the workshop last time, he felt he should handle this one also.  HARRY said that Michael Sanera (the one he is corresponding with to set up the workshop here) told him they would provide the workshops free of charge to the hosting organizations, but donations to assist this effort would be gratefully appreciated.  Our organization will be responsible for any costs associated with the meeting room.  It is their experience that participants are more than willing to pay a reasonable amount for these expenses.  The John Locke Foundation has a secure online registration system for this purpose.  They also ask the local contact persons to work with like-minded groups in their area to ensure a regional outreach and an audience of at least 50 people for the workshop.  BOB said we had about 80 last year.  HARRY said yes we did; but we had a long time to work on that one.  This time we will not have as much time.  BOB asked how we publicized it last year…letters to the editor, radio interviews, (John Locke had some of their people available for the interviews on Lockwood’s show)…we had it pretty well covered.  He was going to try to set up the same thing this year.  Michael had told HARRY that dates in January will not provide enough time to organize and publicize a workshop.  They had the following dates available…February 11 or 25 or March 17.  BOB said he felt the further we could push it out the better attendance we will have.  HARRY said he would check to see if the 17th of March is still available.  PEGGY GARNER said the email he had sent to the officers stated that they had reserved February 25 for us.  HARRY said at the time he sorta  was looking at a tentative thing  and hopefully Michael hasn’t already made hard plans on that yet.  HARRY said he would get hold of him tonight and see if we can get it changed to March 17.  BOB said the 25th was his birthday.  HOWARD asked how much the room costs.  HARRY said he was not real sure.  He thought it was less than $100 last year.  He has a call in to the office over there and they were supposed to call him back, but haven’t yet.  BOB posed the question ‘As the TEA Party, do we want to go ahead and sponsor the event?   Reserve the hall and everything?’   HARRY said yes, that was what he had in mind.  BOB wanted to know from NANCY BOCK if we had the money in the bank.  HARRY said he couldn’t tell us what it was going to cost; that he had hoped to have all that information for the meeting tonight.  KEN said he thought we needed to find out what we spent last year and come back and say ‘this is what we estimate the cost will be’.  NANCY said right now we have $1100.00 in the bank and she said she thought it was $448.00 last year.   They had to have a minimum amount of people, remember?  And she thought it had costs something like $5.00 to attend, but that was to cover the hall and all.  BOB said he thought one of our failings about getting the word out for such things is, we are not taking advantage of the churches and the use of their church bulletins.  It would be nice if we had a master list of all the churches with their mailing addresses where we could contact them.  STEVE said he could get that for us.  BOB said good, that is yours for action.  All the churches in Carteret County mailing or email addresses that we can send a file or advertisement of what is going on for them to include in their Sunday bulletin.  He thinks that will really get the word out in a big way.  Probably hit more people than with the News Times.  BOB told HARRY to set it up and STEVE the addresses.
BOB said he wanted to take a brief moment to introduce VERNE THOMPSON.  He asked if VERNE had been to our meetings before, where was he from and how did he find out about us.  VERNE said he had been around for a while.  He had bought a place down on the sound in the late 80’s.  He still had his place up near Raleigh up until recently.  He had been dividing him time but finally managed to sell the place up there and move here full time.  BOB asked him if he had registered to vote here yet and he replied Oh, yes, he had been registered here for some time.  BOB told him we were glad to have him, that we meet here every Tuesday,  (5:00 dinner/social hour and meeting at 6:00).  He explained that KEN ran another group up at Emerald Isle.  The county is so long we decided to split it up so the members would not have so far to travel.  The Wild West Group meets the first and third Tuesdays at 7:00 pm.  Eventually we hope to get a third group organized in the eastern part of our county (the DownEasters).  He introduced all our officers…him as Chairman, PEGGY, our secretary (so be careful what you say, because she records every word into our minutes),  KEN, our communications director, (he runs the web site), NANCY, our Treasurer, and who else have we got!!!  Several said don’t forget ERIC BROYLES, the vice chairman.  BOB said Oh, yeah, ERIC.  CLAYTON told ERIC ‘now he knows how Biden feels’.
BOB showed his latest bumper sticker….picture of Obama with the words, ‘does this a– make my truck look fat?’  He plans to place it right below his ‘you lie’ sticker.  The man that runs the land fill on Hibbs Road saw BOB and his TEA party shirt the other day as he was dumping his trash and  gave it to him.  KEN said he had sent an email out to a half a dozen people with that bumper sticker plus several others that he had thought were really entertaining.  There are a few web sites that as we continue our meeting tonight he has a proposal that will involve that bumper sticker plus some others.
BOB reported that STEVE has a new movie coming up at the Cave Saturday 28 at 4:00 called the Paper Clips.  He said for those who do not know, STEVE has converted his garage into a “Christian movie theater”.    STEVE said he had not seen the movie yet so could not tell us what it is about.  He has heard it is a very good movie.  He is preparing (? Could not understand what he called it, but did determine it was a Greek food from a cook book he got in the mail and it sounded good so he had tried it.)  He is preparing it for those who come to see the movie.  LYN asked if everyone had heard of the movie ‘Fire Proof’.  This movie was about fire departments, and they now have another movie out about the Police Department.  They are showing it at the First Baptist church next Sunday at 7:00.  BOB said while we are talking about movies, STEVE has procured a free movie called ‘Iranium’.  It is all about Iran’s push to acquire nuclear weapons and their international threat.  BOB asked STEVE to let us know when he planned to show this ninety minute documentary.  BOB asked him to read the cover on what it is about.  STEVE said it is about how the government is trying to take over and run everybody’s life.  KEN said it is a really good movie, that he had screened it for STEVE and he had wanted to show it at his Emerald Isle meeting but the folks there thought it ought to be done at some other time rather than a meeting.  He recommended that STEVE show it over at his place.  It goes through the history of how various governments have taken over and draws parallels to what is happening in the US now.  It is kind of scary.  It is not just about Obama’s term in office, it also talks about both parties.  BOB said every president we have had has grown the government.  It even grew under Reagan.
BOB recognized KEN to speak on several issues (billboards, Spokesman for the Rally/Fund Raiser Committee etc.)  KEN said he had passed around a sheet of paper with a couple of ideas for the Billboard Project and wanted to know if everyone had seen  them and marked which they preferred.  Those are drafts of proposed ideas for the Billboard Project that he had brought up several months ago.  They are probably going, in the next three or four days, to decide which one to go with.  There is very little difference in the two, with the most obvious being the ‘enough’ that is coming out of the eagle’s mouth is white on one and yellow on the other.  Slight difference in the size of the eagle’s head also.  The billboard project started with the MooreTEAParty group in Moore County.   In 2008, they put out several billboards in the Moore County area that were pro-TEA Party messages.  There are probably 15 or so TEA Parties represented in the committee that is looking at selecting a billboard design that will be posted around North Carolina between July and the election.  Billboards cost on the border for discussion about $400 per month.  So right now they are looking at definitely 4, or maybe 6, plus a mobile billboard to be used around Charlotte during the Democratic National convention.  So they are trying to collect money from individuals and TEA Parties to build up enough money to be able to put these billboards up around the state.  On the website (nc4TEA.com or net or several other .’s which will all lead you to the same place)  will give you a little bit more of the background of the billboard project and where they are proposing to put them.  They currently believe they have enough  money, or soon will have enough, for four billboards.  Most of those are located in the middle part of the state (higher populated area and on highly traveled roads).  The next two on the list (if he is not mistaken) are around Jacksonville but they need additional money to be collected to be able to fund those.  One of them is down near Swansboro at the intersection of 24 and Belgrade Road and the other one is somewhere on the other side of Jacksonville on 17.  He is not sure exactly where.  VERNE said it appeared that this was just a ’get out the vote’ type of advertisement not endorsing any particular candidate, so what is the basis for the choices about the locations.  Raleigh has a very high turnout rate.  He did not see much need for a ’get out the vote’ campaign there.  KEN said it is advertising the website also, which promotes fiscally conservative candidates, limited government, and pro free market.  It is basically to stimulate awareness that we have had enough of our current government; that we want people to reclaim America and; we want people to get out and vote.  Implication in there is that we want people to vote conservative because it is sponsored by the TEA Party.  There is only so much you can say on a billboard that people can read when they are going down the road at 60 miles per hour.  So you have to make sure that the billboard is flashy enough to catch the eye  and the message is concise.  Believe me we have gone through a ton of slogans and stuff like that.  The purpose is not to endorse a particular candidate because we typically do not endorse, but do make recommendations in the local areas as far as this TEA Party is concerned.  We do not back any particular candidate, only suggest or recommend.  BOB brought up a situation in Onslow County with Americans for Progress (AFP) that explains why you do not pick a dog in a fight because that is what brought the AFP down.  They had backed a couple of candidates which created a fight among members, getting really nasty and totally split the group apart.  It disbanded.  We have at the Emerald Isle group a guy that is currently coming from the Hubert area, that was a member of that AFP group and that is how KEN knows what happened.  What happened to that group is a good example of what we should not be focusing on so that we don’t get split up.  Our message is to elect fiscally conservative candidates.  Anyway tonight when he gets home he will probably notify the billboard committee which sign we think is best.  They will cast their vote and probably by the end of the week they will have all the votes counted from the members of the committee and will have finally made a selection on what they are going to do.  What he would like to do is, for purposes of discussion, to make a motion that this TEA Party group fund a billboard for $400.00 which will cover a month for one billboard.  HOWARD seconded the motion.  BOB said we have a motion and a second so let’s vote on the motion.  Do we want to sponsor a billboard for one month?  Is anyone opposed to the motion?  No.  Motion carried.  BOB said he wanted to know if anyone had any ideas on how we are going to collect this money.   KEN said he suggests we write a check for the billboard project and then discuss how we are going to pay back what we had gotten from our treasury for the billboard project.
KEN said that kind of leads him into another topic.  About three or four months ago  BOB appointed a committee to look at fund raising.  That is especially important now since we really don’t have too long before the November big election and prior to that the May Primary.  NANCY had reported earlier that we had something like $1100 in the Treasury.  We just voted $400 for the Billboard Project; then we have the John Locke Workshop which is going to cost; and if we have a Tax Day Rally, as BOB suggested, that always costs us money because at the very least we have to have insurance.  Last time the insurance cost us $940.00.…so now our money is gone.  So it is important to have some mechanism to raise money to be able to have money to do stuff we have to do between now and the elections; cause we know none of that stuff is free.  I think we can take advantage of some free advertisements like with the John Locke thing we can  get on Lockwood’s show, public service announcements, the community calendar in the Carteret News Times; but when you start advertising in the paper or pay for advertising on the radio, we are talking about fairly good chunks of money.  So we need to take advantage of as much free stuff as we can to stretch the little bit of money we do have.   Anyway, the fund raising committee met (as well as discussed over the internet/email several times), we thought a good fund raiser might be like a barbecue dinner.  Then we got to talking about where, and when we would have it.  We discussed the park in Newport where we had our picnic last year or the Fort Benjamin Park.  KEN had suggested a few days ago that we have it on Tax Day, sort of with the rally.  Well, one of his esteemed colleagues, HOWARD, informed him that that was like 3 or 4 days (a couple of weeks actually) after the Newport Pig Cooking contest.  So it was decided by the committee that that was probably not a good idea to have a barbecue so close to the Newport fund raiser.   He said HOWARD thought a barbecue would likely be more successful in the fall rather than during warm weather.  However, that might be an idea for raising funds later but was not compatible with us raising funds now before the fall.  We’ve got to have some money earlier on, so he wanted to kind of throw out to you folks or you throw some out to us, on what we might do beforehand.  He knows BOB wants to do a rally, and that is a good thing but $900.00 for insurance, we will have to sell a lot of tee shirts to cover that.  BELVE MANNING said how about instead of  a barbecue dinner, have a chicken (barbecued or fried).  She said the alumni association does that a lot.  KEN said that’s a good idea.  Several of the fire departments have barbecue chicken dinners (or fish frys) to raise money.  (KEN checked to make sure PEGGY was taking notes and as HOWARD said  also recording).  BOB said he was not SET on having a rally, that he would like to have a rally or a fund raiser or both.  He was not totally set on the TAX Day Rally.  KEN said he understood that BOB was not demanding a rally, but he was just saying the pig barbecue would not work out to be held in conjunction with the TAX Day event.  A chicken dinner might work fine.  We could do something like that.  He asked the members if that sounded like a good idea?  And it could still be in conjunction with the TAX Day, since that is traditionally when we have our rally.  BOB said April 15 is on a Sunday, so did we want to think about Saturday, the 14th or Friday the 13th?  Several thought Saturday would probably work best, especially for the rally.  ERIC asked how many names did we currently have on our emailing list,  he figured somewhere around a thousand.  KEN said maybe close to that.  ERIC thinks we should come up with something  where they could send money in to help support our events and fund raisers when they are unable to attend.  KEN told ERIC he was getting ahead of him, that he hadn’t gotten to that yet.  Our list the committee had come up with was more than just a barbecue dinner fund raiser.  That was just one of the items.  KEN said what we will do then, at least for tax day or there about, is sort of formulate a little bit more about the menu and schedule and stuff like that.  He really likes the idea about the chicken cause that is not hard to handle.  The four of us (committee) will talk some more about plans and get something back as soon as we can  so we can make a decision on what we are going to do.
In addition to that, as ERIC led into, we have some other ideas also.  He is going to give an example, (not saying we are going to do it this way or whatever), but the Republican Women’s Club made a lot of money this year and they had a raffle for a couple of guns.  He can’t remember exactly what they made off of it but it was their biggest fund raiser that they have ever had.  (BOB said ‘we can raffle off the bullets for those guns).  KEN said his thought was that we ought to consider a raffle of something like a gun or something that will appeal to people in this area.  That is something  we don’t need to decide, but if you have some suggestions, please either give them to us now or at a later time.  He would like to suggest that we consider having a raffle as a fund raiser where we would presell tickets and then have a drawing, at sometime, didn’t have a time determined yet.  HOWARD suggested we hold the drawing at the Tax Day Rally on April 14th.  Most agreed.  KEN asked if anyone had any suggestions.  BOB said he had one, not necessarily Tax Day, but maybe sometime around Easter time frame.  A lot of organizations have Easter Egg Hunts and he was thinking that we do an Easter Egg Hunt and ever how many eggs their kid collected would pay a dollar an egg.  It not only would be a fund raiser but would get the family out.  HOWAR D said he wasn’t sure how that would go, since there are at least two big free ones here in Newport.  BOB said we could bill this as a fund raiser for the TEA Party.  It was just a crazy idea he had.  KEN asked that we stay with the raffle right now.  He asked if everyone thought a raffle was a reasonable thing to do?  Some minor discussion followed with most saying  they thought it would be OK.  Someone volunteered HARRY’s truck.  KEN said maybe BOB’s truck, but decided that might not sell too many tickets and BOB said no, he needed his truck to haul all the TEA Party stuff around since he had burned his shed down and had not other place to keep it.  PEGGY said since TOM HARMON was out of the country, maybe we could raffle his almost new truck off.  He wouldn’t miss it for a few months anyway.  HOWARD said TOM wasn’t to sure about this crowd and had carried his truck out of  the county.  KEN said we could knock it around a little bit more, he was just trying to find out if anyone had any experience with raffles.  The only one he has a first hand knowledge on was the gun raffle and he knew that was very successful.  LYN said some organizations that hold annual raffles will get a business to donate a motorcycle.  HOWARD said to raffle a motorcycle you are talking a whole lot of tickets you have to sell cause that Harley Davidson costs big money.  LYN said usually a dealer donates it.  CLAYTON asked ‘in this economy, they will donate a motorcycle?’  LYN said maybe they can’t sell them so they donate them and take a tax deduction.   KEN said we’ll knock that around a little bit more, but if you come up with any ideas, please let us know.
One of the other things that he thought of is kind of a combination of expanding the items that are available for sale from our store on the web site and that we sell at rallys and parades or anywhere we can set up a table.  Some ideas he has …right now we have tee shirts on our web site and that is really it.  Part of the reason behind that is we got hats now, but he doesn’t have them on the web site.  And the reason for that is he does not know how to work that into the web site, so he has to get up with the guy that does it, so he can find out how to do that.  We have short sleeve  and long sleeve tee shirts ,  and hats.  Some of these, from conversations with NANCY, we need to buy some more of different sizes.  We also have now that POP game that WAYNE WILLIS said we could sell on the web site and receive some revenue from that.  So that is another item to be added to the web site.   We have some bumper stickers “Crystal Coast TEA Party” bumper stickers.  And we have plenty of Cain bumper stickers at a very reasonable price!   Collector items.  BOB said he had gone on the web site and clicked on the store and there was nothing in it.  You can click on the home page and tee shirts and get an order form from there, but if you go to the store there is nothing there.  KEN said he knew it was kind of messed up but he figured if we add some things to the store (and get the store working properly) then maybe we could earn a little bit of money that way, but it also would give us a repository of supplies that we could take to put on a table and sell like we did at the 4th of July parade in Beaufort.  What he is suggesting is we pick out some bumper stickers, in addition to the Crystal Coast TEA Party stickers, maybe like the one BOB has and some others we think will attract attention and sell and put them on our web site also.  We need to look for someone local to make them.  These things are not copy writed.  There is no sense in us going and paying $3.00 a bumper sticker and then having to sell them for $6.00 (and not selling due to cost).  If we can have them printed locally and make up our own bumper stickers.  So if you see a good bumper sticker let us know about it.  Then we need to ask NANCY or somebody else to talk to some local people, because he would like to see our business stay here in the county/community for printing these things.  Someone mentioned coffee mugs.  KEN said some of the website TEA Party stores do sell coffee mugs.  If you go to TEA Party Patriots, they have all kinds of junk on there.  However they are pricy.  LYN said she had not followed through but had looked into ‘car fresheners’ maybe shaped like a flag, something inexpensive.  She thought they might cost something like 70 cents and maybe sell for $2.00.  KEN said he thought that would be a good idea.
Another things we thought about was ‘TEA Party Patriot’ buttons.  Some people like to wear buttons to meetings and rallys,   As an additional use for the buttons…  if we can get people interested this year in doing this, remember that workshop that we went to in Greenville on lobbying they talked about wearing a name tag when you go to the State House and meet your Senators and Representatives,  then we could wear our buttons.  They don’t want you running around with a whole bunch of signs, but a small button identifying who you are will look better than a paper name tag.  NANCY proposed including a pocket Constitution with every order for free.  We already give those out at the various events, so when somebody orders something we just put one in with their order.  LYN said we could also let them know they could pick their order up here every Tuesday night (which might bring them out to our meetings).  KEN said he would send out an email with some suggested thoughts for the bumper stickers (not to the whole list he has, but to maybe 30 or 40 people, mostly to the active members) and get their input and then you all will have his email address so you can keep him informed as to what you think.  Don’t treat it as SPAM.  It will say it is from Ken.  As he was saying, in addition to having these items for sale on the website, we will have them for sale on tables at various events also where we can promote the TEA Party.  Discussed the problems we had at the Morehead City parade and not being able to find out where we might could have a table.  LYN said the Pope’s would always let us set up in front of their restaurant.  KEN said we need to keep that in mind.  Some other venues that we might could use, but would probably cost us, would be like the St. Paddy’s Day at Emerald Isle, because they have a real good turnout there, but you do have to pay for you space.  Does anyone remember what that cost.  We have festivals, like SeaFood Festival, Mullet Festival, etc, but we have to commit to paying for the spot, and having people who are going to be there for an hour or two taking shifts.  PEGGY told KEN we could probably have a space at the Newport Pig Cookin’ also, but she thought it costs also.  ERNIE said we didn’t want to have anything there.  There were fights and everything else there and we didn’t need to be involved in something like that.  The majority of the members in attendance disagreed with ERNIE.  They had never heard of any problems like that at the Pig Cookin’.  It was watched too closely for any problems.
KEN asked if there want anything else he was supposed to bring up from the committee tonight.  PEGGY said yes ‘about the drawing and the 50-50’.  KEN said that some of the other TEA Party groups he had talked to always put out a donation jar at their meetings.  Anyone attending that would like to help out, can put whatever they would like into the jar to help raise needed funds.  HOWARD was going to get a big jar and PEGGY was going to print up a design with the TEA PARTY PATRIOTS Donation Jar.  NANCY said she already had several jars made up that we had used at the rallies.  KEN asked her to please bring two to the next meeting (one for here and one for the group in Emerald Isle).  We can give the one for here to BOB to put in his truck along with all the other TEA PARTY supplies he has in his truck shed.  Does that sound like a good reasonable idea to the group?  SCOTT said how about like the Republican Men have something where you buy tickets and they have a drawing and you get some money.  PEGGY said that is the 50-50 she had referred to when KEN had asked if he had forgotten anything.  HOWARD said he still had most of the box of tickets we bought for the rally in Newport.  He had such grand ideas for how much money we were going to make, he bought a whole case of tickets.  We have enough tickets to last a looooong time.  Some thought we should have the 50-50 every Tuesday.  BOB wanted to know how many would commit to buying 50-50 tickets every Tuesday.  Almost everyone there said they would.  BOB said do we want to decide if we want to have a donation jar or buy tickets for the 50-50 and how much would we sell the 50-50 tickets for.  One for $1.00, three for $2.00 was recommended by DIANE LANG and all thought that would work.  BOB said he was all for having a donation jar, and having a 50-50 raffle, but he did not want to discourage anyone from attending the meetings.  HOWARD said he did not think we needed both on the same night.  He said he had a certain amount of money that he is willing to throw in and he is going to throw it one place or the other.  KEN wanted to know if we wanted to do one or the other.  Discussion followed.  BOB said he wanted to make one hard and fast rule if we do the 50-50 and that was the winner cannot turn around and donate it back to the TEA Party.  A lot of people do that at these organization feeling like they have to or feel guilty for getting the money.  If you win it, you take it home.  DIANE said and then next week you can bring it back and put it into the jar.  KEN asked how many thought it should be a 50-50 raffle and how many a donation.  “Thanks a lot, it was split evenly”.  KEN told BOB that he would suggest if he didn’t think it was too complicated, a couple of nights a month we have a 50-50 and the other two nights we put out the donation jar.  SCOTT said we should keep a record of how they are working and after about 6 months whichever is doing the best for the group, then use that system.  KEN said he agreed that was a good idea.  BOB said as long as the donation jar did not cut into the tips we leave for the waitresses, he had no problem. CLAYTON wanted to know if we couldn’t send out to the other 900+ members who do not attend our meetings and ask them to please donate something to the TEA Party.  KEN said he could put that into the next email he sent out.  CLAYTON said a lot of people will send you 5 bucks or so, just to not have to spend all that money for gas just to get to the meetings.  HOWARD said just be sure to give them an address where to send the donations.  KEN said the money should go to NANCY because she is the Treasurer and she needs to keep up with how much money is coming in.  ERIC said he feels that all these people who consider themselves members of the TEA Party because they are on our mailing list, do need to get some skin in the game.  And the way they can do that is we just say look we need your help.  KEN said he agreed and he would include something in the next email he sent out.  BOB wanted to know if the ‘donate’ button on the web site works.  KEN said that was a real good question.  He would check it out tonight.  He did not know.  NANCY said didn’t we used to get PayPal payments  but KEN thought that was specifically set up for that particular purpose.   BOB said it said you could pay by PayPal or send in your check, but nowhere could he find an address to mail his check.  KEN said there is no where on there about shipping either.  He promised to fix all these problems as soon as he could.  ERIC said he thought we should take advantage of our 900+ email addresses.  KEN said something like that had come up at their Emerald Isle meeting where they had about 18 or 19 attendees, so he thought they were doing pretty good there.  Not gang busters, but OK.  Discussion about donations and stuff like that came up and he and DIANE had talked about it afterwards and you know like pushing too hard for donations scares people away.  He agrees you have to mention it and make it easy to donate, (the donate button has to work), but if you push too hard then you scare people away too.  You don’t want to make people feel they have to donate, because this is a pretty much a put your money where your mouth is, but you have to be delicate about how you do this and not push too hard.  You don’t do anything related to politics for free.  Unfortunately everything we talk about in here, rallies, fund raisers, work shops, costs money.  You got to pay for it if you are going to do it.  KEN asked if we had noticed his truck when we came it.  He has painted it up – on the back window he has TEA PARTY and the shortened web site www::cctpp.info.  On the two side windows, it says ‘November 6, 2012, The End of an Error!’.  He is getting a lot of thumbs up and a lot of positive comments.  ERIC said he thought KEN should include in his email about donations ‘Your support of your TEA Party in 2010 and the election of 24 conservatives made a difference and we need your help in 2012.’  DIANE said she did have some bumper stickers that are collectors items, (Cain) and if anyone is interested in them she will bring them to the next meeting she comes to and she will let them go for a small donation to the TEA Party.
PEGGY reminded KEN about the TEA Party business cards.  KEN said that is another expense.  We need to order some more business cards.  We are running low on those.  He thinks we should modify them and put the web site on the front instead of the back and that we include the Western Carteret meeting on the back of the card along with the Morehead City meeting data.  He would like to see us include the TEA Party principles of ‘Fiscal Responsibility’, ‘Limited Government’ and ‘Free Markets’.  He said he would talk to DENNIS later about printing.
BOB called on PEGGY to make an announcement about CATIE coming to speak to us.   PEGGY said first of all CATIE misses everybody but is so busy right now with school, the Sex Trafficking Program and working, she can not work us into her schedule right now.  BOB said for those who do not know CATIE, she is HOWARD and PEGGY’S granddaughter. PEGGY said no, she was our Great Granddaughter.  BOB said you’re older than I thought you were.  HOWARD said he would be 77 Thursday.  DIANE wanted to know if we were going to celebrate this year like we did last year.  PEGGY said no, CATIE did not have the time to plan something like that now.  HOWARD said he was going to the Newport Town Board Meeting Thursday night to stir up hate and discontent.  That for him would be fun too.  PEGGY said, to get back to CATIE, she has gotten interested in this Sex/Slavery Trafficking and is a state representative for the program.  They are hoping to build a home for the girls they rescue from the houses of prostitution they are held in.  When the police find them now they have no place to put them so as soon as they are free, they go right back to those houses and their pimps.  The organization that CATIE is associated with’s  goal is to help these girls learn about God and His love for them;  how to make a living in another occupation; and help build them self esteem so they can function in the real world.  CATIE drove all the way to Charlotte a couple of weeks ago to speak to a ‘mega church’ congregation (one than has over 2000 members) to raise money for this home.  She and another girl raised over $5,000.00 for this home  I’m not sure about all that she would like to talk with you about, but since she feels you are the inspiration for getting her started in trying to change the world to a better place for all, she would like to tell you all about what she is involved in today.  She would like to come next Tuesday, the 17th.  She wanted to come both the 17th and the 24th but since we have the Palombo event on the 24th,  I plan to bring her with us to that also, because she would like to see Palombo,  He asks about her every time we run into him.  HOWARD said her mother, Dawn, figured it up and in addition to her school she is working about 30 hours a week also.  She is also a member of the group that Lockwood has on Monday nights discussing various subjects of interest.  So she is kind of busy.  And we all need to remember our CATIE is only 17 and a Junior in High School.  To be able to drive to Charlotte and speak before that big crowd of people, the TEA Party can pat themselves on the back, because they gave her her start at the rallies that she spoke to for us.  HOWARD said he understood she had been invited to come and speak to this church.  He’s not sure how it came about but she actually had been looking forward to it.  As for me, I would have been terrified.  BOB said she is aware that we cannot compete with that church and come up with $5,000.00, right?  PEGGY said they are planning a dinner at Glad Tidings Church, that she is in charge of organizing, to raise money so she will probably tell us about that also.  CATIE is involved in their youth activities and HOWARD thinks that is how she got into this program.  PEGGY said she did not want to go into any more details, that she would leave that up to CATIE.  SCOTT’s wife asked if she was involved in the Atlanta program on slavery that raised so much money.  PEGGY said she thought that was a different program.
BOB called on EULA PARKIN for her report on J’Had Watch.  She said it boggles her mind that our government  is aware of the fact that there are 35 Terrorist Training Camps in the United States.  They know where they are, how big they are, how many are involved in it and nothing is being done.  A radical J’hadish group responsible for 50 attacks on American soil, is operating these camps.  The government refuses to recognize the organization as a terrorist group on the list of foreign terrorists they have compiled.
They have purchased hundreds of acres of land from New York to California in which the leader is conducting the training of the most horrific Islamic warfare.  In a recruitment video captured from them he states in English we are fighting to destroy the enemy.  We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.  And though he and his troops are suspected of committing assassinations and fire bombings inside the US, it is also suspected of the beheading murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, in Pakastan.  The terrorists camps spread through the country and they continue to expand in numbers and population.  Their goal is the purification of Islam.  She said this just boggles her mind that the Department of Justice knows all this and has done nothing to put a stop to it.   BOB said we have to get rid of that Muslim in the White House first.
PEGGY asked if everyone had seen the letter from Chris about fishing.  Anyone that has not, she would like for you to take a copy and read it and try to help Chris by voicing your opinion to your representatives if you will.  KEN said he would  post that on the website.   Also did you all read ERIC’s letter to Rep. Pat McElraft.  It was a very good well written letter.  BOB asked ERIC if he would like to say anything.  He said as you all know for this past year he has been paying close attention to all the editorials being written in the Carteret County News Times.  A lot of people have stood up for the TEA Party especially in reference to Ken Humphrey’s.  He has now come to the conclusion that Ken Humphrey is just trying to suck our energy off by getting us to respond to him and his radical views.  ERIC feels that now in this election year we need to focus our attention and articles on Gov Beverly Perdue and Obama.  We need to put Mr. Humphrey aside…if you have read any of his articles and letters you know he is a far left nut case.  So let’s just ignore his ranting and focus on Perdue and Obama.  If you prefer to attack Walter B. Jones, so be it, but those are the ones we need to get rid of, not Ken Humphrey.  He means nothing to us.
Question was raised on the gas tax increase.  Discussion as to how it worked followed.  How the tax  gets increased with the increase in gas prices and the fact that it was voted to be rescinded by the  House but  the Senate refused to consider it.  The increase for the designated period of time denoted an increase of 3.9 but as you know, it gets upped to 4 cents.  By the Senate refusing to rescind it was like voting for the increase.  GRACE GILLIKIN said we have one of the highest gas taxes in the country and our Republican Senate voted for the increase.  HOWARD said no they didn’t vote for, they just didn’t vote and let it go.  GRACE said a non vote was the same to her as a yes vote.  HOWARD said he guess in a way she was right.
KEN said before we close he would like to discuss more on Chris’s letter.  Lockwood Phillips had a show on last week about the proposed game fish ban on three species of fish for commercial fishermen.  They want to reserve those three species strickly for recreational fishermen only.  BOB said this whole thing is driven by those out in the western part of our state (Raleigh west) who come here on the weekend or vacation .  KEN wrote, even though he is not a commercial fisherman, it seems to him that whenever government gets involved in picking winners and losers and destroying an industry that is as old as …. There is something wrong with that.  People don’t realize it impacts us the consumer as well.  If those fish are banned from commercial fishing, you won’t be able to go to a fish market and buy those fish or go to a restaurant and order them either unless they come from China or some other foreign country that are not imposed with this ban.  This ban will affect 3 % of the fish that commercial fishermen in the state catch and will just multiply all the other regulations they are having to fight against.  Recreational fishermen claim that the amount of money that is brought in by these commercial fishermen is only a few millions of dollars whereas the amount of money brought in by the recreational fisherman will, based on this ban, will be in the trillions.  His question to Lockwood was how could just 3% of fish account for such huge amount of money/income on the recreational side.  He does not believe it.  He thinks their numbers are made up.  They are not based on actual scientific data.  He sent an email to Pat McElraft, Jean Preston and Senator Harry Brown because they are the three on that commission that represent this part of the state.  Pat wrote him back almost immediately, it was the day before the commission had their first hearing, and she said, Ken, you are the first recreational fisherman that has come to me and spoke on behalf of the commercial fishermen.  She said she had not heard from any recreational fishermen except those who are opposed to it.  Those who are opposed to it, Ken feels they have some skin in the game.  That means they are going to make some money either through boat sales, boat rentals, charters…they are going to make money somehow.  The recreational (quote) fishermen are not the guys like him that go out there and throw a line out in the water and feed the fish.  Also those guys from Raleigh that come down here and charter a boat from one of the captains and go out an catch fish.   He doesn’t believe that those people coming here from Raleigh and the western part of the state are going to benefit us in the billions of dollars that are cited with only 3% of industry that is curved and limited by the state government.  It does impact you so, he would urge us to look into this (go to McCaffity’s website …Ken will post the addresses on the website, he can’t remember them right now).  Please write an email to Senator Preston and Rep. McElraft and let them know what you think about  this, because it does affect you.  If you eat fish it is going to impact you because the only way you will be able to catch or enjoy one of those three species is you buy a boat, get a license, and get out in the water and catch it yourself.  GRACE said that she understand s that NC grows those little fish, especially the red drum and send them to Florida, and put them in rivers (their breeding grounds).  They are all tagged and if you catch one of those with a tag, you are to send that tag in and they will pay you for it.  So North Carolina is supplementing Florida’s income by two different ways.  Ken said Lockwood is going to have another show on this.  The show he already had had a guy from Harkers Island (actually from Rocky Mount originally) and he is associated with a recreational fishing organization called NCFish.  They are very pro this fishing ban.  This guy called in Lockwood’s show and filibustered.  Lockwood could not get a word in edgewise.  Ken contacted Lockwood and said what do you know about this guy and Lockwood said he had talked to him before but really did not know anything so Ken looked him up on the internet.   He is a life member in this organization called CCA, which has something to do with environmental groups who are anti-commercial fishing.  He is also on the board of this NCFish .org organization.  His daughter is a lifetime member of that organization.  Ken has found audio of him being interviewed on various radio programs where he was basically giving fishing reports.  He is tied into the money end of this somewhere.
HARRY wanted to know if KEN knew how much of the catch made here remains here.  KEN said he did not know.  When Chris came in and talked to us a few months ago, it just hit KEN wrong that government should not be getting involved in any industry.  BOB said Bill Hitchcock interviewed Chris a few weeks ago and Chris said basically everything he had in the letter.  GRACE said these recreational fishermen go out and catch these fish and if they don’t want them they will come back and sell them to the fish houses and make enough money to pay for the chartering of the boat they used.  KEN said from what he understands when these recreational fishermen go out and catch the fish, and release them, something like 80% of them die because of the way the fish were handled.  The fact that they are charging the commercial fishermen kill a lot of fish, doesn’t stand up to what they are doing to the fish either.  At least some of you that care, please drop an email to Pat and let her know how you feel about this.
One final note.  Don’t ever ask BOB directions to the rest rooms!!!!
Meeting adjourned at 7:50pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.