Monthly Meeting Summary
Monday, June 16, 2025, 7:00pm
Lakes Activity (Senior) Center, Spirit Lake
Unofficial until approved at July 21, 2025 meeting.
Chairman Yarns called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM., with 22 attendees
May Summary: Read by Kaylene Kinlan. Approved Dennis/Sue
NOTE: Subsequent to the meeting, the following corrections were made to the May minutes:
The Bridges Bay raffle by the Dallas County Democrats to benefit the Dallas and Dickinson County Dems raised $80.00 for the Dickinson Dems.
These changes to be updated and approved at the July meeting.
Officers: The Secretary position needs to be filled. Jane Shuttleworth agreed to take the June meeting notes but is not a current Dickinson County resident.
NO KINGS DAY - The main topic of discussion was how to carry the momentum of the overwhelmingly successful No King's rally held in front of the Dickinson County Courthouse on Saturday, June 14. At least 450 people attended, drawing local and summer visitors/residents and attendees from Sioux Falls, SD, and Jackson and Sherburn, MN. Jen Johnson promoted the event on the Dickinson County Dems FB page and other social media and on the national Hands Off webpage. She also alerted the sheriff, police and local media about the event. Jane Shuttleworth said she did an informal survey asking attendees how they learned about it and did not receive any specific answer other than “online” and “Facebook”.
NO KINGS was a part of a national event organized by Hand’s Off, a grassroots coalition of more than 150 organizations, including Indivisible, the Women's March, the 50501 Project, and various civil rights, labor, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups. Hands Off was born in early 2025 out of concerns over authoritarian style government overreach, sweeping federal policy changes, such as significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as policies perceived as discriminatory toward immigrants and transgender individuals. Organizers argue that these actions constitute a "billionaire takeover" of government institutions, undermining democratic norms and public services.
Discussion occurred as to how the DCD could have taken better advantage of this event to promote the Dickinson County Dems. A suggestion was made to create a card with DCD name, website and meeting times that we could pass out at future events. Chairman Yarns also is taking steps to strengthen the Dickinson Dem organization and function by creating committees listed below.
COMMITTEES Chairman Yarns passed around signup sheets to create communication, membership and event committees. We brainstormed ideas for each of those committees, listed below. Terry will have the groups meet before the next meeting so they can report back.
Communication: get information about our meetings and issues via social media and print platforms. We need more people to write letters to the editors. The Lakes News Shopper is very good at publishing our announcements and letters whereas with the Dickinson County news one must be a subscriber to be published.
Events: Purpose is to raise money and awareness. Many good ideas were discussed:
Tabling at locations such as the County Fair, farmers market, baseball and softball games. Chairman Yarns will investigate tabling possibilities.
Pat Kelly emphasized the need to register people as a tabling activity and will research how to sign up voters.
“Bean ballot/poll”: label jars with different topics such as Medicaid, environment, etcetera for people to vote on the most important issues
Get candidates running for office to come talk to us as well as the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart. It was noted gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand will be here on June 30 (location to be announced) and that will be a good opportunity for us to get printed cards out to hand out with the date and location of our monthly meetings
JD Scholten, Senate candidate running against Joni Ernst, would be a good speaker
The Lanes offered to host an event at their home and cook
OTHER Lila finished reading and highly recommended the book Why Civil Resistance Work: the Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan from Columbia University Press. The book argues you only need 3% of the population to get involved in nonviolent movements to make democratic change through peaceful protests and is based on case studies from around the world from 1900 to 2006.
TO DO List before the next meeting:
Terry Yarns to coordinate committees
Terry Yarns to research how to table at farmer’s market
Jane to contact Jen and/or Mary Chambers about creating Dickinson Dem cards
Pat Kelly research voter registration
ANNOUNCEMENT Rob Sands, Democratic candidate for Governor, will be in the lakes area June 30 at 7:00pm at location to be determined.
Submitted by Jane Shuttleworth, Acting Secretary
Next meeting, Monday, July 21, 2025, 7:00pm, Lakes Activity (Senior) Center, Spirit Lake