November 18th, 2025 Democratic meeting
● Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 6:30pm and followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thanks was given to all those who attended the protest for redistricting and also thanks to those that provided food for the meeting. The December meeting will be a pizza party and calls for volunteers to bring pizza.
● Approval of the minutes: October minutes approved and copies on the front table.
● Treasurer’s report: Current balance of $5880.18 with $280.00 bills outstanding. About $650.00 in donations came in specifically for the food drive. Expenses were over $1000.00 for the new front doors and the kitchen door
● Spencer Town Council: Congratulations to Ginger Kohr on becoming part of the Spencer Town Council. We were fortunate to have two wonderful qualified candidates that applied for the position.
● Monthly events:
a. Recognition was given to all who participated in the little food pantries and homebound deliveries.
b. November 10th Rally held at the Spencer Christian Life Center. It was cold but we still had over 50 people rally against redistricting.
c. John C. gave a report as he attended the fireside chat at the Christian Life Center.
d. Bill got to see Bernie Sanders and AOC at the Democratic Fundraiser in Terre Haute and he and Glenda attended the Morgan County Democratic Fundraiser.
● County Council Report: Anton Neff gave a County Council report. Encouraged all to attend our public meetings. The Commissioner's meeting is Thursday at 6pm in the courthouse and the next council meeting is December 8th 6pm at the courthouse. Spoke of recruiting candidates for 2026. A list of open positions is on the front table along with description of the duties and pay scale. Frank Coffin can email this to anyone interested as well.
● Building report: Both front doors and kitchen door were replaced. Mike Bruner, local contractor, supervised. There was a crew that painted them after installation. The heaters in both bathrooms were replaced with outlets. The heaters were just dangerous. Walls were fixed and painted. Chairlift is set up but still having some technical difficulties, so it is not functional yet. The furnace wasn’t working. Howard Heating repaired and only charged us 2 T-shirts. If anyone needs heating & cooling call Eric at Howard Heating. He pointed out that a big problem was the airflow caused by the lack of a door by the pit access on the side of the building. Bought a door at Restore, a cast iron lentil and some lumber. Several of us put up the door. Electricians replaced the outlet behind the water heater so we don't have a cord running across the floor, rewired the ceiling fixtures and added new LED bulbs in the meeting room and added an outlet behind the stove. They added 4 circuits for 110 down in the basement and one for 220 so we can run more outlets in the future. John Livingston, the electrician, did a great job.
● Outreach Committee: Started with 10 little food pantries and will be installing a 13th one this week. People are taking the food but the pantries are not totally empty from week to week. Starting to meet the need!!!
a. Our partnership with Pantry 279 is going well with the homebound deliveries. They are donating 10 cases of food weekly to our little pantries. They are looking for a connection in Lawrence County Dems to help with another route.
b. Breakfast with Santa is the next big thing on December 13th, 10am-?. Looking for gender/age neutral toys, hats, gloves, scarves. The next Outreach meeting is December 3rd at 6pm. Annie B. can put the event in the Owen News.
● Veteran’s Outreach: Bruce McAllister spoke on the Veterans outreach. He prepared a draft letter ready to go out to businesses, organizations, and individual people. Spencer American Legion is enthusiastic and they are going to reach out to the VFW in Spencer & Gosport to support this fund. A separate checking account has been set up for this fund. Currently looking for names of veterans to be on a panel to actually decide how the funds are spent. Bruce encouraged everyone to be thinking of people that you could send this letter to. Donations can be mailed to the party’s PO Box 51, Spencer. 47460
● Legislative Update and opportunities: Judy Darnell gave a report. Currently there are bills in the state to do away with the Township system and the things that the fellowships are responsible for. These duties are going to be assigned to people in the county. Town councils will be dissolved. Another change, School board candidates are going to be required to register as being affiliated with Republican, Democrat or as Independent. Judy also addressed some issues on the national level. Epstein files vote 427 to 1; an increase to the rate of compensation for veterans with service related disabilities was discussed.
● Candidate training meeting: Had a meeting with Michelle Higgs who brought in Mary Noone who worked the Biden campaign. One key point: beating up on Trump is not going to get you elected. We have to focus on the Economy and what people care about. Talk about how the system is broken due to big money influences. We need to have solutions. Identify the issue, message, and repeat over and over again to find a solution to a local problem. Our government should be working to serve the people. There is help for everyone thinking of running and we will be there for you.
● Coat drive: What are we doing with all the coats? Maureen Kipp volunteered to make phone calls to several organizations.
● Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi has become an issue for Democratic hall. We need to find who supplies the Spencer area. Approval was asked and passed.
● Tivoli sign up: Signup sheet on the front desk.
● Meeting adjourned
NEXT MEETING: December 16th; Supper/Social 5:30-6:30; business meeting 6:30-7:30. The special speaker is Mary Allen running for US Congress 8th District. (Mark Messmer holds that seat at the moment.) Mary is an At-Large City Councilor, small business owner, Army reserve veteran dedicated to serving Evansville and beyond. With over 30 years in Indiana, she’s worked to strengthen communities through nonprofit leadership, economic revitalization, and local health initiatives. Now, Mary is running for Congress to bring people together, tackle real problems, and create more opportunities for the next generation.
Let’s fill our Owen County Democratic Headquarters next month to show our support for her and the courage it takes to throw your hat into the political arena.
Submitted by: Ann and David Henk, Co-Secretaries, O.C. Democratic Party
Submitted by: Ann and Dave Henk, co-secretaries, OCDemocratic Party