RR Update...1.4

Three issues:

(1)  For those wishing to volunteer for the Republican Convention and who may have contacted us recently about doing so, should immediately go to this web-site to register themselves directly http://www.nyc2004.org/volunteer It seems our convention contacts are bogged down and not responding to our urgent sign-up requests.  We're very sorry for this inconvenience.  So, please sign yourselves up.

(2)  Our next meeting will be Thursday evening, August 12th (8PM) at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. Agenda (please see below) includes discussing the fate & future of our Rockaway Republican group as well as our draft signature campaign in support of George Bush's War on Terror.

(3)  The 9/11 Commission reported today...it sharply criticized Congress for failing in its oversight role on terrorism and intelligence issues. Please remember that one of our own, Gerry Cronin, is runnin' to un-seat one of these Congressional obstructionists, Anthony Weiner.  The 9th Congressional District includes South Brooklyn, South Queens & of course, the Rockaways, so Gerry has a tremendous fight & up-hill battle on his hands to represent us and provide a strong voice in support of George Bush's War on Terror.  Please support Gerry Cronin.

This will be a working meeting with important agenda items as follows:

1) Discussion of the merits and potential downsides of accepting the Queens County leadership's invitation to join the larger Queens organization.

It should be noted that to formally affiliate we may have to fold our newly formed Rockaway Republicans into a larger South Queens club under existing district leadership. There are pros and cons to this which need to be discussed. We have invited our district leaders, Terri Ariola of Howard Beach and Ed O'Hare of Broad Channel, to address our group and spell out the benefits of affiliating.

2) Preparing for the upcoming presidential nominating convention.

Many of our members have volunteered to help out at the convention and some of them will offer a status update re: their efforts. Also, we will be gathering in all the "presidential thank you petition" signatures our members have managed to secure. If we have hit out target of a thousand signatures, there is a real possibility we will be able to have someone present this to the president at the convention on national television. (The campaign people have not given us a commitment but appear to be waiting to see if we hit our target.) Accordingly, everyone should bring the signatures they've gathered to this meeting at which point we can take stock of where we stand and determine if we still need more effort (the reason we're holding this meeting so early in August!) or if we're ready to notify the convention leadership that we have the targeted number of signers.

3) New Business.

All members are welcome to put on the table their ideas and concerns for discussion by the general group. One of the things worth discussing will be how we organize our club going forward (note this will depend, in large part, on the decisions reached re: item #1 above). Another is how best to advance the Republican agenda in Rockaway, in Queens and in New York City, going forward. Bear in mind there are other races going on this year and next year a mayoral and city council race will be under way. We have to prepare ourselves to address these so that we can make a genuine difference.