Minutes of the Re-Elect Jere Wood Campaign - First Voluteer Meeting
JULY 22, 2009
Fifty-five people attended the first campaign volunteer meeting. An additional twenty-one people volunteered to work in the campaign in response to the invitation to this meeting, but did not attend the meeting.
The meeting was held at 7:30 p.m. at the 1810 log cabin of Jere Wood and Judie Raiford on Stroup Road in Roswell. The meeting began with a discussion of what the volunteers thought the issues would be in the upcoming mayor’s race. Among the issues were:
- Traffic and plans for transportation improvements.
- The economy and how Roswell is responding.
- Roswell’s image as being unfriendly to business.
- Roswell’s lack of success in redevelopment.
- Lingering resentment to Mayor Wood’s early support for the East Roswell proposal, despite his later withdrawal of support.
Mayor Wood stated that the goal of the campaign was to win 5,000 votes. In 2007, 6,200 votes were cast out of 46,000 registered voters, a 14% turnout. In 1997, 9,173 votes were cast out of 32,000 registered voters, a 23% turnout for Jere’s first race for mayor.
Jere plans to personally call and e-mail registered voters and make personal appearances. He is setting up luncheons with business owners to discuss how to make Roswell more business friendly.
Jere introduced some of his campaign team members:
- Eddie Mathis is hosting Jere’s Wood’s campaign website, www.mayorwood.com.
- Bill Largin is managing Internet technology for the campaign and Jere’s e-mail account, mayorwood@mayorwood.com.
- Lalit Janak, a senior at Alpharetta High School, will be managing volunteers and posting a daily blog on his experiences in the campaign at lalitjanak.blogspot.com.
- Marisa Negri, a student at UGA, is assisting Jere with Facebook, the Mayor Jere Wood personal page, and Re-Elect Jere Wood group page.
- Karen Negri will be answering the campaign telephone, number 770-641-1923, at campaign headquarters, 1173 Canton Street, Roswell, Georgia.
- Melanie Vogan with Atlanta Telepoductions, and Jim Hirz, with Professional Video Imaging, will be shooting video for the campaign.
- Ron Sherman is the campaign’s official photographer.
- Bruce Peoples will be conducting focus groups to determine what issues are important to the voters.
Jim Taudte, CPA, is serving as the campaign treasurer.- Judie Raiford is in charge of keeping Jere in line.
The mayor asked the volunteers to:
- Send in their e-mail address to be added to his list and ask their friends and neighbors to consent to being added to the mayor’s e-mail list.
- Join the Mayor Jere Wood and Re-Elect Jere Wood Facebook pages.
- Take a yard sign and ask their neighbors and friends for locations to place yard signs.
The next campaign event will be a fundraiser in early August, followed by a second volunteer meeting in mid-August.
Jere closed by asking everyone to talk to their friends and neighbors about Roswell issues and why they support Jere Wood. Word of mouth is the most effective tool in any political campaign.