Florida Women's Political Network
affiliated with the
National Republican Women's Network

FWPN EOY Report

2010

Your Network continues to grow…

We have added 2 new clubs to our Network family, Hillsbourgh Women’s Conservative Rep Network and West Florida Women’s Conservative Rep Network. Both are on the west coast. It had been reported that there 2 other clubs in the early process of being form.

Candidate School

We started off 2010 with a very successful Candidate School. It was held in Oviedo. We had limited it to 6 candidates, and we sold out. Among those attending were women running for US Senate, US House, School Boards, City Council, Tax Collector and Judge and two attendees that wanted to learn the ins and outs of campaigns.

Below are a couple of comments by those in attendance. All of the feedback was positive.

”I am very thankful for today’s seminar.  It has been very informative and an eye opener in many areas and things that I should have done when I ran in 2001.
This has been very beneficial to me and I would come to another to be successful on my next campaign”.

“Fund raising topic very helpful”.

If there is enough interest in the future we will run another Candidate School and also one for those that wish to be involved in running a campaign. Stay tuned.

Board of Directors Meeting

FWPN Board of Directors meeting was held on January 30^th at the lovely Renaissance Orlando Hotel Airport.

It was a very busy day.

The 2010 Budget was presented and passed. The Budget Committee cut all expenditures to the bone, just as we have done with the 2011 budget, removing any unnecessary expenses. With the economy being the way it is we all need to tighten our belts and it must start at the top.

Nancy Watkins, CPA of Robert Watkins & Company made a presentation on State and Federal campaign laws as to contributions that clubs are allowed to make. It was very enlightening and those in attendance were given printout for them to take back to their Club Treasurer.

Teri Strong, VP of Legislation presented the bills that we will be working on for the upcoming Legislative Session and we were pleased to have a surprise guest, Representative Sandy Adams came to discuss her Juvenile Justice bill (HB211) that we will once again be supporting.

VP of Communication, Gayle Jacobson gave a report on our e-mail blast to members. There have been many blasts that have gone out since August of 2009 however in spite of all our efforts, e-mail is still being returned with incorrect addresses, and there are many members who are just not opening their e-mail. Gayle will be sent post cards to those that we have incorrect e-mail and to those that are not opening their e-mail. These members are missing a great deal of important information. Communications is the backbone of all organizations. We tried to correct bad e-mail one more time by passing out list at the district meeting of those members who’s mail was bouncing or not being opened.

Jerry Buchanan, VP of the National Republican Women’s Network and FWPN Protocol Chair brought us up to date on the many projects of National. Tillie’s list,/ PAC, which IA now called Maggie’s list, 54% Project and the Tillie Fowler School of Excellence.

At lunch we were treated to a great speaker, author Peter Feaman. He spoke on the War on Terror…what you are not being told by the media or our government. He had everyone on the edge of our their seats.

After lunch there was a Candidates Form.

Tallahassee Days was Monday March 22-Tuesday-23

To those of you that were unable to attend you missed a very exciting 2 days

During our business meeting on Monday we had 3 guests come to speak to us.

• Mandy Clark, foundation for Florida Future spoke on several education bills that were coming to the House and Senate for vote.
• Senator Carey Baker spoke on his SJR 072 that we are supporting. Since Senator Baker will not be re-running it was our opportunity to thank him for his friendship to the Network.
• Deborah Cox Rousch, newly elected Vice Chair of the RPOF. Debbie’s message was clear that it is now time for the RPOF to come together and focus on getting Republicans elected both at the State and National levels. This fit in very nicely with our “turning Florida back RED project.

At dinner Monday, Sandy Mortham, President of the National Republican Women’s Network spoke and our key note speaker was Attorney General Bill McCollum

Tuesday morning we were off to the Capitol.

• We were given a tour of the Attorney General McCollum’s office
• Then it was on to the Governor’s office. Each member was allowed to sit behind his desk and pictures were taken of the entire group.
• We went to the 22^nd floor of the Capitol building. If you have never seen Tallahassee from the 22^nd floor you really have missed a beautiful view of the city. We had a room reserved for us and the following speakers came to speak as their time permitted.
  • Commissioner of Agriculture, Charles Bronson, we wish him well as he will not be running in 2010.
  • Speaker Designate of the House, Rep. Dean Cannon.
  • Rep’s Kurt Kelly and Scott Plakon, co-sponsors of House Memorial bill 19
  • As a special and exciting treat we were in invited to Attorney General McCollum’s press conference. It is there that he announced that Florida, along with several other state, had filed a law suit over the Health Care bill that had been signed by President Obama just a half hour earlier. We witnessed history being made. We then visited various legislators that are sponsoring the bills that we are supporting, and our own local Representatives and Senators.
• Prior to us heading back to the hotel, Representative Mike Horner made arrangement for us to go on the House floor. Members sat in the Representatives chairs , and Representative Legg, who is a history buff, gave a lesson on the House it self and how business is conducted.

 It was a very full day. We returned to the hotel tired but we had a very busy, productive enjoyable, and memorable day at the Capitol.

 Legislation

The newly elected Vice President of Legislation is busy putting her Legislation Committee in place and will be watching bills as they are filed …looking for bills that best meet our values. The bills that we will be supporting are available on our web-site, www.floridawpn.com.

 District Meetings

 District 2,3, and 4 held district meeting and they where very well attended.

 FWPN Family Fun Day, May 8^th in Kissimmee…This event was canceled and might be rescheduled.

 November Election

 Hurray for Florida and our Country….We did what we had hoped to do “turned our state and country “RED”…there are still a few blue areas but we will get them come 2012.  It was so important that Republicans keep the Cabinet and Governors seat, there will be many decisions made in the next Legislative session that will effect our day to day lives and rest ashore that we will be watching both State and National that they will live up to their promises: revamp the healthcare bill, less spending, reduce and add no new taxes, give small businesses the tools to grow so that new jobs can be created, fix our economy. They have their work cut out for them.

 The Network is proud of every newly elected Republican, local, state, national and I know that many campaigns were successful because of the hard work that each of you did. Some volunteered at RPOF and Candidate HQ’s, other donated much need money, walked precincts, held signs, and made those dreaded phone calls. It was a team effort and I can’t thank you enough for a job well done. But we must now look ahead to 2012. There are some 40 Democrat Senate seats that will be up and it would be a blessing if we could pick up a few more so that we could have the majority. We need to send Senator Bill Nelson to a retirement home….President Obama recently called us the “enemy”, we’ll guess what we are coming and going to knock on the White House door. Any volunteers to help him pack?

 Fund Raising

 Jo Quittschreiber, FWPN, VP of Fund Raising sent out raffle ticket to each club for them to sell. It is very important that each of you make an effort to either purchase or sell some of these tickets. We will be having our Summit in August of 2011 and we would like to bring in a good speaker, it takes money to pay their fees and expenses. If we are going to continue to go we must also be able to have some extra money to establish new clubs. I assure you that your Board is all ways careful as to how we spend it.

 Internal Audit

The Audit Committee performed an audit of the financial records of the Network and all was found to be in excellent order.

 Turning Florida Red Pins

I just received a new shipment of “red” Florida pins…They sell very fast so if you have not purchased one ask your club to order them. We will continue the “turning Florida red project” through 2011. The Florida men’s pins have arrived. See your District Representative or a FWPN Officer to purchase them. Great club fund raiser.

 And so we now look to 2011 and the work that awaits us.  The Network continues to earn the respect of the State Legislators and Republicans across the state.