Ho Ho Ho

December has already been exciting and it has just begun. On Wednesday, December 5th, Kevin Dahle was endorsed for the special election on January 3 for State Senate district 25. Thirty nine of the approximate sixty delegates voted to choose Mr. Dahle among the four candidates. All of the candidates seemed up for the challenge and after 6 rounds of voting Mr. Dahle had captured 61.5% of the votes.
It will be a very condensed campaign period but in a way that is what makes it even more exciting.
There will be meetings every Saturday in December to begin door knocking.
Meet at 10:00 in the Rose room at the Belle Plaine Library. At our regular Saturday meeting, December 8th, Kathy Farmer handed out call lists of strong Democrats in our district so the word could begin spreading immediately about the special election. Another priority will be writing letters to the editors of our local papers to introduce our candidate. (www.kevindahle.net)
Hopefully literature and signs will be available soon so we can get going full swing.
Any amount of volunteer time during this busy season will be appreciated.
Gert

November meeting canceled

Cary Coop will be attending the Central Chair Committee meeting in Prior Lake so we will be canceling the November meeting. I have instructed him to pay attention so he can report back to us some sort of update of the meeting.
There were a few snow flurries here today just to remind us of things to come. Bundle up and have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone. Gert

DFL update

October's DFL meeting included a briefing for Tuesday's, Oct. 16th, local school board forum which will be recorded for T.V. by the school. It will include an introduction by the candidates about themselves and then also a question and answer session.
We also had a guest speaker from Belle Plaine, Rochelle Gibbs, from the charitable organization ONE; the campaign to make poverty history, www.one.org. This is a non-partisan group focusing on ending extreme poverty (people making <$1/day)through a combination of efforts supported by the United Nations. She gave a very interesting presentation detailing the scope of problems people in extreme poverty face and the collective goals hoped to be achieved by 2015. She also listed future legislative bills being sponsored that hopefully members of all parties will support to increase the United States participation in ending extreme poverty.
We ended the meeting with the fall garbage pick up on our adopted highway section. Mother nature helped by providing sunshine and a light breeze. Our sign is back in place after the construction and we should be getting maximum visibility due to the increase in traffic flow. Although this also brings increase in trash volume so we hope spring collection will include more volunteers. Until November Happy Hallows Eve. Gert

back in the saddle

The next Belle Plaine meeting will be Saturday Sept 8, 10 am at the B.P. library, as usual. The main focus will be sponsoring a forum for school board canidates for the month of October.
We also need to schedule the fall garbage pick up for our section of the highway.
It has been a long hot summer and I for one am looking forward to a beautiful fall.
Can you believe the war is still going on? me either- Gert

next meeting

Both June and July meetings are canceled. The next meeting is August 11, same bat time same bat channel with a guest speaker Mike Daly, a Belle Plaine school board member. Enjoy the hopefully lazy days of summer. Gert

Next meeting

The next DFL meeting is Saturday June 9. I will not be present due to my daughter's 10th birthday but I will try and find out some info from Coop, either the agenda before or the highlights after and post them.
Enjoy the weather-Gert

May meeting

The monthly meeting for May was well attended despite Cary's unsuccessful attempt at getting anyone from the Belle Plaine school board to be a guest speaker.
Sandy from the Scott county DFL joined the meeting and shared information on upcoming events for the DFL. As a group, the Belle Plaine DFL people chose July 28th for the day to try and cover the DFL booth for the Scott county fair. The shifts need a minimum of two people and last 3 hours. Previous years the building has been hotter than the hubs of hell so it is a truly generous donation of ones time for those willing to commit.
Also the Scott county fund raiser is a golf/dinner event on Aug. 5, a Sunday.
Belle Plaine BBQ days was also discussed and is in July but political groups are not allowed in the parade, only before and after and in the bicycle ride. Tim Lies mentioned this year the bike ride should be much improved due to roads opening that were previously under construction. Anyone interested contact the Farmer Lies family for further details, I believe he said it begins at 8 am so people are in town in time for the parade.
After the meeting 4 foolish DFLers and David Bly set out and removed the trash from the ditches for our adopt a highway section. I also found 3 wood ticks that hitched a ride on my being but otherwise the weather was beautiful and other finds were uneventful.
Until next time- Gert

April meeting cancelled

The April 14th meeting is cancelled since Coop has a class to attend and it is so cold outside the garbage collection will be postponed until May.
Cary is trying to secure a guest speaker for the May meeting about the Belle Plaine school referendum.
If you have written a letter for the soldier box send it directly to me and I will put it in the box. Today I added a DVD of the Three stooges, my favorites ,Curly, Larry and Moe. Anyway the box is getting full and I will be sending it out some time this month.
My address is G. Wessel 23665 Xanadu Ave Jordan 55352.
If you have kids that want to draw pictures or send letters- the more the merrier.
Bye for now- Happy Easter everyone. Gert

Support our troops

My family is sending a package to our soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. If anyone is interested- what the soldiers request the most is letters. Address your letter "Dear Soldier" and Larry, the army soldier who will be receiving our package, will hand out the letters to one of the 42 men in his group. This group is from Missouri, many from rural areas and will be there until March 2008.
It is suggested that you include an email address if you want and just write a simple letter about yourself the way you would to a friend.
This group also said they like movies and games so we are sending some DVD's and decks of cards, cribbage board and stuff like that.
Place your letter in an envelope and write "Any Soldier" on it and I will include it in our box.
I am hoping to mail it out after our April meeting. Gert

Spring is in the air

As the weather turns warmer the Belle Plaine DFLers will be soon on garbage collection for our strip of highway off 169. We have plenty of time before our deadline of June 1st. Hopefully at our next meeting in April, if the skies are clear, we can head out and get the job done.
Also if you haven't checked out Al Franken's web site give it a once over at www.alfranken.com.
Gert

How to enter a post on this web blog

On the main page of the web blog there is a sign in box at the upper right corner.
Once I have entered your email and invited you to the web blog you can sign in here.
Then click on the New Post box, create your post and there is a spell check for rough drafts for poor spellers such as myself ( ABC with a check mark below it).
Once finished click on the orange PUBLISH box at bottom of the post.
This way everyone can easily read your post and it will not be hidden in the comment section.
Try it out. Gert

Posting

I have invited everyone that gave Cary an email address to be a contributor on this web blog. That way statements will automatically be seen instead of being listed as only a comment. Try it out and see what happens. It is also possible to post photos on the web blog too. Gert

Welcome

Gert's blog 03/04/07

Welcome to the Belle Plaine DFL webblog.

Next meeting: Saturday March 10th at 10:00 am
Belle Plaine library (125 W. Main ST.) in the Rose room.

Our group meets the second Saturday of every month at the same location.

We are in the process of transferring over from having a website to a webblog. Our website was full of great DFL information but was labor intense to keep up and much of the information was redundant and can be found on the state DFL site. I am hoping that the blog will be easier to keep current and also allow many people to voice their opinions/ideas for our group.

Information specifically about the Belle Plaine DFL meetings and upcoming goals for 2007 will be posted here.

For a more comprehensive website for local DFL check out our state Representative David Bly at www.davidbly.com