Notice of Upcoming DDC General Election Meeting

By G Richard Yamagata, 2/3/2026

We will be holding a meeting in March to elect the club's new board members.

The Slate of Officers nominated by the DDC Board are:

President: Oliver Snow

Vice President: Rick Gonzales

Secretary: Vacant

Membership: Gary Hopkins

Treasurer: Ameer Alswaf

Corresponding Secretary: Giles Giovinazzi

Publicity: Giles Giovinazzi

Importantly Functional Offices that are voted upon by the elected executive board:

Communications: G Richard Yamagata

Web site: Keith vonBorstel

Newsletter: Vacant

Our By-Laws allow for any DDC member that has paid dues to run for any elected office on the board by being nominated from the floor. Of course, you must be present at the meeting to run for office and be elected. If you wish to run for election for a board position, please e-mail or phone any board member that you know.

If you do not know a board member, you can phone or e-mail me, G Richard Yamagata at 530-848-8534, yamagata@dcn.org. Other people to contact are Bob Bockwinkel at 530-219-1896 or Rick Gonzales at 530-758-2331

General Election Meeting Agenda

I. Call to order by the acting president.

II. Formal suspension of all board member seats for the election.

III. Call for nominations for the 7 Elected Offices by the acting president.

IV. If there are nominations from the floor: each Nominee is allowed 5 minutes to speak.

V. Vote on each office, if contested. If no contested offices, the vote will proceed as a general voice vote for the slate by acclamation.

V. Elected Board Members will elect the slate of board members that wish to continue to serve for the next 2 years.

Board members that currently serve and not elected Executive Board Members by the club general membership are:

Stephen Souza - immediate past president

Bob Bockwinkel - past president

G Richard Yamagata - Communications

Keith VonBorstel - Web site

Eileen Samitz - Social Media Committee

Elizabeth Reay - Public Events Decorations Committee

Bob Marr - Event Planning Committee

If there is a contested office, our by-laws state that a person not on the DDC board must be present to help tally votes. Since the terms of board membership are terminated at the beginning of the meeting, any former board member can be designated as a counter of votes. Since this is a hybrid zoom meeting, all votes on Zoom will be by voice and the DDC member name and their vote will not be secret. If you are uncomfortable with a publicly cast voice vote, you can arrange to phone in your vote at the meeting to be heard by the board member and non-board DDC member tallying the votes. People at the meeting can cast written ballots, which will be tallied by a DDC board member and the non-board DDC member.

Additional Notes:

If you wish to become an elected board member officer, we have the office of Corresponding Secretary that Giles fills. This job entails writing letters or correspondence for the club, using the club letterhead. The letters have the signature of the president of the club and note the corresponding secretary in formal notation. His other job of publicity dove tails with corresponding secretary because of the work writing letters to the media to publicize our club events and stands on issues.

Because Jan Agee cannot regularly attend board meetings and only does cursory minutes, that job is also available to someone that wishes to write formal minutes. The importance of the job is to fulfill the reporting of the attendance of the meeting, record the votes on formal motions and the reporting of the finances of the club to the public.

The office of Newsletter Editor, which is not an elected Executive Board position, but is a position that is voted upon by the board as a whole. This is a key position in that it is important in getting information out to the club in printable documents. The web site and e-mail are taking up parts of this job, but it is key to the way the club has operated for 75 years.