Friday, April 22, 2011

The Chairman's Report-April 22, 2011

With the beginning of the 2012 campaign season upon us, we are delighted to announce the rollout of a brand new web address for our Party's website. The new address is www.FayetteGOP.org. It is a shorter URL and we think you will find it easier to remember than our previous address.

In the coming weeks, we will be undertaking other changes to our website to add more functions and make it even more user friendly. Please be sure to bookmark our new web address (www.FayetteGOP.org) so you can check back frequently and stay connected to the Party and all of our happenings. Kudos to our webmaster, Janet Dunn, for the continued great job she does in managing our site for us.

Thank you for your support of the Fayette County Republican Party. May you all have a happy and blessed Easter.

Sincerely,


Chairman Lane Watts
Fayette County Republican Party

3rd District GOP Convention

Last Saturday, April 16, Fayette County Republicans traveled to Columbus, Georgia for the 3rd Congressional District GOP Convention. We joined delegates from the other 14 counties of the district to elect party leadership, adopt rules and resolutions and hear from a number of our elected officials.

The keynote speaker was our own Congressman, Lynn Westmoreland. Lynn did a fantastic job of bringing us up to date on what's going on in Washington. With Lynn in Congress, we definitely have a true representative of our area's values and beliefs.

I'm very proud of the fact that we had 48 Fayette County delegates on hand at the convention. That made us the largest delegation at the meeting! A number of Fayette Republicans were elected to leadership posts. Marty Harbin was elected 3rd Vice Chairman of the district while Keagon Overton was elected District Secretary. Jean Studdard and Marilyn Watts were elected to represent Fayette on the Georgia GOP State Committee. Congrats to these great Republicans. All in all, it was a great day to be a Fayette Republican!

Thanks to all who attended and to those that didn't, I encourage you to attend the conventions in 2012.

Lane Watts, Chairman

The Chairman's Report-April 14, 2011

Dear Fayette Republican,

This marks my first Chairman's Report to you and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the opportunity to serve you as your County Chairman. I deeply appreciate the honor you've given me by allowing me to lead this Party through the challenges we face during the upcoming redistricting process and the 2012 election cycle. Next year, we will elect good qualified conservatives to represent us at all levels of our government and we will send Barack Obama back to Chicago, where he belongs! We must begin this serious work today and we will need every single like minded person in our community to join our cause to make it happen. Working together, we will insure that Fayette County continues to be the beacon of conservative leadership that it long has been.


I am excited about the team that has been assembled to lead this Party through the next two years. The level of commitment and can-do spirit that I have seen from them thus far lets me know that we are going to be very successful in 2012. The following officers were elected to serve the Party at the March 12 County Convention: Chairman: Lane Watts, 1st Vice Chairman: Paul Ploener, Secretary: Debby Dickinson, Treasurer: Harold Bost, Vice Chairman of Administration: Pat Hinchey, Vice Chairman of Communications and Public Relations: Amanda Hutcherson, Assistant Vice Chairman of Communications and Public Relations: Lou Webb, Vice Chairman of Education and Training: Bob Ross, Vice Chairman of Events: Jean Studdard, Vice Chairman of Finance: Wanda Hawkins, Vice Chairman of Hospitality: Dot Ensley, Vice Chairman of Membership: Claudia Eisenburg, Vice Chairman of Operations: Thom Sandwich, Assistant Vice Chairman of Operations-East: Janice Davis, Assistant Vice Chairman of Operations-West: Denise Ognio, Vice Chairman of Outreach: Carol Springsteen, Vice Chairman of Rules and Procedures: Jim Richter and Past Chairman: David Studdard. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these leaders for stepping up and agreeing to serve our Party. I also want to express our gratitude to Past Chairman David Studdard for his leadership and service for the past 2 years and in the years prior to his term as Chairman.

On April 2, our local Party was honored to host a meeting of the Georgia Republican Party State Committee here in Fayetteville. Approximately 120 Republican leaders from all over the state converged on Fayette County to conduct the business of the state party and make preparations for next month's State Party Convention in Macon. A large number of Fayette Republicans need to be recognized for their efforts in pulling off what was a very successful event. Special thanks to Wanda Hawkins for providing the use of her church, Harvest Community Christian Center, for the meeting. A very sincere thank you to Denise Ognio, Carol Springsteen, Lou Webb, Harold Bost, Marilyn Watts, Greg Dunn, Keagon Overton, Alberta Lucas, Jean Studdard, Debby Dickinson, Bob Ross, Dot Ensley Jim Webb, Debbie Webb, Guy Ensley, Don Dickinson, Thom Sandwich and Linda Sandwich for all your hard work on the day of the meeting. We also very much appreciate that County Commissioners Steve Brown and Allen McCarty were able to join us. Last but not least, I would like to thank Broadway Diner in Fayetteville for providing the wonderful buffet lunch provided to the attendees.

Finally, I would like to remind those that were elected to represent Fayette as delegates and alternates to the 3rd District Convention that the convention is this coming Saturday, April 16 in Columbus, Georgia. By now, you should have received a delegate letter from the 3rd District Committee, giving you all the details about the meeting. If you have not, please contact me as soon as possible so we can rectify this. I would also like to strongly encourage those that were elected as alternates to attend on Saturday. We will be needing your participation to insure we have a full delegation and a strong voice at the convention. If any would be interested in putting together a caravan down to Columbus, please contact me and we will put it together.

Thank you once again for giving me the chance to serve as your County Chairman. I welcome any comments, questions or concerns you may have and I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.

Sincerely,


Lane Watts
Chairman, Fayette County Republican Party