Carter County Republican Women to reorganize to focus on community
Published 8:59 am Wednesday, January 22, 2020
- Contributed Photo Juanita McKinney particpates in a blood drive the Carter County Republican Women organized in December. McKinney saidf the club will continue to focus on community outreach through events like this, regardless of the club's former affiliations.
President of the Carter County Republican Women Juanita McKinney said the club is formally reorganizing, breaking formal ties with the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women and the National Federation of Republican Women.
The vote took place during their recent January 15 meeting.
McKinney said this was not the result of any hostility or malicious intent.
“Some things kept us from serving our community better,” she said.
These things, she said, included restrictions on who could be a formal member of CCRW as well as specific guidelines on what they could or could not do.
As they have grown over the last few years, and as their membership expiration approached, she said it was time for them to reevaluate it.
“We had no control over the increasing prices of dues,” McKinney said. “We were limited to stay within those confines.”
She said this will not affect funding for their various community projects and events, as those came from local fundraisers anyway.
The conversation has been on and off for the CCRW for a while, she said, and the decision allows them to be more of what the community needs.
“We want this to be a community club,” McKinney said. “We are still involved with the local party.”
To this end, McKinney said they are looking for community feedback, both from within the CCRW and outside of it, during two different meetings: one on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at noon and the other on Thursday, March 19, at 6 p.m. Both meetings will be at Beef O’ Brady’s in Elizabethton.
“We have got people working on [the details] now,” McKinney said. “We are trying to have total transparency, open to the majority.”
She said they want to have their ducks in a row with the public as thoroughly as possible, especially with 2020 being an election year.
“This gives people in March the opportunity to see some of these changes,” McKinney said.
In the meantime, she said the CCRW are continuing to plan community outreach events into the new year.
“We are going to keep on doing more and more things,” she said. “Anybody can do this.”
