TDW of Ellis County
October 21, 2025
The meeting was called to order by Vice President Billye Summers at 6:02 pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. There were 17 in attendance.
Meeting Minutes and Treasurer Report:
The September meeting minutes are available online. Helen Brock made a motion to approve minutes. Jean Woods seconded. All ayes.
Treasurer Joanne Hunt was absent. In her place, Lynda Begnaud read the Treasurer’s Report. The PAC account balance is $3,706.42 and there is a Scholarship balance of $7,095.42.
Committee Reports:
Program – Lynda Begnaud announced the speaker for our November meeting to be Amy Martinez-Salas, candidate for Senate District 22.
Scholarship – no report
Community Outreach – no report
Fundraising – no report
Advocacy – no report
Communications/PR/Marketing – Ginger Cole suggested a new idea to improve voter turnout. She suggested handing out business cards in school drop-off lines. As an example, the cards would have QR codes that would take you to a website to check your voter registration status and the other QR code would take you to a site with all of the Democratic candidates running for office.
Presentation:
Our speaker, Elizabeth Qualia, talked about hosting a field trip to the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership at Texas Women’s University where she if the Curator. She spoke about women’s participation in politics, including Temperance, and the Texas Association of Women’s Clubs. She spoke about the Suffrage movement in Texas. She spoke about women who had served in public office in Texas and how Texas had an all-woman Supreme Court in 1925. She mentioned Barbara Jordan, Sissy Farenthold, Mary Ann Ferguson (the first female governor in Texas), Ann Richards, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. She spoke of Firsts for women: Oveta Culp Hobby – director of Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACs); Sarah T. Hughes – only woman to swear in a president; Sandra Day O’Connor – first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court; Hilda Tagle – First female federal judge in Texas; Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar – first latino women to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She spoke about how only 25% of people who run for office are women and that women hold 25.9% of elected offices in Texas. “Represent Texas” rates Texas a D for parity. More women are running for office so Texas is headed in the right direction. She ended with barriers for women running for office: finances, criticism by opponents
The minutes were prepared by Lynda Begnaud.