Re “The Torch Passes from Senior to Junior, and That Is News”
From her first day in office two years ago as the President of the Culver City Democratic Club, it was overwhelmingly obvious to everyone in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium that the vivacious new chief was a serious departure from all six decades of her predecessor.
Pause:
This may be the only time in her storied career that “serious” and “Ronnie Jayne” have intersected in the same sentence.
A quintessential professional entertainer — the Betty Crocker of show business for the way she blends and bakes her diverse musical and comedic talents — she had ‘em in the aisles at the Democratic Club before realized that’s what aisles were for.
Between gigs, Ms. Jayne, sometimes a latter-day Ethel Merman, has been a smash headliner at the traditionally staid club’s traditionally staid meetings. Members found out the first minute of the first night she was the opposite of a sleeping pill, moving around their insides with whipsaw fury and jelly-jostling humor.
Is This All There Is?
Last Thursday, on Closing Night of her tenure, she did what versatile presidents do — dash out the door to the curb where her husband, Tom Camarella, also a former club president, had deposited materials for the Democratic Club’s annual Election Night.
In between lifting and shlepping, Ms. Jayne reflected, not so sentimentally in the beginning.
“I did it for two years,” she said. “Now it is time for someone else,” meaning 28-year-old Karlo Silbiger, who started attending Dem Club meetings when he was 10 years old — though not alone.
“Will I miss controlling things and talking a lot? Of course. That is what I do.”
What will Ms. Jayne miss most?
“When you are president, you can move things along,” she said.
A President’s Responsibility
Does she ever not have fun?
“No. There always is an opportunity to find something to enjoy about what you are doing, even if it is something crappy. But being president is a good thing, and I am going to miss it.
“Meetings can be enjoyable,” says the native New Yorker. “There is no reason meetings shouldn’t be fun. I’m in show biz. I know how to make things fun because that is what I do for a living.
“The thing about an organization is you need to keep moving. You need to keep moving people up the food chain. If you don’t, I am going to be 90 years old behind the podium.
“You need to get younger people involved. It can’t be an organization where I am the youngest person. We are succeeding in attracting younger persons, but people are not joiners the way they used to be. When we find someone who is younger, has energy and is willing to move up the food chain — that is the kind of person we want because younger people will attract other younger people.”
Ms. Jayne wanted to honor the veterans of the Democratic Club.
“The stalwarts of this club are the backbone,” she said. “They have kept us alive during good times and bad. However, you need to keep bringing in new people. You need to keep bringing in new leadership or else the club becomes stagnant.
“Loathe as I am to admit it, if you have 10 years of me behind the podium, you might get tired of me. You would get tiiiiiiired of me,” which seemed like a proper place to conclude two fun-filled years with Ronnie Jayne in the director’s chair.
