Hey BMGers! I’m sorry that I have been MIA for a bit. Semi-retirement is great! Folks told me that I’d be busier than I ever was. They were so right.
It’s taken me a little time to get used to the new platform, but I’m finding that it works better with Chrome.
One of the reasons that I have been busy is that I am a candidate for the Democratic National Committee. It’s a topic for another day, but I was spending even more time than usual networking, so I can’t comment on all of the speeches. Bob had a post on the speeches so my post is a little different. BTW the DNC election is in May of 2012 and it is a vote of the DSC. I did have a few buttons that said “You’ve been Dispatched.”
I spent some time with the State Committee recruiting volunteers. If you were a volunteer, what did you think of the experience? What can we do better? Why did you decide to help?
I also coordinated a couple of workshops for the afternoon of the Convention. The Communications Sub-Committee of the DSC helped initiate a cable TV panel discussion. Additionally, members of the Sub-Committee led a workshop on communications for Democratic Committees.
I’m curious about what you thought of the workshops, panel discussions. What did you like? What was of less interest?
Are you interested in issues discussions? Are you interested in the nuts and bolts of stronger Democratic Town Committees? Are you interested in professional skills like advance work and polling?
Looking for your thoughts….
Echoing stomv’s comments on recycling. There should have been recycling at the Tsongas. I know that the Democratic Party has limited control over venues, but this is a good place to get them thinking in that direction. Did we really need the delegate bags they gave out?
Things do go wrong here and there when you have that many people together. It was a great event with lots of energy. Sorry that I can’t comment on the workshops.
Just write it in to the contract. If Tsongas can’t make it happen, then we’ll think fondly of you while we hang out in Springfield.
I promise, Tsongas can make it happen.
stomv, Thanks for seeking me out and chatting yesterday. I have an idea relative to your suggestion that I would like to discuss with you. As I said in my main thread I’m still getting used to the new platform here, but I clicked on your name and didn’t see the user profile. I’m sure that it is there, but I have to leave soon so I didn’t have time to search. Can you please call me or shoot me an e-mail (KateDonaghue AT aol DOT com or 508-404-8531). If you have just a few minutes, my suggestion won’t take long to explain. Kate
I was actually very pleased with our workshop on Communications for Committees. Thanks to Arthur Powell and Kevin Gilnack who helped. We emphasized low effort steps that make your committee findable. I talked with folks who are putting a lot of effort into committee web sites. My personal belief, based on my own experience, is that the better ROI is getting content onto existing sites, rather than hoping people find a Democratic Town Committee website or trying to drive people to a website. I got thinking about that as I went to sleep last night. Obviously some of the people at the workshop came because they knew me. I don’t know how all got involved by I did know a few of their stories. One attendee got involved in his DTC through BMG, which he learned about through Twitter. If I had known he was in the room, I would have introduced him and told his story! Another woman got involved in Democratic politics through Drinking Liberally. I reached out to her and got her involved in a campaign. She is now chair of her local DTC and attended her first convention. Another was a voter who I connected with when I was doing cold calls for a campaign and then later I knocked on her door. Another was a gentleman from my home town. His name had been given to me by the Coordinated Campaign last fall. I got him involved in GOTV and then I personally reached out to him and encouraged him to come to our meetings and run for delegate. Another young woman in the room is involved because her father encouraged her. They were there together. I think he first got involved in his local committee because of the first Deval campaign. He came to a Deval Town Hall meeting in 2007 and I dragged him into a congressional race. We’ve been friends ever since. What’s your story?
You told my story above… Didn’t think to introduce myself beforehand.
Your comments about putting too much effort into a website really got us thinking. In the past few months I’ve re-designed our website, started a facebook page, Youtube account, and a twitter account. One of the goals for our site is to keep the information fresh and keep people coming back. We’ve decided to include a lot of community information on our page – contact information and local RSS feeds to keep the content fresh. Our town website is hard to navigate, so we’re hoping to be an alternative that happens to promote Democratic values. Part of our issue in Scituate is that the town committees – D & R – haven’t been very active. Both sides have become re-engaged, but as Democrats we’re trying to get out into the community and show off how active we are. We feel that our website will help us do that, and also provide a valuable service to the community.
As part of the action agenda, we held a social services forum for community members in need with Rep. Jim, Cantwell. We recorded it and have split it up for youtube and additionally have it going on local access, pointing back to our website… We really hope that our DTC site becomes more than just the place to look for the next meeting time. We want to keep people coming back.
So with leadership turnover being relatively high, and plenty of not-so-active DTC’s, I think the nuts and bolts DTC classes were very helpful and I hope to be able to attend more in the future. I know the MA GOP runs “RTC Boot Camps” that just focus on running a TC. Do we have anything like that?
Kate Donaghue running for DNC is great news for the party, although the election is still a year away. Kate has always worked hard for Democratic candidates, issues, and activists.
I hope you know Kate, we recognize your talent and dedication and are ready to work hard for you. Whenever you need our assistance, Let us know what we can do to help!
I was involved in politics as a child, basically helping my Dad. As a college student and a very young adult, I was not specifically involved. Then Michael Dukakis lost to Ed King in 1978. I realized that the right people don’t win by accident. In 1980, I saw an announcement that former Governor Dukakis was going to be in my new hometown. My husband and I decided to check it out. We signed up to get involved. We were involved in the primary. Through the people we met in that campaign, we met a young man running for State Senate against a sitting Democrat. The incumbent was I believe the Majority Leader in the Senate. We won a hard fought primary and the campaign asked me to attend a DTC meeting at which my candidate, now the nominee was going to speak. It was a press release that got us to the door of our first campaign and then a campaign that got us to our first DTC meeting. Candidly there were several points at which a campaign or DTC dropped the ball. But I always followed up. I’m curious to hear stories of how people first connected with a campaign or a Town or Ward Committee.
Lifelong liberal/progressive involved in local north FL politics as a kid with my family but once I left there 31 years ago, I have been on the outside. I joined the Wakefield DTC after Brown was elected last year. I had been getting more educated and involved electronically (FB, blogosphere, BMG reader for several years) but decided that I needed to get off my butt and walk the walk and talk the talk.
There are some organizational issues I had with the convention, and I’ve spoken to John Walsh about them and will be sharing those concerns with him. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to see where the gaps are.
The variety of workshops offered was great. I had a hard time trying to choose just two. The two I attended, however, were excellent.
Kate, we met in the line to Gov Patrick’s book. I’m one of the new subscribers to the Dispatch.
Thanks for all you do!
I am looking on more on strengthening local committees. We will be addressing recruitment this year, targeting younger voters in our town and we will be looking for ways to reach them and keep them involved given the challenges they face – young families, jobs, being stretched way too thin. Plus, most of the members of our committee aren’t of that generation so we need to learn how to communicate more effectively with them.
The breakout session that I led talked about how to use phone calls, facebook, twitter and more to communicate. It’s really about having conversations with people you know.
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The DNC could benefit from many more Kates, and many fewer money people. It’s the Kate Donoghues of the world that build this party, not the fat cats.
Just tell us what kind of crazy hat you’ll be wearing, Kate, so we can keep an eye out for you on C-Span.
Thanks for your kind words. I am excited about my race for DNC! If I am forutnate enough to get elected, my term would start on the day AFTER the 2012 Convention ends. BMGers did spot me when I was out in Denver for the last convention. Lynne and afterig both mentioned me.
I always have fun at the Convention.
I went to the workshop on Messenging and the one on How to talk to your friends about Scott Brown.
The Messenging workshop was really interesting with a great panel.
The workshops are really worthwhile and it bothers me when people dismiss them. For example at the AFL/CIO breakfast Lt. Gov Murray said something about how he was hoping the convention wouldn’t go too long because he had a lawn to mow at home and he was sure that many of us did too. Most people around him chuckled in agreement. They just wanted to get out of there. This is a real shame.