That would be a good question to ask tomorrow in Staunton. The DPVA is meeting at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel at 7:30 PM.  I have a schedule conflict, but this is an important iniative. Hopefully someone can make sure it gets on the table.

Va.Democratic State Steering Committee Meeting 12/2/06

I really hope someone will ask these questions in Staunton and get some specifics to bring back to us. All my Dem friends are asking about the DNC organizers and wandering just what the agenda will be.

Since there are Committee Chairs that are a bit "weak", to be polite, in grassroots methods, it would give us out here info on how to be self-starters, knowing what to do and when.

To be honest, I know of  Dems that go to committee meetings
regularly and have never been told about Prevail, never
trained in how to do canvassing, never been trained in how to organize a precinct and find the Dems, and never had a committee fundraiser. 

We have a number of elections in the Commonwealth this year.  Wouldn't it be great to be organized at the grassroots level starting soon?

I Vote For No one ever having to hear about Derail, *cough* I mean Prevail EVER AGAIN.

Someone (who is able, unlike myself), please go to Stauton and ask them to buy a real voter file system, prevail is just too danm limiting for organizers.  I understand that they tried to simplify it to make it more user friendly, but that just takes away options from more experienced users of voter files.

Hey everyone, just wanted to mention one of the organizers paid for by the DNC is Joe Montana (no not the football player, but a great guy none the less).

Joe was out in Prince William County helping out with the Hurst, Webb and Pandak races this year, and has already started organizing for the 2007 races.

I'm not sure what his exact "turf" is assigned by the DNC or DPVA, but he has been working with the PWC Dems and the Fairfax County Dems.

Hope it helps, I'd like to hear about the other organizers as well, anyone have the info?

The DNC had a staffer in Hampton Roads this election cycle who, among other things, organized joint Kellam and Webb canvasses.  Nice fella, good Democrat, very pleasant to work with.  I haven't spoken with him since the election, so I'm not sure if he's still in the area or not, but I just called and left a message on his cell about what he's got planned for 2007.

Brian Phillips (based out of Radford) is the new DNC Regional Coordinator for Southwest VA.  He started his job a couple months ago, and I do think he will be in Staunton tomorrow.

I met him for the first time last night standing in the lobby of the hotel and my quick impression was that he's a decent fellow.  He spoke later at the DPVA mtg about his role in the DNC/DPVA strategy and did a good job.  He looks on Rick Boucher as the role model for Democratic candidates in Southwest VA 

From the DNC's site: 

A 50 State Strategy

How Democrats can and will win in every state, every county, and every precinct.

The Democratic Party is committed to winning elections at every level in every region of the country, and we're getting started right now with a massive effort to fund organizers on the ground in every state.

The ultimate goal? An active, effective group of Democrats organized in every single precinct in the country. Here's what we're doing to get there:

The Democratic Party is hiring organizers chosen by the state parties in every state -- experienced local activists who know their communities.

We bring those organizers together for summits where they can learn from each other the best practices for getting organized to win elections.

Armed with the knowledge they've shared with each other, Democratic organizers return to the states and recruit and train leaders at the local level.

Those local leaders recruit more leaders and volunteers until every single precinct in their area has a trained, effective organization of Democrats dedicated to winning votes for Democrats.

(End of DNC quote)

I'm looking forward to the training, especially at the precinct level.  Hopefully, the DPVA will publish training schedules on their new website in January or maybe even earlier. 

Wonder if the DPVA will offer any training this year....

01/12/2007 - 01/13/2007

Location
Holiday Inn Central
3207 North Boulevard
Richmond, VA, 23230

Yep, Brian used to be the Vice-Chair of the Pulaski County Democratic Commitee and helped organize and provide resources for GOTV events across SWVA. Let me mention too that he's not resting after Election Day, but instead pumping out new ideas on how to expand the base. The reason why you haven't heard much from any of them though is simply that it's best not to reveal certain party strategy publicly as it allows the GOP to adapt their strategy and counter ours.

What's to stop the GOP-a-moles from showing up in Staunton and sussing out all that secret strategy? Or is the Staunton meeting to be just a marathon of "foam beating" (ever sooooo familiar from the "socialist youth" meetings "back in Poland"), with nothing of import said there?

If this is the attitude of the DPVA (hard to believe it's the attitude of the DNC), then we once again are in trouble. This lack of sharing information (and that's all that it is) has gone on far too long in some non-NoVa areas and resulted a Republican-controlled General Assembly. 

Frankly, we out here in the are getting less and less inclined to participate.  People are getting tired of being telephoned at the last minute and asked to do something they are not trained to do and have not felt part of all along and without proper notice. 

Am I out in left field on this?  I'm hearing more and more talk of walking away from it all. 

Meant to say....we out here in the ethos....