I wish somebody knew what was going on there.

Their is a huge training session scheduled for Jan 12th for all Chairs, Officers and potential 2007 candidates. I hope there will be many answers to your questions provided.

All chairs should be forthcoming with news and information that is not confidential. I hope your concerns about the dissemination of news and information is the exception.

You might be able to attend. Contact your local Chair or the State Party......

So you can see that unless there is some action by the State Party (be it information/communication via their website or actions to address defiant and ineffective Chairs, we out here will still be in the dark.  I guess what I'm suggesting is that they need to understand that Chairs like this are costing them votes.

Is this training mandatory, i.e., no surrogates allowed (which is his usual tactic)?

I guess the real question is will the information from the training session be passed down as you said it should be?

I've been through this before; I think I already know the answer....

why not contact the state party and your local party directly with the questions you have and let us know what, if any, response you get.

I don't see how training can be mandatory, it is a volunteer organization after all.

The state party meetings are open to any Democrat. Unless there is specific business that must be done in private, you will be able to attend and participate.

Have you expressed you concerns at the local meetings? Do you have some supporters that will band together and force change from within?

While the state party may not always be out front leading the cheers, they do a lot of work that never gets noticed.

My suggestion is to be proactive. Don't wait for them to contact you.

Not looking for anyone to contact me or other county Democrats.  We'd be more than happy to read the DPVA website to  find out how to organize, where events are, and all the other things that might help us in our work for the candidates.  We've done all the work we knew how to do in the past for candidates. 

Local Chairs who hold office for years and years and don't let others participate are a problem.  We're just looking to the DPVA for information; they haven't been able to fix the committee problem. 

I can't say this loud or often enough...Change comes from within.

Keep coming at them with new members. Beat THEM down for a change.

But don't give up. The local cmte is supposed to be the heartbeat of the party. I understand your frustration but DON'T GIVE UP!

Again thanks.

The idea that change has to come from within is correct in theory but difficult in practice, especially when the rules have been designed to limit such change.

"The idea that change has to come from within is correct in theory but difficult in practice, especially when the rules have been designed to limit such change."  In this case they literally changed the rules so they control everything, including holding office !!! 

Starts: 1/12/2007 7:00 pm
Ends: 1/13/2007 5:00 pm
Contact: Levar Stoney
Location:  Holiday Inn – Central
3207 North Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23230

Phone:  804.644.1966 x225

The Democratic Party of Virginia Training Conference will be held on January 12 – 13, 2007 at the Holiday Inn – Central in Richmond. The training will begin with a social welcome at 7:00 PM on the evening of January 12th, while seminars will take place all day Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The training will feature two tracks, one for local Democratic committee leadership teams (local party officers) and one for potential 2007 candidates.

We encourage all local party leadership teams to attend this event. In addition, we highly recommend and encourage any potential candidates to attend this event. There is no cost to attend. To RSVP for the conference please email Training@vademocrats.org to request a registration form. This form must be completed to attend.

Lodging:

The Holiday Inn – Central is conveniently located off I-95 & I-64 in the heart of our State Capitol. A block of rooms have been reserved at the Holiday Inn – Central for participants who will be staying overnight in Richmond for the evening of Friday, January 12th. The block of rooms will be held until Wednesday, January 3rd. Please go ahead and make your reservation by phone ASAP.

Hotel Rate: $79/night
Holiday Inn – Central
To make reservations, please call (804) 359-9441.

**Mention that you are with the Democratic Party of Virginia when reserving your room.

The training information has been on the front page of the website for some time now. It's been talked about on blogs, and it's been dissiminated through the local committees. If you're interested in it, contact Levar at the party and he'll be happy to give you any and all the information that you'll need.

To anyone who is sitting around wondering why the local party or the DPVA hasn't called on your amazing skills I would encourage you to pick up the phone or your keyboard and contact your local committee or the folks in Richmond and ask what's going on and how you can be involved.  If you don't like the direction your local party is taking, then get involved as best you can and then when reorganization comes around after the 07 cycle run for a leadership position. We should all follow the lead of Lowell and Josh and Rob etc. and take some initiative of our own.  YOU are the party- don't sit around waiting for the party to come to you- go out and make something happen!

I'm disturbed by your arrogance. You've made assumptions which are wrong and expressed them discourteously.  I'd suggest you go back and read the DNC URL I provided in my initial post and note the gracious tone of the comments by the Chair of NC's Democratic Party. 

I totally agree with the poster above who said change comes from within. I understand your frustration with the local party committee people-- been there done that! But the way to affect change and to actually have a great impact for local Democrats is to take that committee over! You and the other people you mention should band together and organize yourselves and start doing work on your own but do it from within the committee. Engage the committee. Keep going to committee meetings and show the "regulars" what you are doing and what can be done. Perhaps you will motivate them. Then, after the 07 cycle at reorganization, elect people like yourselves who can actually get things accomplished. You should feel free to contact the DPVA staff to talk about what you can do to re-engage that committee and work on changing the way things happen there.

I just hate to see people forced outside the system. Change comes from within and our efforts are best utilized in a collarborative fashion rather than a bunch of independent parts.

Good luck!

Where is this information at DPVA?  If I hadn't happened to read it buried here in my diary, I wouldn't have an inkling that these things are going on and how I could participate.  My local committee ONLY uses e-mail to remind folks of the monthly meeting.  Period.

Nell, if you lucky folks out there, who are in the know, would ask or help the DPVA to share the news/information, you'd be doing the Democratic Party and Virginia Democrats the biggest favor ever.

And as to the Republican website's condition, about a month before the November election I counted 40+ events on their calendar on one day and a mere 6 on ours. I know there were probably were more but how would I know???

Until we all commit ourselves to considering how we could do things better instead of merely defending the status quo, the sooner we'll have a chance to turn blue. 

I've sent suggestions to Richmond and hopefully some things will improve.  I'd ask everyone to put on their thinking caps, figure some actions, policies, information etc.,that can improve the Party for all, and send them to the DPVA in an e-mail....just in case they aren't reading this diary!

Actually I'm not frustrated.  If you read this diary carefully you'll see that I've written off the committee as it now exists.  It will remain as inactive as it was last year during the elections. 

Rather, I'm trying to have the readers focus on coming up with alternative solutions for situations like ours here in this county.  And I think the DPVA is a good tool for implementing them.

There have been several commenters on this diary that are assuming that myself and others haven't tried hard enough.  Then they proceed to do the "do gooder" thing and start preaching to us who are merely stating the facts about a problem situation.  I could haved turned a blind eye to something that I think could be improved and am looking to RK to provide ideas and commraderie.

And what is wrong with discontent?  Yes, I'm discontented with the fact that, in my county, no information about the Party, events, fundraisers, training is passed down to the county Democrats.  The local committee isn't providing information and the DPVA hasn't had a very good record this year in communicating directly with the Democrats. (I believe that the DPVA, who I'm told sends info directly to the Chairs, doesn't realize that some Chairs withhold that information from their members and local Democrats.) Yes, I'm discontent with that.  And yes, I've tried like heck to effect change.

The Democratic Party's history has been a long one of looking for ways to improve things for Americans and in that spirit I think that constantly looking inward to see how we might do things better is what's imperative.  Take a look at Mark's comment below....there's an excellent Chair who is reflective and action-oriented!

We all know that the paid employees at DPVA are working as hard as they can with the resources they are given and I am impressed. But that surely shouldn't preclude continually evaluating how we could "do business" better (and I know DPVA is doing that).  And surely we as Democrats should be able to voice our discontent and opinions without being criticized for it.  After all, that's democratic.

As the previous poster said, the training the weekend of the 12th and 13th, for those interested in becoming party activists and leaders and for those interested in running for constitutional offices (clerk of court, supervisors, commissioner of revenue, etc.), is pretty much all that is going on now.  And, as the commenter noted, it's been on the front page of the DPVA website.

If the problem in your local party is that the officers hold information too closely, then go with a bunch of the people you've worked with on campaigns and attend the meetings.  Organize a fundraiser for candidates who'll be running this fall, or for the local party.  If, after steady involvement, you find nothing changing, then go with lots of your allies this coming December/January, when the reorganization meeting takes place, and elect some new leadership. 

I posted a ton of information here when I got back from the state party meetings, including, unless I'm mistaken, the announcement that the new web site would be up in February at the latest.  I know I talked about the upcoming training.

The other suggestion I have is to attend the next meeting of your Congressional District Committee.  Representatives of many localities are there, and since the members of that committee are the state party central committee members from your area, it's a major place where communication to and from the state party can happen.  If you need help figuring out who the chair of your CD Comm. is, just ask. I'm pretty sure it's on the website under 'who we are'.

I'm not alone in having tried to change things as you outline for me to do.  Instead of telling us what to do, why not ask first if we've tried it.  It's polite.  Frankly this is the tone that keeps coming through from the lecturers and it's getting annoying. 

And you are missing the whole point of the diary.  Things aren't working here and we aren't neophytes. There is a problem here in this county of not knowing what is going on -- even here in this county. The problem is known in Richmond.  So if the governing organization (DPVA) knows something is going on (an activity, event, etc.), then what would it hurt to post it on the website?  I remember Ruth Anne Walker asking everyone to post events on the calendar at the website..... few did.  And as to Demo Memos, I don't get them.

Nell, try to put yourself in our situation and imagine what it would be like to be left out of what is going on but you're trying hard as the dickens to change things.

How about a suggestion rather than a lecture.

I've read this entire thread, I've read many of your previous posts, and I have not been rude or insulting.

You are taking things personally that are not intended that way, that a reasonable reader would not take that way.  Clearly, you're frustrated, and that's understandable, because it's a frustrating situation.  But please stop taking it out on the rest of us here who are on your side and trying to help.

If the problem is known in Richmond, and by others in your locality that you're in touch with, then it will, unfortunately, take a good deal of emailing and phone calling to get the word around on events and info until you all can manage to dislodge the current officers.  Because the new website's listing of calendar events is only going to be as good as the information sent in to it.  If your current chair and officers won't send that info in, then you all will have to work around them to get the info to the state party.

I understand your frustration

"The training will feature two tracks, one for local Democratic committee leadership teams (local party officers) and one for potential 2007 candidates."

This is where clear communication is imperative. What has been introduced now is confusion.

This is what this whole diary is about!!!!

Below I have pasted a paragraph from the DPVA invite, from  an earlier post. Just read that out loud to yourselves. It does not include anybody but party leaders or candidates. There is nothing in that post that says any Democrat that wants to learn may attend. If any Democrat that wants to learn can attend, I will make my phone call today.
And if that is true, then I Thank YOU again Diane for your post.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We encourage all local party leadership teams to attend this event. In addition, we highly recommend and encourage any potential candidates to attend this event. There is no cost to attend. To RSVP for the conference please email Training@vademocrats.org to request a registration form. This form must be completed to attend.

So, my suggestion is to also ADD change from the outside, which is what I think you're getting at here. But, why not tell us what committee you're talking about?  That way, the DPVA people reading this website (I think they're out there) will hear about the problem and may do something about it.  Detail your specific grievances and the location, if you're comfortable with doing so.

I honestly believe that DPVa state officials want and believe in dynamic change and grassroots engagement. Letting them know about your problems would be a good way to test this theory - talk about it here and on the DPVa's new site when it comes up.

Rob thank you for your posts. I really like them.  And of course, Ms. Paige's.

Rob, I just sent an e-mail to Brian, as I was having difficulty sending RK and you an e-mail.  Brian's didn't work either.

I know of many dysfunctional committees. Hell my committee is dysfunctional, and I am the chair! I am not proud of that, but I am working on it. I constantly seek out new ideas and methods of getting people more involved. I communicate with the committee regularly.

As for your committee, is it north of Charlotte County and south of Cumberland County? That is a great example of a dysfunctional committee. There are others in the 5th District, but one of them was straightened out a year ago. They were not re-organizing, members felt left out, etc. The leadership of the district helped them get back on track.

My address is beautiful_mind AT hughes DOT net, in case you want to discuss this offline with me.

Like the committee you referenced, this committee had re-organization issues also:  the leaders not mentioning the reorg date to the members until literally the last minute, giving no one the opportunity to show up and run for office. Anyway, that's history and that's why I'm here trying to figure out other ways to help get information to the Dems in this county.

I'll be in touch.

The positive results of including everyone in the information that they need to know to, in this case having the DPVA provide enough information to elect Democrats, seems a no-brainer to me. 

When you have a county committee leadership not providing the proper information to it's members in order to keep it's power, you end up with a Republican county .... so the positive way to solve this problem is go directly to the members and Democrats and provide them the information they need. 

What I was trying to do in this post and others I've written is to try to motivate the DPVA, whom I fully support, to do more when the local committees are not doing their job, for whatever reason.  In the committee case that I've mentioned in this diary, there has been a specific, tangible effort to "stay in power", even to the point of deception, sad to say.  And unfortunately to date, the DPVA has been unable to effect a change ... I've talked to them and I do believe they have tried.  But this committee still remains without precinct operations, subcommittees (with members),events, fundraisers and on and on. If I were in a committee which was effective and which worked hard trying to elect Dems, I'd be resentful of the slackers out there just enjoying the power!!!

Since there's nothing more the DPVA can do regarding the committee's officers, and my not wanting to give up, I'm looking for other methods and ways that the State Party can fill the information gap that the local committee's leaders refuse to provide. 

This committee's situation is an unfortunate reality and posts from others saying "get involved" is pretty ludicrous at this point as all the effective workers have left, shaking their heads, and they won't come back.

All I want to do in this diary and others I've written, is try to figure out a way that the DPVA and others such as RK can do to overcome this immovable problem. 

One example of where RK has picked up the slack:  Greg Kane and others have volunteered to help the local committees with their website development and maintenance.  That is what I'm trying to promote. What great Dems!!!!

Another way to disseminate operations info would be to post the Leadership Manual on the website (for those who aren't provided training this could substitute). (This dysfunctional committee's leaders hid it from the members.  I happened to see someone from another committee reading it and I called DPVA and they sent me an electronic copy pronto.  Whoa...what a great tool!!!  Just think of all those folks who could have used that information to organize and elect Dems in the past if we'd just had the INFORMATION.)

Can we turn this diary around from a focus on me to a focus on ideas to help us all?  Maybe, if the DPVA reads this diary, we can give them some ideas on how to better the party in Virginia.

And I agree on trying to figure out solutions.

My name is Jerry Meek, and I'm the head of the North Carolina Democratic Party. I'm the one spending your money.

Many of you have given money to the DNC recently to go to state parties. Giving is not always easy in the Bush economy. Thankfully, my job is not to give, but to spend what you have sacrificed to build a better party. North Carolina was the first state to be 'assessed' by the DNC, and we're about to receive our first slug of money to spend on organizing. As someone who's spent years in the party, and who has given my fair share to candidates, I don't see giving money as a 'gift', actually, but as an investment. And since this time I'm not giving, but spending, I owe you a report on how we're using the resources you provided.

The money you gave is helping us organize our state. We are hiring three regional organizers -- an Eastern, Central, and Western Political Director. The Western Political Director is on staff, and the others will come on board in the next few weeks. All three of them are on the DNC payroll. The goal is to address some longstanding weaknesses that we've had in the North Carolina State Democratic Party.

First, I need to give you some background on Democratic party politics here in my state. The last several years have been spent rebuilding our party infrastructure and building a strong state organization. The fruits of this showed in 2004 when North Carolina was the most successful state in the South for Democrats--we re-elected a Democratic Governor, the Democrats captured control of state House and increased our majority in the state Senate. These are proud achievements and show that North Carolina has all the makings of a "Blue" state. But we can do better. Like the national party, the North Carolina Democratic Party is challenged by the need to move the party outside of Raleigh and go back to the grassroots. For the last several decades, county parties have been starved of resources, talent, training, and data. This is showing up in a lack of effective outreach, poor lists, and a sense of alienation from the party among grassroots activists. I ran to become the North Carolina Party Chair earlier this year on a platform of changing the culture of centralizing political power in this state, and moving it out to the people on the front lines. This was the first competitive election for the party chair position in recent memory, and grassroots activists made their concerns very well known. We have been successful at the state level, but with strong grassroots organization, we can make North Carolina a state that the Democrats carry in presidential elections -- something that hasn't happened since 1976!

This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking. North Carolina is a state that could go Democratic in a few years in Presidential elections. Despite our cultural conservatism, the electorate is slowly shifting away from the Republican party because of demographic trends. The "research triangle" is attracting out-of-state residents who vote Democratic on a national level, and I believe that with hard work, effective outreach, and a strong identity, we can make this a swing state.

What we're going to do with the organizers you paid for is work on upgrading the county organizations so that they can become the focal points of political activity. Many of these organizations do not have a good technical infrastructure, or the knowledge of how to use data to contact voters. The people who staff them are great volunteers, dedicated, and eager to work hard -- I want to make sure that when we push resources and data out to them, they are prepared to use those resources and data to maximum effect. The organizers will spend a great deal of time on training. First, they will help us assess what each organization needs, and then will help create training platforms around the unique needs of each county. As we build the party, we will modify the training programs accordingly, and swap best practices around the state.

What you gave will have real, tangible effects in organizing North Carolina. There will be more Democratic Board of Education members, Mayors, Legislators, and Governors. More people will be involved in politics because of the investments you made. The greatest change that you are helping foster, however, is not just electing Democrats in North Carolina. That is an outgrowth of what you are really paying for, which is allowing people who never thought they mattered to come into politics and prove that it is the people that make this country run. That's what the Democratic Party stands for in North Carolina, and that's what all of us are helping to build.

Thank you for your investment, and we here in North Carolina hope to steward it wisely.