blueflame's blog

Totally bumped by Sarah Burris (Ian is such a rockstar!)

The first three days at the College Democrats of America convention in Denver this weekend were enjoyable and informative, but also a clear reminder of CDA's shortcomings. Many of the trainings they offered were excellent, but the question then becomes to what degree will students actually use these skills as they head back to campus this fall? Is CDA ready to become an organization focused on effecting real change or is it still dominated by students who would rather pad their resumes than roll up their sleeves and engage in serious campaigning?

After talking with convention delegates who have been long time CDA members at the chapter and state level, I heard various frustrations that many students have with the organization - frustrations which rarely rise to the surface to be discussed by CDA leadership.

The overriding grievance was that CDA remains a mostly marginalized and underfunded part of the Democratic party, due to the fact that it is still part of the DNC. Leaders of state federations also complained that the national CDA leadership provides no money and very few resources to the states. States would like financial support, speakers for events, support for field programs, increased coordination with boarding states, and other resources that the national leadership has not provided. Another disappointment was the fact that most national CDA leadership positions were uncontested during the elections. Even elections that were contested were largely determined ahead of time by candidates who had already lined up the right key endorsements.

On Saturday, the elections for CDA President and Vice President took place. Katie Naranjo and Alec Schierenbeck ran unopposed to succeed Lauren Wolf and Awais Khaleel for the top two national posts. Alec's speech was well received, but focused entirely on national issues important to all Democrats and made no mention of any plans of his for CDA. Katie's speech was more substantive and promised a series of encouraging improvements. She told delegates "we're here to make a change," and that vowed to make students "a valued constituency." We'll have to wait and see whether or not these pledges for action materialize in the coming years.

Sunday ended on a high note with an incredible speech by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who told the story of how he became Mayor and tied it into a broader vision. Booker spoke against excessive individualism and described unity and community as core American values. Afterwards he received a standing ovation from the entire CDA convention. Sam Hodge, CDA Political Affairs Director, came on stage and called it the best political speech he had heard.

Bumped. -Craig

I've been in Denver at the College Democrats of America convention for the last two days. I will comment on state of CDA in a future post, but first I'd like to share what was my highlight of the convention so far.

During the four hours of the "Be Kick Ass! '08: Training" sessions today, I attend a presentation given by Parag Mehta, the DNC's Director of Training. I was fortunate enough to have caught a training that Parag led at Netroots Nation a few weeks ago, but this was even more engaging and informative. The presentation was geared for College Dems, but many of the tips are applicable to student organizations in general. Here are some things Parag suggested to help campus leaders as they head back to school this fall:

How do you get off to a good start with your group's first two meetings?

First meeting: This is when you should greet new and continuing members and motivate them to get involved. Welcome members, introduce the organization and its goals, have a good time, and get students pumped up for the coming semester.

Second meeting: This meeting should be a work meeting. Show new students that your organization actually cares about doing things. Ideas include leading a phone banking training, voter registration training, or community service project.

Where should you hold your meetings?

There are many lot of options: student unions, student lounges, etc. Don't use a lecture hall or classroom. Students are in classrooms all day and lecture halls don't work as well for a collaborative meeting where everyone feels like they are a part of the organization.

How do you get food for your meetings?

We all know that college students gravitate towards free food, but how do you get food if your organization has little to no spare money? Try going to businesses that you know tend to lean Democratic (Costco, Whole Foods, etc) and ask them if they would be willing to donate some food for your first meeting. You'll be surprised by what they're willing to give friendly student groups.

What do you do about people who don't show up?

When you have your first meeting or event you'll get people who RVSP on Facebook or MyBO say that they'll attend, but then never show up. Instead of simply shrugging it off and letting these people go, keep a list of everyone who RSVPed for your meeting/event. Then after your meeting/event, pull a few students aside who enjoyed it and ask them call through everyone on the RSVP list who didn't show up. A simple message like "hey, I went to this event and had a great time, here's what we did, and I hope you can come next time" can be very effective at pulling these people back in.

Also, make sure to send a follow up message to everyone who showed up to the meeting. Remember to thank them, ask them to bring their friends next time, and let them know what's next for the organization.

Before I begin, I wanted to thank Mike for inviting me to post here and share my my experiences at the NOI program. I'm a 17-year old from Santa Cruz, California, who will be cross posting these entries on my small progressive blog Got Democracy.

The New Organizing Institute was founded in the summer of 2005 by a group of campaign staffers that had experience doing grassroots mobilization in the '04 cycle, and realized that progressives need to seriously invest in training future young staffers in the technology aspect of campaigning. Their first "boot camp" was organized by Zach Exley and Judith Freeman in the winter of 2006. Earlier this year, my friend Barak Wouk and I were both accepted into the NOI's 8-day Summer Campaign Boot Camp from July 1st-8th in Washington DC.

Barak and I arrived in DC a few days early to explore the city and melt in the crippling heat and humidity we were forced into. But, yesterday things cooled down considerably as we made our way to George Washington University for the first day of the NOI Boot Camp. At 3:00 we arrived, and checked in to our dorm rooms along with the 60 other young trainees (mostly recent college grads). In the evening Zach Exley introduced the NOI program to us, gave his story of how he got involved in politics, and told us what he hopes we will bring into the political arena when we leave at the end of the week. It was an inspiring speech that got everyone fired up about the program and our ability to create change.

The main point of Zach's talk was that the internet has brought about a fundamental shift in the people, on a scale similar to the changes that occurred when writing, telephones, and televisions were each invented. He told us that he began his work in the organizing field shortly after college as a union organizer. After years of frustrating experiences and many defeats he quit that job and became a programmer. When George W. Bush first ran for president, Zach gained instant fame for a small parody site (GWBush.com) that went viral after the Bush campaign got nervous and blamed his site for Bush's cocaine rumors. The storm of attention that swirled around his site was only possible because of the internet. Zach then went on to tell the story of how the Dean campaign discovered the potential of this new medium, and compliantly revolutionized the way modern political campaigns use the internet. Apparently the decision to set high fund raising goals (as Joe Trippi advocated) was a dangerous risk that faced a lot of resistance. Zach stressed that tension within campaigns always happens and is a very important process. He asked us all to fight those battles to take greater risks, because progressives can only win when we are willing to take chances and raise expectations.

Then Zach explained how the mock campaign, a major part of the training, will function. The 60 trainees were split into groups based on colors. Then each group was randomly given a Simpsons character (or the one Family Guy character that was tossed in) which they now have to run a presidential campaign for. Each group will create unique websites that will be completely open to the public. The goal of the completion is to get as many sign-ups on our email lists as possible, and get as many people as we can to attend a Live Earth MoveOn party here in DC. I'm on the pink group, and our character for president is Stewie from Family Guy. It should get interesting.

More from the NOI training later this week...