On Saturday, members of the Daily Kos community came together offline at a meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Over 50 people turned out to get to know other people and discuss what we can do moving forward. This was a great crowd of people who came to discuss ideas and committed to working together in the coming months and years. I’m honored they spent their afternoon with me. As the event didn’t go quite as planned, I had to improvise -- and they still went along with the changes (more on that below).
I’m writing to share the outcome and promise of the event, and also to share some tips about event planning that might be helpful to others interested in doing something similar
Turnout:
We had an overwhelming turnout. Using the Connect! Unite! Act! announcements, combined with an email to over 13,000 people in the Greater Cincinnati area, we drew attendees from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
After the initial email and RSVPs we had 85 attendees signed up, who were bringing an additional 45 people as guests. This was too many people for the free event space at MOTR Pub in Cincinnati!.
So, to make sure we’d fit, I downloaded my list of attendees and emailed everyone to reconfirm their attendance. Tip #1: I used the mail merge feature in streak, which is a plug in for gmail I use to track and manage email relationships. This was a huge time saver--I was able to email all 80+ people, insert their first name, and receive email replies directly to my email. This also gave all local attendees my personal information for future reference.
Event programming, from check-in to wrap-up:
When folks arrived, they were asked to sign in and pick a number from a bowl. Then, those numbers were instructed to find each other for small group discussions of no more than 6 people.
People were prompted to introduce themselves, with some information about what brought them to the event, and to share something personal as well. I like to start events with something political and something social.
Then, the small groups had 30 minutes or so to get to know each other and pick out a few things they were interested in working towards or offer up ideas for things that are needed in the activism community.
After that, we had about 30 minutes of programming, by the three of us who were featured speakers.
First, I told folks about my work at Daily Kos and what my goals are––I want to help empower activists in Ohio over the next few years. To do so, I want to encourage the growth of a Cincinnati/Ohio media and activism eco-system, using the Daily Kos platform, to cover the good work that activists are doing. At Daily Kos, activists can tell their own stories, and create media that isn't being covered by local mainstream media.
Next up was Josh Nelson, who told us about his work at CREDO, and shared a brief story about his affinity for Daily Kos--claiming everything good in his life started with Daily Kos.
Daily Kos Contributing Editor and leader of Southwest Ohio Kossacks, David Akadjian, author of The Little Revolution, talked to us briefly about how to get started writing on Daily Kos. David reminded us that anyone can sign up for a Daily Kos account.
This led to a few questions about how we moderate the site and keep "fake news" off, if anyone can write. And the answer is the community will find it and bring it to attention. This is one reason commenting is helpful in the operation of the site.
This is where the event took a turn. During he last 30 minutes, we were to hear from the groups to report out what they discussed, and to have those groups to write postcards to their politicians. But at that time the venue above us became raucous with the revelry that is Bockfest--a major beer festival in Cincinnati, a city with a long past of German influence and brewing beer. At this point instructions and conversation became difficult and my instructions were unclear. So, more lessons learned.
Tip #2: I should've distributed the post cards before speaking with the group as a whole. I had to run out in the middle of instructions to find the postcards.
Tip #3: Some folks needed guidance on talking points and I did not print them, nor would the sticky paper stick to the porous walls (even with packing tape and painter's tape, which I had the foresight to bring--they just didn't help.) Next time, I’ll have them ready in advance in a format everyone can see and use.
Even with those problems, we collected 90 postcards to local elected officials, which we can use as a basis for a delivery in the future.
Recap -- What went well, and what I would do differently:
Our successes first:
- We had a great turnout of motivated folks from the tri-state area who are looking for practical ways to channel their energy.
- There are some common themes around what people want to work on.
- We fostered friendship. Quite a few folks are feeling “alone” in their predominantly conservative neighborhoods and want to be connected to like minded people. I’m working on connecting those folks.
- We have the start of a postcard delivery to our elected officials, which we can deliver in the coming weeks along with personal messages.
Thoughts for next time:
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Have a larger space for ourselves not during a beer festival. At the end of our time together, the bar upstairs filled up and I couldn't compete with the noise to give final good instructions for filling out the postcards.
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I should have distributed the post cards while folks were in small groups and asked the group to come up with topics and talking points for the postcards.
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I also should have posted or printed some writing prompts.
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I would spend less time on the programming, and had more time for group discussion and report back. The last 20 minutes got away from me because of the noise and the need to pass out the postcards, which detracted from our group time together.
Next steps:
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I'm having attendees fill out a feedback form using google forms where folks can let me know what their interests are.
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I'm creating a spreadsheet where folks can share their information with other activists and those who are interested can join a google group to keep up the discussion. We will also add Daily Kos users to a kosmail thread for future conversations. We can use these places to send actions and events to each other.
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Daily Kos users are welcome to join Southwest Ohio Kossacks or reach out to David or Rachel to join the group online.
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Then, I'm going to look to hold some additional post card writing events around the city and schedule a delivery to the offices of local reps. We can deliver postcards and petitions to our members of Congress to support healthcare.
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I will be asking for folks to join me in writing postcards at events around the city. Including across the river, in Northern Kentucky.
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Getting folks connected will help us share event information and we can support each other at different events, create trainings, and work locally
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Continue discussion of fundraising to purchase billboards locally with John. Are folks interested in working on this project? We could have folks create and pitch messages that are voted on. We would need to raise at least $6,000.
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How often do people want to get together?
Take aways from the event:
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People want a hub of information--an event calendar, a way to share messaging and actions in a timely way, training and support to work with local officials. I’ve pitched this idea to some folks and will see if we can get movement. Right now, indivisbile513 seems to have the most updated list.
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Gerrymandering is a huge concern. I'm reaching out to Fair Districts Ohio and sharing this post from Daily Kos Elections about potential flaws with the 2015 implementation.
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People want a positive vision to work towards while fighting fascism.
- Healthcare is a huge priority. And with that Ohio has a very big opportunity to pressure Sen. Portman to keep his word to vote against any bill repealing Medicaid expansion.
Call to action for today: Republican Senator Rob Portman is one of four Republicans who have signed a letter saying they will vote against a health care bill that freezes or ends Medicaid expansion.
Call Senator Rob Portman at (202) 224-3353. If the DC number for Sen. Portman is busy, try one of the local offices:(614)469-6774, (513)684-3265, (216)522-7095, (419)259-3895
"State your name, city and zipcode. I strongly oppose the Republican health care bill introduced this week because it ends the Medicaid expansion. I expect Senator Portman to keep his word to vote against any bill that ends Medicaid expansion."
