When Daily Kos went to version 4.0, it gave us the option to form groups. When I saw that there was no group for Virginia, I started Virginia Kos. Some people have noted it seems odd to have an invite for Virginia Kos coming from someone from Maryland. I'm originally from Maryland, and I also help moderate Maryland Kos, but I live in Northern Virginia now.
In Maryland, pretty much everyone I knew was a Democrat, here in Loudoun, it's been considered politically incorrect to show Democratic leanings, and it was only in the last few months when a few people got involved in the Obama campaign that I found out who in the neighborhood was a Democrat. I am hoping that Virginia Kos will help us to find other liberals that live close to us.
As soon as I get a chance, I give every new member editor status. This means you can republish your own diaries (if they're Virginia related) to Virginia Kos and I encourage you to do so.
I think this is useful because it archives Virginia related information. I often look at the Virginia diaries and find some that I had missed when they were originally published.
When I see a diary or post from someone who mentions that they're from Virginia, I invite them to become a contributor to Virginia Kos. The group is currently at a little over 100 members. I added quite a few new ones in the past few days because there were a lot of Virginia people posting about their experiences voting.
If you live in Washington D.C., or Maryland, I'd be happy to have you in the group. We're not that far away. I really appreciated the help that we got from DC and Maryland Kossacks during this presidential campaign.
If you want to post a diary to Virginia Kos, the way you do it is to write and post the diary, then have it republished to Virginia Kos. You can send a kosmail to me to have it republished. I have been giving editorial status to all of the members so you actually can republish it yourself. After you post the diary, go to the bottom of the diary where it says, RECOMMEND HOTLIST and REPUBLISH. Click on REPUBLISH and it will give you the option to select which of your groups you want to republish the diary to.
We can also send messages to the group and I often send messages to everyone that way. There are sometimes discussions amongst the group. The problem with group messages is, you won't see the messages unless you actually go to the group page.
I've been encouraging members of the group to get together. Even though I have many friends who are Democrats, very few of them have the passion for change that I find in Daily Kos, so I am eager to meet other kossacks. In August, I hosted a get together in Silver Spring, Maryland, which gathered together members of Virginia Kos, Maryland Kos, and a few from D.C. In October, a large group of Maryland, Virginia, and DC kossacks met at Union Station in DC. I've had the good fortune to get together socially with Mollyd, webgenie, and sreeizzle2012 outside of the meetups.
If you live in Virginia, or you're interested in Virginia, -- you should join Virginia Kos. Just send me a kosmail and I'll send you an invitation to join.