Before I begin, I just want to point you to
Egberto Willies'
diary on the Texas Kos meet-up held in Austin on Saturday, if you haven't seen it already. It posted last night and is a good recap of the meet-up. I'd already been working on a diary, so we figured that two diaries on such an epic meet-up can't hurt.
If you were following the diaries nomandates and I posted advertising the Texas Kos meet-up, you know that we were expecting a huge event. We maxed out the RSVP list at 175 people and were expecting the room to be packed. Unfortunately, Texas weather had other plans for us. An ice storm hit parts of Texas, including the Austin area, and our attendance dropped by over a hundred. And we understand why--safety first. In the end, almost 80 people showed up, and while it was an enormous drop in attendance, those of us who were able to make it had a great time listening to our incredible lineup of speakers, getting to know other Texas Kossacks, sharing ideas for the future of organizing in the state, and eating (of course).
Unfortunately, all of us were so busy having a good time that we forgot to take our standard food porn pics. So in lieu of seeing our shrimp and grits (which were amazing), have this, taken by navajo at dinner the night before the meet-up. Follow me below the pretty salmon for more on the event...
Before I get to the event, a few thank-you's. First and foremost, a huge thank-you needs to go to navajo and Daily Kos headquarters for making this meet-up happen. We could never have pulled off something this good alone. Daily Kos found and paid for the venue and covered all of the food and drinks, in addition to securing our stellar lineup of speakers. Really, thank you, Daily Kos, from nomandates and me and on behalf of Texas Kos. And thank you to nomandates, our Daily Kos Texas State Leader, who also poured an amazing amount of energy into putting this event together.
Thank you to our amazing speakers: Meteor Blades, Denise Oliver-Velez, Egberto Willies, Katherine Haenschen, Egberto Willies, navajo, and nomandates. The lineup did not disappoint, let me assure you.
Thank you to bastrop for volunteering to be the photographer for the event. As you saw in Egberto's diary last night and as you'll see here, he did an excellent job. Certainly better than we could have done with our iPhones.
Thank you to tmservo433 (Chris Reeves), the Daily Kos regional leader for Missouri and Kansas, for driving all the way from Kansas freaking City to be with us. Can you believe he drove seventeen hours to attend our meet-up? I was exhausted driving two and a half hours! Major thanks to Chris for making the trip, especially in such treacherous conditions.
And, of course, thank you to Max's Wine Dive and their staff for taking such good care of us during the event, in addition to the waitstaff at CRAVE for serving us dinner and drinks at the afterparty. They had a lot of people to handle, but their service and food were impeccable.
Finally, thank you to everybody who braved the cold and icy conditions, battled downtown Austin parking, and made it to the event. It obviously couldn't have happened without you!
If there is one word that describes this year's Texas Kos meet-up, it is: empowering. Perhaps it's not surprising that so many people made it through the cold and ice to the meet-up, considering Texas Kossacks have been through hell, what with our major Election Day losses. We made it through the Texas Republican storm, so what's an ice storm? As we discussed at the event, we have a long, nasty Republican-led legislative session ahead with Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick in charge. And with somebody as unpredictable as Patrick leading the senate, there is no telling how much damage can be done by the time we get to the next election. It's easy for a progressive in Texas to feel powerless. And that's coming from somebody in Houston--talk to a Democrat living in Lubbock or Tyler or any number of deep-red areas of the state. It's easy to feel like no amount of activism on our part can stand up to the twin evils of voter suppression and voter apathy that keep getting us Republicans again and again. But, and I think I speak for most people at the event, I left feeling uplifted and empowered. On our own, we can't effectively stand up to Texas Republicans. But together and linking arms with progressives elsewhere, Texas Kossacks have an important role to play in the Battleground Texas-led efforts to turn Texas blue.
This, of course, means that Daily Kos itself has a vital role to play in this struggle. A large part of nomandates' talk--which presented many Texas Kos highlights from the two years since our last meet-up--focused on how we Texas Kossacks have used and can continue to utilize the site to get our messages out there. As navajo made clear in her talk, there is an army of progressive soldiers waiting on Daily Kos, and the reach of the site is vast, even in areas of the state that you might not expect. Kossacks are everywhere, not just in Austin, and the site is an extremely important tool as we organize and prepare for the next election. Egberto Willies supplemented this discussion by talking to us about how we can maximize the readership of our messages and draw in people (not just Kossacks) who might not normally be reachable.
Part of the site's utility lies in the power to reach people through diaries and action alerts, and another part lies in the ability to form local groups. In my talk, I discussed my experience launching Houston Area Kossacks, the largest and most active local group in Texas. Organizing the group has brought me out of my introvert shell when it comes to hands-on activism, and it made me more involved in the Wendy Davis campaign than I would have been without the encouragement and motivation I found in other Houston Kossacks. I am not alone. Other members of our group got deputized to register voters and took part in voter registration drives and other actions as a direct result of being involved with the group. Local Daily Kos groups can have enormous power, and I repeat what I said at the event: Every Texas Kossack in an area not already organized should organize.
On the subject of activism, Meteor Blades and Denise Oliver-Velez both had important messages for us Texans. We all know how experienced both of them are in grassroots organizing, and Texas Kossacks were beyond lucky to get them to share their wisdom with us. MB talked about the importance of year-round precinct organizing, something he has vast experience with from his time in Los Angeles. This is good advice for us here in Texas. We must work within and, if necessary, without the traditional party structure in every precinct to advance progressive candidates and issues. Dee complemented MB's talk well by speaking about reaching minority and younger voters, and her message really resonated here in Texas. She talked about the importance of running people--even "unconventional" candidates--in every election and for every seat, even the seats the Democrat Party has abandoned for lack of competitiveness. As she said so well, if we're going to lose, we'd might as well try something different. For example, Lucy Flores, a Latina who went from serving time in a juvenile detention facility to serving as a state assemblywoman in Nevada, is a great example of how "nontraditional" candidates the party would normally run from can inspire and win:
In addition, Katherine Haenschen (known here on Daily Kos as kath25), the editor and publisher of Burnt Orange Report, talked to us about what to expect from this legislative session. In a nutshell, not much good. Progressives are going to be on the defense on such important things as the DREAM Act and what remains of reproductive rights in Texas, in addition to fending off campus/open carry and other lunacy coming from the extreme right. Kath is incredibly knowledgable about Texas politics, and she had a clearheaded answer for every question that came her way. We are in her debt for sharing her insights with us. She also gave us hope. Yes, the situation in Austin is bad. We know that. But Kath laid out real, concrete ways we can make a difference, even in these trying times for Texas progressives.
We have our work cut out for us, to be sure. But this event has armed us with tools and resources to make a difference and to prepare for the next election. We can't give up. And, judging from what we saw at this event, we won't give up. Texas Kossacks are more fired up than ever. Right after the event, two new local groups popped up: Austin Kos under the leadership of anotherdemocrat and San Antonio Kos led by TexMex and blue armadillo. Exciting things are in store for us. Are you in?
Finally, some meet-up pics! How could we not start with Meteor Blades?
Denise Oliver-Velez:
Katherine Haenschen:
Egberto Willies:
navajo:
Me!:
tmservo433:
TexMex:
krwheaton:
The panel:
A group shot. Look at this good lookin' Texas Kos group:
Thanks again to everybody who played a role in making this event special. Until next time!