Washington - land of meaningless primaries and meaningful caucuses. Today in Clark County, the Obama campaign held a training session as to how the county Convention will operate, what to expect, and how to minimize the problems and maximize the Obama turnout.
Once again, for this political process virgin, it was an interesting day.
When we arrived at the training location, a local High School, we were running a tad late (a road closure had us going the long way around). When we drove in though.... wow! The parking lot was entirely full, and more people were coming in behind us. We parked against a curb, since there were no more parking spaces, and joined the queue at the entrance to the school.
Inside was an amazing number of people, young and old, a cross-section of Clark County. We signed in (and provided e-mail addresses, as the state party had decided not to provide candidates committees with e-mail addresses of the delegates), and found some seats for the presentation to come.
Had a few conversations with various people about this and that. I ended up with a great button, with an image of Pres. Bush as a vampire and the Statue of Liberty with puncture wounds (which reminds me - I must go make another donation at Obama's website, since that was the deal I made to get the button). Then the meeting / training started.
(Side note: I did a quick estimate of the number of people present in the training, and based on the number of seats and the apparent fill percentage, put attendees at between 275 and 350. This is huge for a non-official, non-mandatory training, and shows the enthusiasm that is here for Obama.)
Memorable: State Sen. Craig Pridemore, discussing his experiences in the Caucuses and county conventions. He had a great story about the first time he was a caucus chair for several precincts in 2000. When all was said and done, he was the only person who attended his caucus. He wrote the minutes of the meeting as follows:
"Called the meeting to order. Made a motion to support Al Gore as a delegate. It died for lack of a second. Made a motion to adjourn. It died for lack of a second. I am still here. Please send help."
After a couple more short speeches, we were told what to expect in the combined county and Legislative District conventions: Crowding (between 3,000 and 5,000 people are expected to show up in a venue that was fairly crowded in 2004 with 1,000 attendees), a backlog at registration (so show up early with all of your ducks in a row), a discussion of the Call to Convention letters that will be sent to all delegates sometime in the next week (the envelopes are barcoded - bring your envelope, and they can scan the barcode, speeding registration), what to do if you don't receive your call to convention (contact the Credentials committee), bring food and water (No one has coordinated box lunch ordering, and the chaos of organizing a couple of thousand of lunches leaves no one eager to do so... a position I quite understand!), and plan on staying until 4:00 or later, even though the agenda has everything finishing up at 1:00pm after a 9:00am start.
We also discussed what would be expected of someone elected to be a County delegate, and what might be expected of someone who is elected to be a Delegate for Washington to the national convention.
After this, there was a short Q&A, and then we broke up into Legislative Districts, where we had more discussions and actions.
My district (the 17th) decided to nominate and elect Obama Caucus chair, Floor manager, Secretary, and Rules Committee people then and there, instead of waiting for the convention. People nominated themselves, and came up and gave short intros / speeches about why they should be considered. My lady was chosen as Secretary, and I put myself up for Rules Committee, but withdrew when someone with scads more experience and training stepped up as well (I am the "Alternate" for this position, just in case).
While in this phase of the meeting, a friend of ours from the SCA (the Society for Creative Anachronism, for those of you who are TLA-impaired in this area) came around with a good idea that he came across in the Tacoma-area meetings. We will be collecting non-perishable food items for a local food bank, hopefully one per person attending, and he will be delivering the items to the food bank. As he mentioned, it is a great way to show that we are supporing Barack Obama's goals and ideals, and not just supporting a "movie star". Hopefully, this ide spreads to other areas and conventions. Pass the word around in your area.
Another thing we did is arrange to have a 17th legislative district group set up on my.barackobama.com for us to continue discussions. We were prepping to hear from people putting themselves up as potential delegates from the County to the state convention when it was pointed out that it was already after 3:00pm. It was decided that people wishing to do so should post a paragraph on the 17thLD group, and we could have discussions there about their qualifications. My lady and I both intend to put ourselves forward as candidates for this.
As we left, we had more discussions with more interesting people, including one extended one with an enthusiastic younger (about 22) man, wandering over many subjects. We both (he and I) discussed how this was our first foray into the political process, and how enthused we were over the possibility of real repair happening in America's government. He also mention that he was so energized from this that he is intending to run for the student government in his college local school board. Good for him!
So. April 19th will be the County and Legislative District conventions, and I am looking forward to being there... and to the possibility of going on to the state convention.
Sometimes, I look at what I am doing, and think how weird it is for me to be doing this. I find it pretty hard to talk to people in public setting that I do not know (I fall just outside the lower-end for a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, mostly through hard work and the help of many others in improving my socialization), so for me to not only attend, but to put myself forward as a delegate, and to talk in support of Obama's positions? Definitely weird. But I like it. I like it a lot.
© Kos Media, LLC
Site content may be used for any purpose without
explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
Privacy Policy
Powered by Scoop.
Permalink | 14 comments