It would have certainly been hard for me to imagine sitting here as I am when I first met Gina Cooper 4 and a half years ago in a Starbucks in Downtown Oakland (CA) and we began plotting what was then YearlyKos.
I'm sitting here today to tell you about our 3rd Annual Auction that is starting tomorrow, and to ask you for your help. There are 3 primary ways you can help:
- Donate an item to the cause (the more unique the better)
- Help us publicize the auction through diaries, e-mails to your friends, Facebook posts, Tweets, etc. (and email me if you want to help us by writing a diary)
- bid on items!
But let me also tell you why you should help. I've seen this organization grow from, well, something that was not an organization at all to something that is listed alongside the AFL-CIO Convention and the freakin' G-20 as "three very important national and international events"
Sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster, I could have never imagined that!
At that time and leading up to our first Vegas convention, I didn't even know if there would be a second convention, period. I certainly never thought in a few years I'd see Bill Clinton speaking under a banner that I'd ordered and picked up from the signage shop the week before. I could never imagine that I would read about our convention in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Those papers cover other, important events, not the little DFH-fest that I help run. The coverage I'm most proud of may be the cover the Weekly Standard dedicated to us.
I know that others knew this would turn into a big deal, but I never imagined how far we'd come. That it isn't even a question of "if there will be another convention, but "where?" and "when?".
And I definitely never thought that this would lead to a job. (I almost wish I were still a volunteer, as I was in Chicago, when I was leading around the advance teams for the presidential candidates and just when I needed to rattle them a little bit I'd drop in there that I was a volunteer -- that we all were volunteers -- those looks were priceless!)
But this is why we need your help now. We've built an organization. We're a part of the vast leftwing conspiracy and we need to make sure we're growing and not shrinking. So I hope you'll consider helping us out in one of these ways:
- Donate an item to the cause (the more unique the better)
- Help us publicize the auction through diaries, e-mails to your friends, Facebook posts, Tweets, etc. (and email me if you want to help us by writing a diary)
- bid on items!
(and you can always email me if you've got any other Netroots Nation concerns/questions/comments)