There are essentially 2 faces to the Yearlykos Convention. The first face is very visible and it speaks to the offline community that includes the media, the political leaders and other like-minded organizations. This is the face that is guided so skillfully by Gina Cooper. There is no better voice for the netroots or symbol of the people power movement than her. She is the reason the heavy hitters even know our name and there is no better person to carry our banner than Gina.
There is another face of YK. The detail, get the work done, behind the scenes face of YearlyKos. This face is made up of several people who don't get paid, don’t get the spotlight; most people don’t even know they are involved. In my day job I am an assistant to the partner of a CPA firm where I file tax returns, distribute financial statements, etc. and in my free time I coordinate all the volunteers for the convention and this year I also organized the Screening Series. All as a volunteer. So I would like to give y’all a taste of what it takes to put on this convention. I apologize for the length of this diary but as it is, I’m still leaving too many people out. But now, I’m going to start with the money.
Linda Lee, (BCO Gal) is our volunteer Fundraising Director. She is married with a daughter and lives in Boulder, CO. She does marketing for a small publishing company during the day then she drives carpools, volunteers at her daughter’s school and fills her free time doing many of the things that most parents do. That is when she’s not managing the thousands of dollars in donations and sponsorships that are vital to the survival of the Yearlykos Convention. Those of you who have been to YK have seen her doing the general announcements at the keynotes. This is her moment in the sun and she loves doing it as much as we love that she does it. Linda is one of those rare people who can take anything you throw at her and the most you’ll get out of her is a "darn it!" but only when she’s been pushed to the edge. How she balances the demands of working full time, being a wife and mother and her responsibilities with YK I have no idea. But Linda, you are my hero!
Steve Stearns (Sterno) is a typical ‘computer geek’ and he won’t be offended in the least with that title, (I hope). He is the volunteer master of the reg-o-matic program that has made organizing the 1800+ registrants we received manageable. He and his wife Heather live in Chicago where they both hold very unassuming jobs. When the call for volunteers went out last year he stepped up and not only made sense of a senseless program, but last year he pulled a 36 hour shift printing the last minute name tags by himself in his hotel room. He is the ultimate ‘can do’ guy. Whenever I needed help with something technical, he was always there with helpful advice that made sense and he never made me feel stupid. I spent many a late night IMing him during the stressful moments as he did his best to ‘talk me off the ledge’. Luckily he was always successful. I feel truly honored to call him my friend.
Nolan Treadway has the split personality required to pull off the tremendous logistical requirements that a convention our size requires. He identifies potential sites, deals with the contractual requirements with the hotel including the hotel and breakout rooms, the AV setups, the security issues and so much more. In other words, if you’ve listened to it, slept on it or eaten it, you’ve benefited from his skill. By day he’s a college student finishing his last year of school. By night he’s ‘the logistics guy’ who spends the entire convention weekend being pulled in every direction there is. He has grown in his skills so much between last year and this year and I hope he sees that in himself. Others certainly have not missed it. He is also a volunteer.
Robyn McMillin brings a sense of class to our core group. She is very clear in what she feels are ‘must haves’ and is not afraid to fight for them. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, think of the wonderful food we had at the convention, or the variety of exhibitors in the exhibit hall, or the number of authors that were sweet talked into doing book signings so the YK attendees could have an added benefit. She is also a volunteer. Robyn, her husband Jim and their son Angus live in one of the reddest cities in one of the reddest states in the country, Oklahoma. Although die-hard right-wingers surround her, she has not given up hope for her neighbors. As she says, she may not feel comfortable discussing politics with them for fear of backlash, but she knows that if needed, any of them would be there to help her in a crisis. This is the complexity of human nature and what makes the work she does worth doing. What is that saying? If we can save one right-winger....
If Robyn brings a sense of class to the core, Raven definitely brings a sense of order. As the volunteer CFO, he has cleaned up the books, published our annual report and is dedicated to keeping our financial and legal affairs in order. He is our conscience and our safety net. As an organization that tends to be targeted, he is the one who makes sure the arrows have no legal place to land. His wife Mona is the official volunteer YK photographer and led the UnConventional team.
Jon Pontificator keeps his ear to the heartbeat of the blogs. As our volunteer Strategic Director he helps us keep current and he works closely with Gina to ensure that the workshops, panels and speakers that we bring to YK are relevant, engaging and cover the topics that our community cares about. And he does it while managing his highly demanding professional career.
Mary Rickles and Michael Adolph head our volunteer Media team, which has become a complicated and sometimes dangerous job. Just imagine that this year’s convention they handled 250 media credentials for 200 different media outlets including international press. And when I say ‘handled’, some of these people are the most helpless individuals I’ve ever met. When YK is attacked it’s their cell phones that ring at 5am looking for responses. And again, both of these people do this job 12 months out of the year in
addition to their full time employment at very stressful jobs. The spotlight they are in is not the good one that brings light to their contribution. It’s the overhead light that gets switched on at 4am waking you from a deep sleep. Even when it’s turned off, it still prevents you from going back to sleep.
Carolyn Dulchinos joined our merry little band as a part time employee so yes, she gets a paycheck. For part time. She hasn’t worked part time for many months and yet she, like all the rest of us, is committed to doing the job she signed on for. The struggle is, the job she ended up doing was not the job she signed up for but again, like the rest of us, she is one of those people who sees something that needs to be done and she does it. Whether it’s using her legal background to prepare and proof the board documents or making sense of the massive job of organizing the panelists and speakers. She does it all and puts us to shame with her attention to detail and follow through. And she brings a much needed sense of humor to the core as well.
And then there is Fundraising Guru Claire Silverman, (Silverleaf), who has hit the pavement in the never ending search for funders and took care of the funders room at YK. And Stephanie Block, newsletter Goddess, (she paid me to call her that), who turned a dull newsletter into prize worthy prose. And Malcolm Sturchio who earns his living producing shows on Broadway yet offers us his talents for free. And Alisa Roost who organizes all the VIP details and logistics for the keynotes, so we don’t have to. And Sharon and Jon, (Shermanesq and Doggie) who threatened to pass on the Leadership Forum in favor of sitting at the registration desk to answer questions until I threatened them if they didn’t go. And Carolyn Garcia, (Carolita) who updated our website and worked the registration desk and never ceases to amaze me with her ability to follow through. And Patty, Janet, Evie and Shel, (honorary), who supervised the registration desk with Sharon, Carolyn and Jon and kept a very busy and complex system running smoothly.
And Shawn Linderman who spent many a sleepless night putting the program guide together, and his wife Janet who was there to do whatever, whenever, wherever for whoever. And Andy Ternay who is already bursting with ideas for next year to make things smoother and more manageable. And Quinn and Hyperbolic Pants Explosion who made our auctions more impressive then we could have imagined. Even after ebay bailed out on us, they never gave up and saw the auctions to the end. And Nathanial who worked tirelessly on room reservations so no one ended up sleeping on the streets. Not to mention, although they so deserve to be mentioned, the hundreds of others who put in their time and their talent to make YK what it has become.
As we begin our new chapter as the Netroots Nation, I want to make sure that we acknowledge those who brought us to this point. These people came in when they saw a need they could fill and they don’t ask much in return. They are instrumental in the day-to-day requirements of building a Netroots Nation and making it successful for the long haul not just now while people are watching. Because it is a nation of people that are needed and when the call goes out, these people answered. They don’t get their picture and bio in the program guide. They don’t get to sit on a panel and hear people applaud. And I honestly don’t think they need that level of recognition. They don’t even get their registration for free. But it is important that this community have a better picture of who does the heavy lifting in our people powered movement. I am deeply proud and forever humbled by their most generous gift and I am honored to work with each and every one of them. And you will be too now that you know who they are.