Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread for Saturday, April 11th. We try to get together every weekend to share with everyone what we're all up to in Western North Carolina and beyond. We hope this group and others serve to invigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville and other local and state groups can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope this local and wider community can help leverage our orange passion for progressive politics to elect more and better Democrats.
Please join us below as we plan for our April 25-26 meet up in Roanoke Virginia.
For our next meet up on April 25-26 we will be offering a dynamic community and networking experience focused on bringing together a diverse group of people who share our goal of electing more and better Democrats in every election. We will be taking the meet up on the road to Roanoke Virginia. Please sign up by dropping me a Kosmail.
This is an open invitation for all Kossacks to unite in a beautiful and relaxed setting as Spring arrives to the Roanoke Valley and wakens the dogwood and apple blossoms.
Our very special guests on Saturday evening will be Dr Ferguson Reid and his son, Dr. Reid Jr.. "Fergie" has recently turned 90 and has offered to be at our gathering to acknowledge GOTV efforts not only in Virginia and North Carolina, but all of DKos as a whole. We are blessed to have these vibrantly beautiful and compassionate people grace us with their presence, advice and wisdom together with encouragement and recognition for what we have been striving for since DKos first opened it's doors.
I had the pleasure of speaking on the phone for an extended time with "Fergie" Jr, on Wednesday and we have been in touch regularly since then. He is honored and excited that we will be featuring his Dad as our special guest and speaker and has joined with the DKos Asheville crew to raise awareness of the Roanoke event.
He has already reached out by phone to a variety of progressive candidates since then and we are tag teaming them with calls and emails from DKos Asheville. We are happy with results already and have just gotten started. We are thrilled to have Dr Reid Jr as part of our team.
90 for 90
Essential to voting is voter registration of course and that is the focus behind the 90 for 90 model of local and effective political action and engagement with potential voters. The name is based on its Virginia roots but the model can apply anywhere.
In honor of Dr. William F. "Fergie" Reid's 90th birthday and his long history of expanding voters' rights, we commit to registering new voters for this years election.
If all volunteers and candidates worked together to register 90 new voters in each of the Commonwealth's precincts, our efforts would result in a quarter million new voters for the Old Dominion.
More on Fergie Sr here
Read this first, Vetwife's great shoutout for this man to get more recognition of his life work.
An enlightening interview in video and text
A great article on Fergie.
An article on Fergie's 90 for 90 Voter Regisration Project
We are actively recruiting Virginia candidates, everything from State Senate, State House, City/County Commissioner, School Board, Treasurer, Registrar, et al. We have secured several interested candidates already with more to come. Among them are Eleventh District Delegate Sam Rasoul and State Senator Edwards and State Senate candidate Michael Hammler.
Contingents from the local League of Women Voters and Drinking Liberally will be represented as well to encourage voter registration and offer face time with a variety of Democratic candidates. We have also invited many of the caregivers from the huge VA Hospital to come and face the candidates with their thoughts and concerns.
From Gordon20024 this morning as a follow up to his meeting with the Democratic Committee.
Carter,
It was a pleasure meeting you and others Thursday evening. I want to pass along more information regarding our planned activities for the weekend of April 25.
We’re hoping for a big turnout and the opportunity to encourage voter registration in this area.
Rachel Maddow made an interesting point on her show last night. She said that the reason all the republican candidates are pandering to the extreme far right is because that group VOTES. Republicans don’t care what the rest of the country thinks – they don’t vote.
I look forward to working with you in the future.
SCHEDULE:
Meet at the mountaintop 12:00pm
Catered lunch
Social
Introduction and welcome, agenda announcement
Introductions from audience members/organizations
Candidate forum
Skype call to KC - option1
Close
Go to Hotel 4:00pm
Check in
Set up meeting room, distribute information
Begin program 5:30pm
SKYPE call to KC - option2
Dr. Reid and son speak
Questions and discussion
Planning for GOTV and Voter Registration projects
Downtown Roanoke voter registration training and fun
Group photo of everyone in front of Fire Station #1 in the city market where President
Obama delivered his "You didn't build it." speech.
Return to Hotel for late night discussion and social
Breakfast
Checkout
Please see details below and let me know if you would like to attend.
What A DKos Asheville meet up in Roanoke, Virginia.
When Saturday and Sunday, April 25-26, 2015. 1:00 pm Saturday till 1:00 pm Sunday.
Where Hotel Roanoke, Conference Center, 110 Shenandoah Avenue, Roanoke, Virginia, 24016-2025, USA
540-985-5900
Built in 1882, the Tudor-style Hotel Roanoke is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the International Association of Conference Centers.
We will start our day with lunch on the top of a mountain at Mill Mountain Park and then go to the hotel in the afternoon followed by downtown voter registration training and practice.
Here is a Roanoke map from Mapquest
This is a Blueridge Outdoors look at Roanoke
This is the state of Virgina's official reference to Roanoke.
The more you read about the history and the vibrant nature of Roanoke, the more you'll want to visit with us on April 25th!
Why After seven successful and engaging meet ups, DKos Asheville's core members decided to take our next gathering on the road. The first reason is personal. Thankful for the friendship and generosity of his support for DKos Asheville meet ups over the last two years, we felt we needed to give back and spend time in Gordon20024's beloved city of Roanoke VA. He told us that for us to come and spread some DKos Asheville love would be the best "Thank you" ever. So after some scheduling and early planning, a spring meet up was born.
The second reason is that it offers us the opportunity to meet more Kossacks and other progressives from around the region including Virginia and parts of North Carolina to the north and east of us.
We would love to have members of the Virgina Daily Kos community join us as well as other regional activists and bloggers like the folks that contribute to and read the Blue Virginia blog.
We are also super happy that the Roanoke Chapter of Drinking Liberally along with the local League of Women's Voters chapter will be represented and are promoting the event. Gordon20014 has been working on local organizing and participation like a Democrat and an active Kossack, attending meetings, inviting guests and being active. Thanks G!
Details Please Kosmail me, randallt, if you would like to attend.
Let's get local, grow our network, build this community and help win elections.
We are excited to be adding Kossacks to our growing list of attendees and hopefuls every week.
RSVPs:
1. gordon20024
2. davehouck
3. randallt
4. Joieau
5. LamontCranston
6. Steerler Grrl
7. Steeler Guy
8. Otteray Scribe
9. DawnN
10. emmasnacker
11. Joy of Fishes
12. TexDem
13. VeloVixen
14. Vet Wife
15. Mr Vetwife
16. Guest
17. Chun Yang
18. MySpentYouth
19. Guests
We are getting closer to finding the perfect venue and are working with our great Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau to help make that happen. On top of that I recently heard from our friend and City Councilman, and Kossack, Gordon Smith. He is looking for full support from Council and CVB to make this an "Exeptional Event".
