Yup. I’m pretty damn good at that. So how ’bout I suggest something CONSTRUCTIVE for once? This sounds terrific … here’s a snippet with the seminar locations and how to “take our country back” (oh, the sweet memories that phrase brings up) … more below the fold:
Democracy for America’s unofficial motto has always been “You have the power.” The DFA Training Academy grew out of the need to harness that grassroots power in an organized, skilled, and sustained manner. With your help, we identify key skills and strategies you can use to take back your city, your state, your country. Then, we find experts around the country and bring them to you for a weekend.
2006 DFA Training Academy Schedule
Jan. 28-29: Montpelier, VT
Feb. 4: Glens Falls, NY
Feb. 11-12: Elizabethtown, KY
Feb. 25-26: Philadelphia,PAMar. 11-12: Sierra Vista, AZ
Mar. 18-19: Stockton, CA
Mar. 25-26: Memphis, TN
Apr. 8-9: Quad Cities, IA
Apr. 22-23: Miami, FL
May 6-7: Asheville, NCMay 20-21: Portland, OR
Jun. 3-4: Columbus, OH
Jun. 10-11: Denver, CORead about DFA Night School
Read about the training curriculum
Read more about the trainers
In 2004 Democracy For America, in partnership with Latinos For America and 21st Century Democrats, embarked on an ambitious goal to train thousands of grassroots activists for the upcoming elections. Together these groups trained over 4000 people across the country. Formally launched in May of 2005, the DFA Training Academy builds on this experience and offers the grassroots a movement-oriented sustaining training program. This isn’t just about the next election, or what we can do for our country every two to four years. This is about building a movement to take our country back.
They did some of this training at DemFest last summer and it was awesome. Very practical, very useful. Excellent for anyone who doesn’t know diddly about actual on the ground how to get someone elected.
Whether you want to run for office, be a campaign manager, or be a useful and effective volunteer – you’ll learn a lot.
There are a lot of “ordinary folks” – teachers, nurses, veterans – who are putting their lives on hold, taking the risk, doing the awesome amount of work it requires, to run for office in Nov and take our country back. People who are the kind of politicians we wish we had. They need our help.
Anyone who can make it to one of these – highly recommended!
yup.
getting your hands wet and your feet dirty, or is it the other way around?…is always very satisfying. Get involved and you won’t feel so powerless.
I attended lots of seminars and other events for the Howard Dean campaign and got so much out of just being around some truly great people …
e.g., at a seminar, a striking, almost bald man spoke and had me ready to go into battle for him! And he talked about how he’d spent the day before calling over 200 voters in his nearby precincts. Wow.
I didn’t know that he was the King County councilman Dwight Pelz. And he’s about to become the state chair of the Democratic party. He’s a blue-collar fighter. I can’t wait.
No shit! One reason I keep going back to our DFT, Keep Austin Blue, Southwest Austin Democrats, etc. meetings is that there are always candidates there, and the behind the scenes politicos too. And they’ll all talk to me. I’m starting to see candidates as not just names on the campaign signs around town, but as friends. It’s like a drug . . .
hmmmm, I wonder if I could swing the Sierra Vista weekend. I’ll let you know if it ends up with a green light.
Oh, I hope so ME – you’d love it, and you’d be a natural at the kind of things they teach you.
The original said “Moline, IA” — being the nitpicker (and former Iowa Citian) I am, I told them their geography was a little suspect.
I’m not sure “Quad Cities, IA” is all that much better but then what do I know — I still haven’t figured out how the New York Giants play in New Jersey 🙂
I guess the good news is the we in LA are so blue we don’t need training 🙂
I got that email, and it started me thinking.
They want to teach us? I think it should be the other way around: the “experts” should come out to where the “real” people live and attend seminars that “we” lead in which we teach them about America.
Any way they couch this, it’s a top-down, expert-driven process. And I have had enough of that.
The “experts” ain’t experts, just those who have been around political campaigns in the past.
The email says:
To me, that’s just another way of saying “business as usual” and “join us.”
No. We need greater change, and shouldn’t be joining their army, but should be asking them to join ours.
“Top-notch political operatives”? Oh, you mean losers.
“Experienced grassroots veterans”? Oh, you mean single-issue agitators who have failed at everything they have pushed for over a decade.
Give me a break. No, don’t give me anything, DFA: let me, and the rest of us, give something to you. Let us teach you for a change.
Susan,
Bitch You – NEVER! One of the reasons this site is so very terrific is the phenomenal way in which you make the really tough subjects palatable enough to confront.
Wish I could go to Burlington, VT one – but not now. Perhaps there will be a repeat late spring or early summer.