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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

My Take on the SCC Meeting

Running effective meetings isn't rocket science. Here's my take on the State Central Committee meeting in Socorro this past weekend:

If you have a more heavily populated congressional district, add people at the registration table so the line there doesn't stretch into infinity while lines for the other CDs are empty.

If the morning session is running late due to long-winded speeches by politicos, break for lunch before 2:30 PM so that people aren't cranky and starving during the business meeting. Better yet, tell the politicos to keep it short because the people's business is as important, or moreso, than hearing repeatedly that everything is peachy and how we "own" this (Red) state. John Wertheim kept repeating he'd hold the resolutions debate to 50 minutes. He should have said that about the speeches.

Don't seat the Party's officeholders and candidates in a separate, roped off VIP section if you want people to believe these politicos are our Democratic public servants instead of the other way around. Put the events that are the reason for the SCC meeting -- the officer elections and consideration of resolutions -- first. That way, our state and federal office holders will have to actually listen to the views of the Party's members and take part in the meeting instead of merely showing up to speak and then leaving soon afterwards.

Have each Congressional District break off into separate meetings to elect their vice chairs and resolutions committee members. In an already overly long meeting, it's excruciating to have to sit through nominating speeches and elections from other districts.

Require that the State Chair read and understand the Party rules before getting on stage to run elections and motions. I couldn't believe that John Wertheim didn't know the rules for electing CD members of the State Resolutions Committee. And that he gave the WRONG interpretation after he tried to scan them on stage during the start of the election. The rules require each district to elect one male and one female. Wertheim said otherwise, though I understand the vote counting went by the rules. His error caused more women to run for Resolutions, while only one man ran.

Considering how important afternoon activities were pushed to the side and almost abandoned because of the long-running morning session, it might make sense to schedule the SCC to run for two days. Jamming speeches, elections, resolutions, training sessions and caucus meetings into one day makes everyone frazzled and doesn't allow for time to reflect, meet people from around the state, see a little of the town or do justice to the work at hand. I know some people are there just to party, but I think most people would welcome time to do things right.

Urge the politico speakers to utter phrases like "grassroots power," "equal rights for all including gay people," "Iraq war," "living wage," "Social Security", "election reform" and "universal healthcare" to show that they realize which issues are important in the Democratic Party. The only speaker who went near some of these was Rep. Tom Udall. Besides demanding that we make sure that elections are never again allowed to be stolen, he urged Democrats to start fighting for our core issues and stop trying to be Republican-lite. Hurrah for Rep. Udall!

If you're having a Friday night fundraising reception with Governor Richardson, Rep. Tom Udall, Senator Jeff Bingaman and others, make sure the room can hold the people who signed up and paid from $25 to hundreds of dollars to attend. Don't hold it in a tiny room with only a handful of tables and serve only cheese and crackers, salsa and chips and few bedraggled veggies to tide people over until dinner.

If the State Party Chair is going to take it upon himself to appoint a bunch of at-large members to the State Central Committee to salve political grumblings, he shouldn't use the excuse that he's trying to gender balance the Committee. The Committee was already gender-balanced according to the Party's own records.

If you're going to put all the resolutions passed by the State Resolutions into one packet, don't separate out two resolutions on equal rights for gay and lesbian people and put them out separately on a sheet of paper labeled "Special Consideration." It's also good policy not to change wording that has been approved at the county level and by the State Resolutions Committee.

Since one of the most important actions we need to take as a Party is to train people on organizing and messaging, don't allow earlier events to run so long that they ruin the chances of people who'd like to attend the scheduled training sessions. I know that State Party staff worked hard on these sessions and most people were denied the chance to attend because the morning session ran past 2:30PM.

Although I'm very pleased with alot of the things progressive Dems were able to achieve at the SCC, I can't help thinking how much more effective, efficient and productive a meeting of Dems from all over the state could be if simple common sense was applied to running the event. How about you?

Barbara Wold

April 26, 2005 at 07:33 PM in Democratic Party, Local Politics | Permalink

Comments

Good going on this write up.
I hope I am not the only one to respond to it, because most people know i am biased to your words! But I think you capture the sense of urgency that lots of us feel.....I really like the part of what they the speakers did not talk about. I think back and it is true I do not think they even mentioned the war. I guess Richardson did by passing the life ins. policy that the state will provide any NG troops killed in action. Actually I really think the fed govt should be providing that 250 grand and way way more. But again Richardson proclaimed himself a hero for this....all I keep thinkng is everything is so so far more serious then what they see.
Live well now folks.

Posted by: mary ellen | Apr 27, 2005 9:12:26 AM

Thanks for the feedback Barbara, I promise you that it will not go unused. I appreciated your comments about the trainings and I will be forwarding you a copy of the nuts and bolts manual for party leaders and activists.

Posted by: Joaquin | Apr 27, 2005 2:05:41 PM

That was certainly a depressing report. It's a good thing I wasn't there. Mary Ellen was right when she said I'd have exploded.

I love Joaquin's comment 'thanks for the feedback'. I believe that's Joaquin Guerra, the new State Field Director (Merideth's boss). I note that he didn't put in his last name or email address, which shows a deep interest in feedback. In case anyone cares, it's jguerra@nmdemocrats.org.

I've always figured that if you want to know what's important to people, look at what they do and not what they say. The party's actions at the SCC confirm my prior observations about what's important to the DPNM. Here are a few items:

Important: speeches from officials
Not important: member involvement

Important: talking about freedom of religion
Not important: respecting freedom of religion

Important: showing VIPs that they are special
not important: inclusiveness

Important: getting money
not important: giving small donors the chance to talk to leaders

Important: getting the right people onto the SCC
Not important: free and fair election of people to the SCC

Important: the appearance of unity
Not important: actual open debate about party positions

I couls go on, but it's an exercise in pointing out the obvious

Posted by: | Apr 27, 2005 10:27:14 PM

I just want to respond to one thing said above....the state party people that are working for the dem party in my opinion are comitted to change and truly working for us the people. Joaquin mentioned above is working hard for change and helping this long process we have in front of us....same with wonderful meridith who really is committed with tons of hours for this change that is happening.

We must be patient!! I feel kind of bad about the ragging maybe I have done here about the SCC meeting....we are being critical, however, believe it or not it is constructive criticism all in the name of taking our counrty back...

THANKS MERIDITH AND JOAQUIN!!

Posted by: mary ellen | Apr 29, 2005 9:11:31 AM

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