Being a precinct captain or committeeperson is the

[WCGreen]

best way to change the system from the inside....

Mrs. WCGreen has been a committeeperson for over 10 years now...

I was an executive committeemember and was elected by the PCP to be the treasurer of the party...

It is important...

And every democrat on this board should be invovled at that level....

[NMDemDist2]

1. in the new place, I'm looking at being a block person at least n/t

[WCGreen]

4. That will get you in the party structure.....

It's how the ball gets rolling....

[NMDemDist2]

5. I'm already planning to be a regular at the monthly "Democratic Ladies

Luncheon" :woohoo: and when I change my registration, I'm signing up to work the election too

as for the "Block person" thing, my area is rural so I expect not only to do my road, but the two roads a mile away too

I may have to beg borrow or buy a horse to make my rounds LOL

[WCGreen]

6. That would be so Abe Lincoln.....

LOL....

Take the rugged outdoors back for sane people....

[NMDemDist2]

7. or Paul Revere LOL n/t

[WCGreen]

8. Really!!!

[OhioBlue]

2. WC - good to see you in this forum

I thought about sending you a PM about the new forum as I thought you would be able to offer some good tips and advice.

Personally - I have recently been elected to our central committee to represent my precinct. I believe they hold these elections every 4 years, but one doesn't have to wait for the elections - contact the local party, become involved and you may find out that your precinct is not currently represented and one could be appointed by the central committee. Also, in my county we had and still have several members on the central committee that do not attend meetings or events, one could be "adopted" to work that precinct.

[WCGreen]

3. Definitely .....

It is the way to go....

the Chairman can call a meeting just to appoint new PCM....

[Emit]

9. Maybe someone here can explain something to me

This is the second time I've heard (read) of people within the Party being 'elected' as a Precinct Captain. Maybe things are done differently from state to state, but in my city, Reno, we don't elect for these positions -- we persuade. In fact, we are going door to door to find people to fill these positions -- sometimes, it's like pulling teeth to get people involved to do that.

I've committed to be a District Coordinator, and our goal is to get a 1 to 100 ratio of volunteers to voters. This is the long-term goal of rebuilding the party locally. Under the District Coordinators, we have Section Coords and then Precinct Captains.

We do need to be elected to be on our central committee to vote and whatnot. We just had that meeting and I was not able to attend and really wasn't even aware of what it was until it was too late to be involved.

Anyway, The logistics of all this is new to me.

All I know is that I had to get out and make a difference, and it starts at the local level, it seems. I've probably bitten off way more than I can chew right now with trying to develop an entire District, but, someone has to step up to the plate, I guess.

Sometimes I feel like it's like the story of the Little Red Chicken -- the one about baking the bread and no one would help -- I talk to registered Dems in my District and they say, "Yeah, things are horrible -- You really should..." or "The Dems really oghta'..." They never say "We should..." I've been finding polite ways to say, "You ARE the party..." They expect someone else to do it for them.

[wildeyed]

10. In my county, precinct chairs are "elected".

For me, starting from scratch in an unorganized precinct, all that meant was getting five registered democrats who live in my precinct to sign off. They are all various "officers" of the precinct, but no one does anything but me. In other established, heavily democratic precincts in my county, the elections can be competitive.

I, too, get really tired of "the dems suck, the dems oughta, yada yada". I want to tell them, you ARE the Democratic party. Don't like it? Get off your butt and DO something about it 'cause your party needs you. But I think most people have a hard time connecting their actions to larger issues. Plus they are lazy and busy. When I got more active politically, I gave up other things I really enjoyed doing. Some people are over scheduled...... You know.

If the dems won't help with volunteering, have you tried hitting them up for money? Maybe you can get some guilt $$$'s out of them?

Good luck. Don't get too burned out on this project. Building an organization from the bottom up is a huge undertaking. It will take time.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. did you email them, call them or what

how did you get your precinct organized?

Seems like most folks aren't really that interested.

[NMDemDist2]

16. you get the list of Registered voters once you are a PC then you

get out and walk a couple streets a week (usually on weekends, but evenings are OK too) and try and get the Democratics on the street to volunteer to be a "Block Captain" so they can kinda keep track of their neighbors for you

use one of the extra emails you have from your ISP and make it your "politics" email (I have three emails, my biz one "[e-mail]" my personal one "[e-mail]" and my political one "[e-mail]"),

get emails from your block captains and try and put out an email newsletter at least monthly. if you're not much of a writer, someone in the HQ will be or you can just forward good stuff you get from the local candidates or whatever. just don't send more than one a week is my rule. have your block captains send it on to their neighbors so it starts to have a life of it's own

if you can get two or three block captains, it gets easier from there cuz they'll start helping you walk the different neighborhoods and hopefully get more BCs and that's how you do it

a step at a time, a person at a time, an issue at a time

edit to add, if you are trying to do a district, better look to the unions for help. teachers union, the hotel and barkeepers union are both good ones to start with. get some of the union organizers to help you out

[wildeyed]

18. I got a list of "good" democrats from dem headquarters.

These were people who either gave money or time to the local dem party. I cold called them, got three dems and two unaffiliated voters to attend a meeting, changed the registrations un the unaffiliateds to dem, filled out the paperwork for HQ, and voila, I was chair.

No one but me does a lick of work, but at least they came to the meeting. This year, I need to start working on a volunteer base. I have a good group I work with on my voter registration drives, but they are located all over the metro area. I have a few close by, but not a single one in my actual precinct.

[Schmajo]

11. In Ohio

Each county has a central committee and there can be a member elected from each precinct. I say "can" because, for example, in my very red county, there are very few precincts that have a D committee candidate. The Party committee elections (for both parties and for the county committees and the state central committees) were part of the regular Primary election this past May.

I am new to this level of Party activity, so I don't know much. An old hand like WCGreen can provide a lot more detail.

[Kukesa]

13. In Montgomery County, Ohio, for the 2004 election,

we had to BEG people to be precinct captains and quite a few precincts were leaderless.

[murielm99]

17. That might be true in lots of places.

I live in blue Illinois, but in a red area.

Only SEVEN people were on the primary ballot in our county to run for precinct committeemen. I helped our chairman scour the county so he could appoint people after the primary. I think that sucks.

[Kukesa]

19. I think it sucks, too, muriel. It really sucks. nt

[sybylla]

14. It is different in different states

I'm in Wisconsin where we have an open primary. You don't register with a party but merely as an elector. The open primary was instituted early in the last century to bust the party machines and it was the party machines which eventually created precinct committees in other states. The open primary cleaned up politics here when it was instituted, but it has changed very deeply the way we engage in political discussion in my state. It sets us apart. Plug-and-play precinct-level politics don't work here no matter how hard past national candidates have tried.

Our Dem party has organized around county-level groups where officers are elected from people who have paid party dues. Some county parties are creating modified precinct-level grassroots organizations to mobilize during election seasons but they are entirely volunteer based and not elected. Still, this works best in counties with larger populations so large portions of the state are not even close to precinct level.

Still, if you're interested in local political activism, contact your state party. I have no doubt they will be happy to direct you to someone who will put your energy and talents to work.

[Kukesa]

12. I was a precinct captain in my Ohio county

for the 2004 election (so was gemdem). It was a less-than-rewarding experience -- we were under utilized and ignored -- and hopefully we've learned a bit since that time.

[Kixel]

20. I showed up...

There were four people in my precinct caucus. I was basically talked into doing my civic duty-considering I have lived in the area since October, it's been a little weird. I guess it's one way to meet the neighbors!

I do have to say that the people in charge of organizing precinct chairs has been an excellent resource. He's all about grass roots organizing. Working with my Senate District has been great-they have the organization we need to win. I was so frustrated with the lack of organization in my old area-it is so nice to be involved in an active area-even if I am going to have to drum up active folks in my precinct.