(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at: www.DemNotes.com)
This morning, we continued with our County Chair Summit here in Georgetown. Today has been a motivational morning for county chairs, with some great presentations from the DNC’s training director, Parag Mehta. Parag, who has done some training here in Colorado in the past, is talking right now about how to recruit volunteers. More importantly, though, Parag is talking about how to train, coach, and effectively utilize volunteers.
This has been a wonderful retreat for our county party leaders. The setting here at the Shadows Ranch in Clear Creek County is idyllic — surrounded by mountains, overlooking a pond — we even have wolves literally watching our presentations! Last night, we had a wonderful dinner where county party leaders sat together and discussed politics and organizing at the county and precinct levels over a relaxing meal and drinks.
Parag has been great at inspiring folks here. We spent several minutes going through the crowd and discussing what is at issue in 2008, as well as how each of us initially got involved in the Democratic Party. We heard some great stories, including some about volunteering for candidates like Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. We also heard about some critical issues — and learned of the diversity of reasons we’re involved. Some folks are involved because of how important education is; others talked about civil liberties; still others talked about climate change. Parag seemed a bit thrown back by the natural beauty surrounding us (and the wolves). But he came back with a critical truth to some of the political changes on the Western Slope: “We don’t want the Western Slope to look like West Texas!†Succinct, and oh, so true.
We’ll keep going until this afternoon — we just had a wonderful brunch (the folks here at the Shadows Ranch have been simply amazing to us). This afternoon, the weekend will conclude with an Executive Committee meeting, where we’ll have a brief budget discussion, and the Committee will be asked to approve the Colorado Delegate Selection Plan. I’ll write more once we are all done.
Finally, I do have some pictures from the weekend (and the dinner in La Junta last weekend) up at:
http://www.demnotes.com/photos