(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at: www.DemNotes.com)

Monday night, I drove over Hoosier Pass (and back) to conduct caucus training for Summit Dems (and a couple of folks from Lake County, as well, including Lake County Chair Joe Fattor). Maybe I should have known that I was in trouble when I walked in and former Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald made fun of the bag I was carrying — a leopard-print computer bag that resembles a purse awfully closely. (My laptop, while an awesome machine, apparently has a graphics card problem that causes it not to work when attached to a projector; therefore, I have to use my girlfriend’s computer to do presentations.)

In any event, soon after arriving, Sandy Briggs, the Summit County chair, asked if I was ready to go. I then asked if he had a projector for me. His response was a blank look.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been doing a lot of these caucus trainings lately. Indeed, I have been so busy, I’ve had to turn down recent requests to come up to Clear Creek County and Kit Carson County later this week because of other events. These trainings usually happen one of two ways: either the county contacts me directly to arrange for the training, or it is arranged by one of the DNC Field Organizers, such as the great trainings in Larimer and Weld Counties on Friday and Saturday that were arranged by DNC Field Organizer Robin Van Ausdall. However, in Summit County’s instance, the discussion was started by the Northwest Field Organizer Kim Phillips, but I made the final arrangements (or so I thought) with the county party.

And I dropped the ball — I forgot to mention that I’d need a projector.

Thankfully, Flo Raitano was on the ball. She immediately left to go home and grab her own projector from her home in Frisco. I began the presentation, and by the time I needed the projector for the more complicated math portions, Flo had returned and seamlessly set up the projector and the computer so I went right into the caucus math portion of the presentation without a pause. There were easily 50-60 folks there (or at least that’s what I’d estimate — as you will see later, my estimates have sometimes been waaaay under), and we had a great discussion of the various intricacies of caucus night.

Summit County already has local representatives for the Clinton, Obama, and Edwards campaigns. After my presentation, folks then gathered with each of the representatives to sign up and help each of the campaigns prepare for the caucuses.

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By the way, in a recent post, I think I mentioned that there were around 150 people in attendance at the Larimer Dems training in Loveland. I was wrong. The county party did an actual head count, and the number of people there was much closer to 300, not 150. So much for my math skills!

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Last night, I headed east — to Rocky Ford. There, I conducted a caucus training at the Otero Dems’ central committee meeting (with a couple of Crowley Dems in attendance, as well). It was another good training session, with about 30 people present to hear about caucuses. As always, there were some great questions, and First Vice Chair Larry Daves did a wonderful job running the meeting.

After my presentation, our new DNC Regional Field Organizer for Southeast Colorado, Sal Pace, spoke about the DNC’s field efforts. He did a great job describing the new neighborhood organizer program, and he even got over half of the people in the room to sign up to serve as neighborhood leaders! Our DNC Field Organizers have very specific goals for getting people involved in this program — and we need your help to make it successful. The DNC is committed to having the most effective field organization in the history of the Democratic Party in 2008, and its success depends on the involvement of all active Democrats.

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Tonight, I get to stay in Canon City — but I don’t get to rest. Instead, I will be speaking at a very special Drinking Liberally event in Canon City. We’ll have representatives from several campaigns there to speak and answer questions; here are the details:

What: Drinking Liberally: An Evening with the Campaigns
When: Wed, January 16th, 5:30-7:30, presentations begin at 6
Where: McClellan’s Grill & Brewing Company, 413 Main St

If you get a chance, come on down to Canon City and enjoy an evening with us!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 11:16 am and is filed under Counties, DNC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.