Club Convention

The Council Of Clubs will be throwing a Club Convention on Sept. 8th, 2007. The goal of the convention is to promote participation in the clubs.

A screening of "SiCKO" and a keynote address from a renowned Democratic leader and activist will join the terrific program planned for our San Diego County Democratic Clubs Convention on Saturday, September 8.

You won't want to miss this event! Tickets are still available for just $20 (students $10), but space is limited. Sign up now at:

http://www.sddemocrats.org/convention_registration.html

The day will start with a continental breakfast and a screening of Michael Moore's scathing critique of the U.S. healthcare system. Next, Air America's Bree Walker will moderate a Presidential Debate with representatives of the Democratic candidates. Lunch (included) will follow, along with a Presidential Straw Poll of Convention attendees.

Jehmu Greene, former President of Rock The Vote, will deliver the keynote address. While with Rock The Vote, Jehmu spearheaded the registration of 1.4 million new voters and brought about record youth turnout in the 2004 Presidential Election. She'll offer important insight and support to our efforts to recruit youth and people of color to the Democratic Party.

In the afternoon, interactive workshops will provide training and lively discussion on topics like voter outreach, healthcare, military outsourcing, and immigration reform.

Sign up for our County Convention today! This year’s focus will be on building strong Democratic Clubs in San Diego, but everyone in our Party is welcome. The event will run from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the historic Ntc Promenade in Point Loma (2801 Rosecrans Street). Registration opens at 7:00 a.m.

For more information, please call (858) 277-3367 or e-mail registration@sddemocrats.org. I'll see you at the Convention!

JESS DURFEE

Chair, San Diego County Democratic Party

COMMITTEE WORK TO ORGANIZE THE CONVENTION

Our committee’s objective is to define a number of program options for approval by the Council of Clubs on Saturday, June 16th. I propose that we do most of the work via e-mail with one meeting of all members to finalize the program options. I propose the committee meeting take place on Saturday, June 9th. I am assuming we can meet at the SDCDP office at 10:00 AM.

Our first step is to brainstorm speaker/program options. I suggest you reply-all to assure that all suggestions are shared. The dual objective is to attract people not currently involved with Democratic Clubs and to provide opportunity for clubs to become more effective. I suggest we have two “draw” speakers that would draw non club members to the convention. The first will be the morning keynote speaker and the second will be the lunch speaker. My proposals are:

1. Elected officials (congressional, state, county, or city), e.g., Donna Frye, Susan Davis, or Bob Filner.
2. Book authors or movie producers – long shot but who knows.
3. Someone that attracted the biggest crowd to a club meeting. For the Poway club that would be Fernando Del Solar.

We have three breakout tracks with two sessions each. My proposals for the three tracks are:

1. Improving club effectiveness: e.g., membership growth, fundraising, financial management, and web site.
2. Political Action: e.g., precinct development, demonstration organization, influencing local governments, and voter education.
3. Current topics: e.g., universal healthcare, public campaign financing, immigration, and Iraq.

As our first step, please submit your main speaker suggestions and begin the process of finding out if they are available and willing to present. Please also submit your track options and potential breakout sessions. Use the reply-all option to assure everyone receives your suggestions.

To assure we accomplish this task on time, please submit your suggestions by Saturday, June 2nd. I will then summarize the options and submit them for an e-mail vote by Tuesday, June 5th. We can then meet on Saturday June 9th to finalize the proposal and make sure all speakers are willing and available before accepting the final agenda on Saturday, June 16th.

Proposals from Raymond Lutz

Since the primary goal of this convention is to improve participation in clubs, I have the following observations:

• Participation can be improved by:
  1. getting existing activists to be more active
     • Altering club activities and structure may improve involvement.
  2. finding new members and inspiring them to be active
     • Getting new faces to the convention is the first step
     • Making the convention a newsworthy item that can further expose our activities can extend the reach beyond those who actually attend.
• Activating Issues:
  • Election Integrity
    • Recent hires by Registrar Of Voters is very concerning, including the proposed use of DRE voting machines. This issue is very activating and may draw a number of new activists if we couch this correctly.
    • There are a number of organizations who are working to help solve this. They would be happy to participate in a panel or workshops.
      • Brad Friedman (Bradblog.com)
      • Psephos
      • Safe and Secure Elections
    • Perhaps Debra Bowen could participate.
  • Blackwater & Mercenaries
    • Has spanned many organizations, is very much a nonpartisan issue that the Dems can hold.
    • Sierra Club, Citizens' Oversight, Peace Resource Center, Save Potrero, Bob Filner, etc.
    • Many people who are against Blackwater are finding that the Republicans are ignoring them, and they just need to see that Democrats are not too crazy after all.
    • Possibly get Jeremy Scahill to come to speak, or perhaps Bill Sizemore from North Carolina.
    • The general question of private mercenary armies is very activating.
  • Local Candidates
    • People always want to hear from local candidates. We need to give them a forum. We can probably break the group in to the regions for that??
  • Immigration
  • Iraq

-- Raymond Lutz - 08 Jun 2007