Meetups, DFA, & Organizing

Today there was a statewide meeting for Democracy for America - Massachusetts.  I just got back from the conference.   It was the first such statewide summit in MA.  Chris Warshaw (DFA Field Director) was the host, and Jim Dean (Chair of DFA) was also there.  In this diary entry I'll report on what went on, and also some pretty important news about Meetups and event organizing.

More below the break...

The stated goals of the first DFA-MA summit were as follows:

1. Enable direct communication between DFA-MA grassroots and leaders of DFA HQ
   
2. Enable all DFA-MA groups to meet each other (and individuals to meet other DFA grassroots leaders throughout the state)
   
3. Decide what goals and state-wide structure DFA-MA will have
   
4. Develop a method for communication (for sharing best practices, coordinating campaigns, and continuing work on issues addressed today)
   
5. Develop action plans to expand the grassroots and implement what we decide today

To start out, Jim Dean spoke for half an hour or so.  I did not take notes, so I can't really tell you much about any of the speeches.  He talked a lot about how he got involved in DFA and his brother's campaign, how his brother decided to create DFA2 as a way to elect a bunch of socially progressive, fiscally responsible people at the very lowest levels of government (school boards, soil & water conservation) like the Republicans did before, etc.

Chris Warshaw then spoke about DFA's National 2005 Field Plan and organizing.  Here's the big news.  Apparently, DFA is developing a technology that will replace what DFA uses Meetup.com for.  This organizing tool should be ready in August, he says.  He says it will be more flexible than Meetup, and contact information will be much more easiliy accessible (as opposed to Meetup which doesn't give you any access to contact info).  So for those of you working on the 52 Minikos sites (Troutfishing...), I suggest that you get in contact with DFA, as you are probably duplicating efforts here.

After that, we went into breakout sessions where we determined what DFA-MA's goals should be, reconvened to pick the top goals, and then broke out into different groups and formed task forces to address those particular goals.  The top 4 issues that groups were formed for were:

• Working within the party (town/ward committees, etc)
  
• Membership (expansion and retention, starting new meetup groups, forming alliances with groups like MassEquality and Progressive Dems)
  
• Organization and Structure (forming a statewide organization for DFA-MA)
  
• Electing & endorsing local candidates

Overall, I think it was a pretty successful day.  Those four groups have been formed and are planning to meet on their own, have conference calls, and work towards strengthening DFA in Massachusetts.

I can't write much more as I need to go, but I hope this is a helpful report.  Also, they are doing these events in a bunch of states, so if there is one in your state, check it out and see how you can help!