Tarrant county convention

[flamin lib]

By now you've all heard how terrible the conventions went and how poor the organization was. Those of us who were delegates and sat through will admit it wasn't the Party’s finest hour (or hours and hours).

Some things are built into the system. The conventions are governed by Texas Election Law, The Party Handbook and Robert’s Rules of order. Within those constraints particular things have to be done in a particular order to be legal and prevent a legal challenge to the validity of the process. Some of those steps simply take a lot of time and the more participants there are the more time they take.

If we wanted to streamline things we could do it the way Republicans do and disenfranchise about half our voters but that isn't in the Democratic Party’s charter. You shouldn't have to become the enemy to defeat the enemy.

That said, I think some things can, and will be, done differently in the future.

I think the Credentials Committee could and should have resolved any challenges days before the date of the convention. That would have allowed them to present the resolutions to the convention and provide credential packets to the delegations early in the morning.

I think the Resolutions Committee should have done their work before the convention and only dealt with resolutions offered from the floor. They could have condensed the wording of the resolutions. Formal resolutions are worded this way: Whereas: yada yada; Be it Resolved that: yada yada. Too many of the resolutions read like bad Victorian novels with two pages of Whereas before two sentences of Be it Resolved. Twenty five words or less people!

I think everyone would have been more comfortable if there were an agenda that told us where we were in the process. Just knowing there were 56 resolutions to work through would have been a comfort. Sure, it’s all in the Handbook, but with so many first time participants more hand holding was needed. I know I'd have liked more data points in the process.

Holding a primary vote and a precinct convention on the same day is a bad idea. The people you expect to hold the convention have been at work for 12 hours minimum and have to close the polls after. I logged 18 hours that day and they were somewhat stressful hours at that. It’s the best excuse for a five day waiting period I can think of.

Limiting factors include the size of the County Democratic Party. The party is funded and staffed by volunteers. For 20 years the Tarrant County Party had relied on a handful of volunteers (there are only two paid positions) and donations from them to operate the party machine. Suddenly there are ten times that number of participants, none of which have been nurtured by long time party members, all wondering why things are going so slowly. It’s frustrating to the newbies and equally frustrating to those who have spent decades struggling to maintain party structure.

Even with all that, I still feel excited and energized about the nationwide movement our party is experiencing.

We have a golden opportunity to grow from this historic event. There IS a Democratic Party in Tarrant County and I'm damn proud to part of it. It all begins here, with us, neighbors who will put signs in our yards and let others know we are Democrats. People who will donate time, energy and money to the Candidates and Party to make it strong like it was when Texans would vote for an old yellow dog before voting for a Republican.

Yellow Dog Democrat and proud of it!

[sonias]

1. Thank you flamin lib for your report

I feel excited and energized by the process too. Sure the party is money poor and we don't have enough volunteers, but I see a bright shining light. People want to help now. People see hope for us as a party. Remember our motto - you can't complain if you don't vote. Same holds true about the party process - you can't complain unless you participate. You sir, have earned the right to complain!
:yourock:

There is a whole large thread on BOR about the Convention/Caucus process. You should go add your thoughts there as well:
BOR - After the Flood: Fixing Our Caucus System

:kick:

Sonia

[yellowdogintexas]

2. I was there too, Flamin Lib @ the SD 10 in the Rodeo Room. It was amazing

to see the turnout. Normally we don't even fill up a high school auditorium; there were 5000 at Will Rogers and another 3000 @ the Gaylord for SD12

It was indeed energizing.