Summer Training-and-Listening Sessions: DFL Headquarters Comes to You!

05/06/2007

Dear DFLer,

The 2008 cycle will include elections for the Minnesota House of Representatives, for Representatives in Congress, for United States Senator, and for President of the United States. I am writing to invite your help in planning the 2008 DFL Coordinated Campaign.

Last year, the 2006 Coordinated Campaign was the most successful ever. They did nearly everything right . . . but I still hear from party leaders and members who felt left out of the loop. This cycle, we can do a better job of including party leaders and members in the planning, not just the execution, so that all the stakeholders shape and understand the enterprise from the ground up.

This summer, we are kicking off the 2008 cycle with an intensive series of training-and-listening sessions around the state, to get input as we draft the 2008 Coordinated Campaign Plan. From June through August, the staff and officers will hold a series of day-long mini-retreats one in each congressional district for party leaders and other members.

The season will begin in two weeks with a "beta" session in Minneapolis:

Saturday 19 May
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Patrick Henry High School
4320 Newton Avenue North
Minneapolis


The statewide schedule appears below. The series will wrap up in September with a day of events that is essentially an off-year state mini-convention.

For each session, State DFL Headquarters will move into the field for a day, and the officers and staff will teach and learn from the activists in that congressional district. The intended audience is
party officers at all levels, right down to the precinct;

Central Committee members, who set the Party's budget and policy;

Elected officials and candidates, on whose behalf the Coordinated Campaign works; and

Other volunteers who will work on taking back the White House, taking back Paul Wellstone's seat in the Senate, and getting DFLers elected across Minnesota!

The teaching part will help the activists better understand the Coordinated Campaign's internal dynamics, which are largely invisible (as they should be) outside of Headquarters, but which nevertheless have a direct and significant impact in the field; and will hopefully clear up some myths and misconceptions about the Coordinated Campaign. The learning / listening part will help the staff develop a Coordinated Campaign Plan that involves good communications and relationships with volunteers and activists. And the entire exercise will help acquaint local leaders with the Headquarters staff, and vice versa, so that we can all match names and faces when we connect during the thick of the campaign.

The faculty will include state officers, Headquarters staff, and local activists. Here are some topics that the officers and staff have come up with:


"Coordinated Campaign 101: Targeting, Triage, and Control"

"Accessibility and Accommodations for Political Events"

"Basic Local Fundraising"

"Advanced Local Fundraising"

"Campaign Finance: Staying Out of Trouble with the Board"

"Caucus and Convention Process"

"Communications and Messaging for Local Units"

"Keys to the VAN" (chairs and designees only)

"Outreach to Historically Underrepresented Communities"

"Strategic Planning and Problem-Solving"

"Targeting for the Party Unit" (chairs and designees only)

"Technology Tools Beyond the VAN"

"Using the VAN for Party-Building"

We also want to know what topics you'd like to see. Please write back and let us know! (Because we expect quite a few suggestions, we may not always reply personally, but we will read all incoming messages and consider all appropriate suggestions.)

The staff, the other officers, and I are very excited about using these mini-retreats as a way of building the most successful grassroots campaign in the Party's history. Here is the tentative calendar so far:


Sat. 19 May: CD5 "beta" session, Minneapolis
Sat. 23 June: CD6, Andover
Sun. 24 June: CD2, Eagan
Sat. 30 June: CD4, St. Paul
Sat. 21 July: CD1, Mankato
Sat. 28 July: CD8, Duluth
Sat. 18 Aug.: CD7/CD8, Bemidji
Sun. 19 Aug.: CD3, place TBA
Sat. 8 Sept.: CD7, Willmar
Sat. 29 Sept.: Founders Day!

If you can't attend your district's session, please feel free to attend any other session. There is no registration fee, but these trainings are for Democrats only, and you will be asked to sign a statement like the one at precinct caucuses affirming that you are a member of the DFL Party and are attending the session in order to help get DFL-endorsed candidates elected.

We will send out the details for each session later this month. Meanwhile, please join us for the rollout on Saturday the 19th!

Sincerely,

Brian Melendez
Chair
Minnesota DFL Party