Off and running . . .

Saturday’s Training Day gave our Western county Democratic parties a good jump start to charge them up for the next elections.

Seven of the ten tenth district counties sent officers, as well as 14 other Western counties. Party leaders absorbed pointers on strategic planning, volunteer recruitment and management, community outreach, internet communications, media strategies, strategic partnerships, candidate recruitment, and fundraising.

Here’s a glimpse at NCDP 1st Vice Chair Dannie Montgomery -- stressing the importance of inspiring volunteers and spurring them to effective action:

At the conclusion of the training, one county chair said the day reminded him of “trying to take a drink of water from a firehose,” because there was so much information. Now there’s time to sift through the notes from the day, and the accompanying county chair manuals, and build our parties.

Several participants told me the best thing about the training day was hearing ideas from other county parties – “best practices” that they can replicate. That type of information sharing needs to take place on a regular basis at our monthly district meetings.

With the fresh information jump-start, and an introduction to the resources available, now it’s time for strategic planning to build our parties into well-oiled political machines geared for success.