Check Out the Recent CDP Resolutions

Wow, so I guess the CDP can be useful... (0.00 / 0)

Even in getting good resolutions passed. Thanks for putting this up. It proves that if we work hard enough, we CAN get good things done at the CDP. : )

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 16:32:45 PM CDT

Well... (8.00 / 1)

I am a reso. cmte. member, so I probably shouldn't say that much about this. But the fact that these resolutions took almost 6 weeks(!) to get posted pretty much makes blunts any of the positive impact.  I've had several people ask me when they were going to be posted, so that they could have some proof. Look, I know there were a lot of these resolutions, but, um, why did this take so long. The amendments that were made during the meeting  should have been loaded onto a word file right away. Once it was approved, they should have prepared a PDF. That takes, well, not so long.

So, these come out 6 weeks later, and on some of these resolutions we just look timid. Take the Alberto Gonzalez resolution for example. Had it been published a few days after the meeting, it would have been cool. SOrt of in-line with the politicians. When it did finally come out, we're trailing Senators asking for impeachment! Never mind teh fact that the resolution should have said impeachment anyway, the delay makes us look like "me too"ers.

So, am I impressed with the work that my committee did? Not so much, we could do more.

Well, that was fun... Brian Leubitz

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 17:01:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

We can do something about that! (0.00 / 0)

HI Brian!
While I totally agree that the Party needs to be more responsive in, well, pretty much every way, I kinda disagree that we just wait for "them" to publish these reports. We are part of the Party too. We *are* "them".
Right or wrong, because CDP is a *huge* organization admin stuff tends to get less priority than action items and time sensitive events.  Maybe we can put together a committee, formal or informal, to expedite this stuff in the future :)

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by: SFJen @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 11:59:56 AM CDT

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Yup, in fact for the next one, (0.00 / 0)

I will be publishing the approved CDP Resolutions Right here on Calitics. Hopefully.

Well, that was fun... Brian Leubitz

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 12:43:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I suppose I should say one thing more (5.00 / 1)

I wrote the comment in a bit of a rush, and I should be more clear about a couple of things. First of all, the committee is staffed entirely by volunteers. So the delay is mostly a byproduct of lack of resources.  The volunteers for the committee are truly splendid people who give a tremendous amount of their own time while receiving very little in return.

That being said, I think part of the hangups could be reduced drastically with a little work on the IT end of things.  We have all the resolutions in digital form, so we should process them at the meetings entirely digitally. Then, we could publish a PDF of all of the passed resolutions within a few hours of completing the convention/e-board meeting.

I'm one who's putting it down for transparency and accountability.  But feel free to disagree with my love of technology or what not, I can take it.

Well, that was fun... Brian Leubitz

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 13:46:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks, Brian (0.00 / 0)

I have two things I want to mention about this topic and will do so in two different comments.

Some of you who are Unitarian Universalists may recognize my name from the period (1995-2002) when I was chair of the UUA's Electronic Communications Committee and worked with the great Gini Courter herself (and, on one occasion, none other than Tim B-L). Our committee struggled constantly with increasing expectations for online content and decreasing budgets for the same. If you watched the growth of uua.org over that period -- which were pretty damn primitive times for the Internet -- I think you had to be impressed at what we were able to put together with a mostly volunteer "staff." Nonetheless there were constant complaints, particularly about the speed with which we covered the annual General Assembly.

Very little in life is as easy as it seems it ought to be. I rarely hear anyone say, "Gee, that didn't take nearly as long as we thought it would." Quite the opposite in fact -- most projects take far longer than anticipated.

I think Brian's and Jen's ideas for setting up an informal place for posting approved resolutions quickly is a great idea. Good for you, Brian! I want to point out, though, that it's one thing to put up unofficial versions and quite another to publish the official ones which someone has carefully vetted beforehand to make sure all the I's are dotted and all the T's crossed.

The devil, even for Unitarian Universalists, is always in the details.

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by: gjones @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 15:23:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

There's a danger here (0.00 / 0)

Of watering down expectations preemptively.  We can be (and are) sympathetic to the institutional resources that are (often are not) available for this sort of thing.  By pointing out that it's a problem, it's not an indictment of the people trying to get it done.  The more pressure is brought to bear on the importance of getting this stuff done, the more resources will hopefully be allocated.

What it boils down to is making a higher priority of both public outreach and online outreach.  I don't think anyone objects to that in principle, so now it's a matter of finding a way to get the people-power allocated to get it done.

"We need men who can dream of things that never were." -JFK

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 15:51:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Resolutions Procedures (5.00 / 1)

As I have promised, the Rules Committee and the Resolutions Committee are working together to propose new guidelines for Resolutions Procedures.  A report will likely be out at the next Executive Board meeting.

One of the suggested proposals is require submission in digital form. I have gone back and forth in my own mind as to whether or not that should be required, as opposed to requested.  I am concerned about the "digital divide".

I also am largely of the opinion that almost everyone in politics has access to a word processor, or knows someone who could help assist in writing a resolution and providing it in digital form; however, some may see this as economic discrimination.

I would request comment on this.  You may write me directly at gss1@aol.com.  (That's a "one" after the gss)

Garry S. Shay
Member, Democratic National Committee (CA) and
Lead Chair Rules Committee, California Democratic Party
Representing 6.7 million registered Democrats
========================================================
If you would like to join my list serve, send an email to:
DemocraticNewsGroup-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
========================================================

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by: Garry S. Shay @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 18:08:45 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm reasonably sure (0.00 / 0)

That if anyone does NOT have the necessary computer access or knowledge, they could probably ask their local party or local anyone really and get such access and/or knowledge volunteered.  In fact, it might be worth looking into whether the party could offer such a service.

"We need men who can dream of things that never were." -JFK

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 14:34:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

actually (0.00 / 0)

i had these up on our local lake county dem website on August 5
three weeks after e-board

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by: taxismom @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 16:44:49 PM CDT

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To be fair (0.00 / 0)

The Executive Board was July 15, and you're posting this August 15 - so while it might be better to get them up sooner, it was only one month, not 6 weeks...

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by: Hermit9 @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 14:05:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

??? Obama HQ in CA (0.00 / 0)

So here is something going around the horn.

A.  Obama has hired Mitchell Schwartz has the CA State Director.

B.  They are NOT opening in South Los Angeles, but Koreatown???

C.  Regardless of where they are or who they hired, Obama supporters finally have a place to call.

323.934.1933

Call today and find out when the office opening is -- and how you can volunteer!!

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by: Johnny Apple @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 11:22:04 AM CDT

The contact info you listed... (0.00 / 0)

Is for Obama's company - the Bomaye Company.

I'll have to check in with my buddy over there, but that office space is waaaaaaaaaaaay to small to be Obama's California HQ.

It does sit above a very nice coffee shop, though.

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by: JeremyDThompson @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 20:12:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Just checked in with Bomaye Company... (0.00 / 0)

That is their company address and phone number.

The California office of Obama for America is not open yet.

Please don't call that number related to the Obama campaign.

I'm sure the Obama folks will post all the proper contact info when they have it.

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by: JeremyDThompson @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 20:24:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

LaRouchies (0.00 / 0)

Any more excitement with the LaRouche kids trying to take over various caucuses or pass resolutions? They were all hot on themselves a while ago about that. 

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by: slowpitch @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 13:37:06 PM CDT

meh...not really (0.00 / 0)

they don't bother with e-board stuff.  Only stuff with media attention.

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by: Dante Atkins (hekebolos) @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 13:39:38 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Nope - decided to switch tactics (8.00 / 1)

They took over the Young Dems meetings at the CDP convention two years in a row ('03 and'04) by swarming the meeting, shouting over everyone, being as disruptive as possible, etc. In 2004 we had to have security clear the room. It was pretty freaky.
Since then, we've really tightened up security, and I think the LaRouchies finally realized that they weren't getting *anywhere* with young people (their main target demographic) by acting like disruptive asses at our meetings, so they've toned it down. They now either try to sneak in, which doesn't work, or register and pay as delegates and act like grown ups at our caucus. Mostly they stand outside with signs. Whatev. At least the singing was pretty :)

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by: SFJen @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 18:27:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Progressive enough? (0.00 / 0)

The discussion above has mostly been about the timeliness of the publishing. What about the resolutions themselves? I'm an organizer rather than a policy person, and I readily admit that policy nuances frequently (maybe almost always) go over my head, but it seems to me that some pretty progressive stuff got passed. What do y'all think?

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by: gjones @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 15:28:07 PM CDT

The proof is in the pudding. (5.00 / 1)

Thanks to Gila and Brian for posting and promoting this information. Gila, I think people should read the resolutions and judge for themselves if the resolutions are progressive enough. Most were written by people who are progressives and reflect what members of the State Committee or Executive Board sent to the Resolutions Committee. Brian, I realize you think the Gonzales resolution as passed was meek. But setting that one aside I thought everyone in the Party would agree that these were principled positions that Dems could be proud of. The Iraq resolution, for example, is pretty clear about cutting off funds, deauthorizing the war, and doing it now. Given how the Convention ended with this issue hanging I think it clears up any confusion that may have existed about where the CDP stands on Iraq.

On procedure, I want to thank my fellow Resolutions Committeemember Brian for his suggestions(and seperately his offer to assist in this) to speed up the process and to increase the reliability as well. And thanks to him for mentioning that this work has been done by volunteers. It generally takes longer to get these up on the site after the first post-Convention e-board because of the convention carryover resolutions but I agree we can do better and we will. As Garry Shay noted Rules & Resolutions are working together to update and revise some of the Resolutions Committee procedures and this should help improve things.

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by: jhanna @ Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 21:04:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]