Leadership and Change

I, too, attended a caucus in Dakota County, the Democratic one, and it was jam-packed. I, too, considered attending the Republican caucus, not because I’ve always been a staunch anything, but because I don’t feel like the Democrats are offering much in the way of variety. At least in the Republican Party the sparks seem to fly from the candidates’ disparate stances rather than race or gender. I finally decided on the Democrats in the hope that through exposure to the leaders from my district, I might gain some insight, enthusiasm or knowledge that would steer me one way or the other. What I found was that many of the people with whom I spoke were not terribly concerned about which candidate won the nomination, only that a Democrat win the election. Repeatedly I heard that it was past time for a change and that this will be the election when that metamorphosis occurs in the White House. My hopes for inspiration were dashed.

Those responsible for directing (herding) the unusually large turnout were lost. There was a spring tide of constituents and no levies in place to guide the flow. This was very much the no-one in charge, shared power approach. They had one mantra, “You can’t vote unless you know your precinct number.”

There was no organization to the room locations for the precinct meetings, finding where one belonged took several trips back and forth between rooms. Two precincts were assigned to each room, rooms designed to hold only about 25 people total. It was standing room only – which clearly threw the Precinct Chairs into a frenzy. However, having two precincts in one room provided the opportunity to observe two different leadership styles.

The initial order of business was to elect new Precinct Chairs. Both sides of the room followed the same routine – nominations, seconds, votes and there were two new Chairs, I’ll call them PC1 (mine) and PC2 (the other precinct). The outgoing PC1 chair handed a list of things to do to the new Chair and made his escape in the blink of an eye. My exposure to his theory of leading was so brief it leaves me with no ability to even assign it a name. Furthermore, it was as if he resigned, or abdicated, or was cast out. He took himself out of that room as fast as he could manage without running anyone down. On the other side of the room, the outgoing PC2 is taking a few minutes to explain to the new PC the tasks to be carried out, the order in which they need to occur and to recommend some basic ground rules she had found to be useful. She then stepped aside and let the new PC2 lead. Having observed that her leadership style, which I identified as leadership for the common good, was an effective, efficient and collaborative process, PC2 followed her lead.

At the end of the evening, PC1, who had been left with no leadership style to follow, no firmly established style of her own to lean on, and who had been given only the most minimal information, had no idea who the delegates from our precinct would be and had no Vice Chair. We had discussed and voted on 10 resolutions, all but one of which had been submitted by the same person and only one of which spoke to an achievable goal within party lines. The debates, which were to have lasted a maximum of three minutes per person, had been consistently dominated by the same people and frequently went on for 15 minutes before a vote was taken. Promptly at 9:00, our side of the room emptied to the woeful cries of the resolution man who hadn’t yet completed his list.

On the other side of the room, PC2 had a Vice Chair, a list of delegates and alternates and a handful of meaningful, well thought out and fairly discussed resolutions. Everyone who choose to speak was heard, there were more volunteers than positions to be filled. This half the room began clearing at 9:00 as well, but people left in groups, continuing discussions and planning for the next meeting.

While I felt some sympathy for PC1 and some disillusionment with the process, I have nothing really against which to measure my response. This having been the first caucus I attended I can’t balance this experience against another. The fact that I was able to observe two widely divergent examples of the leadership spectrum doesn’t help displace the unease I feel at having my precinct left to the vagaries of the no one in charge scenario.

Sarah W.