Leadership and Change

If we look at the critical comments as an opportunity for leadership, we can think of some ways to respond to the process as it exists. This could begin with listing what works, and what doesn't. Could other people contribute to this? I'm an officer of a student group Greenlight, that engages with postive "sustainable" activism: recommendations, contributions, and community workshops to design solutions for our current reality.

As overworked architecture students, we're trying to find ways to engage with the wider community to increase our impact and support the consistency of our involvement. To that end, we've committed to having weekly meetings this semester (and yes, that's a big thing for us) at the Purple Onion on University (East Bank). Consider yourselves invited: every Thursday, 11:15am.

Past meetings have diverged into less useful discussions, so I'm hoping to run these more like construction administration meetings: prepare our projects for updates and address potential conflicts or scheduling issues. We'll see how it goes. Point being, perhaps part of the caucus "failure" is due to lack of understanding with regards to the purpose of the event. When/where is this process introduced to participants?

One driver of successful meetings is the ability to prepare and handle business efficiently while face-to-face. As the caucus only happens every four years, and the majority of attendees had no idea what the purpose/process was, the disorganization is understandable. The caucus needs to simultaneously educate, organize, and engage with a variety of people and issues.

Potential solutions could include the following (some of these may be available in some fashion): - annual meetings to discuss issues and direction of party - smaller committees to work on specific issues (similar to nominating leaders for voting mobilization) - online continued engagment: forums for districts where registered voters can consistently connect (this could also provide a great resource to district representatives) - expanding the political education process in general education curriculum: when we learn about the branches of government, couldn't we also learn the differences between democratic engagement with the populace between states? a comparative analysis of how our society operates...

The last comment is grown from an issue we discussed at our small table of four at the DFL caucus I attended with a friend. We sat with two elderly women, one who used to attend frequently, but stopped in the 1990s, and the other who had always lived in Minnesota, but never attended. We discussed the potential for the caucus to really engage the community: with limited hours, this seems compromised, but could be counteracted by making it a national holiday of sorts - everyone gets time off from work. Frankly, I find the concept as important as religious holidays, but then our society doesn't provide holidays for all religions either... Our overall concern is that, although this may be respectful and successful in Minnesota, it most likely would not work in larger urban areas. Having attended town meetings throughout the east coast, I've seen the frustration and damage done by less respectful participants in the process. This was the first "community" meeting that had a sense of decorum and that may be a direct result of everyone feeling that at some point, their voice would be heard. Greenwich (Connecticut) town meetings in particular are famous for going late into the night and postponing agenda items in an effort to allow everyone to have their say. They're also famous for filibustering-length rants by vocal citizens...

I'd like to hear what others think. Any ideas for our caucus and/or for my own concerns with Greenlight?

...thanks