Similar to others in the class, this was my first caucus. I was excited to participate and take part in what could very well be a historical year in United States history. I walked into North St. Paul High School with a couple of goals: to observe and acquire good content for this blog, better understand the process of the caucus and vote for the candidate I believe to be best to run this country.

As I sat in my assigned room waiting for someone to come in to convene our precinct, the first thing that popped out at me was a poster on the wall that said, “It’s all about LEADERSHIP.� I chuckled to myself, thinking, how perfect it was for a start to my blog. I kept the quote in mind as the caucus went on, thinking to myself, is it really all about leadership?

Like many other caucus sites, mine was also very unorganized and unprepared for the number of people attending. One of the men in my room said that the last time there was a caucus, five people showed up at our precinct room, this time there was well over 50. In thinking about the organization of the entire caucus, I wondered what kind of leadership was involved. Who was in charge of setting up the entrance and information area? Why wasn’t there directional signage how to get to the main entry from the other entries to the building? Why were the district maps crammed into a tiny area for people to figure out their precinct? The questions went on and on. Was there a lack of leadership/project management? It was really difficult for me to look at these things and not think that things could have been done differently, without a lot of work that would have made things run much smoother.

In my current occupation, I am a Program Associate, which I like to say is a fancy title for a party planner. I work for the Academic Health Center Office of Communications and my primary job is to plan events, receptions, etc. for the Senior Vice President and the health science schools and colleges. While the job itself sounds fun (it is), it is also a lot of work – especially in organizing and thinking about all of the possible outcomes, problems, unperceived challenges, etc. These are all things that I thought would be addressed prior to the caucus. What do we do if thousands of people walk through the front door? What if we run out of ballots? What if one of the conveners is stuck in traffic and can’t make it? What if, what if, what if?

In reflecting on the caucus, there was definetly a lacking of leadership. However, I’m not sure where the leadership stemmed from. Should there have been more direction from the top, at the state level – informing districts to be prepared for a larger turnout? Should each district planned better based on the fact that the precedent had been set in previous states for high turnout? I’m not sure.

While I didn’t find the “Seven Zones for Leadership� article as a good basis for defining a leader, I do think that one of the things Terry mentions could have helped in this situation. Creating Meaning in Chaos – “Events occur that were not anticipated, were not on anyone’s radarscope.� The caucus was chaotic and nobody created meaning. I think the main thing that was missing was complete preparation, on various levels – and at some level, some leader failed to address all the pieces.