Houston Democrats

Just for reference, a Precinct Chair must have voted in the Democrat Primary. Also, a woman I talked with last night at our DFH meeting has apparently talked with the correct people at the HCDP (I won't mention their names blogging)and is very discouraged due to the lack of response to her gesture of signing up to be a Precinct Chair. This is probably something that the HCDP should address on their website. Give the standards or pre-requisits on becoming a Precinct Chair.

How many precinct chairs are actually reading these blogs? All you folks out there, if you're a precinct chair, please respond here so we can take a count.

I expect the number to be low. HCDP's precinct organization, in spite of all the tools available, is darn near non-existent. I'd love to hear from some precinct chairs who can point to their organizational work in their own precincts as an example of what has been done.

Dropping off leaflets does not qualify as "organizing" -- only activities associated with door to door canvassing and data collection do -- activities that build for the future as well as the present. I know of not a single user of Dem Data Online -- over 200 of them -- who has been doing this. How about you folks who have been using other data sources? Who is organizing their own precinct?

Becoming a precinct chair is one thing: behaving as a real precinct chair is quite another. Right now the Democratic precinct organization landscape in Houston is without any semblance of guidance.

As an erstwhile Precinct Chair (still planning on moving whenever I get off my lazy duff), I can state that organizing Pct. 430 was a herculean task in terms of what was possible. For one, it's heavy on non-English-speaking residents. I'm talking REAL heavy ... not just 20-30%, more like 85%+. Being an Anglo English-only sort with a modete ability to work my way through a good Mexican restaurant menu, it's tough to do much more than leafletting my own 'hood with candidate material (which was done in spades). I walked parts of the precinct for voter reg, and a more complete sweep for dropping door hangers in the final weeks.

That said, there's still a comfort level that is attainable walking one's own precinct door-to-door even if you don't have the resonant demographics with the rest of the precinct. Knowing that I was a neighbor, having seen many of the people in the neighborhood, etc ... all got me a little more of an "in" than I had in other areas where I was less familiar. My precinct organization wasn't the ideal of how I would have loved to work, but it was appropriate for the precinct, appropriate for my ability to speak to voters ... and above all else, was better than nothing.

Lesson here is that despite the fact that person-to-person live interaction is preferable, TRY SOMETHING. Something, after all, usually beats nothing. The tools are always available to do more where it can be done, but there's no excuse for not attempting something.

HERE IS A CHANCE TO LEARN THE BASICS OF PRECINCT ORGANIZING ( THIS AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE, FOLKS) AND FOR SOME, TO ALSO BECOME A TRAINER OF OTHERS IN THE SAME BASIC SKILLS. ALL ARE WELCOME, BELOW, WITH PARTY-APPPROVED MATERIALS. STAN MERRIMAN

May 31 (Tuesday) 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Train the Trainer presented by Stan Merriman, Chair Emeritus, Texas Progressive Populist Caucus (PPC). HCDP Headquarters 1445 North Loop West, Suite 110; this meeting is for PPC members and friends who have an interest in training precinct chairs in Harris County and its neighboring counties.