Now, most of my readers know (and yes, most of you know me IRL) I am not generally a "political" person. But I can't help myself with this election and this candidate. I was one of the people elected at our town caucus to be a delegate for Obama to the Vermont Democratic Convention later this month. There, we will elect Vermont's 13 delegates to the National Convention in Denver.
Although I am campaigning to be a national delegate - I do feel strongly there are Vermonters MUCH more deserving of the honor than I.
What have I done?
- I have been working with Obama's Arts Policy Committee in contacting artists and educators in advance of primaries in Pennsylvania and Indiana.
- Founded the Vermont Delegates for Obama group, to help keep other delegates informed on this somewhat mystical process.
- Served as an information point and carpool center for my town's other delegates.
- Advocated for the Arts and cultural diplomacy on Capitol Hill and met with Vermont's Senators Leahy and Sanders, and Congressman Welch and/or their staffs.
- I have not held a public office, or any official role with the Obama campaign
- Hosted Obama house parties or other events
- Worked phone banks
- Canvassed door-to-door for Obama or voter registration
- Driven to other primary states to volunteer for Obama
- Blogged (outside of barackobama.com or democracy.org) for Obama
artwork by Shepard Fairey; flickr photo by a35mmlife
Greetings fellow delegates!
Some of you are undoubtedly new to the delegate role, as I am, but information is trickling in.
1. Congrats to the 110 or so Obama delegates from town causes, who successfully submitted their Statement of Candidacy/Pledge of Support forms, and are now campaigning to become Vermont delegates for Obama to the National Democratic Convention. The official list can be found here: http://vtdemocrats.org/index.php?id=2237
2. The goal at the state convention May 24th is to select Vermont's delegation to Denver. Vermont is allocated 10 district-level delegates and 3 district-level alternates. Based on the results of Vermont presidential preference primary on March 4th, those delegates will be awarded as follows: Obama gets six district-level delegates, three males and three females, Clinton gets 4 district-level delegates, two males and two females. Obama gets two alternates, one male and one female, Clinton gets one female alternate.
3. There will be a final delegate training session on Wednesday, May 14th at 6:00pm at 38 Eastwood Drive, So. Burlington.
4. Hopefully, you have received information from Joanne Boyle (who's helping organize the VDP Convention on 5/24). She sent information about development/placement of ads in the program and/or renting of table space at the convention to help promote your delegate candidacy. If you did not receive her message, I encourage you to contact her at jm(dot)boyle(at)yahoo(dot)com
5. If you cannot afford an ad or table - you can personally distribute flyers at the convention. I also invite you to introduce yourself to the Vermont Delegates for Obama group via a blog post, and/or a message to the group. Lastly, you can also campaign via the web opportunity below.
6. Neil Jensen of Vermonters for Obama, is graciously offering space on his website for national delegates to make their case. He says, "Just send me an email at info(at)vermontersforobama(dot)org with a statement in support of your candidacy -- and I'll post it online for you. If you participate, your name will be posted in alphabetical order at http://vermontersforobama.org/delegates and will be linked to your candidate statement. You can send statements either as text in an email, a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment, or just a link to another website, whichever you prefer. Be sure to include your full name and feel free to include a photo, too, if you wish." Thanks Neil for your generosity!
7. Lastly, you can view driving directions to the Vermont Convention event listing on this site. And please feel free to use the Vermonte Delegates for Obama forum to organize carpools.
That's all folks! See you in 2 weeks!
Allison
(aka MapleMama)
No comments:
Post a Comment