We Young Dems, We Getting Smarter ;)

This post might be a little late, but I am still excited about the DFA Academy that was held last weekend in Lansing, MI. For those who don't know, Democracy for America is the remnants of the Howard Dean campaign. The DFA is sorta similar to MoveOn.org as it supplements the Democratic Party by providing services the mainstream Party has been unable to administer. One of those services is training.

DFA training is like bootcamp for campaign managers covering the skills and structure necessary to run a professional operation. Over the weekend we covered fundraising, field planning, volunteer management, message formulation, and internet capabilities. Oh, and did I mention we got to meet Jim Dean, Howard Dean's brother and Chairman of the DFA? Well . . . we did, so there.

In case you ever wondered, Jim Dean does have a lot of people call him Jimmy Dean or James Dean. Who would've guessed?

It was a good experience and something that Democrats forget to do. I don't even want to start counting the number of mistakes I made during my first couple of attempts at field organizing. And boy, did the instructors ever remind me of them. :( I wish someone would have given me an opportunity like this during the '04 race. I can't speak for our President and Vice-President, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and they were excited to start showing off their new ideas. Nice job DFA!!!

If you are want to approach politics as a career or you are currently running a campaign, please enroll in a DFA Academy or the DFA free Night Classes program.

To see pictures go here.

Thank you Rico Thomas Rico, our new featured blogger, for taking the pics!!!

-Keith