SCC Meeting - Miscellaneous

Censure was not the only thing on the agenda of Saturday's SCC Meeting. In this post, I want to recap some of the rest of the meeting.

First, kudos to Chairman Stewart Iverson. On Friday night, before our committee meetings, Stewart informed us that he had told people who were interested in addressing the committee to be there at 1pm. Stewart planned to let people speak and not set a time limit unless iot got out of hand. The SCC usually has a working lunch and as Krusty said, it was a nice touch that there was enough food for everyone. (Darrel is a good cook!) I thought Stewart did an excellent job handling both visitors and our debate. (Even though I put him on the spot with some parliamentary stuff.)

Technology. There was a lot of discussion about technology at the meeting. There is no questions that the Democrats did a better job of using technology in this cycle. As Jason Hucheson said, "If I cannot Google you, you are irrelavant." Someone pointed out that even Senator Grassley has Twitter. The result will be that the new chair will likely appoint a technology committee. I am a computer consultant in my day job. I suspect I and some of the other more computer savy members will be on it.

Candidate recruitment. Recruitment will be one of our biggest challenges in this next cycle. There is a lot of optimism that 2010 will be a good Republican year here in Iowa. We must field a slate of good candidates in order to taake advantage of it.

Candidates support. There was a lot of discussion about how the state party can better support candidates. Among the ideas, strengthening RPI's candidate schools to better prepare candidates for the process. I brought up being pro-active in helping candidates in things like recounts. And providing a better support system for county candidates. Legislative candidates have the Legislative majority fund and the House and Senate leadership but many county candidates do not have a significant support infrastructure.

The legislature. Newly elected House Minority Leader, Kraig Paulsen addressed the group. I was especially excited to hear that Kraig and Senate Minority Leader, Paul McKinley are planning on working more closely together and coordinating their efforts. We all need to work to gether, House and Senate Republican Caucuses, County office holders, County Central Committees, State Central Committee, federal and state-wide office holders. We are one team.

Chair election. As predicted, the election for chair will be held January 10th. Matt Randall suggested a public candidate forum for December 27th. It is a horrible date, I have a family commitment for that day that I cannot change since it involves people's travel schedules. I know some others have commitments as well. However, it is a great idea, and even if all SCC members cannot be there, it should be beneficial to the process.

Comments

[Todd Versteegh]

David,

Among those issues you mention..I think special attention also needs to be paid to TRAINING.

A large number of our county central committees are going to be electing new chairs beginning next month.

We need to get back to the practice of providing training for our county CC's in grassroots organization, fundraising, etc.

We can have all the technology and new efforts to support candidates..but we must not forget our grassroots activists in the trenches.

Our county leaders do a yeoman's job in trying to get people to volunteer to help with things like poll watching, poll workers, knocking on doors/phone calling..

We've got to get them the necessary resources and training so they know how to put the pieces in places to be successful in campaigns.

[Don McDowell]

David,

Good work.

[Nicky Baker]

Todd-

YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!

This needs to be brought up, big time. Ok, now how can I stress this more?

David-

Thanks for the recap.

[anonymous]

The idea of training for central committees is excellent. Please remember that (1) there are 99 counties in Iowa, many at least 200 miles from Des Moines and (2) many central committee members have day jobs. Any training needs either to be delivered locally or available electronically. Grass roots organizing training would be helpful.

[Todd Versteegh]

Which is why in my humble opinion, RPI needs to have permanent field staff in place in ALL of Iowa's congressional districts. This staff would be responsible for providing this training, helping provide our counties with needed resources.

However, and I think more importantly, this staff would be eyes and ears on the ground.

One of the BIGGEST complaints our county central committees have is lack of communication and coordination with RPI.

Our county leaders feel that RPI isnt responsive to them...that needs to change.