my first precinct convention, and becoming a county delegate
I went to my first-ever precinct convention, which occurred at the polling place after the voting ended at 7:00. Here's a summary of what it was like.

I don't identify particularly as a Democrat: if forced to round myself off to the nearest of the 2 major parties, I'm certainly Democrat, but I dislike the two-party hegemony we have in this country... but I don't want this post to go off on that tangent ... this post is about what the precinct convention was like. Anyway, I voted in the Democratic primary and thus I went to the Democratic precinct convention. It was an interesting process to participate in, and I'm glad I finally did this.

The convention got started around 7:15 or so. There were 11 of us, many of us first-timers, and some long-time veterans who were quite familiar with the process, one of whom we elected chairperson to run the meeting. One thing you do is sign in and indicate your presidential candidate choice. That information is then used for the delegates who go to the county convention, who will theoretically vote proportionally to reflect the choices of those of us who participated in the precinct convention. (The distribution was, if I recall correctly, Kerry=5, Dean=2, Edwards=2, Lieberman=1, Kucinich=1. I was the Kucinich supporter.)

I hadn't planned on doing more than this one event, but I ended up deciding to be a delegate to the county convention, which takes place in a couple weeks (Saturday 03-27 in Palmer Auditorium). Anyone who voted in a primary can be a delegate, even if you didn't go to a precinct convention this evening. E.g. one woman was unable to be a delegate (due to a job commitment) but her husband (who wasn't able to be there tonight) wants to, so she was able to get him on the list. Due to participation in previous elections, our precinct was allocated 14 delegates, and there were only 11 of us at this precinct convention, so more need to be found. So people are encouraged to find interested neighbors, and the guy in charge will have to contact people on the list of people who voted to try find other interested people randomly. There are also "alternate delegates" who are basically there as backups in case any of the delegates don't show up or have to leave (one person tonight mentioned that she had an unpredictable health issue which might cause her to have to leave early). The county convention will be an all-day event which will involve listening to lots of resolutions being proposed and debated and voting on them, and meeting fellow delegates/activists, and meeting some candidates and elected officials. It should be interesting to see.

The other thing we did this evening besides delegate stuff was process a big stack of resolutions which people had previously submitted. Dozens of them. These are typically rather verbose lists of "whereas... whereas... whereas..." so we usually cut to the chase and had our chairperson simply read the resolution, and then people asked for further info if they needed. In most cases a voice vote clearly decided it (in favor). Sometimes we didn't pass them, and sometimes we debated and eventually tabled them. A resolution against the proposed anti-gay amendment was what motivated me to attend this convention in the first place, and I had brought along the text for one, but one already existed in the big pile of resolutions. (The resolution passed, though one person seemed opposed. I was pleased and encouraged that everyone else was clearly in favor; I'd had no idea if I was going to have to debate and argue about it or not.) The dozens of resolutions covered all kinds of issues: medical, insurance, labor, environmental, social security, civil rights, space exploration, Middle East, etc. After we processed the big stack, one of the people presented another resolution (concerning the oft-publicized issue of racism in Austin police treatment of civilians; her resolution simply affirmed that all citizens should receive equal treatment and services regardless of race, etc., which we all agreed with.) The entire event lasted about 1.5 hours.

I am now rather excited about going to the county convention - I have more free time now due to my job situation, so it's good timing, and I am curious to see first-hand what a big political convention is like, as well as actively participate in the process. And some of the folks seemed like they'd be interesting to spend some more time with. If nothing else, it will be an eye-opening experience, and I'm sure I will get some interesting stories from it. I now wonder why I haven't already done this!