Northside DFA: the steering committee is important

In a previous post I extolled Northside DFA as an effective model for building political power at the local level (with local money).

I explained the external stuff that people see, but this post is going to get into what makes NDFA work. NDFA has bylaws, but it's really the steering committee that makes it happen.

So, this blog entry will deal with the details of the steering committee. The final paragraph will explain how this connects to the 2020 Dem primary campaigns.


Northside DFA has a steering committee of ten. There was a period when it was a steering committee of eleven and there have been times when it dropped somewhat lower.

The steering committee meets once per month to plan the upcoming NDFA meeting.

NDFA's steering committee always had strong influence of the theater community. This had various benefits. 1) Steering committee had a strong sense that meetings were supposed to be interesting. 2) The common life experiences of theater made it so people had similar frameworks, ethos to getting stuff done.

People don't have to be theater people to organize good meetings. But having common experiences makes it easier to work together.

Also, the people NEED TO like each other. 

 Creating political power means you're going to spend time together. It's not rocket science. The most important things are commonality of purpose, having a plan that makes sense and showing up.

***

The final paragraph:

Most progressive campaigns for elected office are going to lose... even in a wave year. Even if you flew on the morning of September 11, 2001, the odds of you being in a hijacked plane were quite low.

Part of the question after a successful loss is: what do you do with the infrastructure the campaign has built?

My recommendation: build political power by turning the campaign infrastructure into an organization the empowers the volunteers going into the future. Political staffers have blinders and generally don't think about how to empower their volunteers going forward.

Think of me as thinking about you.

I lied. It was more than a paragraph.

Carl Nyberg, blogger/columnist