Someone in the Democratic Leadership Academy suggested best practices discussions would be helpful. We'll kick those off with a discussion on community newsletters.

Here are some thoughts to initiate discussion:

- How did the last newsletter day turn out? What went well? What could be improved?

- What are some ideas to maximize the amount of newsletters distributed?

- What are some articles that would be best for the community section?

What type of events do you think would be most helpful in ensuring a successful caucus/2008 election?

What is going to be your biggest challenge over the next 6 months? How can you meet that challenge and turn it into success?

If someone has a challenge and you have a solution, feel free to post your idea.

Use the comments thread to discuss solutions to the following situations.

1) Two qualified and committed people live on the same street and both want to be the caucus temporary chair. How do you make a choice? How do you handle the individual not chosen?

2) You have a Hillary supporter and a Kucinich supporter on your team. You are putting together a neighborhood newsletter. The Kucinich supporter thinks an article that paints any who voted for the Iraq War resolution to be unfit to lead. The Hillary supporter wants to include an article on the successes of Bill Clinton's Presidency. Both are arguing about the inappropriateness of the other idea during a meeting to discuss the newsletter. How do you handle the conflict?

3) A trained, hard working team member tells you she can't participate with the team anymore because she thinks it's much more important for her to work directly for Senator Dodd's campaign than be a Section Coordinator. How do you handle the potential loss?

4) Senator Gravel wins the Nevada caucus and the nomination. You haven't seen one of Area Coordinators who was a strong Edwards fan since the caucus. How do approach the MIA team member?

5) The Washoe County Democratic Party sent out five emails reminding people of an Obama event and only 3 emails reminding people of a Biden event. Your Biden fan and Section Coordinator is not happy with the party and wants to discuss the biased support during your monthly District meeting. What do you do?

To kick off our online coaching I'd like to start with a discussion question. It is something Chip had planned to have us do in class but didn't have the time to do it well.

"What are potential sources of conflict that could come your team's way as we approach the Caucus and the 2008 election?"


The way this will work is that you should post your thoughts as a comment. Check back every other day or so to see what others in the Academy are saying.