First Training is DONE - Whew!

Well, what I have been working on recently (and a big cause of not updating the blog so much) has finally come to pass: our DFA group presented the first "volume" of our precinct training to the DCDP Precinct Coordinators last night, and it was an outstanding success. Honestly, it is such a pleasure to work with the people on the training committee, especially Kim and Doug who were key in getting this one off the ground. But the entire group always has such wonderful, intelligent feedback and have been simply outstanding to work with. I feel really lucky to be around such a professional, businesslike group of activists.

The training attempted to emphasize "soft skills" for activists. So we discussed networking within the precinct, such as getting out and meeting people through the HOA or other organizations. We did a lot of small group activities, such as a brainstorming session about what drives volunteer activists away, and how to remedy that. We discussed all of the different types of "jobs" there are in a precinct, and there were lively discussions about which types of volunteers would fit best with certain types of jobs, including an exercise about how to work with some more "problematic" types.

I also heard from an SDEC member who attended that we have managed to produce stuff that does not duplicate the existing training that the TDP is working, so that was VERY good news. As we developed the class with an eye on the existing TDP and DCDP manuals, I'm not surprised, because we made an effort to cover things that everyone seems to expect activists to "just know" but that nobody really sits down and goes over in details.

Anyhoo, everyone who attended was very impressed, and, YAY, there were no major flaws found in the presentation! Now we just need to gear up to ensure that we have enough trainers available to handle it for the rest of the county -- and start working on the NEXT one, hee!