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Georgia Mass Precint Meeting Today. I’m a delegate!

By: jstjoan (Diary)  |  February 12th, 2011 at 09:57 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I’ve been active in the Tea Party since its inception in February 2009 but I decided it was time to take Cold Warrior’s advice and get involved in the process. So, I attended my very first Mass Precinct meeting today in Henry County, GA.

My county has become somewhat of a battleground county sandwiched between two of the bluest counties in the Atlanta Metro area; DeKalb and Clayton. We just lost one of our five county commissioner seats to a Democrat for the first time in the 20 years I’ve lived here. The threat of more statism this close to home is disconcerting to say the least.

To give you an idea of how many other first-timers like me came , it was announced that 144 people were in attendance today. Normally, there are 40-50. I must have a lot of neighbors who also read Cold Warrior and Ron Robinson’s diaries here at RedState!

After the invocation, pledge, and recognition of the elected officials in attendance,  the county GOP leader explained the process and then we broke out into groups by precinct. There were nine people from my precinct and we had the most in the whole county.

I already knew my existing precinct committee-person who is one of my neighbors and she was hoping to continue in that role. Since I know her to be a fellow DeMint Disciple, I proudly supported her in doing so and she was voted in unanimously. Next we voted on vice chair, treasurer, and I was voted in by the others to be the precinct secretary. Lastly, we filled out the necessary paperwork to become delegates for the county and state conventions.

It was great to meet some of my neighbors who are getting involved and I’m really looking forward to helping get my precinct informed and organized. I know now that I can make a difference.

COMMENTS

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  • carolina
  • Newton E. Mchuckney

    rec’d

    • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

      Thank you for getting into the real ball game of politics and I hope you will let us know from time to time about the progress you and your fellow conservatives make in Henry County in terms of organizing to get out the vote for constitutional conservative candidates in the 2012 primary elections.

      Bravo!

      ColdWarrior

      • jstjoan

        n/t

        • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

          Thank you.

          ColdWarrior

          • audax
          • fpete13527
    • jstjoan

      I have to say I honestly don’ think I would have done this had it not been for what I’ve learned here at this website.

      Like I said, I’ve been involved in my local Tea Party and by that I mean helping with our Facebook and other web presence, and by getting the word out to others that we even exist.

      And, last summer I volunteered here in my county working on the Karen Handel for Governor campaign handing out push cards at local events, attending rallies on her behalf, and even blogging on FB and here at Redstate in my diary about the campaign. But I’m ashamed to say that when it came to knocking on doors and making phone calls I just was so uncomfortable that I wasn;t as aggressive as I should have been.

      You see, I’m a very reclusive person and the fact that I live alone on acreage property with literally no close neighbors makes it easy for me to confine my activism to the internet. The good news is that by becoming active in both the KH campaign and the Tea Party, I’m learning that, while I may not consider myself a natural born leader, people are very receptive to just talking about the issues. And there are people just like me who are just as scared and concerned as me.

      I’m glad I have my fellow “Demint Disciple” to lead the way because she is an amazing outgoing woman who’s willing to be my mentor in this. I have great hope that I will find my self confidence under her leadership and be able to take on greater responsibility in the future.

      • bens

        We had an excellent turnout in the Cobb County Precinct Mass Meetings too – 6x greater than in 2009.

        I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you and talking with you at the State GOP Convention in May.

      • http://redmerrimack.blogspot.com/ charliebravoNH

        Yesterday at our County GOP meeting in NH our new (Tea party backed) State Party Chair Jack Kimball told everyone that he would never have imagined that he would be the NH GOP Chair today and he looked out at the County Committee members and said I bet many of you would not have imagined that this is where you would be today either, but the state of our state and our nation has called us to action.

        Just a year ago this month I joined my local Republican Town Committee. I volunteered for a congressional campaign and knocked on hundreds of doors. I must admit I wasn’t comfortable at first knocking on doors especially here in New England. The more I went out the better I felt. The only thing I regret was not being able to do more. NH went from blue to red in a massive way last year, but there is much more to be done. The Presidential election in 2012 will determine the direction of our nation for years to come.

  • Change Jar Conservative

    Following the posting rules, I’ll just post into this thread with a reply.

    I am now the “precinct secretary” and will be moving on to the county and hopefully beyond conventions.

    In addition, as a precinct officer, I am also eligible to go to the regular Cobb County GOP meetings and vote and bring up business.

    A couple of interesting notes:

    Two people from the tea party were voted in as the district chair and district sectretary for District 45. A lot of people in my district also apparently belong to something called madisonforum.com which meets monthly to discuss the constitution.

    For those wondering how hard / easy it is to become a committeeman, of the 29 available slots in my precinct a total of 7 were filled …. would ahve been great to have another 22 conservatives in there with me.

    • bens

      Which precinct are you in? I’m in VG04.

      • Change Jar Conservative

        Near Johnson’s Ferry / Sewell Mill in East Cobb.

        • bens

          I hope we will meet at the county convention next month.

        • bens

          I will start attending the meetings.

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    Jstjoan, Change_Jar_Conservative, and C.Marie, look: Ben Franklin decided to fly a kite. In a rainstorm.. The conjunction of 2 commonplace things resulted in something big, an act that became celebrated. That is what you have done.

    C. Marie, you may only have 2 people in your precinct, but one of you is the precinct chair and as such has a vote at the precinct, county and state levels. That means your precinct chair helps choose your state chair and your 2 national committeemen. All three serve on the RNC. That is indeed a big, big deal.

    The Precinct Project, The Concord Project and PROCINCT have all united under one banner called the PC Strategy Alliance. You send folks to The Concord Project if they respond to media as that’s Concord’s key asset. Send them to The Precinct Project if they just needs links to facts. PROCINCT is discussion about How-To both before and after you become a precinct commiitteeman. No need for links for the right sites will come up if you just google them (yes, we are all really that good!).

    For now, probably the best entry point to the PC Strategy Alliance is PROCINCT where you can post questions, share victories, etc. If you are interested in our weekly conference calls or want to be on the PC Strategy Alliance group mailing list, just contact the HOTLINE at PROCINCT.

    • GOPer

      This is only the first step… but it’s the most important one. This is the year for the grassroots CONSERVATIVES to take back our party. It’s happening in State after State – and Georgia is on the list. :-)

      Thank you for being willing to DO something. Now we need to convince more to join us. :-)

  • emmi

    How exciting jstjoan,congrats! Looking forward to hearing more…

  • nessa

    You actually advanced our cause, while most of the rest of us were bs’ing in the comments section or even posting our own diaries, you kicked the can on down the road. Great Stuff! Keep us updated please!!

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    More precincts will be having their conventions a month from today:

    In Counties with a population under 80,000, Precicnct Mass Meetings are held March 12 at 9:00am

    I’m so excited for you! So you actually got a voting seat in your precinct, your county and the state, is that right? Great work! We have a report from another Georgian in another county at party.procinct.net – would you be kind enough to scurry over there and post a report in the Georgia group? Or give me permission and I will copy/paste your report above in the same spot. I hope you’ll come over to party.procinct.net and mentor others in the Georgia group now. As a matter of fact, could we feature you on a national PC Strategy conference call on Monday night? Email me at procinct.net (at) gmail.com if you could do that, and I’ll email you the conference call info.

    I’m blasting the link to your article all over in a big trifecta! Let’s get out the news.

  • JadedByPolitics

    you totally ROCK Jstjoan…thank you for getting in the Party to keep it honest!

  • jstjoan

    I really appreciate your enthusiasm about my new activism but I have no idea what I’m doing yet. You’re certainly welcome to repost my diary if you’d like but I’m reluctant to try and talk too much about the Georgia delegate process and anything that will be happening at the county and state conventions because I have no idea what to expect.

    If it’s okay, I’ll just keep posting here as I make progress in my OJT.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    All those people out there with confident faces? None of us them have any idea what they’re doing, either. :)

    Seriously, did you ever hear about US Grant’s first action leading troops in combat? Grant was scared and nervous as anything, because he knew that he was new, and wasn’t sure that he knew what he was doing, and he was terrified of what the other guy he was attacking was going to do to him when it came to combat. Being US Grant, he pressed the attack anyway… only to discover that the other guy had skedaddled when he had heard that Grant was coming after him.

    And that was about the last time that Grant let himself forget that the other guy wasn’t an immortal superman, either.

  • Newton E. Mchuckney

    ‘jstJoan of Arc’…….are you ready for your close-up?

    I’ve got my crew taking all the Brown M&M’s out , maam…

    so, where’s the Jobs?….and didn’t you guys say you were going to push the spending back to 2008 levels?

    You haven’t quit anything lately, have you?

    lol

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    You action may seems small and perhaps it is, but it’s *where* you decided to take your action that is the big deal. Just as $5 may be a small bet, but placed on the right horse would give a BIG payout.

    Except betting on PC work is not a long shot.

  • Brian Hibbert

    Congratulations and thank you.

  • C. Marie

    learning how the grassroots get plugged in by mass precinct meetings.
    South of Macon our committees are small; my precinct committee has two folks on it, both of us newbies!
    We may be small but I figure we are like David with a slingshot and smooth stones, ready to make a difference in a big way!

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Do you understand me? – And no, you do not get to make a snarky comment in response. A simple “Yes, Moe” will be acceptable, and in fact will be the *only* response acceptable.

    Next post, please.

    Moe Lane

    PS: Actually, I have an *excellent* sense of humor. You just aren’t funny.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …having looked up the posting history: I am even ANGRIER now. You KNOW better than to logroll people who are tentatively trying their first steps to improve our party and our country. I EXPECT better from people who have been here as long as you have been.

  • Newton E. Mchuckney

    I was playing off Ron’s comment…

    just wanted to make her smile, I really am her biggest fan

    sorry for the misunderstanding

  • SoFiMil

    You’ve inspired me regarding some non-political matters I’ve been mulling over.

    God speed.

  • jstjoan

    that somehow I’ve inspired you when I was so afraid to get involved because of my reclusive lifestyle. But I’m finding out it’s true that the first step is really the hardest one but I know I’m an intelligent enough thinker to figure things out with a little guidance.

    I wish you the best.

  • patrickdalroy

    and attended the local meeting in my area of Fulton. The meeting was pretty well attended (60 or 70 people). There were some local elected officials in attendance, three of whom spoke about current issues in their respective jurisdictions. After that, the people got together by voting precinct. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was the only one in attendance from my precinct. The chairman of the meeting said “Congratulations, you’re a precinct chairman”. So I’m also wondering what I have gotten myself into, but on the other hand I look forward to learning more about this process and helping to shape the direction of the party in my state.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    I hope you’ll write a Diary about your experiences! You will inspire others to follow in your footsteps!

    Thank you for getting into the real ball game of politics — party politics. You will have lots of great experiences!

    Thank you again,

    ColdWarrior

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    You can look for help and support here on RedState, but more importantly, there is a place for you at PROCINCT.net as well. the Georgia group is at

    http://party.procinct.net/group/georgia

    …and PROCINCT.net is intended to be a place where you can exchange ideas and compare notes *after* you become a PC as well as helping you become one.

    We have a national alliance that has a stake in your success as a PC, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

    …and please do take CW’s advice below to post a full diary on your experience and your hopes for the GOP in GA.