Bottom Up Politics

Muskegon GOPers had their noon Caucus lunch at the Pizza ranch Monday as usual. What wasn’t usual was the fact that there would be no regular business meeting the following Monday as usual, for the month of December due to the Holidays. Due to that we had a “semi” business meeting at the luncheon.

See the pics below for who attended. A few had left by the time I started taking pictures, for that I apologize.
Click on pics to enlarge







Muskegon Chair David Farhat led the impromptu meeting. He led off by asking for a moment of silence for Susie Hughes to wish her well on her surgery. He told us that Lincoln Day for Musk was to be held at the Oakridge Country Club Friday Feb 12. He said that plans to roast Sen. VanWoerkham were scrapped in favor of a panel of the 4 Congressional Candidates.

Also he told us that he had set up a date for the food truck from Bill Cooper’s “Thanks a Million” food giveaway.
The Candidates present were given a chance to speak, they did. Ken Punter and Holly Hughes talked of the 91st, Bill Cooper talked of the 2nd Congressional District and Goeff Hansen talked of the 34th state Senate Seat.

For both of these David seems to be doing the work, he said they needed volunteers. He will probably call individuals as he needs them later on I would think, he didn’t say. Bill Cooper was there and he said they would need 20-30 volunteers and they were looking for a covered place to hand out the food. The point is there were no committees to do this no one took or actually asked for volunteers, no one gave out contact #s or people to contact if anyone wanted to help.

I know it seems obvious to “us” the regulars that if you want to volunteer to get hold of David or Cooper but to those not in the loop. – Well hey it’ll get done anyway somehow.

As usual we had a nice caucus lunch; I got there early and had 3 helpings of the buffet at Pizza Ranch. If I may; I would suggest to all county chairs, that they continue to try to set up committees at meetings to get more people involved. Always beat the bushes to get more people to come to meetings. As Marlene Chockley said at a Precinct Delegate training I attended in Livingston County that there are a lot of people out there that are waiting to just be asked and will volunteer according to their abilities.

This I know may be harder and actually takes more effort and probably more time but we need to continually reach out to the new members and get them involved.

I will not stop harping on the importance of that. The idea is not to get these events done. Not just keep our little “band of brothers” happy. The idea of County groups is to win elections. We do that by attracting voters; that is the purpose of these events, and the money. Get voters. These events can and should do three things.
1. To give the regular members something, and keep them on focus.
2. To attract new members
3. And to give all a chance to get invested and energized in the party through volunteer efforts.
Through these events we can and should foster a sense of community; a community that is active and growing a community in which people want to join because it is changing the status quo and not a part of it. I name my blog “Bottom Up Politics” for a reason. Our party preaches outreach and individual freedom over top down big government; we need to learn to practice what we preach if we are to have any credibility with the public if we are truly trying to attract them.

I feel we have started; I applaud the Food Truck, our increased efforts at the Salvation Army Bell Ringing, the flag giveaway at the County Fair, the Summer Picnic we had, also the Monthly Caucus we just had. These are all good examples of worthy efforts. We also have the GOP yard signs in the works.

We need to see the opportunity each one of these things represents and not just the event. These things are golden opportunities to attract and involve our members old and new; to keep and expand our base – not by fleeting words but by lasting actions.

David alluded to the fact that the upcoming election in 2010 is vital for the course of our party. He is right, we will either have a huge comeback or not. It is up to the grassroots of the party to make sure we do. It is up to the party to then make sure it means something. We do that by reaching out, really reaching out for new members and making them feel a part of the group, by letting them influence the party because they are a part of the party, make them and all of us feel we will make a difference.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative