Okay, welcome. Give a few minutes for folks to join.
Jessica Dolly, oh my gosh, there's some awesome people joining us. Hi,
everyone. Hello,
hello,
just a minute for folks to join you.
Hey, hey.
I thought when I hit, admit all that everyone would come in and just be let in, but I keep having to hit it all right, we've got some really amazing people on this call. Hi, everyone. I'm going to go ahead and get started, just real quick, for those who don't know me, my name is Amy Pritchard. I use she her pronouns, founder of game power, and I am the organizer of this call. And just for everyone's benefit. It is being recorded. It is being recorded for both note taking and follow up with folks. So if you don't want to be on camera or anything like that, not going to share the meeting publicly. I'll share notes from the meeting, but I'm excited to see so many friends here and so much interest, obviously, in bringing back roots camp. I wanted to give a little bit of context for why we're holding this meeting. But also, we had about 30 people sign up. There's 15 Here I am, just for the sake of conversation, maybe we've got time to go around. Let's do a quick round of introductions. This isn't too big to not do that. I'm going to start with Stephanie, who is my partner in crime right now no yoga, who is our executive director of game power. And just real quick for introductions, besides Name and organization, maybe or experience with root camp would be helpful to know, and your interest in it in this moment would also be helpful to know. Steph to you.
Hey everyone, welcome to your holiday week. So you know, as Amy mentioned, I'm Stephanie Noguera. I'm the Executive Director of game power, new as executive director since April, but not new to gain, and super grateful that gain is around and still able to do what we do. My interest level. Obviously, I'm very interested in conversation around having another roots camp. I consider myself an organizer. I've been an organizer for 20 plus years, and this is something kind of near and dear to me. So in any event, I'm really just happy to be here with everyone and really looking forward to conversation around, you know what interest levels are. All right, I'm going to pop this over to Doug.
Hey, everyone. I'm Doug Foote. I'm a digital strategist based in Stanford, Connecticut. But before that, I was in DC for many years and attended many, many roots camps from like 2010 to 2018, 19, yeah, and even the online ones. So excited to be with you all. Popcorn to Doyle.
Thanks, Doug. I'm Doyle canning. She her great to be with you all today. Somehow I ended up here from a thread that was on LinkedIn that was like, Hey, we should do a ROOTSCAMP. And I was like, I'm totally into that idea. How can I help? So here I am. I am based out in Oregon. Today I'm in Washington, but I typically live in Oregon, and it's wonderful to be here with you. I work mostly in consulting, and feel like this is a very, very, very difficult time, and the my, my only impulse is to try to move forward. Is to get people together and try to figure out how we move forward. So I want to be part of making that happen. So thank you for pulling this together, and I will pass it to Rebecca.
Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Rebecca Thompson. Pronouns are she, her, hers. I am based in Baltimore, but I'm from Detroit. I am the new managing director of strategic initiatives at repower, and I have attended a few roots camps back in the day. But also I'm just really interested in the intersection of sort of the roots camp of the past, but also the current work of free power, particularly we'll be doing camp repower. And so trying to figure out we'll be doing this in March, trying to figure out where the intersections are, and if this could be sort of a bridge or pathway to that. So that is my interest, and I'm going to pass it to Billy.
Why not? Oh, no, Hi, sorry. I'm walking out of the gym, so I'm not rude. Hi everyone. Hi Rebecca. Amy, thanks for pulling us together. I'm just excited for this to happen, and all the things people said and and we'll try to be helpful with fundraising and bringing people there. Oh, and I can't see anyone, so I'm gonna pass it to whoever wants to go next.
Sam is like, I can't I don't know your name, if that's what your name is, cm
or Caleb, Michael. I'm Digital Director at New America based in DC, but live in Kansas City, Missouri. I recently moved back to take care of family. Yeah, I attended roots camps and 2010, formative years of my experience and so really excited about seeing the thread on LinkedIn, and excited to throw down and support however I can, from here and afar, throw it over to Sharon.
Hey everybody, I'm Sharon Solomon. I use any pronouns. I just came off of the campaign as the Virginia Data Director, and have done a lot of organizing and some event stuff. I attended two in person, roots camp and I'm trying to think of what you're. it's, you know. sometime between. like. 2015. and 2020. I wasn't a couple of them, and just really loved the event, and just eager for. folks. to gather. and. really. interested you know i. got some time. so like. interested. to dive in. and get. as involved as. I can and. planning it.
Who?
Jessica, have you gone?
Yes.
Greetings. There we go. Sorry. I'm new at this zoom thing. My name is Jessica Tully. My pronouns are she her? I'm zooming in from unceded Ohlone land in Oakland, California. I am here on behalf of Megan Hall. Sometimes I get to work with her some on some of the greatest efforts of many of you are friends and familiars from and I'm also a cultural worker, and I do a lot in the cultural space with various art projects, also to scale nationally, and just trying to remember if I've got to go to roots camp, I've just always maybe long time fan. Maybe I didn't actually make it, but I've been checking for you all for a long time. So glad to be here. Thank you. And who hasn't gone?
Am I saying that right? Go ahead,
yamala. Thank you. Against yamala, my pronouns are she hers? I just hopped off the campaign in Detroit, Michigan. I work in voter protection for the Michigan Democratic Party over in Detroit, and I know I haven't been to roots camp, but I think I've been to many conferences, and I know even 10 years how robust the work was, about having the conversations about talking about what the soul the Democratic Party was, and how earnest and how hopeful those conversations were. And maybe other folks have that kind of nostalgia as well, and I just remember how amazing bootscamp was and I think this past cycle, I think there were a lot of kind of cultural changes in our party that I think a lot of folks have opinions about, but positive and negative, and I want to make sure that we have a space for those conversations, which is why I really think ROOTSCAMP is really important. Natalie Rojas, have you gone yet?
No, yeah. Hi everyone. I'm Natalie. I use she her. I am with Jess grinnin firm, simple majority. Jess grinn is very familiar with ROOTSCAMP. I've not gotten the pleasure to go to one yet, but our whole firm was really excited and wanted to jump in. She wanted to be on this call, so she apologizes, but I'll be taking notes for her. And yeah, we just kind of want to see how and where we can support awesome second Natalie. Natalie Stockard,
yeah, Hi, I'm Natalie Stockard. She her. I'm here for a couple of reasons. I think I can be helpful, because I have a many year career in project coordination and kind of lower lower runs of project management. And for myself, I'm looking for my encore career. I would like it to be in some kind of Democratic leaning function, you know, something that I feel is good for the country. So getting involved in games seemed like a really good way to meet the right people.
Cool Irene, hi,
Can y'all hear me? Hi. Irene Lin, I went to roots camp a few times, very sad about analyze demise. And I specialize in rural and agriculture, and I have been warning for years about Democrats overlooking flyover country. I spent this cycle as Sharon Brown's deputy political director, where I was in charge of Appalachia rural outreach, as well as Asian American and so I think I bring a perspective of having learned about these issues and feeling increasingly alien, frankly, in a lot of progressive spaces, and want to help Ruth's camp have inclusive space for everybody.
Okay, Josh, you just popped in. We're putting on the spot. Just name attachment to roots camp while you're here.
Hey, my name is Josh, I guess you know, went to some great formative roots camps, many, many years ago. I think, honestly, one of the best talks about the movement I've heard was that was given at a roots camp. I really enjoy the uncomfort structure in the past, and I tried to replicate it in various form, you know, in various ways at other forums. So thank you for creating this forum.
Awesome. Do I miss anyone? Forgive me if we did. My gallery is not showing everyone here too, so looks like we called on everyone on this awesome. Okay, Samina,
we forgot to call on Samina.
Oh, sorry she's not on my Oh, on my so I'm trying to get my to look but same, please.
Yeah, hi, based in LA, but was also in Michigan, on the same team with cm. Love working on GOTV, but, and haven't been to a rates camp, but I'm sort of was an unlikely person to be in Michigan for the Democratic Party, since I've challenged a Democratic incumbent and been concerned about the direction of the party for many years. So but thought this looked like an interesting and important discussion.
Awesome. Thanks. Well, I'm going to give folks a little bit of context of why we pull this call together and why gain power, at least in the moment, and maybe because it seems like there's mixed experiences here, at least my top line history with ROOTSCAMP. So ROOTSCAMP was started as many of you know who was Judith Freeman and Zach Exley at noi, someone else is joining here. Launched it, I want to say 2009 it was definitely a post election conference after Obama and noi hosted it for several cycles, post selection generally. And around the DC area, there were some spin offs of it. So there were some local iterations of it in different places. And I'm not going to I know some of it, and I don't pretend to know all of it, so I'm just going to say that about it. But for those who clearly have participated, and if you haven't, I think the thing that made was camp unique is everyone's used, or some have used, the phrase unconference, was that it really didn't have any agenda set up in advance. In some cases, quite literally, it was just a blank wall and people, there was breakout rooms, and there was people could come and put a session idea up on the wall, and people would go to that room, and if no one went to that room, that session didn't happen. And those people maybe went to another room, and there were definitely some marquee speakers and and more. And when noi closed, it passed it off to Wellstone, and Wellstone hosted it for a cycle, and then Wellstone became repowering. And Rebecca, I'm not gonna speak on behalf of repower but I will say, and this is where game power comes in. In 2020, some of us got together to host What was the last roots camp, but also the only real virtual only roots camp. And and we gain power. And for some of you know, we were democratic gain before 2020 we've been gain power since 2020 we, along with repower and networks, nation and organizing 202, 2.0 and the democracy initiative, I'm going to mess that one up. There were five organizing committees, we came together and decided we would take the lead on it collectively and gain power. Actually asked us acted as the fiscal host, and which is to say we took all the money and then we distribute it out to and that's that's just really the most simple way to describe it. I'm not going to get into all the finances, but I will mention a few, because it's relevant to our decision, you know, to go forward with it. But you know, in 2020 we raised and spent almost 200,000 just putting it together. Most of that went to staffing and to the tech platforms. And the staffing was combination of the organizing committees themselves and then a bunch of you know, support staff to do everything from content creation to recruitment, etc, etc. So for anybody who wants a more detailed report, I'm one or more transparent people on the planet, so I'm happy to provide it at some point. So I'm just doing that because I don't want to get into the weeds here, but to me it's relevant, because it's not, it's not an inexpensive endeavor. It has been held, you know, in person. Well, the ones that I remember there was once, once, it was in DC, at the convention center. I was at the NEA at least twice that I remember once in Baltimore. And someone can jump in, because I those are the ones I remember. I know, like I said, it's held in other places. So, you know, we have not felt like we, you know, owned boots camp or it really, although I did just go out and buy the name, but that's because I just sort of tired of it not existing in any real place. But you know, Rebecca and Steph and I talked a little bit before the election about potentially doing it. And Rebecca said, If you organize, it will help. Is that fair? Rebecca, you can jump in and speak for yourself here.
Well, what I will say is, I saw the message in the chat from Irene, rest in peace. Well, stone action, yes, rest in peace. And I will say that, you know, I think this is potentially an exciting opportunity for repower. We're in the process, literally, I'm writing the sort of strategic analysis around what strategic partnerships we say yes to in 2025 what is the criteria for that? What is the impact and what is the alignment? And so before I can say yes, it's a commitment, what I will say is, I think that there is an interest in figuring out how to continue this relationship, particularly because one, I am a product of that nostalgia and like, remember what it felt like to be in that room, and particularly from the lands of women of color and trans and gender and non conforming folks. We want to make sure that those spaces feel safe and that they exist right. So we know like camp free power is one anecdote to that, but there will need to be many for kind of what is ahead of us for the next four years. So all that to say is I'm really excited for Amy to sort of help lead the charge on this. And so what I'm hoping to be able to do is be able to take some more information back to our leadership team and continue that conversation.
And it's worth noting. Thank you for that. Rebecca, it's worth noting that I did reach out to the other organizers who are not on this call, but that included Elena 11 from networks nation and organizing, to our Brittany Baxter, who had been with us. And I thought birthday was actually joining today, but she's not here yet. So, you know, before kind of going outside, I really wanted to make sure I went back to the folks who did the last roots camp. And so there's not much more to tell you other than that, other than you know, we have not we are willing and eager, I would even say, to convene people, if the will is there, we did not, candidly, have the capacity to manage pulling it off before the election. And I all I mean by before is to plan it so that we were announcing it and having it already be in place. So here we are. You know, we have some very big questions about it, and was hoping to get some feedback from folks. But the biggest question, because we can kind of do anything, is the where, when, right, sort of obvious, right, where, where, when. And I assume, but like, I'm going to pause and let folks jump in. If anybody wants to chime in here, I'm assuming that bringing it back in person would be preferred, but I don't need to tell everyone, especially as folks here, all from all over the country, that involves a lot more, you know, expense and you know, anyway, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be hybrid, by The way, but, you know, hosting it in person is just a decision we'd have to make sooner than later. I can tell you just pragmatically, given where we are in this moment and what I think it takes to pull it off successfully, it would not be in December, I think the earliest. Oh, here's a Lin. There we go. It's, let's see if she's actually coming yet. I think January is as soon as we could pragmatically pull it off, you know, and much later than that, I think it starts feeling like it's something else, you know, that it's not a post election event, it's a, you know, a future event. And that doesn't mean it shouldn't be a little bit of both. Elana, are you on? I saw you joined? Can I put you on the spot? If you are, if you're not prepared? Yeah, I'm
here. I'm here. Sorry, I literally just came on. So I've heard no, let
me, let me, let me just tell let me just recap. Just real quick. So Elana, you'll introduce yourself. But she's joining from networks nation organizing two, oh, and just the queen of training, I will say. But was one of our core partners when we did this in 2020 online, and Elana, we really just did a little bit of introductions, and I gave a little bit of context of 2020 and so I just said you were one of our partners, and you might join. So here you are, and all I was where we're at the point of saying, you know, we hadn't decided 100% even do this. What we've decided is to see what the interest was, and that, pragmatically, we would not do it in December, but we probably do it in January. So now I'm putting you on the spot to say hello, give your personal intro, if you're able. It looks like you're muted still. Sorry, yes,
I'm from the crew organizing 2.0 that has been doing digital strategy conferences, organizing conferences aimed at folks in the labor movement and community based organizations and local campaigns. And we went really national. It began as an online when we pivoted our previously in person event to an online only event. We haven't held an event as organizing 2.0 in a little while now, but I'm interested in seeing what folks have capacity to do with this. I'm particularly interested in exploring hybrid options. So
on that point. I mean, I just started to, I just started wanted to give some space, because this was not such a big group, that if folks wanted to chime in with thoughts, opinions, would very much welcome them. I think in the spirit of ROOTSCAMP Keeping it informal, we're keeping this call informal, but would love to hear anybody who wants to jump in. And if you I can call on you, I am still playing with a speaker only in my views. You think I enough to hear, but if anyone wants to either raise their hand or come in, we're not that big group. And if you don't, that's okay too. You know, I think that state the obvious. I mean, we're all lived in this hybrid, online, offline world a few years now. It's not new to any of us. I think that doing something in person would feel really great. It would also feel like a lot more work and a lot more money, and would not be quite as inclusive, because it's not as accessible to everyone. I think hybrid is, you know, not that much more challenging. It also adds yet another expense, though. So I guess the expense is probably the biggest thing from my mind, but I would love to hear somebody Victoria is joining again, if anybody wants to add or Billy questions about, I mean, it's a little bit chicken or egg. I think on the days, I will tell you this just my thoughts, and that's all they are. They are not fully formed, and part of it is just getting some of this feedback. But, you know, I'm aware of and there's, you know, just another, you know, half a dozen, what I would call community events that take place in the space that start happening as early as February and so. And I think if this is meant to be what it has been, which is really a debrief on the election, like I said, the further we get away from the election, the further people's minds and headspace are, and so, you know, I would like us to make a decision in the next week or two, certainly shortly after Thanksgiving, my immediate thoughts were, and again, very open to hearing others. I say this as someone who spends a fair amount of time in DC, of not wanting it in DC, but that's certainly been in around where it has been, you know, or around there Virginia feels like a good alternative, where it's close there, but it's still not central, but partly because of their elections and some other thing going on, and the opportunities for organizers who might be looking for I mean, keep in mind, I'm wearing my game power hat, not just a ROOTSCAMP hat. So from the game power you know, what we focus on is supporting people finding work, right? And we want people to continue to do the work. And we look at ROOTSCAMP as a space to hear and to listen and to learn, but also for networking and connections to be made to help people find jobs. So Virginia feels like a good place for that. But if a certain organization or donor or somebody else were to jump in and say, really want it to be an X, fill in the blank, because we have a venue and it's affordable and accessible, very open to other thoughts on that. But love to hear, especially some of you west coasters who probably get irritated by the East Coast centric world of some of us politicos, your immediate thoughts on any of that?
Well, I think, for what it's worth, as a West coaster. I actually, I think having since, there's not a lot of time to organize it like the most simple solution is probably what we're looking for. And it sounds like in the past, it was held at NEA in Washington. I mean, that's, I don't want to come to Washington again. But if that keeps it affordable and simple to organize, then I think that's very important, as we decide if and how to move forward in an ideal world, if we had more time, more funds, etc, etc, it would be fantastic to have it not be in Washington. It would be fantastic to have it be in like an Arizona or a Detroit or Philly, even to really hear from the folks who worked on the ground in those states about about their perspectives. I
I muted
myself when roots camp was in Baltimore. And, you know, people carpooled. You know, people found their way there Mark train. And a lot of times Baltimore is cheaper than DC and some of these other places. So I'm not sure what led to the decision for it to be there that year, but I think it worked. It worked great.
I know we've got at least one Baltimore cheerleader on this call. I don't know if she'll chime in, but, um,
having anything in Baltimore, Amy, so,
um, obviously, networks was just in Baltimore. I mean, I will say I can think of a few venues in Baltimore that are, you know, affordable, ish, not free. You know that certainly we could call upon and their airport is certainly on the more affordable side of airports, you know, in terms of volume of flights and frequency of flights. So I would certainly keep it on the list of potential places. And not so far from Virginia. Back to my case about Virginia so but again, looking for the you know. I mean, here's so full transparency. I have no interest in running this, and we probably will need someone to run it like tomorrow and Steph, not a position of it either. We are going to be. We are very much happy to be sort of like organizing committee people, like probably many of you. So that's something else we'd have to figure out soon later. We've had some, some of our previous supporters suggest they would support it, but we just have to sort of say yes, we're doing it before we're actually asking for money. So again, was really just looking to see what kind of support there is here for there's, you know, I threw up a post, but many of you may have seen on sub stack, because I also thought it might be nice to just start building a little bit of the history and a place and kind of just have a site that we kept up that wasn't just an event, so that's why I chose that. But you know, we've got like 60 people signed up for that since I posted it Friday, and we didn't push it very hard. Sam, there you're raising your hand.
Yeah, it feels like, since we're trying to come to a decision on, like, a sooner time frame that like these, everybody here, like, is interested in seeing this exist in some form or fashion. And like, I think just answering the, like, small questions of, like, Should we do this in January? Like, straw, Poli, yes or no. And then, like, figuring out, is it, you know, virtual, or is it hybrid yes or no? Like just answering those small questions that are before us, and then I mean the agenda that you have put together, you know, already outlines committees and things like that, which I think is super helpful, and just seeing where there's interest and where we may have gaps that we may need to fill, because if we don't have somebody willing to step up and lead on the on, on putting this together, then, like, we're back at square one. And so I, you know, in the interest of, like, we have 27 more minutes allotted in this conversation, and like, making sure that there's clear, measurable outcomes from this conversation, that, like, there are people here that are, you know, interested in supporting, seems like, you know, from an institutional perspective, there's folks with hard skills and soft skills and online skills and offline skills. And, you know, I'm really excited about this, but I would love to leave this conversation, you know, being able to be a cheerleader, if we're having it, and if not, be able to be a cheerleader for camp repower, if that's what's necessary to get our folks driving behind for next year.
Elana,
I'm messaging with Charles, who is not able to join right now, but is happy to be involved in a operations position. And I know that operations is a harder job to fill than programming, generally speaking, for these sorts of events, so I was glad to hear that he said he'd be available. I'm down to do that. I however, am not available in an operations facility at this point, but would be very happy to do outreach to my list and put, you know, put some thought into programming and things like that. But yeah, my thing, one other thought about Baltimore is my, my or, I guess I should want a potential thing to consider as an option would be to do, what the Christ, I wasn't a good debrief just last week that was run by, I don't remember, somebody can remind me later, but it was, it was all online, and then there was a social hour, and in person in DC. I did not go to the social hour in DC, but I thought that was an interesting way to handle being able to throw it together live, you know, immediately it was held on Zoom. We went to different rooms for breakouts, you know, it went, it was pretty easy that way. And then have the social piece, you know, be the in person aspect, believe me, I am very aware of the complications of doing expenses and doing things hybrid. Like it's much easier to just do online or do offline, and doing both gets like complicated, but I think in some ways the easiest might be online with a social hour, not even an hour social a socializing section that would be in person in DC or in they could be other people could bottom one and other places too, if they wanted in that evening, or something like that, I don't know, or maybe the day after. So folks are, if they're not fried or, I don't know, some thoughts, oh and Yes, Billy brought a great point in the chat there about post inauguration versus, I mean, yeah, we don't want to do this inauguration weekend, because that's going to be terrible. Yeah.
I mean, the only thing, and I want to hear yours, but on, is, I know there are marches right before that, which is bringing a lot of people. So I actually thought maybe it does make sense around the marches, but I say that as someone who's not really interested in the marches right now, but that's just me.
Yeah, I think that, I think the portion, I think that there's going to be some non profit organizations bottom lining, some kinds of actions that are tied to the inauguration. And so it's going to be one of those splits where, like, if you're a campaign, election, electoral person, it's not, you're not doing it. But if you're like, you know, with a with a political c4 or, you know, a street level activist. You might be
Sharon. You've had your hand up, hand up. Sorry, yeah.
I mean, I've been thinking. I mean, time is so helpful. But also had kind of been thinking before or during inauguration, just because of the change in tone of like, what the event becomes I feel like after inauguration. But I, you know, I think, I think, certainly there's very good arguments to have more time. I'm curious hearing it seems like one of the things that hinges on is like a lead person to step up, is that a person, is it an organization like, what is needed for that role?
Forgive me. I mean, I mean, I think we'll write a job description, but just just going back the last time we did it, we just sort of divided up. We didn't have a singular person. And I think right now we need that, but I'm saying that is now the person who somehow jumped out in front of this. And now I need to find someone who really wants to do it. It isn't me. So we've, we've definitely wanted to sort of get feelers from different organizations who, whether you have capacity or not, you know, I mean, it's not a lack of available talent right now, that's clear and but it's, it's not a it's not a small project, like I said, having having gone through it a few years ago, and other iterations. I mean, we do an awards program, and we've got some other stuff going on as well. I think just having someone who truly owns it, and they could work for us, or they could be in kind of and be with another organization. That's why I'm reluctant to say it has to be a person, not an organization. But so I'm like blinded by the sun. I also have been getting distracted because my cleaning service apparently showed up today without telling me my alarm is going off at my house. I'm trying to figure not my house I'm in as we sit here, so forgive me for a minute here.
Amy, if it's okay, I'm just gonna jump in real quick, please. So for me, this is great, because I'm I'm really just learning too, right? Like, where, where is everyone on on this, right, and who's available? And so I think this is definitely a first conversation, right? Amy, and I think for me too, I would love to know, you know, I don't have every event that's happening in December, January, February, out there. You know, we're trying to put together a list of those in our community, right in our space. But does anyone here have any info or intel on events that could be similar, just to make sure we're covering all those bases and talking to folks who may be organizing something similar? Anyone know of anything during that time that we just want to be aware of, feel free to just come off mute, not
anyone else jumping In. I mean, I'll tell you the ones that I ones that I think about, and I know there are plenty of others, but, you know, just ones that I normally go to include bisque, which I think is definitely later America votes gathering their conference, obviously, network nation, much later in July. And I know there's some more like issue specific ones. I feel like those are the big sort of collectives, anyway, that's not even getting into which, by the way, maybe is worth looking at the DNC meeting itself, the chairman's chairpersons race, that whole thing. So there are other gatherings.
I miss anything obvious. I know there's some digital like couple.
There's the state PARTY CHAIRS Association in Scottsdale. Yeah, it's week after right? And then after the first of the year, there'll be the Polly's, the reeds and AV bisque. I think you covered those. Amy,
yeah, yeah. So,
I mean there are definitely some there's definitely some others. I certainly don't want to overlook anyone, and I don't presume that I know them all off the top of my head, those are just the ones that I come to from participating in, generally speaking. And I assume there'll be more you know, different ones planning our new resistance, opposition, whatever we're calling ourselves now these days, as a giant collective movement work. So in any case, well, I'm gathering from this call, and, like I said, there's some others here. Oops. Sharon, sorry, go ahead. Did you want to or is it just still up? Yeah,
no, I am open to like helping traffic cop and or not traffic cop, the airline direction thing, or traffic control this, you know, I think that like that, that would be assuming that it's in January specifically, just because I'm looking for my next gig, and that's like a good amount of time where that would work for me. And also assuming that there's, like, support and lots of teamwork from lots of other people. But I think that, like, yeah, I would be,
I mean, again, and this was, you know, the most recent one, we had five core organizations and dozens of others that were sponsors, and that was the 100% virtual one. So I think the biggest thing is just getting the date and location, sort of, like I said, I think anything else can be built from there. And there's, you know, I can say, from the various DMS I've had and others, there's definitely interest. And if we can, you know, get a couple of more things in place. Like I said, I really, I'm very not just because I have some other personal things too, but I'm very personally reluctant to kind of own it, if you will, right? And I think we just sort of jumped in because we did last time. And, you know, I'm, I mean, I kind of go back and forth on whether it should be its own committee, and, you know, its own entity, and it just has an organizing committee, and that is a rotating thing, and, you know, that's like, even just that is a whole planning process, right? And so I think that's part of what we'd like to see happen, is because it does feel like something incredibly valuable for everyone who participated, right? And no one else has said, Oh, we don't need to do a couple of people have asked, like, Steph, you asked before the call. Someone said, Well, isn't that? Where it's that? And I said, Well, networks is fantastic, and we all love it. It's in July, right? And I think there's some thing to the timing of it, and even others may want to chime in on that point. I still try to keep up with the chatter on the chat here too.
Yeah,
so I don't know if I replied, but I mean, I can ask an NEA, that's an easy ask. It may not be an easy answer. We had attempted to use them previously, because we've also we've done some other events with NEA, and for a while they were not allowing outside groups anymore. I don't know if that rule has changed. It was in place for a year or two post pandemic. So I haven't gone back to ask, but I will ask Karen White, some of you may know Karen. She's been in Italy. She's just getting back today. I happen to know this, so I will reach out to her and ask about NEA specifically, because it works, because it both has a very big space, for those who aren't familiar with the venue, and lots of breakout rooms, and actually has really two big spaces, has a giant lower level auditorium, and then it's this sort of beautiful atrium area as well, and lots and lots of breakout space. So that can be an easy question to get answered, and then the answer will help, you know, inform, I guess from there. Amy, just jumping in because I'm going to
help. I want to help facilitate some of the questions coming in. So there is a question about Kickstarter. So if was it, has it been used in the past when you were setting up roots camp before for the virtual event? You know, have you done it before? And do you think it's something that would be helpful in setting up? Just to gage funny, I
thought about what I like about kick I so I do not believe it has ever been used. I thought about it. I thought about it even in advance of this call putting it out there. I think the one thing that makes Kickstarter unique is that the group doesn't get the contribution until it's fully funded, right? So the money goes back and it's easy to so like that platform in particular, feels like a good one. I looked at GoFundMe, so maybe that's it. Maybe we say we're only going to do this if we raise I get 200 I don't know, like I said, the other thing that's worth noting is, and I'm not saying this to, like, blow it up to millions and millions, but you know, in the past, the excess funds, if you will. Well, our excess funds, we did actually have some excess funds, went to a post report. But it's sort of obvious scholarships right to fly people there, you sort of, it's kind of like you get the basics, and then there's a lot of people, if you do it in person, obviously the expense alone becomes not something valuable for a lot of people, right? And therefore excludes a lot of people. Hybrid can certainly make that feel better, but you know, other questions, please. Sorry, I'm both blinded and completely distracted by the fact that my cleaning company showed up without telling me
they were Amy, there's a question. Amy, sorry, there's a question from Victoria on how many people have showed up in the past for turnout. So I guess maybe we start with that.
I mean, Billy, the answer spot on. They it grew. And that's why it sort of changed venues, by the way, it outgrew NEA now maybe because it hasn't happened in a while. I remember the convention one was huge. That's, that was probably the 2000 ish one, and so
it was huge. The area, I remember the number off top my head. I dropped Charles a line because he might, he might recall
the in person one, or the virtual, virtual, oh, I probably have that too somewhere it was, it was not small, though, like, it was at least 500 Right? Like, no, I
think it was like over 1000 That's right.
I have to go back in that as if, yeah, and Seth off today. Seth still works with us, but he worked. He kept tracked a lot of our Yeah.
So it was not small. And again, it's, I mean, it's just such a different world right now, and I don't think any of us even fully understand what kind of world it is. And so you've got a lot of people who, like us, have been part of it and and have, I guess you might call the nostalgia for it, and a lot of who've never heard of it and have no association or tied to it, and might be interested or might not, I don't know. I mean, anyway, yeah, it is. It's, I mean, we will just from this alone, I can tell you some action items that will come out of this. We will, for sure, look at the NEA and dates and a couple other venues in Baltimore and in Virginia. We will write a job description for a person who could be on our payroll. And or if there was an organization who is open to hosting this or in kinding as part of their contribution, we would, we would welcome that as well. And so we'll do a follow up from this meeting of the next week action item, I think that's reasonable. One week from today. I'm just saying that off the top of my head, forgive me here, but there is clearly enough interest, and like I said, beyond this call, quite a lot of DMS and sign ups already. We have the list. We have Elana. I'm pretty certain we have the same list. But we would obviously check with Charles and you on that from who's participated in the past. I will say the other thing that we did, and part of the way we split it up, too, was Elana and Charles did the more, what I would call traditional roots camp, part of it. And so what that ended up being in the virtual world was, rather than a big whiteboard in a building, was a an open call for panel suggestions and a sort of upvoting on that process. And then on game power side, we actually, we organized a variety of sessions that were much more career focused on, you know, how to find work and, yeah, where to go next. And they were both very popular. And there was, I don't even remember Lana, but we had, there was some crazy number of sessions over
we it was a crazy number of sessions, you know, I some, I really Victoria's suggestion in the chat about regional locations at the same time with multiple people planning for local ones. I mean, we were just talking in the chat earlier about how we thought that the biggest on the biggest in person years at ROOTSCAMP, it got unwieldy and hard to work as an in an unconference format. And I think in some ways, having it be more decentralized handles the question of, how do we keep it from, you know, being unwieldy in those ways. But then it brings you to the Whoa, decentralized event. Decentralized event is like so much more effort to coordinate so that that there's definitely appeal. I saw that comment, and I think it's really appealing, but it's also like, wow, you know, definitely there's, like, you've got a situation, like, somebody's go, like, Yeah, I'm gonna go do one in my town. And then you find out that they're doing it, you know, a very, very terrible job of managing it. And turns out that person's actually really a racist, and we didn't know, or, you know what I mean, like, you go out, I don't have a real vetting process for that kind of thing or Yeah, but I do think that there's something about keeping it local for different groups that addresses some of the travel and scale of the event itself, you know.
And so for the ones that I did. I can't believe I didn't even bring this up as an option, but I did look into both some of the history here. We have some docs. I feel like you might have this. I feel like they were part of our shared but certainly back to things that can be improved upon. We could, we could, what I would call upgrade the sort of roots camp on a box stock right, and allow folks to do it locally, if people wanted to be part of it and have it work that way. But I think for now, certainly within our realistic capacity, one in person event with, you know, some of it filmed, and some are, you know, made online so that it's hybrid, and find some other ways to make it more collaborative. On the hybrid version of it, I think is about what we could at least envision. But I do think having this be something that folks are encouraged to consider doing locally, and that there's a format, and if people wanted to kind of CO brand and share something, certainly we'd be open to, and I can't believe anyone wouldn't, but to your point, then it gets into vetting and all sorts of stuff that I'm not sure, at least in the moment I'm can think completely about. So anyway, we are coming up on the hour, and I wanted to make sure that we don't go over that. You know, I shared an agenda couple points. I'll let other folks jump in here, but I mean, there's, it's a lot of work. It's definitely a lot of work to do this well, and so I'm excited that folks are interested and are willing to be part of supporting it in some way, shape or form. Sam, did you Yeah, I
just had one last thought, just as you're working over the next week and it's a holiday week, would there be maybe appetite for those of us who may be interested in this decentralized approach, to have, like, a sub working group that can connect over the next week and and kind of talk through how that would work, and bring back to maybe a larger group, what that could look like. I think there's interest in that. I think, you know, like in Kansas City, we have the Kansas City tenants union that's like, doing amazing work that could be a lead, you know, on the organizing, organizing front here, there's, you know, local orgs all across the country that could take on those and, you know, maybe we fundraise for small stipends or other things to support that work. But I think it'd be helpful to kind of think through target cities that would be, you know, have the support, and then potential orgs that could do that work, and then come back to the group and see, you know, essentially a feasibility study over the next week to understand what that would look like, versus having one organized event in, say, Baltimore or Virginia.
That sounds great, awesome. Yeah. I mean, again, to be clear, and part of this is a commitment to what I think is so special about is we're not going to try to own it and control it completely, to be to be super transparent. We have no real interest in that, and I don't think it serves anyone. I think we can take on what, what we'll figure out we can take on with support here. But, you know, I'm sure there is going to be a lot of folks who may want to do something locally, and we would certainly encourage that. So if you were interested in creating a committee, or however you, you know, open to have side conversation with you too, if we can support it or facilitate. But Doug, you just asked, Can I share the emails of people on this call? Can I ask the people if I can share the emails? I don't like sharing people's emails without permission, so if anyone is okay, I will, did everyone copy that agenda? First of all, if not, I'll follow up. But what I'll do is I'll make a spreadsheet.
Yep, share that again. Thank you.
I made a spreadsheet. I mean, I started making some other docs, as you can see. And bear with me here. If people are comfortable again, happy to do that. I'll make a spreadsheet of this call anyway, and happy to do follow up a call maybe, just maybe, next Tuesday. I said Monday, but I'm a little worried of the holiday, and I personally, Steph knows have committed to do something big on Monday. I've got a three hour webinar I'm doing on helping people find their job. So before I offer to do one more thing while I'm not thinking clearly, maybe next Tuesday. And so I say, maybe I'll put out another email with a zoom link, very much like this one. But you know, I guess the one big ask I would have is come to that with what you're willing to do, what you can commit to, whether that's time, whether that's money, whether that's just other ideas of people to participate. That would be very helpful. And I think, you know, I'm going to say just realistically, you know that by the end of next, end of next week, we'd like to have a hard date on the what I'll call the central event, if it's not the singular event, and certainly some ideas of venues and hard dates, if that's viable, I'm not going to promise something. I'm not sure I can pull off, but that I can at least commit to a couple of things, whether it's the NEA or some others there. Yes, there are a lot of people not on this call. Yes, I've heard from many of them. Hence doing this call, because I was like, I can't deal with all this one on one. So grateful that you've all been here, and grateful the others who also were interested. And I'm glad people are interested, because I do think it's a special event. And I think no one said this out loud, but to state the obvious, it's been a rough few weeks, and I say that start to get emotional again, because it's going to be a rough few years. And I think community is an important part of how we get through it. So that's the thing that I'm most grateful for in Ritz camp, is the community of people that I've gotten to know through it, and the people who have always sort of shown up for it, so grateful that you're all here, and yeah, we'll have some more next steps after I've had a chance to talk to everyone, and I will share the switch. I will make a spreadsheet of the context. I will re up the agenda, which clearly we use some of, but not all of it, and we'll come back with some more thoughts some other people have privately. DM me. So I'm enthusiastic about some support that this will be something we get to do. Can you?
Can somebody repost the link to the LinkedIn post that?
Oh yes, Julia Brett,
there it is.
And did someone put it in? I know I had shared it with Rebecca just earlier.
DF did,
yep, I just put it oh, we both got it okay, because I definitely
want to get in on that comment. Conversation. I'd like to, you know, use what I've learned in this new career.
Wonderful. All right, right, on the nose of the hour. So I'm going to call this a map, and appreciate you, and we'll follow up. And feel free to DM me direct whatever. If you have any one off ideas or things that you didn't get to bring up in this hour. Thanks everyone. Thank you.
