Members of Bell County TDW hosted a record number of participants for the annual retreat: “Summer in Salado.”  The event was held at the historic Stagecoach Inn in Salado.  Participants began the retreat with a working session designed to provide strategies for attracting and maintaining membership, becoming involved in local communities and winning elections in 2012.

 

Barb Walters of Collin County TDW presented a workshop on leadership.  Participants learned about The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership:  (1)  Modeling the Way, (2) Inspiring a Vision, (3) Challenging the Process, (4) Enabling Others to Act, and (5) Encouraging the Heart.  The presentation included practical tips for communication.

TDW Board Member Caroline Sellars gave a presentation on Online Communication Strategies, focusing on why we communicate online and the most effective ways to do so.  She discussed importance versus relevance of what we post and the three elements that should be central to all TDW communications: Texas, Democrats, and Women. And for almost every reason we communicate online, whether it’s recruiting new members or asking for donations, we found that the best strategy is to always give before you ask.

We can all learn from experiences in other Chapters and counties.  Our luncheon speaker, Katie Naranjo, reported on her recent experience in training for democratic elections in Egypt with the National Democratic Institute.  Most historians agree that in the Middle Eastern Arab Spring the most important democratic revolution happened in Egypt.  Katie described the importance of going door to door to increase participation in demonstrations and showing how you can build your crowd by incorporating all of your cell phone contacts.  While Egypt is a long way away from Texas, the lessons the Egyptians learned and used in their revolution are the same practices we can use in Republican counties to turn out and increase the Democratic vote.