I received an invitation and attended the new Republican National Committee (RNC) outreach program Say It Loud in Denver this past Friday, the 4th time it’s been presented to the general public around the country.
The new GOP surrogate training program is organized into roughly three components: New Media Surrogate, Traditional Media Surrogate, and Panelist and Speaker. The agenda sounded pretty worthwhile and it’s good to see the GOP reaching out to develop and promote activism in the conservative realm. According to RNC Coalitions Director Angela Sailor, they brought their A-team of presenters, consisting of Lenny McAllister, Randa Hudome, and Kathleen Leos.
New Media Surrogate
Lenny McAllister, a political commentator who frequents Fox and from Charlotte, NC, gave a lively overview on “new media” to include social media. While calling it “new media” demonstrates a constrained outlook on using technology and the Internet, his approach to strategies was really good. There were a few people in the room that asked the questions “what is Twitter?” and “how do I use Facebook?,” which there wasn’t time to cover and beyond the scope of his presentation. Note, if this is you, make plans to attend the Peoples’ Press Collective Re|Education Camp on December 5 to get the nuts and bolts of various social media platforms and network with other folks in Colorado using these tools.
Traditional Media Surrogate
Randa Hudome presented the Traditional Media piece of the Say it Loud program. As an accomplished commentator herself, she gave excellent tips and insights on how to prepare a media resume to get on TV or radio, how to remain focused and on point, dealing with the opposition, and pointers on looking good for the cameras. This was a valuable session for activists looking to present their positions on tv and radio.
Panelist and Speakers
This session by Kathleen Leos, was pretty unfocused and I wasn’t able to track her presentation topic to the conversation. She began talking about the five pillars of the GOP making her way through small government and low taxes before falling off message and including education. While education is important and most conservatives are staunch believers in education, many of us don’t subscribe to this being a key function of the federal government. We seemed to have received a 45 minute pep-talk about the Republican Party and never touched on what could have been a great session on how to be an effective speaker or panelist to promote the conservative message.
The New GOP Say It Loud Portal
The RNC is rolling out a new forum as part of its made-over www.GOP.com to connect activists and Say It Loud graduates with the GOP HQ and research staff. While many of the features seem like something that could be handled off a well-run Facebook Group (let’s face it, most of us are already spending time there and it would be easy to access), a neat benefit is being able to request specific statistics and information that Angela Sailor said the RNC research staff would respond to.
Rather than getting information and facts back in talking point format, there were a few of us bloggers in the room that asked them to include links to their source information which is seemed to take a few minutes to understand why we’d want that hyperlinked from the information they’re spoon-feeding.
Don’t get me wrong, this a great idea and I’m personally looking forward to having access to people that can turn around requests for information, but there is a degree of mistrust of the large political party apparatus and we want sourcing on information we’re putting out there to the public.
While we have yet to receive access to the Say It Loud portal for Colorado and don’t know what we’ll find there, the handouts from the session didn’t include the presentation slides nor a Slideshare link (how’s that for new media usage?), which we hope is rectified for future groups.
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Colorado (RNHACO) did a great job organizing this event and I’d like to thank them for all their hard work putting this session together along with thanks for all speakers and RNC organizers of this event.
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Derec, you did not reference the guest speaker (and one of the better speakers) Kathryn Serkes, President and Founder – Square One Media Network. Her focus was to inspire everyone to become a surrogate through what they know and can add to the dialog. She urged the room to understand that we are the experts and have something to say, in a clear, concise level-headed manner. Don’t immediately give away that you are a Republican, but let people judge your ideas on their merit without a party label behind it.
I agree with your assessment of Mrs. Leos. By the time she was done, I had another reason why education is going down the tubes in the United States. The Hispanic community, and the tone of the room were on opposite sides of Mrs. Leos when she defended bilingualism in the classroom.
Lori, thanks for the feedback.
I have to confess I was in the hall talking to Lenny during the Serkes’ presentation and missed it. Thanks for the recap!
I thought it was really interesting that Ms Leos was promoting bilingualism in the classroom and many of the Hispanics there were pushing back as strongly as they were. From their first hand experience, they thought the challenge of having to learn English in a “sink or swim” manner prepared them better for other classes and to function in America rather than having their hands held and not having to adapt as quickly. Like the lady behind me said “what good is it to have so much focus on bilingual education when math, chemistry, and biology are all taught in English.” Well said!
Clarification: I want to clarify the issue raised about bilingual education. The language in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act does not promote any particular language education program approach. The law leaves it open for a community or a district to decide a particular approach based on the community/district goal. There is general agreement that for students to fully participate in math, chemistry and biology, students must master English at high academic levels. The law requires students to learn the academic content and academic English simultaneously to meet the state achievement targets. A question was asked about the approach and I explained the legal requirements stated by the law (because the law had changed) and not personally promoting a particular approach. I hope this helps. For additional information please feel free to contact me. Kathleen
Thank you for the comment and clarification. I enjoyed meeting you and appreciate the outreach!