In Hana we had a good crowd for our small town and signed up a bunch of new Dems, but very manageable compared to the stories I hear from other sites. It was actually a lot of fun with everyone in very uplifted spirits and joking around, feeling inspired to be part of this historic moment.

I posted some photos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/14159/2164/518/460185

and some folks posted reports from other sites in the comments.

I admit, I am a bit defensive right now… I am blaming it on lack of sleep. Only got about 4 hrs of shut-eye last night.

The vast majority of people at my site last night were gracious and patient. I will do my best to help engage at least a few of them… Those that I can find anyway!

When we are told that we should have seen the crowds coming, I have to smile because I know there was virtually no media interest in the Hawaii caucuses until February 5th. Super Tuesday seems so long ago in people’s minds, but it was only two weeks ago folks. Please adjust your timeframe accordingly.

PDH, and other groups, tried to interest the public and the media in the upcoming caucuses in late January when we held a forum to allow prospective voters to hear from representatives of all the campaigns. We could have done a better job of getting the word out, but I am enough of a fisherman to recognize that the fish weren’t biting at that time. Nor was the Obama campaign getting much interest or attendence at its events at that time. Thousands of new party membership applications were sent out through the campaigns but very few cards were coming back in. The campaigns were accused of holding back the completed cards in order to wage a stealth campaign. But no dice. Nobody was signing up!

In most cases, the schools and parks reserved for the caucuses had to be booked BEFORE any votes had even been cast in Iowa or New Hampshire. At that time the Party had to guess what kind of interest there might be. The more optimistic were assuming the turnout would possibly be about two or three times, due to Obama’s local ties and the assumed organizing skills of the business and professional class folks in the Punahou “extended family.”

As Super Tuesday approached, there was a slight stirring of local interst, but it still expressed itself as potential, rather than actual support. After the Super Tuesday results, interest rose sharply and the local media stories both reflected that interest and helped it expand. The Party phone started ringing off the hook with people asking questions. The Party had had an online membership enrollement form, but only recently was anyone starting to use it. (We ended up taking it down when someone complained that it was not consistent with Party Rules.) So that gave us a guage of interest.

A wave was rising up, but no one could tell how large it would grow. Even a couple of days before the caucus, I talked with a leader of the Obama campaign about possible turnout. I had guessed 15 thousand, give or take 5 thousand, because we had no way to know, He had ventured out onto a limb and guessed 15 to 18 thousand. He was probably the person best positioned to “guesstimate” the turnout and it was over twice what he had projected!

Most people who participated in the caucuses struck as pretty mellow about the inconveniences. I like to think that they are offering criticisms as a means of suggesting improvements. At my meeting, we had problems with the parking so a woman stepped into the lurch and spent two hours helping direct cars out onto the field to park, giving up her place in line to help out. She was not a member of the Party until she came in the door and signed a card two hours later.

I saaw a comment on a blog about how we had run out of ballots at my district and were printing them up onsite that evening. Instead of complimenting us for rising to the occasion, this person was kvetching about our lack of foresight in having enough ballots on hand. I quickly composed a simple ballot in MS Word and printed the mout on sheets, while my friend and his ten year-old daughter cut them by hand. A short while later, a woman walked up with a paper cutter, saying that she was a doctor with an office nearby, saw what we were doing and went to get the paper cutter. She brought along another ream of paper to allow for even more printing.

News stories were repeatedly telling people to download voter registration forms and party enrollments forms from our website, fill them out and bring them with them. Thousands of people did so, but thousands more did not. Because we wanted to allow the maximum number of people to vote, we allowed for voter registration and membership enrollment on location that evening. A “better organized” and more practical operation would have required advanced pre-registration. The Republicans only allowed folks to vote in their BORING caucuses if they had formally enrolled in the Party at least 10 days in advance. Silly us for welcoming all comers and generating lines as a result!

I would guess that the Party gained 25 thousand new members in the last month. Maybe 15 thousand of those are people who waited until the last minute and joined last night. We charge no dues of Party members, because that is too close to a poll tax. The new members can help the Party improve if they are willing to pitch in and help, rather than just vote and run. Just sending a letter to welcome the new members and explain how to get involved will probably cost over ten thousand dollars. We can definitely use some donations. We have upcoming county and state conventions in May and can definitely use lots of volunteers for those events.

I understand that people are busy with their own lives, but that includes the many volunteers currently helping with Party activities, like the precinct caucuses last night. I will be pleasantly surprised if 1% of the 25 thousand new members step forward to volunteer on a consistent basis for Party activities. Of course, the challenge is for the Party to effectively tap that potential support and put it to good use.

New rule: anyone who grumbles gotta stetp forward and volunteer to help. Or to at leaast “buy your way out” with a donation to help pay the expenses of putting on Party events, sending out mailings, maintaining staff, paying the rent.