Thanks for your comments about the Big Island process. I suspected the pre-convention process was open, but I have also been involved with party processes that have NOT been very open to participation, so I am glad to hear from you that things were done fairly.

The Oahu County prre-convention platform committee meetings were open, so far as I know. But the committees proposed platform was very bland in an apparent attempt to reflect “the wide variety of opinions within the Party.” Some of us think the platform should lay out a Democratic vision of the challenges facing us, as well as the Democratic approach towards solving those problems.

Had we been told we could not amend the platform at our county convention, there would have been a riot. Fortunately, the county leadership allowed for amendments and the platform was improved through input from the delegates.

Hope to meet you on Saturday.

-Bart

UPDATE:Oahu Resolutions Now Online

The Oahu County resolutions can now be found on their website by clicking on the “Resolutions” link at the top of the column on the left side: http://www.oahudemocrats.com

The Oahu webmaster, Bill P., has made it very convenient to download individual resolutions by title.

While it is true that all of the proposed resolutions were adopted at the
Hawaii County Convention, at the pre-convention committee meetings there was extensive discussion of each and every resolution. At the convention the heads of
each committee provided the county delegates with a report of what occured at the pre-convention committee meetings. Three of the proposed resolutions were pulled out
at the county convention and discussion, pro and con, was held on each of the pull-outs. Similarly sections of the platform and rules were pulled out and discussed, pro
and con, prior to a vote.

Note: this packet was given to the delegates prior to the convention and contains the proposed Rules, Platform and resolutions. All were accepted without amendments.

Perhaps the pre-convention meetings were open and democratic enough to have hammered out agreements over the documents, but I have reflexive concerns when I hear that EVERYTHING proposed by the leadership has been adopted without any amendments.Oahu County, by contrast, had extended discussion over the resolutions and platform. The platform in particular was much improved by the additions from the delegates. Again, perhaps the pre-convention process allowed for active participation so that the actual convention did not need to do so.

I think it is to the credit of Hawaii County that most of their resolutions deal with problems facing their island, which is not the case for some of the other counties. Yes, we are citizens of the world, and citizens of the United States, but for the county parties to be effective, they have to be rooted in the everyday conditions in their communities and provide a vehicle for local residents to solve local problems, not JUST international problems.

The Hawaii County reso package is more appreciative of this view than that of the other counties.

Kauai passed 10 resos.

By my count, they passed exactly 100 resos, by far the most resos of any county. I believe Oahu passed 24, Hawaii County and Kauai about a dozen each.