(Originally published in my MovableType blog, and consolidated here.)
The Official Blog has comments on the DC Grassroots Summit but I haven't seen any comments on the New York Summit, other than on a mailing list of Dean Rapid Response Network coordinators.
So, here are my comments.
Paul Maslin spoke quite well. I loved his comments about Passionate Patriots. That is what we are, and is a wonderful response to the compassionate conservatives, whom we are finding out to be neither compassionate, nor conservative.
He spoke about a recent poll showing Dean having 23% and Kerry 22% in Massachusettes. I haven't been able to find that poll online, so if anyone can provide a pointer, I would love to see it.
We discussed a Field Organizing Guide with very helpful comments about canvasing and getting out the vote. Fortunately, CTForDean already has a good field plan in place that is doing pretty much what is described in the guide. It was good to see the Connecticut plans validated.
With all of that, I didn't find that I got much for new information from the summit, and I suspect that others who read the blogs and mailing lists regularly, and are involved in organizing, probably didn't get much new information either.
However, what I did, which I consider extremely important, was an opportunity to meet many people face to face that I had developed friendships with online.