After nearly three days together, the Democracy Summer 2009 class is really coming together as a team. This was evident in Friday’s team-building exercises and the Family Feud style game show interns played at the retreat’s end to test their knowledge of what they had learned.
Before that, however, Friday was full of more background training on Democracy NC, including a session on fundraising conducted by our Development Director, Molly Beacham. Student organizers shared their own fundraising success stories and ideas and, in turn, Molly urged them to incorporate at least one fundraising project into their Democracy Summer plans so that they could gain hands-on experience in planning such events and have that experience to put on their resumes. (With so many of our student organizers going on to permanent careers in nonprofit fields, we make an effort to give them training in as many relevant areas as possible as part of Democracy Summer.)
In addition, Chase Foster of NCVCE shared his experiences lobbying the General Assembly and gave the interns a preview of what to expect once they visited Raleigh on policy advocacy trips of their own. They’ll be putting this advice to good use on June 17th when we head over to Raleigh for our annual clean elections Lobby Day. Join us!
Student organizers wrapped things up by sharing their plans for their host communities when they got to work on Monday. By now, our ten interns have settled into their new offices and are finally on the frontline. Check back here later in the week for stories of how they are faring!
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