The Republican State Convention for this weekend will now be held at the Coliseum!!!!!! Not at the Convention Center as originally planned.
Personally I didn’t know about this change until a Cuccinelli phone bank volunteer called to let me know.
According to the poor overworked, underpaid RPV Staffer I just talked to word went out in an e-mail from Pat Mullins today.
Note to Chairman Mullins: YOU CANNOT BURY SUCH VITAL AND IMPORTANT NEWS DEEP WITHIN A LONG WINDED EMAIL THAT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN FOR CHAIRMAN.
HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE EARLIER AND MUST DO IMMEDIATELY:
1. ORDER THE VERY FRONT PAGE OF THE RPV WEBSITE TO DISPLAY IN VERY BIG LETTERS THE VENUE HAS CHANGED TO THE COLISEUM.
2. SEND OUT AN EMAIL DEDICATED TO THIS MESSAGE ONLY, ADVISING DELEGATES ABOUT THE VENUE CHANGE.
On a personal note, guys this is Communication 101. In the age of internet and email this information easily be disseminated with virtually no effort. There is absolutely no excuse for this oversight.
Mr. Chairman, I plan on supporting your candidacy on Saturday. I recognize your successes as Chairman of Fairfax County back in the 1990s. But it’s 2009 now and communication technologies are light years ahead of where they were when you ran the FCRC. If you don’t understand that (and obviously you don’t) then that vote’s gonna be real hard to cast for you on Saturday.
Filed under: 2009 Elections, Republican Party of Virginia, Virginia Politics
Jay, this news has been passed around and floating for at least a month, I found out about it in mid-March, if your local party hasn’t been passing along relative information that doesn’t really make it Pat Mullins fault, besides, Jeff Frederick changed the venue, when all else fails, blame it on Fred!
Conservative One:
1. A number of my blogging buddies just heard about this from me. These are people who will be actively involved in providing blog coverage of the convo. These are people clearly “in the know” and working along side RPV to plan blog converage of the convention. If they didn’t hear about it, then this change of venue wasn’t as well publicized as you claim.
2. When Mr. Mullins wants my vote he has no problem sending me an email directly to my account and not via my local unit committee. Furthermore, this is a state party level situation so it’s up to the party to disseminate this information not my local unit committee. Plus, as evidenced by earlier emails, it’s clear that RPV has the capability to send en masse emails when they want.
3. When I talked to an RPV staffer at approx. 8pm this evening I was advised that the official email on the venue change was sent to my email this morning. This change may have been “floating” around but that’s not an acceptable method of communication. If this change has been “floating” around since March then an official communique should have been sent a LONG time ago. It’s clear that many people are unaware of the venue change because that was the sole reason for the Cuccinelli campaign phone call. They wouldn’t be wasting phone bank resources on this issue if they didn’t think a large number of delegates were unaware of the change.
3. While my opinion of Mr. Frederick is well known via my numerous interactions with him over the years, not once do I mention him in my post. So I am not blaming Mr. Frederick for anything. Even if Mr. Frederick made this decision, he is no longer chairman. Mr. Mullins is Chairman and he bears responsibility for disseminating this information. Information that should be disseminated directly and concisely and in an email message dedicated solely to this message. Not buried in a multi-paragraph message when the greenest political activists knows that delegates are being bombarded with emails and they may not read far enough into a large email to see the change.
4. For the convention where I was elected YRFV Chairman back in 2001, we had a similar crisis. Our host hotel had forgotten they booked an event at the same time as our convention. We had to act fast to disseminate the change of hotel venue to our delegates. I had the sense to realize that a change of this significance must be robustly disseminated via all available mediums: prominently displayed on the front page of a website, numerous emails and calls to as many delegates as possible. At the time, I was a whopping 29 years old. If a 29 year old snot nose could figure this crap out, then the Chairman and the entire professional staff of RPV should too.
Bottom line, Chairman Mullins and RPV professional staff dropped the ball on this.
OFFICIAL CALL
STATE CONVENTION
OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF VIRGINIA
MAY 29-30, 2009 AT THE RICHMOND CONVENTION CENTER
Straight from the RPV website, downloaded 30 seconds ago.
Jay:
Thanks for this update. I had talked to my folks earlier this evening and they hadn’t mentioned any of this. I do not think it was very well known if it had been out for months.
I do not believe this is some kind of dubious attempt by Mullins to silence opposition, but I’m quite certain he’s worried about this weekend.
I do remember seeing a lot of Mullins’ campaign mailers, and I’ve heard plenty of people talk about his organization skills; this does not build a lot of confidence in his abilities as RPV chair.
Folks,
The move to the Coliseum happened quite awhile before Mullins was appointed Chairman. I knew about it then.
It’s out there in the details and FAQ section on RPV site….for awhile.
Only political junkies like us read Calls.
I do know that this has been the situation for a long time…… not sure about the confusion.
Pam: I think the issue is that it simply wasn’t advertised well.
It would be a shame if people went to the Convention center and it was desolate.
Hopefully they’d put a note on the door mentioning the change in venue.
I just reviewed my delegate papers sent from RPV. On the tentative agenda it states Richmond Coliseum and Richmond Marriott. As well the parking garage diagram sent out in the packet has Richmond Colisuem and local parking on it. Not the Convention Center. I personally will have to say shame on whomever did not read their packets and go to the wrong place especially since the cover letter from Mike Thomas, First Vice-Chairman also states the Coliseum. Good luck to our candidates and I will see you all at the COLISEUM!
Interesting stuff, member. Granted I haven’t seen any of the mail sent about the convention due to being at school. Hopefully this is all one big misunderstanding.
Is this not further evidence that mullins is not the right guy for the job. This was announced weeks if not months ago.
[...] IMPORTANT NOTE: The convention will be at the Richmond Coliseum, not at the Convention Center as was planned, as the expected turnout was larger than the Convention Center could handle. (H/T: Virginia Virtucon) [...]
For all of you saying this was in the convention packets and was “known” for months, that may have been the case. But moving a convention venue is a significant change and a full court press by RPV to publicize it through website, emails and phone calls, etc should have been done.
Moving a convention venue has both political and legal implications, it is not something that should be done lightly. When it is done, publication of the change must be more than a statement buried in a cover letter from Mike Thomas in the stack of crap you receive from RPV or buried in an email from Chairman Mullins sent 2 days before the event. The RPV website should have said something on the front page as soon as the RPV webpage loads on your browser. Blast emails dedicated solely to this message should have been issued. Both of those measures could have been done in less than 20 minutes. So we’re not talking about some laborious action here and that’s what makes this oversight inexcusable.
Don’t get me wrong, I plan on voting for Mr. Mullins on Saturday. Furthermore, I do not believe this was any monkey business on his part. But it does mean that the communication infrastructure at RPV still needs work.
What is the big deal here – are you changing your hotel reservations due to the venue change, flights, drive, etc? I think not.
Making hay where there is none.
Mr. Norlon:
Very good question. Let me explain why this is of such vital importance. You are correct to point out that nobody would be changing their fights, hotel reservations etc. But there’s a bigger picture here. Someone who rolls into the Convention Center at the last minute only to find there’s nobody there may not have enough time to locate the new venue and get there before the registration station closes. This person would be denied their vote at the Convention.
Changing a convention venue has both political and LEGAL implications. Because RPV did not exhaust all reasonable publication mediums (like the ones I described in previous posts) and a person who fits the above scenario might have legal grounds for challenging the legitimacy of convention nominees. While it’s unlikely they would prevail, they could embroil RPV in litigation and that would be a huge distraction. A distraction that could easily be avoided by using common sense communication methods.
Having said all of that RPV has changed the website to publicize the convention venue so my concerns have been met.
“No one there to meet them”? “Embroil RPV in litigation”?
That’s a bit much, no?
Also, doesn’t this prove that primaries are a better way to go than conventions?
VA Blogger:
“Embroil in litigation?”
Absolutely. It’s potential disenfranchisement. I readily concede it’s a long shot in terms of someone bringing forth litigation and even more of a long shot of any recovery. But we live in sue happy times, my friend. All it takes is one nutjob who 1. didn’t get the memo and 2. his candidate lost to pluck that sue happy nerve. You have to cross every T and dot every I.
“primaries are a better way to go”
Absolutely, VB. You and I are in complete 20000% agreement on that. Primaries are essentially an election in miniature. The victorious primary candidate has a better shot….not a guarenteed shot but a better shot…at appealing to moderate and centrist voters essential to victory.
I’m split on the primary vs. convention nominating method. Conventions can cost candidates a lot less, thus letting them save resources for the general election, plus it gives party activists a chance to interact and lets the nominees rally the troops in person en masse. Primaries can give more people a stake in the process, giving them a buy-in for the general (of course without party registration, it also opens the process to shenanigans.)
Jim:
I readily concede that both methods have their fair share of upside and downsides. For me, the primary just has a couple more upsides than the convention.
The MA GOP does an interesting thing. They have a March convention that determines which candidates get on the primary ballot (need to get at least 15 percent of the convention to make it on the ballot and if one candidate gets a supermajority, they are the nominee without needing to go through a primary.) Then they have a Sept. primary to select the nominee. I’m not a fan of fall primaries, though.
yeah….a fall primary is too close to the general
I agree with what you are saying, but changing a Venue to across the street woudl hardly stand up in any litigation.
Mr. Norlon:
Agreed. But the point here is to avoid the hassle and expense of litigation by using common sense, easy to use, quick to disseminate communication tools to get the word out.
And it doesn’t matter how close the Coliseum is to the Convention Center. What if it’s a handicapped person on crutches or in a wheelchair. A 10 minute walk for you or me might be a 45 min. trip for them.
In a way I think we’re violently agreeing. I’m a stickler for detail and doing things right the first time. Especially when we’re paying a supposedly professional staff to do it. If the RPV ED and her paid staff were all unpaid volunteers I would be far, far, far, FAR more understanding. But they’re not.
Anyhoo, RPV fixed the problem and, as I said before, we probably violently agreeing on this now.
[...] Virginia Virtucon upset with the change of venue here. [...]