Boot Camp

Yesterday my tea party girlfriends, Ronda and Cindy and Cindy's husband Loren, attended the Central Valley Tea Party's boot camp in Fresno. We all left Chico on Friday late morning and arrived at about 4 pm at our hotel in Fresno. Thankfully Loren and Cindy arrived before us and scouted out the rooms and found them wanting and were able to secure three rooms that turned out to be quite nice.

We decided to enjoy "happy hour" at the hotel bar before heading over to the dining room for a very nice dinner. I had my favorite margarita and then order chicken alfredo for dinner. The three of them have a great sense of humor and we spent most of the evening talking and laughing. We headed off to bed at about 8:30 pm and agreed to meet at 7 am for breakfast. We ate breakfast again at the hotel restaurant and then headed off to the Fresno Fairgrounds for the bootcamp.

We arrived in plenty of time, found terrific seats in the front and watched with amazement at how many people were in attendance (approx. 500). This tea party group really has their act together. I can't remember the last time that I attended an event that went so smoothly. They had muffins, coffee, and juice waiting for us upon arrival. They had multitudes of brown bag lunches prepared, the most beautiful grapes, and sodas for lunch. The efficiency with which they served attendees was amazing and the thought occurred that if we put these people in charge of our government we might actually get things done!

The first session addressed how to become an effective activist including how to make impactful protest signs, how to speak to the press, and becoming a community organizer. If you can't beat 'em, imitate 'em. The second session focused more on becoming organized and taught us how to research precincts and mount an effective campaign. We then broke for lunch where we were able to meet other tea party members. The best news was that we found out that the problems that we were having within our group was happening in other groups as well and that our group seems to be right on track. Ronda was asked to talk to the TV station that was there covering the event and she did a bang up job.


After lunch we returned to a session on healthcare. The woman who did the presentation was so impressive. She is an RN and has worked in numerous areas of the healthcare industry. She also has served on the board of a hospital and is currently the owner of a home healthcare agencies. This gal really did her research and I learned a lot about where our tax dollars are being spent in medicare/medi-cal and the way in which healthcare is being administered via our tax dollars, including the various regulations that are driving up costs. We video taped this session and will be posting it to our tea party website. For the last session of the day, Tom McClintock spoke and as always made a whole lot of sense, squewering both parties regarding the Cap and Trade legislation. The day was finished off by the State and National co-ordinator for Tea Party Patriots, Mark Meckler making a big announce regarding our next project. It's a big one. Sort of a David and Golaith project, but the enthusiasm in the room shows that we are ready and able to take on Golaith. 


On the drive home we all agreed that the day was well worth the 4 1/2 hour drive and the day away from family. We're really energized and ready to start putting into action what we learned.