Posts: 450
Threads: 128
Joined: Jul 2007
Aloha to all who are planning to attend this weekend's County Democrats' convention at KMC, the venue for Saturday's Hawaii County Democratic Party Convention has changed, due to circumstances beyond our control.
Instead of taking place at Kilauea Military Camp, it will be held at Volcano Art Center's Niaulani Campus, located at 19-4074 on Old Volcano Road near that road's connection to Volcano Highway near the northern boundary of the National Park. We'll have signs out. The center's phone number is (808) 967-8222.
Everything else about the convention is still happening...Kilauea Military Camp said that all overnight accommodation reservations are still good. El Leo & the Jarican Express will perform not at KMC's Lava Lounge but at Convention headquarters at the VAC Niaulani Campus. The Sunday morning events will also take place there.
...
Please spread the word. Your district chairs have a map they can email you if you contact them. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation in this matter...we'll certainly have plenny to talk about! ;D
Posts: 2,244
Threads: 396
Joined: Nov 2011
Wonder how this went today? Please give us brief report if you attended. Thank you in advance.
Posts: 2,244
Threads: 396
Joined: Nov 2011
Found an article today regarding this change of venue. Sounds like there was a bit of miscommunication from the start. The title of this article is so inflammatory ("Ejects"???), and overshadows the event at this point.
Glad it all went well, apparently, albeit a tad embarrassing I would think. Wonder what the Gov. and other "dignitaries" thought about this situation, given the statement events like this were held there in the past?
Egg all over the place. JMO.
FYI: (*Snipped - More at link):
U.S. Army Ejects Big Island Democrats From Convention Site
By Chad Blair 05/21/2013
At nearly the last minute, the Hawaii County Democratic Party was forced to find a new location for its convention this past weekend.
Though the party had reserved Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) several months ago, party members were only informed late last week that political activity was not allowed at the facility.
"They told us it was political, even though it was not political," party member Frankie Stapleton said Monday. "There was no campaigning. We were getting legislative updates from federal and state officials. There were forums in the afternoon with people speaking pro and con about important local issues."
The U.S. Department of the Army, which has authority over KMC, made a different determination.
"This type of event is not authorized in Department of Defense facilities," said Larry Reilly, chief of public affairs for IMCOM-Pacific, which is headquartered at Fort Shafter on Oahu. "When they made the initial request, it wasn't specific exactly what type of meeting it was, until more information came to the forefront. That was a couple weeks ago. We then sent this to legal review and determined, unfortunately, that it was an event that should not be conducted on government property or DoD (property) in particular."
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/0...tion-site/
Posts: 1,930
Threads: 71
Joined: Jun 2012
Wow, this should never have gotten this far. Military camps don't allow any political activity of any kind. This should have been recognized at the Kilauea Military Camp security office, at the first request. Don't know how confusing it can be if the purpose stated was for the county Democratic convention. Very surprising to see such a wide swath of government with so many people involved and nobody knew until the last minute.
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
Posts: 1,175
Threads: 12
Joined: Jun 2008
The county convention was held at KMC in 2009.
There have been some changes in the cast of characters since then.
Many more changes to come I think. Get used to it.
Posts: 450
Threads: 128
Joined: Jul 2007
FYI, KMC personnel were informed at 3 a.m. Friday, May 17 by a Deputy Director of Defense in the Pentagon that they had to kick our convention out of KMC. This was after the Dept. of Interior had denied the HVO Chief Scientist Jim Kauahikaua the right to address our forum on geothermal development.
I spent quite a bit of time last week talking to the Ethics Director of the Dept. of Interior about exactly what it was we planned. They eventually quoted the Hatch Act regarding federal employees addressing any political gathering. It was brought up to the people in Washington DC that we had held off-year (not election year) conventions there before, and that Republicans had also held events there.
But IMHO, this was dirty politics and somewhere along the line, some inside-the-Beltway insider calling in a marker. And we have several of that kind, unfortunately, active in the Hawaii Democratic Party.
I don't know or care at this point who it was because our Dist. 3 and Dist. 4 team had done so much preplanning and organization (yep, Punatics all!) that it was a matter of knowing our own community. The Volcano Art Center luckily happened to have no event planned at its Niaulani campus and welcomed us. Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano Village provided a wonderful buffet that fed 200 people with less than 24 hours notice!
The event backfired on all those who had done so much to sabotage the Puna district's turn to host the convention. It was the best attended, most popular county convention (according to what participants told me) the Hawaii County Democrats ever had. And you know what else, it united the statewide participants, both speakers, delegates and observers, like nothing else!!!
I'm very proud of what our whole team carried off and extremely grateful to Tanya Aynessezian, VAC CEO, and the Lava Rock Cafe for helping us pull it off!!!
Posts: 2,244
Threads: 396
Joined: Nov 2011
Machinations, Frankie. All the way around the block. JMO.
Posts: 450
Threads: 128
Joined: Jul 2007
Just FYI to those interested, the decision to hold the convention this year at KMC was not mine; I was merely asked to organize it. I did push for the convention at KMC in 2009 and was mildly surprised that they welcomed us w/such open arms.
What gave our convention participants such energy this past weekend was the great discussions, intelligent, civil, non-polarizing discussions of such topics as the privatizing of our hospitals, potential legislation on behalf of the working poor (such as not allowing the payday check-cashing/loan outfits in Hawaii, one of just a handful of states that allows them), green financing and solar power as well as the inevitable geothermal discussion (which I heard was great....I didn't get to sit in on the discussions, couldn't even tell you what the gov & schatz talked about, aside from the one heavily-edited I believe, press account). Sunday we learned how to follow and influence legislation, the use of social media in politics, and how to build and grow our grassroots efforts. Wish you were there ;D
Posts: 2,244
Threads: 396
Joined: Nov 2011
FYI: Richard Ha writes his experience at the convention:
http://hahaha.hamakuasprings.com/2013/05...ntion.html
God bless that man, he does take an awful lot of flack for his position, but he perseveres; for the good of all.
JMO.
|
