Building on the success of 2012 RootsCamp DC and 2010 RootsCamp MA, this progressive “unconference” will take place the weekend of April 6-7 at SEIU 1199 in Dorchester. The RootsCamp MA Organizing Committee, a grassroots group of community organizers and activists, invites you to attend and connect with a diverse and inclusive group of activists from across the state.

What is RootsCamp MA? A unique space and opportunity for progressive organizers to come together, employing a simple and participatory “unconference” model that allows organizers focused on different issues to meet and debrief in a way that promotes shared learning and engagement. Rather than traditional panels or PowerPoints, participants set the agenda and have real live conversations about valuable organizing lessons taken from the field, both online and offline. Attendees have the opportunity to establish lasting new partnerships with organizers from all over the state. This model, first launched in 2006 by the New Organizing Institute, has proven very successful across the country. Learn more at www.bit.ly/rootscampma.

Promising myself I'd explore Boston in ways I haven't previously, I marched myself to West Roxbury for the Ward 20 caucuses. In the process, I ate some tasty donuts and witnessed a side of Boston I'd only read about in history books.

Passing the threshold from semi-dreary grey daylight to the inside of the West Roxbury Pub brought with it a number of surprises, none of which should have actually been surprising. First was the sheer number of people. There had to be a hundred people crammed into this little function room. At the sign-in desk, I was questioned by a trio of pleasant, preened ladies who needed to know my precinct. I didn’t know what it was, and they were kind enough to look it up for me. While waiting, I was pushed and pressed back and forth by the deluge of democrats coming through the door. Finally, I was given the precinct number and instructed by a friendly middle-aged woman in a red suit who seemed to know what was going on that I was to sign in, take a ballot for female delegates, and move along.

Yesterday morning, the ever serious David Bernstein at the Phoenix noted Salem's attempt to get over the whole witchcraft thing with a new municipal slogan and wondered what other towns could adopt as their slogans. Suggestions continue to pour in; here are some of the best (so far):

[rollzroix] Somerville: Like the US, we have three branches of government: 1/3 Mayor, 1/3 Aldermen, 1/3 Pat's Towing

[bokeller12] Boston: lost if by car, late if by T.

PROJECT BREAD SUPPORTS ‘FOOD AND FUN’ FOR DORCHESTER KIDS THIS SUMMER
$225,900 in statewide grants aim to help families cope with food and gas crisis

June 19, 2008 — EAST BOSTON — When school is out, kids who rely on free or reduced-price school meals need a safe place to go where they can get a healthy meal and have some summer fun. That’s why Project Bread is providing $5,500 in incentive grants to the Summer Food Service Program in Dorchester in an effort to help families cope with the skyrocketing cost of food and gas.

From the time I was a small child, I was taught to write thank you notes for kindnesses, memorize others’ birthdays and anniversaries, honor the dead, be organized and tidy and evolve into a social creature that takes the time to remember. I think I received my first box of stationery from my mother when I was five. I was reading by three, writing certainly by five, and my mother did take the time to teach me how to write a thank you note. I am still in possession of a few sheets of paper and the lined envelopes my brother’s then girlfriend gave me for my seventeenth birthday.

THIS CAMPAIGN IS FUNNY I GREW UP IN MILTON NEAR PATRICK HE LIVES NEXT DOOR TO JOE DEBESSE AND NOW LIVE NEAR CHRISTY AND GOT PAID FROM TOM RILEY RECENTLY,AND I HANG AROUND WITH WILLIAM GALVIN THE NEPHEW IN HYANNIS SAME NAME,AND MY GIRL FRIEND CLEANS TEDS HOUSE MANSION FROM BRAZIL SALETE BATISTA AND ISABEL THEY SEE MISTER WILSON THERE INVENTER IN NORWOOD FIRST INETERNET BUILDER NAVY VET STEVE MACMILLAN PO BOX 1114 FORSTDALE MA 02644 I WAS TRAINED BY THE TOUGHEST IN THE NAVY AND PERFECTION WAS A MUST THATS WHAT I BRING TO MASSACHUSETTS I WILL GET THE STATE HOUSE IN SHAPE IN TWO WEEKS LIKE MY DRIL

Well, Microsoft, of course.

But also Citizens Against Government Waste:

"It is bad procurement policy for any state to unilaterally lock itself into one set of technologies," CAGW President Tom Schatz said.