The Artists for Obama Gallery stroll in Salt Lake City Utah was a huge success! We held the event on Friday, September 19, 2008 in the basement of Obama Headquarters. Rob Bennions band played great jazz out front all evening and drew even more of a crowd.
Thank you to all of you who participated in and submitted artwork to our gallery stroll event. Artists love Obama and Obama loves artists. Did you know that McCain doesn't even have a position on the arts?
A special thanks goes out to the artists who lent their talent to the show. Robin Ballard, who owns the building did a lot of work to see that the hanging system was installed. Amy Gezon and Mary Jane Smith helped with food and made the tables look great. Thank you Marureen, Rob, Amy U, Leslie and Mason who stuck around all night and helped.
We had over three hundred people pass through. Many of them volunteered to help the campaign, donated money, picked up yard signs and bought art. We even had a few voter registrations. Even Mayor Coroon bought a piece of great work.
The group is closed and we wont be accepting any more work. There has been an overwhelming interest in contributing work and there just aren't enough resources. We will have many more events in the gallery for the campaign, and we will try to make it available on Friday nights for viewing. We will likely hold another smaller open house during gallery stroll in October.
If you missed the show, come to Headquarters and check out the work of Mason Fetzer, Pilar Pobil , Gigi Kelson, Cori Redstone, R. Skraznas, Francis Zimbeaux, Weird Chief Pop Art, Michelle Anjenette Buck,Walt Wilcox, Howie Garber, Maurine Hobbs, Mike Walton, Jordan Hinckley, and many more.
Look for a piece about our event and the arts policies of both the Obama and McCain campaigns in an upcoming issue of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Keep staying involved. Send your friends to voteforchange.com to make sure they are registered. We still have a lot of work to do before the election.
Thank You !
Cori Redstone
Thanks to all who came to the Convention Watch Party in Canyon Rim Park. It was agreat deal of fun and was the closest thing i could emagine to being there ourselves. We just should have had fireworks.
To all the candidates who joined us I hope you had a great time and met a lot of potential voters. Special thanks to Mayor Becker for joining us and his great speech
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the set up. Particular thanks to John Lee for all his help with setting up the screen and Mike Lookinland who helped us out with the technical aspects.
Thank you to all of you who participated and volunteered last night at Canyon Rim Park. A special thanks goes to Mike Lookinland who kept things running with the giant screen.
All four major news stations covered the event as well as local papers and radio stations.
Kristen Garbett did a great job running the soda and snacks booth and Rob Skraznas was a great host. The event was hosted by Rob, Kristen and I. Over a dozen volunteers registered voters and signed up more future volunteers. Sydney Rhees merged his ever-expanding house party with ours and we really appreciate his help and participation. If you haven't seen his house it is on 7th East. His little paint job has made the papers. He also brought cardboard Obama and many people took pictures with him.
We don't have any banners locally, but by all means, if you want to make something and display it on your home that says a lot about your support.
Many people brought homemade signs and banners. Obama t-shirts abounded and some even got their dogs into the spirit by decorating them. No animals were harmed or will be harmed in this campaign. I swear.
We had around 300 people attend. More than that showed up just to get yard signs. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker attended and gave a great speech.Candidates Jean Welch Hill, Brian King, Bob Springmeyer,and Lynn Hemmingway were on hand to speak to voters, get their input and celebrate with the crowd. Grae Wallace from Canyon Coffee did a great job keeping everyone caffinated.
Suzanne Gelderman addressed the crowd. Duchess and Patrick worked the Obama booth and spoke to everyone. If you forgot to take home the candidate sign you wanted go to slcountydems.org for more information on getting lawn signs of local candidates. It is vital that we keep up the pressure and show our support not only for Obama but for local people on the ground who will contribute as a whole to the Obama Presidency.
John and his wife had those great Jute bags for sale with the logo on them. If you missed getting one you can catch him at the Farmers Market downtown every Saturday. We signed a banner to hang in headquarters. If you haven't made it to headquarters yet is is on 780 East, South Temple. Stop by to volunteer this Saturday or stop by sometime just to say hello. Hopefully we will get some t-shirts and bumper stickers.
If you would like to see photos of last night go to this link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28691399@N06/
It was an emotional evening as we spread out on blankets in front of the glowing Wasatch Mountains under the setting sun. It was the next best thing to being in Denver because sharing this occasion with a cheering crowd is no comparison to sitting in one's own livingroom.We clapped, we screamed, we booed, and we gave standing ovations. Wouldn't we have felt funny doing that in front of the sofa alone at home?
Now is the time to get started on local campaigns. There will be many volunteer opportunities. Look in Events for them and register saying you will volunteer. The Neighbor to Neighbor program can be found when you go to your dashboard. We need a lot of people in Utah to help out. Volunteer early and you may be a local coordinator.
Thanks for sharing in the excitement. I hope to see you elsewhere in the community. Say hello and let's have a great election!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/UtahArtistsCo-opforObama
We are creating collectible posters with a Utah theme. There will be a small number of prints available. Look for a future show at a local gallery with the original pieces.
Tell an artist you know.
By the way, the 4th voter registration numbers for Sugarhouse came in at OVER 200 PEOPLE!
Over 100 registered on the 24th at Liberty. Way to go!
Tell everyone you know we are having a party for Obama on August 28. We will watch the convention speech live. It is currently set up at Sydey's house for the event. Sign up.
From clinching the nomination to Hillary's solid endorsement , this has been an extraordinary week in the Obama campaign. The grassroots Utah for Obama group topped it off by winning 2nd place for our entry in the Utah Pride parade on Sunday. Thanks to Janet Lee and her extraordinary creative talents, we were able to generate enthusiasm and energy from the huge crowd with a 10-12 foot Obama puppet that was nothing short of amazing!!! You can all be proud of our involvement in the Pride festival. The Obama booth attracted thousands of supporters who signed up to volunteer, even several former Hillary supporters who were following her lead in now working to support Barack. We also registered many new voters, as well as updating others' voter registration information! This is such a vital part of our drive to elect Barack in November! It was a beautiful day in all kinds of ways! Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a success. Pictures will be posted at some point so you can see how great it was! A special thanks also to Dominic S. for all his hard work in helping Janet Lee create "Obama".
In preparation for the Utah Pride Parade, which happens on Sunday June 9, we will be making a Bread and Puppet style likeness of Barack. Our efforts will be spearheaded, of course, by our craftperson extraordinairre, Janet Lee. We will be blogging our progress with photos and all. Nothing to show yet, as today was a materials gathering day.
If you would like to help paper mache the mask, paint it, or cut and sew garmets for the puppet, let us know. You can email me and Janet Lee at the following email addresses:
shamba_84@msn.com
janet337@gmail.com
If you would like to help by participating in the parade, please sign up here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4d3m
We will likely have some Barack Puppet action at our booth during the Utah Pride Festival on Saturday and Sunday after the parade. If you would like to help out at the booth, please sign up here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4dzb
This will be an exceedingly fun event and the more the merrier. So join us! Thanks, Janet Hurley
Tuesday's caucuses: Go, if you want to break the far-right's grip on Utah
Tribune EditorialArticle
Last Updated: 03/22/2008 10:49:57 AM MDT
With almost metronomic regularity during the Utah Legislature's general sessions, you can hear this refrain, or something like it, up and down the state: Did you hear what the Legislature did?
The specifics about the latest embarrassment or outrage on Capitol Hill vary, but there is a common theme: Why do we keep electing these people?
Well, there's one very big reason. Too often, the folks who complain the loudest don't take the trouble to do the one thing - apart from voting in November - that will give them a voice in changing the status quo that so often irks them. They fail to attend their neighborhood political party caucuses, where delegates to the Republican and Democratic conventions are selected. These are the delegates who in turn vote for the candidates they want to place on their party's ballot for the primary and general elections to come.
Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_8661857
http://www.utdemocrats.org/ht/d/sp/i/1139834/pid/1139834
It’s time to make an impact.
We had a happy and happening Iowa Watch Party tonight at the Obama Utah office. Check out Fox13 News coverage by Max Roth tonight:
Obama staffers from Iowa will be arriving to help out in Utah for the next month before our primary here. With your help, the office in Salt Lake City will be a busy place until then.
Your local Obama store is open at the office through the Primary as well, so be sure to come in and get your Obama gear and paraphenalia before it goes back to Chicago after February 5.
The New Hampshire primary is only 5 days away. Come in to help make phone calls beforehand, and then join us for another watch party on Tuesday evening:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4vp5g
If you missed Obama's address tonight after the caucuses, it is a must hear/see:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/ObamaHQFeature/CxBX
Obama's speech was just incomparable - among his best. Edwards expressed that he was determined to fight the stranglehold that corporations have on our democracy, but he wallowed in the depressing - he expressed little hope. Hillary, predictably was all about I, I, I and Me, Me, Me. Obama was all about You!
Hello Utahns for Obama.
The Iowa caucuses are fast approaching - next Thursday as a matter of fact. Once they are over, about 5 Obama staffers will be coming to Utah to help get out the vote for Barack here. Can you help house any of these staffers? They will likely arrive around January 4 and need housing through our primary election on February 5.
In addition, the Nevada caucuses are on January 19th. After they are over, there will be a number (as yet undetermined) of Nevada staffers coming to Utah to help Obama win Utah. They also will need housing from about January 20 through February 5.
If you or anyone you know can help by providing housing for Iowa and/or Nevada Obama staffers please call Aaron at the Utah headquarters at (801) 803-0647. Housing would preferably be in the Salt Lake City area so that these staffers could get to and from the Obama Utah office on 900 West and about 1700 South with ease.
We also need help staffing the Salt Lake City headquarters every day through our February 5 primary. This would involve answering phones and making calls to Obama supporters. Please call the office to let us know when you can help -- or just show up weekdays between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm. Help on the weekends is also needed.
Only about a month left to help get out the vote for Obama! As Misty points out below, you need to be registered by January 7th (as a democrat or as unaffilliated) to vote in the Utah Democratic primary on February 5.
There are over 350 members of Utah for Obama, and we continue to grow every day. This is absolutely amazing!Most of our members subscribe to the ListServ - that's what the emails that are sent to the entire group are called. Because our group is so large, sometimes we end up with emails that are not of general interest to all 350+ people. It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal if we weren't such a big group, but consider this. If it takes you 30 seconds to open and read and then delete an email, that means that collectively, almost 3 hours of time might be spent on a given email. 350 (people) * 30 seconds = 10,500 seconds = 175 minutes = 2 hours 55 minutesI want to encourage everyone to use their blogs to communicate with each other for most things. Our main blog can be found here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/UtahforObama/And if you use an RSS reader, you can pick that up here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group_rss/UtahforObama
If you read someone's blog and have anything to say - post a reply! People really like to get their blogs noticed, and it's a great way to have interesting discussions.
This doesn't mean you can't ever send an email to the group. It does mean that the ListServ will now be moderated, and sometimes your email might not be sent on to the whole group. When this happens, I will drop you a short note telling you why and referring you back to this information. If in doubt, it won't hurt to send it - the worst that will happen is you'll get a note back and the email won't go to the whole group. Here are the basic guidelines that we'll go by:Is the topic of the email relevant to most people in Utah?Is it on the topic of Barack Obama?Does it contribute to the discussion?Examples of things that won't be sent through are: invitations to events outside of Utah, anything promoting other candidates, and "thank you" or "you are right" types replies that are for a specific person. Most things that are meant for discussion should be done via blogs. There will be rare exceptions where we will send an email that points to a blog to initiate discussion, but that will most be for organizing activities, and not just to discuss the last debate or other things like that.Feel free to ask if you have any questions about this information.
It's crunch time everyone-just 2 months until the voting begins! Everything we can possibly do needs to be done by everyone who supports Barack. This includes phone banking, canvassing, writing letters to the editor, contributing financially, helping out in the early states, and whatever else you can think of. If you are uncertain about how you can help, please go to Barack"s website and access the Action Center. Those of you who are close to Las Vegas, go there and help! Those of you who are close to Elko, go there and help! It is past time to just give lip service to your support of Barack-it is time to show that support in very concrete ways! I realize people are busy but if this is really important to you, find a way to make time to really help over the next few months. Also, please make sure that you and everyone you know of voting age are registered to vote by the first of Jan. so you can vote in the Feb. 5th Democratic primary. If you are registered as a Republican and want to vote for Barack in the primary, you need to change to unaffiliated or Democrat! If you have moved since the last election, please re-register. We cannot afford to let anything slip by us that we can have an impact on, especially voting!! I am so convinced that Barack is our best hope to bring our country back to what it can be that I feel compelled to reach out to all of you today. Please know that he can't do this without us showing up for him!! Thanks for all that you do and will do !
Hi Guys,Right now I'm blogging from the Obama camapign headquarters office in Elko, Nevada. Three of my fellow Utah for Obamans made the four-hour trip from Salt Lake City for the weekend. Some of the local supporters are putting us up for the night. Our host, Mable, is the sweetest, nicest woman ever. She feeds us like kings. We woke up this morning to french toast, eggs, and ham. Needless to say, it was to die for. And the campaigning was awesome. The precinct leader I canvassed with and I broke a record. Six pledge cards in one day! We actually managed to convert a couple Republicans... and everybody was so nice. It's my first time canvassing at all... and it was great!
More later,
Brad
The results of our first Utah Generation Obama event were fantastic. Nearly $500 raised from $5 per person minimum donations.
Thanks to Ben Raskin and The Woodshed for hosting the event and Rob Miller for being our special guest speaker.
More GO events to come! See pictures below..
Well, we had another successful Drive for Change canvassing trip to Elko, Nevada, over the weekend. Despite the rainy, snowy cold weather six hearty Utahns, including myself, made the journey to our neighboring early state. Luckily by Saturday morning the sun came out, but it was still chilly! Hopefully the Barack Obama Store gets hoodies and knit caps in-stock soon!
We were given lists, maps and pledge cards to get signed as we headed out around 10AM to knock on doors. By the end we got more pledge cards signed on Saturday than any other canvassing day before. Those that were leaning towards Hillary were easily swayed by our rational assertions that Obama is the best choice. Now they'll be giving him a second look.
Door-to-door work is more important than ever. With all the distractions from radio, TV and the computer, there is nothing better than looking someone in the eye with their full attention and discussing the best candidate for President, Barack Obama.
I hope more of you can join us for our next canvassing trip to Nevada, or even help canvass in our home State of Utah. In a way, the primary is more important than the general election for Utah Democrats. We know our votes will be counted in the primary, which will directly lead to Obama's nomination. In the general election, we may be out-weighed by republicans. Therefore the time is now. Do not wait until November of next year to take action.
The Trib just did an article on this weekend's events, after speaking with Nikki. It's probably the best coverage we've had so far, and they even listed our meeting on Saturday!
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6522948
Here's the only Utah blog I caught talking about Obama today:
OneUtah says Obama is right, Clinton is wrong.
