Photos from Roots Camp

RootsCamp Ohio took place on Saturday at the YWCA in Columbus. It was a valuable and enjoyable eight hours of sharing and networking. I especially appreciated learning from the experiences of Anna Landmark, who managed the successful minimum wage amendment campaign, and campaign organizers Allie Petonic and Lauren Groh-Wargo, who discussed their work in rural counties during this election cycle.

Here's a shot of the group gathered at 9:00 am for registration, breakfast, and introductory remarks. There were about 100 people signed up. Some of Ohio's best bloggers were there, including Lisa Renee of Glass City Jungle, Jill of Writes Like She Talks, Pho of Pho's Akron Pages, Cindy Zawadzki of As Ohio Goes, and George Nemeth of Brewed Fresh Daily. A better photo of most of us is here.

Eric Vessels of ProgressOhio.com spoke to the group first. He is leaving in a few days to pursue an exciting business opportunity and will be replaced by Dave Harding, formerly of the Upper Arlington Progressive Action blog and the Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress campaign.

Karen Gasper of America Votes also helped organize the event and explained procedures at the outset.

Here's Cindy Zawadzki starting a breakout session in the morning.

One of the popular breakout sessions was "Testosterone-Free Blogging." In this view are Lucie Pollard, the photographer who accompanied Lisa Renee (didn't catch his nameMiguel Roman, her spouse), Eric Vessels, Lorraine Bieber of the League of Young Voters-Columbus, and Lisa Renee.
At the same session, here are Brian Rothenberg of ProgressOhio, Jill, Leesa Brown of Treasurer Rich Cordray's office, Anastasia Pantsios, and a fellow whose name I did not getJohn Spalding.
Another shot of attendees, including George Nemeth second from right.

Pho spelled out the intricacies of the proposed school funding constitutional amendment.

Jason Barnett came from Minnesota to explain DFL Links, a network of 30 groups of progressives who meet monthly throughout the state, facilitated by software from Zanby.

An excellent photo of Eric, moderating a discussion about the progressive blogosphere in Ohio.