In attendance were staff and volunteers from Coalition for Economic Justice / Buffalo Jobs with Justice, Community Voices Heard, Make the Road New York, Metro Justice / Rochester Jobs with Justice, New York City AIDS Housing Network, New York City Jobs with Justice, and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition.

Together the group of twenty-one community leaders worked to share and solidify their 2008 state-wide electoral field plans, cross-train through exciting new data management systems, share information and resources around current programs and activities, and look ahead through 2008 to 2009 justice and advancement opportunities.

Organizer-led Training Clinics focused on effective field programming, and strategic planning, volunteer and membership integration, and educational sessions focused on differentiating partisan versus non-partisan organizing techniques. An informative Technology Clinic was offered by Alice Aguilar of the Progressive Technology Project, PBN Program Director Jason Cooper led an engaging program highlighting the intersections between the local organizing work being done and the “bottom-up” statewide, regional and national implications and opportunities afforded by that work.

PBN’s emphasis on peer-to-peer learning and resource sharing, as afforded by its state-wide, regional and national convenings of staff and volunteer organizers and community leaders, deeply engages attendees in each other’s work and learning, as well as their own, as a part of a mutually beneficial cooperative process.

Interactive sessions offered attendees the opportunity to put new and enhanced skills into practice and reinvigorated staff, volunteers and members throughout the two-day convening. The opportunity to strengthen relationships, share updates and troubleshooting approaches, and develop processes for mutual success in a fast-moving political climate achieved its goals for New York State Alliance members while increasing the collective excitement about working together and seizing the opportunities afforded by both the current electoral cycle and the coming calendar year.