Saturday July12th through Sunday July 13th

9am-6pm each day

You have the power, now learn the skills! The Democracy for America Training Academy is coming to Miami, Florida for two days of exciting campaign training.

How many votes will it take to win in November? How do you find the perfect message and get it out to voters in your district? How will you raise enough money to pay for it all?

The DFA Training Academy will help you answer these questions and more.

At the DFA Training Academy, top campaign consultants with decades of experience give you the skills to run a winning campaign. Topics include: field planning, voter contact, fundraising, communications, volunteer recruitment and more. Scroll down to see some of the training sessions and trainers we have confirmed for this weekend.

Attendees will also get to hear directly from some of the most exciting 2008 candidates in their area and get a copy of the DFA Training Manual packed with over 180 pages campaign info.

Refreshments will be provided throughout the day and a social event will be organized Saturday evening so you can mingle and network with other activists in your area.

The training will run from 9am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Click here to see a short video of a previous training:

Lodging Info:
We were able to secure a group rate of $109.95 per room per night at the Comfort Suites. Here’s the catch: if you wish to take advantage of this group rate, you must call to reserve a room by Wednesday, July 3rd and mention DFA’s group number when making your reservation (4826). If you plan on staying the night but have not yet made reservations, we strongly encourage you to do so as soon as possible.

Comfort Suites – Miami/Kendall
3901 SW 117 Ave.
Miami, FL 33175
Phone: 305-220-3901

If you plan on attending this training and have specific questions, call our Training Department hotline at DFA at 802-651-3200 Ext. 191.

If you are a candidate running for office and plan on attending, please email us at training(at)democracyforamerica.com and let us know.

For more info on the DFA Training Academy visit: www.democracyforamerica.com/training

Weekend Training Agenda
Miami, Florida July 12th & 13th 9am-6pm each day

Saturday Morning
Introduction & Overview
Field Planning and Targeting
Volunteer Recruitment

Lunch

Saturday Afternoon
Fundraising Strategies
Voter Contact Tactics
Campaign & Event Planning
Developing Your Message

Sunday Morning
Fundraising: Call Time
Drawing Contrasts in Campaigns
Running Phonebanks and Canvasses
Getting Out The Vote (GOTV)

Lunch

Sunday Afternoon
Fundraising Tactics
Working with the Media
Working with a Voter File (VAN)
Neighborhood Precinct Organizing
Volunteer Management and Development
Phonebanking & Canvassing for Volunteers

Training Presenters

Anastasia Apa – Finance & Fundraising
Anastasia Apa has seven years of campaign management experience, and focuses on fundraising operations. She has US Senate, Congressional, city and county-wide race experience and has worked in the Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern United States. Apa recently unseated a 32-year incumbent in Mississippi and came close to electing the first African-American in the state's history. She is now working as a Campaign Manager for Taddeo for Congress in Florida’s 18th Congressional District.

Matt Blizek – Field & Volunteers
A veteran of training in the political and corporate worlds, Matt Blizek began organizing in student and local politics and was elected vice president of the University of Iowa Student Body. Since then he has done field and fundraising work for numerous campaigns including the DNC, MoveOn.org, Russ Feingold, and Jon Tester. Matt joined Democracy for America in 2007.

Bryan Hageny – Planning & Volunteer Management
Bryan grew up in the fiercely contested swing state of Wisconsin, and is proud of its progressive tradition. While attending the University of Wisconsin he worked for Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Tammy Baldwin. Following graduation he served in a number of political and activist roles. To this end Bryan worked as an Assistant Director of a large canvassing office in Boston, then as an Organizer of Power Shift 2007 (the first ever student global warming conference at the University of Maryland), and most recently as a Community Organizer in Pennsylvania. Bryan was recently hired as DFA's Deputy Training Director.

Andrea Hildebran – Running Issue Campaigns
Principal of Progressive Persuasion Consulting, is a writer and activist with 17 years experience in legal, legislative and grassroots advocacy, non-profit management, as well as ballot measure and candidate campaigns. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, launching and serving within Kentucky’s campaign against an anti-gay Constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions. Prior to moving to Kentucky, Andrea was a fundraiser for Houston’s No on City Prop 2 campaign, and for Vermonters for Civil Unions. She was the Public Education Director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston, and the Producer of One in Ten, a commercial talk radio show for the LGBT community. She chaired both OutSomerville, a political action committee for LGBT people in Somerville, MA, and Boston National Voices, a multi-racial coalition formed to facilitate cross-community responses to hate incidents in the Boston area.

Andrea lives in St. Petersburg, FL and works as a consultant with progressive non-profits and on issue campaigns.

Ben King – Voter Files
Voter File Director, Florida Democratic Party

Millie Herrera – Messaging and Communications
Millie Herrera was born in La Habana, Cuba, and in 1967 left the Castro regime for Spain with her mom, step-dad and baby sister. Seven months later the family migrated to the United States and settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Millie resides in Miami, Florida since 1987 with her daughter Ana Maria.

Pursuing her passion for community involvement and public policy advocacy, Millie has over twelve years of successful issue advocacy and political consulting experience. She became active in the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party in 1995, where she served as Deputy Director until 1997. She was a charter member of the Miami-Dade Chapter of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, and was elected its first president. In 1998, she was elected first vice president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, and president from 2000 to 2004. She was reelected President for the 2007-2008 term. Millie was a Florida delegate to the 2000 DNC Convention, and a member of the 2004 DNC Platform Committee for the Florida delegation. She was elected Alternate delegate for Florida to the 2008 DNC Convention.

Millie served in public office on the Kendall Community Council 12 from 2003 to 2006, and was Vice Chair for the 2005 term. She also served as Secretary of the Board of Directors of Union Positiva, a non-profit organization focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and outreach for the Hispanic community. Millie is a 2004 Fellow of the National Hispana Leadership Institute and graduated from the Harvard J. F. K. School of Government Executive Program. She serves on the Community Advisory Board of the Girls Advocacy Project, an intervention program for girls detained in the juvenile justice system, and is a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem in Miami-Dade County since 2003.

She currently co-hosts and produces “Democracia Al Dia”, a weekly Spanish language progressive radio program, at 7:30 pm every Thursday at La Poderosa 670 AM in Miami, Florida.

Helen Strain – Field Organizing
Helen Strain has been a field organizer for political campaigns for over 20 years. Her experience includes Regional Organizer for Florida House Victory 2000, managing 23 House Campaigns, Program Manager for The Clinton Group, were she managed hundreds of phone programs for Democratic candidates and initiatives from Canada to Argentina and most of the 50 states. She served as the Field Director for Janet Reno’s Governor’s race, for Dave Aronberg State Senate race (Dave was the only non-incumbent Democrat elected to the Florida Senate in 2002), for Representative Lois Frankel’s WPB Mayor’s race and Angela Alioto’s Mayors race in San Francisco . She served as Vice-Chair of the Florida Democratic Party and as a member of the Democratic National Committee. She is currently the Field Director for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.