OK, before I talk about General Assembly, let be put in a word for our Presbyterian team at AIDS Walk San Francisco. We are near the cutoff for team table qualification, so we really need a last minute push to get folks to register. We need 100 walkers signed up early, in order to be assigned the really
large table that will help us set up our post-walk BBQ, so go to aidswalksanfrancisco2008.kintera.org/presbyterian
and sign up online (one name per registration, so a family of three does 3
registrations, for example)!! There's no registration fee, no minimum fundraising amount (if by check or cash)
By now, you've probably seen several other posts about this thing called General Assembly. Because it is seldom on the West coast, many Bay Area folks (including me) wanted to attend many or all of the meetings. Several of us commuted daily on CalTrain, to leave a smaller carbon footprint. If I had to choose again, I would instead stay in San Jose the whole time. There were some meetings that lasted as late as 10:30 or 11:30 PM, which made for a long day. And, the last train left San Jose at 10:30 PM each night (9:00 PM on Sundays). While CalTrain's Baby Bullet trains are faster than buses or cars, there were only local trains on weekends, which took about 100 minutes (instead of 58) one way. Add in the SF portion of the commute time (on Muni), and one can see how a big chunk of the day was spent in transit, even without covering the late night meetings.
I really enjoyed helping in Bruce's booth on Friday and Saturday. It was a great opportunity to meet and greet new people, share our story and answer questions. Plus, we had the BRC4MOD buttons, stickers, and tshirts. I also reconnected with some folks that I had not seen in years. Many of the people helping in the booth were from out-of-state, so we were an enthusiastic crowd. On Saturday night during the election, we had four rows of seats in the observer section, so there was high energy present to support Bruce. After the election results were announced, we are able to walk up to the stage. This was powerful, as our presence enabled us to show that "nurtured by our past, embracing our future" was more than just a campaign promise. On Sunday afternoon, the Moderator's Reception was held at the San Jose City Hall rotunda. There were hundreds of people lined up to meet the new moderator, and shake hands with Bruce and Robin.
The next couple days were for a huge number of committee meetings, some of which ran pretty long. In the meantime, there was a huge exhibit hall with booths featuring many programs, vendors, and groups. Also in the exhibit hall was a global marketplace to go shopping. By midweek, the exhibit hall displays were taken down, as the general meetings started, led by the moderator and vice-moderator (taking turns). Each of the committees gave their recommendations, which were discussed and voted on. Some of these meetings also ran late into the evening. Throughout much of the week, there were technical glitches to be fixed, as the wifi seldom worked, even for the PC-biz system being used (instead of paper) to follow the meetings. Even the laptops connected to the intranet sometimes had difficulty connecting to the PC-biz system, so there were a lot of paper copies of documents being used throughout the week.
By the time that these meetings all wrapped up, many folks had been in nonstop meetings for over a week, and were probably anxious to get home. The next General Assembly, two years from now, will be in Minneapolis.
[Join the new Moderator Facebook Group]
The Homeless Prenatal Program, a local non-profit whose mission is to end family homelessness in San Francisco, is conducting a backpack drive to put together back to school supplies for its clients. We’d love to get some MBCC support for this worthy cause! Help kids get a good start on the school year with the supplies that they need for success. You can donate anything from the list – it will be assembled into backpack kits at HPP. 
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