The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Fall Delta Conference to be Held in Delta & NOT Washington, DC in late October, 2012

Posted on June 14, 2012 at 01:58 PM

For the first time ever, the Delta Grassroots Caucus will hold its annual fall conference in West Memphis, Arkansas–the heart of the Delta in late October, 2012–and NOT in Washington, DC. This decision is based on extensive feedback from our partners. We believe it will be a good change of pace to hold the conference in a smaller community in the heart of the Delta, in the unique situation this year.

We will return to the Washington, DC conference next year and in future years.

We chose West Memphis because it is a centrally located community, and the time frame will be the week of Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, 2012. We expect to announce the exact time and place very soon.

West Memphis is also a 10-minute drive from Memphis, Tennessee, and after the opening session ends about 7:45 p.m. you may want to visit the restaurants and musical attractions in Memphis. (Desha County Judge Mark McElroy will be doing his Elvis Presley impersonation as one of our main events.) Then we will have an all-day session the next day.

We look forward to working with Mid-South Community College and many other partners in our host city of West Memphis.

In addition to the appeal of making a change to have a big conference in a relatively small Delta community, as opposed to Washington, DC or the Clinton Library in Little Rock (a comparatively big city by our region’s standards), we were very concerned about asking so many of our partners to go to all the expense of a trip to Washington, DC for the fifth year in a row of a bad economy. Many people are financially stressed and have experienced tight budgets for five years now.

Moreover, many people have expressed the view–rightly or wrongly–that the gridlock in Washington, DC is the worst it has ever been and our prospects for a productive dialogue with the political powers that be are not promising. Many people believe that the Members of Congress and administration officials will be primarily concerned about not saying or doing anything that might harm their re-election chances–much moreso than usual this year.

This does NOT mean we will ignore Washington the next several months. Far from it; Lee Powell, Caucus director, is based in Washington, and together with national organizations working on our key issues, as well as a network of people who were originally from the Delta region but are now transplanted to the Washington area, we will hold a news conference on Capitol Hill and hold smaller meetings and otherwise continue advocating to Members of Congress and the Obama administration this fall.

Please continue to send emails and phone calls on key legislative issues as you did so well when we defeated the effort to eliminate or cut the budget for the DRA last week.

Next fall we will have a new Congress and the Presidential administration situation will be clarified and able to conduct business uncluttered by the currently very heavy campaign pressures.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES AND REGISTRATION FEES: If you would like to be a member of the Delta Caucus, please send in your $25 annual membership dues along with your $100 registration if you would like to reserve a seat for the conference.

GROUP DISCOUNTS ON REGISTRATIONS: Remember that if you get a group of several people from your local area–which can be a community, county, or several nearby communities, we will give group discounts on the registrations down to $70 for groups of five or more and $60 for groups of $10 or more.

The annual membership dues are especially important if you would like to support our efforts but do not have time to come to the late October Delta conference. We only ask for $25 in all cases. In some cases, for medium-sized nonprofit organizations or small businesses, smaller banks, chambers of commerce, or other medium-sized organizations, they volunteer to give $50 in dues.

For the largest corporations, foundations, universities or those who just wish to make an extra contribution, those sometimes contribute dues of $100 or $150. But we would emphasize that all contributions of $25 are perfectly fine.

We have so many partners and potential partners across the eight states and the Washington, DC area that if everyone gave $25, it would be a huge boost for our budget, especially if those who are supportive but do not have time to come to the conference also contribute.

Please make out the annual membership dues and/or registration fees for the calendar year 2012 to “Delta Caucus” and mail to:

Delta Caucus

5030 Purslane Place

Waldorf, MD 20601

We have been working on informing our partners of the different schedule. We have cancelled any arrangements for Sept. 11-13 in Washington, of course.

Please join us in West Memphis, Arkansas the last week of October, 2012! Delta Caucus board of directors (202) 360-6347