More Constitution Writing / A Promiscuous Roommate
Year 7, Week 24
Orville found four more neighborhood representatives to work on his committee for the rules of the mail-in ballots. I attended this first meeting and it seemed these people were in a consultative frame of mind to draft up some good rules. I left half-way through, knowing things were in good hands.
I started to reminisce about my time writing all these TDG rules. I played a minor role in the first constitution of Northwest Riverbend and the merger between Northwest and Northeast. I played a major role in the constitution of Southwest Riverbend and its merger with North Riverbend to make Angle Riverbend. When bringing in Central and Southeast Riverbend into our fold, I was only on the executive committee to oversee and approve of the merger committee’s work. Part of me would like to be in the middle of this new committee. But I didn’t seem to be needed. …
Communique from the Inventor/One Night Stands
Year 7, Week 23
Len shared an email response from Dave Volek, the inventor of Tiered Democratic Governance.
Len
Congrats on getting Riverbend under one TDG. This is indeed a milestone — and it’s great you had a party to celebrate.
I am not surprised that you people are in competition with another TDG. There will be various social and political forces — some good, some bad — that will bring up new TDGs within existing TDG areas.
Sitting from Canada, I’m not in a good position to determine which TDG actually employs the TDG principles better than the other. …
Competition Arises / The Domitory of Sex
Year 7 Week 22
A little occurrence happened that necessitated an earlier meeting of the executive committee. We thought we should call Len in.
Ron Govelin was the first chair of the Southeast Riverbend TDG. He stormed out of the Southeast election meeting when he wasn’t elected, promising never to return. Following our exposure in the Riverbend Times, he and some friends bought a half page ad in the Times, claiming that his group was “The Real TDG.” They implied that our TDG was not doing things right, and citizens of Riverbend should join their group to transform American democracy. …
The Record is Straight/Path to Promiscuity
Year 7: Week 17
Consensus at the executive committee was that the letter to the editor was well presented in the Riverbend Times. The newspaper seemed to have acknowledged their mistake in reporting.
Pamela said that the website address in the paper did get five more subscribers to our promotional email list. But no new email inquiries or members.
Most of our communications was with our members, by mail and email. Whenever we had a public information meeting, we did maildrops in neighborhoods to invite people from the general public. Recently, we’ve been advertising our public meetings in the newspaper. …
I was a little bored watching my wife’s choice of TV. I grabbed my Kindle reader and found I didn’t have any outstanding ebooks on my queue. So I went to the recommended reads and saw “How Democracies Die” by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. It seemed to have been on a bestseller’s list and won a few awards. So I parted with $11.99.
This book was written one year into the Trump presidency. And the authors do not like Mr. Trump.
I got only a few Kindle pages into the book when the authors claimed that the reason for Mr. Trump’s presidency could be blamed on the upper echelons of the Republican Party. The authors thought this group should have done more to stop the rise of Mr. …
Correcting a Media Mistake / Dumped!
The first draft was passed to the executive committee by email. And by email, a few changes were made, and sent off to the newspaper. The final draft is below:
Letters to Editor
Riverbend Times
The TDG (Tiered Democratic Governance) of Riverbend appreciates the newspaper coverage of the celebration of our important TDG milestone. In essence, we were celebrating the completed merger of the five TDGs of Riverbend — Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast, and Central — into one TDG. It has taken seven years to build our TDG to this state.
Many volunteer hours and meetings went into this project. We have had to learn new skills. Many average citizens donated funds to this cause, much of which went to renting community halls and using the postal service. More effort will be required in the next few years to take our TDG to the next level.
The newspaper article stated that the TDG is the formation of another political party, one that will eventually rival the Democrats and Republicans in general elections. We wish to correct this interpretation for your readers.
The goal of the TDG is a replacement system of governance for the USA. At some point in the future, it will be obvious that the TDG is better than the system run by the political parties. At that time, a transfer of authority and responsibility will occur. But we are a long way from that day.
Be assured that we have no intention of challenging the two established parties in elections.
If readers would like know more, the TDG website is at www.tiereddemocraticgovernance.org. If readers would like to learn more of our TDG, our website is riverbendtdg.org.
Thelma Delgers, Chair of the the Riverbend TDG
Pamela Harris, Communications Chair of the Riverbend TDG
First Crisis / Virginity Gone
Year 7: Week 15
Politics is often about facing challenges one never plans for. The Riverbend TDG got such a challenge right after the party.
The Riverbend Times sent a reporter to cover the party. For the most part, she did a reasonable job, and we appreciated the free publicity. But she got one premise of the TDG totally wrong. She said that the TDG is going to turn into a new political party to contest future elections at the municipal, state, and federal levels.
None of the executive members talked to this reporter, so she must have got this information from another member. Looking at the paper, she had three events to cover that night, so it was understandable she couldn’t get the full story. …
The TDG Party / Teenage Angst
Year 7: Week 13
We had about 600 people in Heritage Inn banquet hall. We were probably a little over fire code regulations. Members brought their kids and friends.
As Rich Ridell, Holger Peters, Stacey Mabrall, and Len Pash walked from the back to the front, the crowd stood in respect, and then applauded when they reach the stage.
The four agreed to let Rich speak to the crowd. As there were children present, we advised Rich to keep his speech on the short side. This is a party night after all. …
I’m the New Chair? / My Mother, the Democrat
Year 7 Week 9
The seven of us met in Ed Broncher’s house for our first meeting of the new executive committee.
In the last amendment to our constitution, we put in a set of rules for electing our officers. The preamble to those rules was “If consensus is not reached . . . .”. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to get to those rules.
Ed had been around the TDG almost as long as I have. He is highly respected and served as membership chair for three years. He also chaired Northeast’s founding and its first executive committee. …
Holger’s Last Political Speech / Racism in Riverbend
Year 7, Week 8
Holger Peters had the podium: “I think this is about the tenth or twelfth time I’ve had the privilege of giving this speech. When we built our first TDG constitution, the inventor of the TDG suggested that we put a clause about the importance of voting for good character and capacity for governance before voting. So we took his suggestion, and we let the chair of our TDG give a little speech about voting in this way.
“When we put this clause into our constitution, we didn’t really understand why. …
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