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Tuesday, 26 September 2006 14:52 |
 | | Roland Martin |
CHICAGO ÇƒÓ For the last four years Iëve traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate as a panelist or moderator of a workshop during the annual legislative conference put on by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
An annual event for the last 36 years, the four-day confab brings together thousands of people, namely African Americans, to meet with the black members of Congress and discuss a wide variety of issues in the various "brain trusts" and seminars that are offered. Washington, D.C. hotels are packed, entertainers and celebrities blow through for a ton of receptions and parties and attendees go back full of bubbly, food and lots of conversation.
And nothing ever really gets accomplished.
Oh,
donët get me wrong. I have a great time. Being able to converse on a
panel dealing with marriage and money, as well as talking to nearly 200
young leaders, was wonderful. We shared great ideas and got a chance to
dialogue, but does the conference ever produce any lasting change for
Black America? Nope.
A lot of this
isnët the fault of the attendees. My position is that you always make
the best of a situation and keep on moving. The problem? The repeated
failure of leadership by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to
fully understand what to do with the thousands of people who attend.
Between last
yearës legislative conference and this yearës event, I didnët receive
one e-mail related to any public policy we discussed last year. The
purpose of the caucus foundation is to "focus on education, public
health, economic development and African globalism. CBCF is the premier
organization that creates, identifies, analyzes and disseminates
policy-oriented information critical to advancing African-Americans and
people of African descent towards equity in economics, health and
education."
So whatës up
with the lack of communication? I have no clue who gets their e-mail
blasts and public policy positions. You would think those who have
attended past events would at least get regular updates on bills that
relate to the overall mission of the group.
Then again, why
should I expect to get an e-mail blast when the effort isnët even made
to drive the thousands of attendees to the U.S. Capitol to meet with
their elected leaders? The way I see it, when you register, they should
print on your nametag your U.S. House representative and the two U.S.
senators where you hail from (be honest, a lot of us have no clue who
represents us in Congress). That way, when you visited the Hill, you
would meet with your rep first and then visit with others.
But the
foundation must make this possible by setting aside one day to call on
members of Congress. My suggestion? Make it Thursday. Members of
Congress get out of town on Friday, so send folks to Capitol Hill on
Thursday morning to drive home the agenda of Black America.
Other groups do
it. The NAACP, Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha sororities do
variations of this, so you would think that the foundation affiliated
with the 43 black members of Congress would have this figured out.
Not.
And what about
those great sessions? If you didnët a chance to travel to D.C., at
least make them all available as podcasts. Itës cheap and easy, and
folks all over the world could benefit from the great information that
is disseminated.
Lastly, send the
attendees home with a real agenda. This yearës theme was "Changing
Course, Confronting Crises, Continuing the Legacy." Fine. But when I
got on the plane Sunday, I didnët have a list of initiatives and
talking points that reflect the agenda leading up to the next
gathering. How can you speak of a "Black Agenda" but never present one?
This has often
been the failure of many organizations ÇƒÓ and not just those led by
African-Americans. We are the "meetingest" folks in the world, but what
is accomplished out of these gatherings? Is there a collective agenda
that is advanced, worked on and implemented?
Iëve shared my
frustrations with multiple members of Congress, including Reps. Elijah
Cummings, D-Md., and Mel Watt, D-N.C. (the outgoing and incoming chairs
of the CBC) last year.
What happened? Nothing.
Iëm not holding my breath expecting next year to be any different. And thatës a shame.
But at least the chocolate cake at Mortonës Steakhouse was good. That was about the only thing I savored the whole weekend.
ï
Roland S. Martin, editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper, is author of "Speak, Brother! A Black Manës View of America."
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