Today was our TDG workshop, held at the school gymnasium. We invited our membership through social media and casual conversation. The school also did some promotion for us. And we were allowing non-members to attend.I think about 50 Tankosin under-35’s attended. Another 15 over 35. Another 20 white TDGers from Riverbend and Joosemin also participated. Chief Lefthand, two councillors, three teachers and three senior Reservation employees tried to watch from the sidelines.But Jackie got them into the activities.
There were about 10 Riverbend people trying to organize us through the various activities. The best part was seeing them work so well together without any infighting.
The first activity was signing our membership card for our practice TDG. Then we broke into four groups. Jackie put two groups at one end of the gymnasium and the other two groups at the other end. Then one group took the other group’s membership cards and turned them into a membership list. Not so much fun. About five Tankosin youth left the workshop at that point.
Then we broke into elections. Jackie and her workers were giving instructions. All four groups had the same simple constitution to follow these election rules. One group would be tellers for another group’s elections. The first group would give a little speech about voting for someone of "good character and capacity for governance" to the other group. As Jackie and her helpers handed out the ballots, they added not to take it personally if not elected.The winners, four people in each group, were announced. They were deemed the executive committee. Then the groups changed positions: voters became tellers; tellers became voters.
Then Jackie and her helpers instructed the four executive committees to make a quick change to the simple constitution. That was a little confusing, we were given a few suggestions by the helpers. But eventually we got some simple amendments together. Then the executive presented their suggested amendment to the non-executive members. A vote was conducted. One group did not pass the amendment.
Jackie ensured we had a few experienced people in all the four groups. Some of the Tankosin youth seemed lost and would not have been able to follow without seeing other people do it.
The helpers brought the four executive committees to the center of the gymnasium: these 16 became the first tier. They were given ballots to vote for three people into the second tier.
At this point, interest was waning. With not much to do, those not elected got out their cellphones or engaged in chatter. But the demonstration went on. New tellers tallied the 16 votes. Johnny Lefthand, Rochelle Surry,our school principal, and I got elected to our three-person second tier.
Len tried to talk about the importance of members voting and voting wisely. But he could see that interest was elsewhere, so he kept his speech quite short. I thanked Len and the Riverbend TDGers. They had just set up a big table for take-out Chinese food. That put people in a better mood.
We maybe lost 10 or 12 people from the start of the workshop, which I thought was acceptable. I think Jackie put a lot of thought into this project to keep many people somewhat engaged. Democracy is not always easy, natural, or interesting.
I can say other Tankosin youth got a deeper understanding than they had before. We will be voting more wisely next time. I just might be out of a TDG job!
