As our First Annual Membership Conference quickly approaches, I'd like to share with you my excitement about that day. The response has been tremendous and we're close to being at our maximum capacity. The beautiful campus of Lewis & Clark College will make a perfect setting for our first membership meeting.

On the morning of Saturday, June 14th, before the membership conference officially begins, there will be two sets of workshops. These workshops will cover the following topics: presentation skills (content, using equipment and technology), how to handle tough questions about health care, the care and feeding of an Archimedes chapter, how to use our web site, and my favorite, 10 things you can do right now to advance our cause. For more details, please visit our workshop details page.

Registration and lunch will begin at noon. We'll be starting a bumper sticker idea contest during lunch, so bring some creative ideas with you.

At 1:30 PM, we will all convene for a historic event in our short history.

Since December, a group of volunteers, dubbed our Interim Steering Committee, have been working diligently to produce a democratic structure for the grassroots side of the Archimedes Movement. Attendees will have the opportunity to affirm the new Council and Committee structure. In the next few days Interim Steering Committee will be sending you their proposed structure for review. I hope you will consider serving on one of the committees the structure describes. Broad participation is key to our success.

After the opening session, we will break out into separate mini-sessions which are focused on specific organizing strategies for the next few months. Our goal is to reach deep into Oregon communities with our message of reframing the debate on health care. These sessions will offer step-by-step advice from experienced community organizers on things like presentations, hosting a house party, canvassing in neighborhoods, setting up a table at your local community event, and getting your local government to pass a proclamation in support of real health care reform.

Finally, we will all convene again at 4:30 PM for a discussion of today's political landscape and how we will navigate through it.