I attended ABC of Guilford County's fortnight gathering this evening. As far as I know, tonight's venue was their first foray outside of the High Point area... this move was by design. Tonight's featured speaker was Bill Davidson - their PAC's pick to challenge District 7 incumbent Kris Cooke - so I'm sure they figured it would be appropriate to actually hold the meeting in District 7 instead of down in Jamestown or High Point. The meeting convened at the Bur-Mil Clubhouse out on north Battleground Avenue.
The first part of the meeting was spent updating members and potential members on two areas of effort- one a future focus... the other, a present one. On their "philanthrophic" side they issued a volunteer call for "lunch buddies." This is a great program that many schools promote. It pairs children with adults for lunch and other activities at school.
The other update regarded a future effort at providing school book backpacks for kids who need them. ABC has amassed 100 new book bags for distribution and a suggestion was made to get families to donate additional gently used bags for the program. It was stated that efforts at getting them distributed will be postponed until after the November election, however. Concern was raised that the volunteer needed to get the bags to kids who need them would dillute the group's current focus of working to unseat current members of the School Board.
The group's newly designed website was unveiled tonight also. Although it won't be completely "live" for a few more days - it's current look and feel holds promise of a very impressive and dynamic web presence. Check it out. (No blog... sigh.)
Director Michael Murphree and District 7 candidate Bill Davidson had much to say on the political side of the group's efforts which I will post about tomorrow. However, just to keep you coming back.. both Murphree and Davidson did a little backtracking tonight with regards to getting Superintendent Dr. Terry Grier "outta here"
Murphree said their signature slogan was only meant to raise the "noise level" of ABC's efforts and that the firing of Dr. Grier was not to be construed as one of ABC's goals. Michael said the group is simply seeking a "more responsive School Board" Davidson echoed this when he stated that Dr. Grier's removal was not a priority for his campaign either. You could've knocked me over with a feather.
An observation that may validate this softening of tone: Of the 50 or so folks who drove to Bur-Mil, most of them I recognized to be hard-line and long-time Southwest based ABC'ers. However, I didn't notice a single one of those familiar yellow "Get Terry Grier Outta Here" magnets on any of the vehicles in the parking lot. There may have been some - but I didn't see any.
Perhaps ABC is finally paying attention to how outsiders view their efforts and tactics. More tomorrow...
8:51:41 PM 
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