"It was awesome!"

That was the reaction of one of the Tennessee activists at the end of the two-day DFA Training Academy held in Knoxville last weekend.

Many of those who filled Karns Middle School had not worked on a campaign before or were not familiar with the sophisticated techniques outlined by DFA trainers. During breaks they peppered instructors with more questions and began making plans about how they would use the information in future efforts.

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The DFA Training Academy is one of the most respected and renowned campaign training programs in the country. And THIS WEEKEND, April 28 & 29, Training Academy comes to Knoxville!

DFA Training Academy is an intensive, two-day series of workshops geared toward your particular political landscape. The primary focus will be on campaign management, field organizing, communications, grassroots advocacy, and precinct organization. You'll get personalized, one-on-one instruction from some of the most experienced political campaign experts in the country and we make sure that you can use your training as soon as you get home.

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If you want to see what happened at last year's training in Memphis, click here.

On Easter weekend, close to 80 progressives from Memphis to Knoxville and all points in between attended Democracy for Tennessee’s Convention ’07 in Nashville throughout the day on Saturday.

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I'm pleased to say that the Green Tennessee (GT) Campaign is off and running with a great start! First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who attended the workshop and campaign launch: You all made the workshop a big success and a real pleasure to host. The diversity of ages and backgrounds represented was quite heartening, and exactly what I think is needed to get the kind of legislation enacted we want in order to protect our environment. So again, to everyone there, thank you!

After presenting a brief overview of the GT campaign, I handed things off to Seannalyn Brandmeir, presenter for the Climate Project. She provided an excellent overview of the goals and structure of Climate Project presentations, leading us through many great examples and explaining how the presentation builds its argument from start to finish. Next, Jeff Barrie, filmmaker and creator of Kilowatt Ours explained why he made the film, and how the Kilowatt Ours film and project seeks to show people how they can practically and dramatically reduce their energy usage without nearly as much effort or sacrifice as one might think.

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The cold and snow of northeast Tennessee didn't stop close to two dozen people from attending Democracy for Tennessee's first Citizen Journalism 101 workshop. The place was the Democratic Resource Center in Johnson City and the plan was to educate and inspire regular progressive activists to understand journalism, framing, and the tools available to get a progressive message out to a conservative community.

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On April 28 & 29, the DFA Training Academy comes to Knoxville and you're invited!

A whole weekend of intensive training and hands-on workshops, the DFA Training Academy will give you all the tools a candidate or activist needs to win campaigns. Skills like message development, building a campaign's base, precinct organization, field operations, and media management are just a few of the topics that will be covered.

For complete information about the Knoxville program and to rsvp, click HERE.

On December 7, close to 40 potential Metro Council candidates gathered with DFA Nashville for a presentation on running for the council. Former Councilman Stewart Clifton spoke to the crowd, going over the decision-making process many are going through as they decide whether or not to throw their hats in the ring.

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It was a great day for democracy in Tennessee as close to 50 candidates and campaign managers, hailing from Memphis to Knoxville and all points in between, gathered at the Downtown Partnership in Nashville for DFT's Candidate Training School. Whether they were running for School Board or U.S. Congress, first time candidates and long-time campaigners alike became DFT students for the day who shared one goal - to take our country back in 2006.

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30 activists from across six counties turned out to Democracy for Tennessee's "Root Camp" grassroots training on April 22 at the IBEW Union Hall in Blountville, Tennessee. The training was a regional training designed to train activists and candidates in northeast Tennessee, including the "Tri-Cities" area of Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City.

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Despite a weekend of March Madness - which had the University of Memphis battling UCLA for a slot in the NCAA's Final Four - dozens of grassroots activists, Democratic Party officials, campaign managers, and candidates turned out for Democracy for America's nationally-acclaimed training program, DFA TRAINING ACADEMY, in Memphis on March 25 & 26.

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