"Late Tuesday night it was unclear how many paid employees remain of the 20 or so staff at NOI, and most of the senior team left for good. It’s a potentially crushing blow for the lefty group best known for its well-attended annual RootsCamp “unconference” that has become a focal point for progressive politics. Rootscamp often features speeches by top progressives, including a 2103 speech by Elizabeth Warren.
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In an email to friends shared with BuzzFeed News by a recipient, NOI digital director Eric Ming accused the NOI leadership of endangering organization by sticking with Roeder. “Decisions have been made that I and others believe to be harmful to this organization in both the present situation and the future. This is both in mission and fiscal future. NOI risks failing in our mission — and failing the movement and community we serve,” he wrote. “As a result of those decisions and leadership’s unwillingness to change course, I — along with a group of my colleagues — have made the difficult choice to leave NOI.”
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One person with knowledge of the fight that led staff to call for Roeder’s ouster said staff were afraid he was running the group into the ground. “A vast majority of people on staff had concerns about legal, financial, and staff mismanagement on the part of our executive director,” the source said. Staff “were fired, one after another, over the course of the rest of the afternoon,” after the senior team was dismissed, the source said. Freeman disputed the story that staff had been fired after the resignations.
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In an age where money seems to no longer be an object in Democratic politics, NOI has struggled to keep its head above water. Former employees, partners, and progressive observers of NOI said it was well known that the institute was running out of money, in part due to a drying up of institutional donors and in part due to what one person said was a shift away from digital grassroots organizing as the “hot, new thing” in Democratic politics."
Take that last bit as a tacit admission by Cankles cadre that (A) 'digital grassroots' quickly became a money $uck without return-on-investment, in light of utter failure mid-terms; and (B) the marginal groups (millenials and blacks) that 'digital grassroots' motivated in '08 and '12 aren't interested in Cankles '16 anyway.
“including a 2103 speech by Elizabeth Warren.”
a prophetic speech?.... or just pathetic?
I’d actually take that a different way.
Following 2008 and 2012, with digital organizing systems like Narwhal and Catalist and receiving data feeds from all over the place the big upfront work in digital organizing is largely done and they’re in maintenance mode.
You need a heck of a lot of people and money to build a building or bridge ... but not nearly as many for upkeep.