About
What RootsCamp is
The movement's post-election debrief — organized by and for organizers. Since 2006.
RootsCamp is a now 20-year-old tradition — a post-election conference, unconference style. There's no preset agenda and no keynote. The people at camp propose sessions, vote with their feet, and build the day together in the first hour. The job is to debrief the election honestly — what worked, what broke, what we do next — across the silos that usually don't talk.
Anyone can host one. You bring a camp, recruit across organizations that don't usually work together, and tell the rest of us what you learned. What starts in those camps — collaborations, projects, connections — ripples out through the whole movement.
What it looks like
Whoever shows up are the right people.
Participants set the agenda in the first hour. Sessions get proposed, voted on, and built — together.
Where the motto came from
Respect · Empower · Include · Connect
On the Obama campaign in Iowa, Paul Tewes and his staff held a meeting early on — explicitly for this purpose. The team got to know each other's stories and spent time articulating a few key principles they agreed to live by. Out of that conversation came the mantra: Respect. Empower. Include.
It became the guiding principles of the campaign: How will staff treat each other? How will they treat the candidate — and vice versa? How will you all treat your opponent and their staff when you see them? The point was that it be an engaging team conversation the team felt responsibility for generating — and could then be held accountable to.
RootsCamp added the fourth word — Connect — because an unconference is only as good as the relationships it leaves behind. Participants set the agenda; what matters is what you carry out of it together.
Credit: Paul Tewes · Obama for America, Iowa 2008
Since 2006
Full historyRootsCamp begins as an unconference for progressive organizers to debrief the midterm elections.
Expands nationally — camps meet in 15+ states to share what worked in the Obama wave.
Tea Party wave prompts honest cross-silo debriefs; the 'participants set the agenda' ethos is codified.
RootsCamp goes hybrid — virtual sessions connect rural and urban organizers.
Post-election grief fuels a nationwide network of local debrief camps.
Midterm wins traced back to tactics shared at prior camps — the Sparks concept is born.
Pandemic forces fully virtual camps; tool-sharing becomes the lifeline.
The Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy traces its origin to a RootsCamp breakout.
RootsCamp relaunches as a distributed platform — every state, every cycle, every camp.
Who organizes RootsCamp
The people who gather.
RootsCamp is run by organizers who show up to debrief the election, share what worked, and build the next camp together.
Roderick Smith
Roderick Smith at RootsCamp
Reggie
Reggie, addressing a RootsCamp camp
Billy Wimsett
Billy Wimsett, speaking at RootsCamp
Melinda Frevert
Melinda Frevert, speaking at RootsCamp
RootsCamp in motion
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