Despite threatening skies, nearly a hundred Western Colorado Alliance members descended on the DoubleTree by Hilton in Grand Junction, having driven from four counties on the morning of Saturday, August 29. They were all there to “Power Forward!” — the theme for this year’s 46th Annual Conference of Western Colorado Alliance. Happily, there were a lot of new faces in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom that morning, along with many old friends.
This year, though, it wasn’t just business as usual. By the time Power Forward! had wrapped up, all eyes were focused on the election ahead of us.
IT’S GO TIME FOR ELECTIONS
Not only is this year’s ballot the fattest Colorado has seen in half a century, with several amendments and acts supported by our Alliance, but we also find American democracy under attack like never before. As a result, this year’s Annual Conference devoted a considerable chunk of time to discussing election protections and what our Alliance can do to ensure Colorado’s voting system works properly. If you want to be part of the Alliance’s election strategy leading up to November but couldn’t make the Conference, please reach out to Tyler McDermott at tyler@westerncoloradoalliance.org for how to get involved!
LESSONS FROM THE FRONT LINES IN ARIZONA
Karime Rodriguez of LUCHA joined us for the keynote speech and a plenary workshop on election protections.
Our keynote speech was provided by a guest from Arizona, Karime Rodriguez of LUCHA (Living United for Change in Arizona). Karime is a grassroots organizer, strategist, and movement leader dedicated to building the power of immigrant and working-class communities. Her speech identified ways in which the Trump Administration has targeted voting in Arizona by dramatically ramping up ICE activity near election sites typically used by voters of color.
Karime’s keynote speech dovetailed perfectly into our plenary workshop session, “To November and Beyond! Building a Pro-Democracy Framework This Election Season,” which Karime also spearheaded. During this workshop, members were able to address a number of hypothetical election interference schemes and begin to formulate ways our Alliance can meet any such attempts.
100 ALLIANCE MEMBERS TRAINED AND READY TO DEFEND FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
We continued the theme of election protection into the concurrent breakout workshops later in the afternoon, when our Alliance’s Director of Civic Engagement, Tyler McDermott, presented “Protecting Free and Fair Elections in Western Colorado” with Andrew Barton from Colorado Common Cause, honing in on practical LOCAL applications of the strategies being discussed.
During workshops devoted to election protection strategies, members brainstormed actions to help protect democratic elections in Colorado.
GET OUT THE VOTE!
Power Forward! also presented a workshop entitled “Pies and Charts — Understanding the Colorado State Budget and Tax Related Ballot Measures” with Bianca Diaz, our Alliance’s Montrose community organizer, joined by Caitlin Schneider of the Colorado Fiscal Institute. This workshop set the stage for some of the acts on the Ballot our Alliance is supporting, like Initiative 195, which would cut taxes for 97% of Colorado taxpayers while helping the state pay for child care, health care, and education by establishing a Graduated Income Tax (GIT) in Colorado.
We also offered a look at an area we expect our Alliance to take a very active hand in next year: Reckless data center construction. Executive Director Emily Hornback led our final concurrent workshop, “Watts on the Line — Building the Western Colorado Movement Against Data Centers.”
HONORING OUR OWN
Left: Deb Allerton was this year’s recipient of the Worley Award. Right: Dawn Dexter won the Rising Star Award. (Not pictured: Kim Leitzinger won the Rawlins Award, but was unable to attend the Conference.)
The Annual Conference was also an opportunity to celebrate significant victories our Alliance scored in 2026 so far, and to raise up the leaders among our members. This year, our Alliance’s Rising Star Award was given to Dawn Dexter of Garfield County. The Rising Star Award is handed to someone who is new to the Alliance and has made a significant contribution to the Alliance’s work. Dawn, who recently joined the Western Colorado Alliance Board as a representative from Western Colorado Alliance of Garfield County, has been a steadfast and reliable volunteer for many actions in Garfield County, especially in their work on behalf of down valley public transportation. Recipients of the Rising Star Award also receive $200 toward any personal development education of their choice.
The Rawlins Award (given to someone who “shows determination, grit, and fearlessness in speaking truth to power” and named after our Board Member Emeritus Peggy Rawlins, who is the living embodiment of those traits) also went to a Garfield County member. Kim Leitzinger is another member who has contributed immensely to efforts to retain funding for public transportation, especially the so-called Hogback bus route which connects Rifle and Silt to Glenwood Springs and points further upvalley.
Our last award, the Worley Award, is given to an individual who has made outstanding volunteer contributions to our Alliance. This year, it went to Deb Allerton, a long-time member from Grand Junction who has for many years been a quiet powerhouse, volunteering, donating, and offering mentorship to staff and other members.
A HEALTHY ALLIANCE IS READY TO HIT THE GROUND RUNNING
The Conference kicked off with the annual business meeting, wherein attendees heard from Executive Director Emily Hornback that our Alliance is in excellent financial health, and during which, members elected Kevin Williams to a second term as Board Chair.
Normally, a Treasurer would also be elected in an even-numbered year, but this year we had no candidates in time for the election. However, Emily said the Alliance has a qualified candidate interested in the position, but they were not able to announce their candidacy in time for the election. In such circumstances, the Board has the right to appoint a Treasurer, and that’s what is expected to happen in the next month or two.
The conference ended with a Happy Hour that saw the majority of attendees staying to have interesting and fun conversations with each other.
We want to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s Annual Conference. Time now to take what we learned and… POWER FORWARD!
