As co-chairman of the Charlotte host committee, Jim Rogers has a lot invested in making sure the Democratic convention is a success. And since July, he's invested even more.

That's when Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, hired a full-time staffer to help him raise money for the convention. She works for Rogers, not for the host committee, which is charged with raising nearly $37 million for the convention.

"Jim Rogers hired someone to assist his DNC fundraising work out of his own pocket," says Duke spokesman Tom Williams. "Their focus is on ... meetings and calls with contributors, scheduling and other pre-work that goes into this fundraising effort. The intent is to also maximize the value of his time spent in this effort since (Rogers) has responsibilities to Duke Energy and other business activities."

He declined to give the staffer's name.

Attention subcontractors: This meeting's for you

Interested in getting a piece of the action on convention-related construction?

The Democratic National Convention Committee and the host committee, along with the construction management team, will hold a session on subcontracting opportunities at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Officials will explain the prequalification and bidding process as well as the scope of work involved. The briefing will be in Room 201/202.

Convention officials say interested subcontractors should register on the vendor directory at www.demconvention.com. Jim Morrill

Johnson C. Smith joins in with stories, new website

The convention is one of the catalysts behind the new RUN DNC website at Johnson C. Smith University.

But it isn't the only focus of the multimedia page, which launches Friday. Through videos, photos and writings, as many as 400 students will be "digitelling" stories on and off campus leading up to the convention.

A big part of their storyline will be reports about the campus' westside - its civil rights and political history, its citizens and the present-day happenings that tie in with the rest of urban America.

"When all the reporters come, either we can tell the westside stories, or someone else does," said Laurie Porter, communication arts professor and one of several faculty members leading the project, including Tonya Williams.

Porter's reference is to the expected 15,000 media members. "If they want unique westside stories, they will come here," she said.

One of the video stories discusses "the difference one westside student can make."

It's about Charles Jones, JCSU class of 1958, who as a student helped organize lunch counter sit-ins. He was part of the Freedom Riders, in which hundreds rode buses in the deep South to challenge segregated public transportation.

Still to come: contests and Apple iPod Touch giveaways that will draw more campus students and West Charlotte High students into the project.

Local Web experts Raquel Velez and Laura Mitchell - a westside resident - volunteered to create the logo and website, run-dnc-2012.org. The website name is a nod to the legendary rap group Run-DMC, and to capture the feel of when rap went mainstream. Celeste Smith