Wow, it's been over a month since I've been active on the site. But that doesn't mean I've not been active for the campaign.
We've been phonebanking locally, and had a voter registration booth at the local University Convocation this week. We're also - almost - ready to open the local campaign office (having trouble getting the phone company to hook up the phone lines correctly).
Still some stuff I've learned.
1) First thing to do is to seek out Obama supporters and get them involved as volunteers.
2) When you find them, find out what they are willing to do. Door to Door canvassing is what the campaign is emphasizing but if you have someone who adamantly won't do it - don't overlook giving them options like organizing a letter writing campaign to the local papers, phonebanking, manning the campaign headquarters, or helping at events (like a table at local festivals, fairs and voter registration).
3) If you live in a very "red" area, like I do... be sure to keep your voter registration efforts targeted to locations that likely Obama supporters would frequent, like Colleges/Universities (for us the local community college isn't a very good destination for all that it should be since most of the students there are benefitting from programs instituted by Democrats.. oh well).
4) In the process of identifying interested volunteers, be sure to create a network via email or phone tree so that they can all be notified of upcoming events, news, etc. as it's breaking.
5) Don't depend on the campaign to provide merchandise. A strong supporter will often purchase an order of buttons, yard signs, bumper stickers, etc. that you can either sell, give away or give in exchange for a donation to help with exposure and still keep generating new merchandise to offer.
6) Check with your local library about their inventory of Obama's books. Our local library had a long waiting list so we purchased several copies from half.com and donated them. Getting your friends and family to pass around their copies to other folks is highly effective too.
7) Wear Obama gear everywhere you can... it is a great facilitator (more so than a bumper sticker or yard sign) to get people to talk to you.
8) Be innovative... we have a local business who has given us permission to pain an Obama sign on the blank wall of their location! Everyone driving by will see it... and it will demonstrate a much greater level of enthusiasm than simply yard signs because of the time and effort involved.
9) Host events like yard sales, spaghetti suppers or a booth at a flea or farmer's market with all proceeds or profits going to the campaign effort.
10) Have phone bankers ask if the people they are calling are registered voters and if the person isn't, they can offer to stop by with a voter registration application. Obviously this works with local callers and is a great way to develop a relationship with the local voters as well as helping build the confidence of a phone banker to do door to door canvasing.
11) For those who can't or won't do phone banking or door to door canvasing - they can write letters to the editor as well as postcards to their neighbors. For $.28 the post office will sell postcards including the postage. Handrwriting a personal, specific to your area, message of support and encouragement can be another consideration for those who are still undecided. And it's another point of the personal aspect of his campaign that people will talk about.
Mostly we want to try to reach enough people so that at work one person might comment that they had someone visit their home over the weekend and others comment that they too heard from the local campaign by phone, mail, in person, etc. It helps people realize how important they are and how important this election is that such effort is being made to reach out to them particularly in areas that have not been considered 'battlegrounds' before.
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