Organizing for America | Honestly Barack Blog: My Experience Volunteering...

My Experience Volunteering...

By Marcus @ SDSU - Dec 28th, 2007 at 3:27 am EST

Also listed in: San Diego for Barack Obama

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

Lately, I've been feeling anxiety, nervousness, and helplessness with only 3 weeks to go and it being at such a DEAD HEAT...I know that many of the others like Mannie felt the exact same way..

So I volunteered at the Downtown San Diego office today, and I STRONGLY urge EVERYONE who posts on this blog everyday, if there is a campaign headquarters in or around their town to make phonecalls to Iowa...

It was really difficult at first, b/c I felt exactly like a telemarketer, and I HATE telemarketers..

I had no idea how informed the Iowa voters were and how often ALL of them are pestered by the political campaign operatives from both the Republicans, Democrats, and probably some smaller parties as well, day after day.

We basically asked who we they were caucusing for, and if they needed a ride, babysitter, directions, etc.
Several people just hung up as soon as I was from a campaign, and others just told me straight out "I'm not interested in politics - bye" or "I'm undecided!"

But after a while, I got the hang of it, and after I read the script over and over, after about 20 calls, I got comfortable and ad-libbed the script to make it sound less telemarkety and more like myself...a real, first-time, young, Obama volunteer.

I think the voters who didn't hang up in my face and actually didnt mind listening to me for literally a couple of seconds liked the naturalness and laughed when I asked them "I bet you've been getting a lot of calls, huh?"

I only made calls for about an hour and a half, but it was EXTREMELY satisfying. Me, my friend Nancy, and one of the staffers LM made about 150-200 calls between that hour and a half, and I would say about 80% didn't even answer. But it was encouraging that 4 people were Obama supporters, and 2 were Clinton supporters.

Probably the most encouraging fact of the day was that of all the calls made from the office that day, more than 200 were OBama supporters while 130 were CLinton supporters...there were hardly any Edwards supporters..

We still have lots of work to do, but just please people... don't lose hope!!!

Philippians 4:6
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and peition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Reader Comments	Comments RSS
Comments are closed for this post.

Ex-San Diegan supporting Obama in New Mexico | Report to Admin

By Vicki "Hussein" in New Mexico Dec 30th 2007 at 10:40 am EST

Hello from New Mexico. I moved here in 2005 after living in San Diego 36 years. I make calls from home using Build the Vote internet tool. We only call NM supporters of Obama but it is still nerve-wracking. I meet some great people who appreciate my call and a chance to talk about Barack Obama and the issues. I used to be a telemarketer in San Diego as a part time job when I was laid off for a spell and get so far in debt I needed a second job. The key is is to not take anything personally. Move on to the next call if they don't want to talk. It really a game of numbers. We need to reach as many supporters as possible so it's no big deal if they hang up, we need to find the ones who want to talk. We need to do this because we all want to change America, right? Thanks for all that you do.

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.