YES WE CAN! DC for Obama Volunteer Summit
Nearly 200 campaign volunteers from across the Washington, DC, area came together to decide the role they want to play to help realize the vision that President Elect Obama articulated during the election. The volunteers were convened at a "Yes We Can Summit" on Saturday, December 13, at George Washington University by DC for Obama, a volunteer organization that mobilized several thousand DC-area supporters to knock on more than 100,000 doors for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign. Participants at the "Yes We Can Summit" set priorities for the future of the local grassroots organization. In small groups, the Obama supporters worked with facilitators to share their experience from the campaign and discuss the issues on which they'd like to work. Electronic keypad polling was used to identify the collective goals of the group. The “Yes We Can Summit” used a methodology developed by the nonprofit organization AmericaSpeaks called a 21st Century Town Meeting, which integrates technology with authentic deliberation to help groups identify collective priorities. Who Participated?
Local and National IssuesParticipants were asked to use their polling keypads to identify the local and national issues about which they were most passionate. Health care received the most support, followed by foreign policy/national security/Iraq, energy/environment, economy/jobs, and education. Other national issues received less support, including international development and housing/poverty. The local issue that received by far the greatest support was education and youth issues (almost twice as many votes as any other). Voting rights, homelessness and poverty, health care, affordable housing, crime/public safety, and community vitality received moderate support. More than half of participants said they were most interested in working on national policy advocacy with 22% saying they were most interested in local community service projects and 18% saying they were most interested in local policy advocacy. Optimism about Making an ImpactForty-five percent of participants said they were “very optimistic” about the ability of local volunteers to make a meaningful contribution. Forty-four percent said they were “optimistic.” Elevent percent said they were :neutral” and one percent said they were “very pessimistic.” Memories and HopesSummit participants began the day by sharing their favorite memories of the campaign and their greatest hopes for the future. Examples of favorite memories included:
Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion of hopes for the future included:
One Year Vision for the FutureSummit participants spent time working in small groups to develop a one year vision for the organization. The following large-group themes emerged from the discussions:Promote national and local advocacyDevelop a large and diverse grassroots membershipPartner with local organizations to address underserved communities on education, health care and povertyAct as a clearinghouse for local and national civic associationsCollaborate with the administrationRecruit and retain volunteers for community service projectsUse metrics to ensure vision is being implementedEighty eight percent of participants said they were “supportive” or “very supportive” of the vision. Community Service ProjectsFollowing a presentation from the chair of the DC for Obama Community Service Committee, participants discussed the criteria that should be used to select Community Service projects and identified potential projects that could be taken on that could show a meaningful impact in the next year. Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion about Community Service criteria included:
Hundreds of ideas were generated for Community Service projects through the table discussions. While each of these ideas will be read by the Community Service committee, a set of projects were identified as being most common from across the room. Participants used their polling keypads to identify the projects among this list that they preferred. By far the project that received the greatest support from participants was to create and support tutoring and mentoring programs for youth with measurable results. This was followed by building job training programs (specifically green jobs), registering, educating and empowering voters, and developing relationships with specific schools and letting school officials tell us what they need. Other priorities that received less support included surveying weaknesses in DC health care system and volunteering to fill in the gaps, and cleaning up and beautifying neighborhoods.Nineteen percent of participants said their top priority project was not among the room-wide list. Advocacy ProjectsFollowing a presentation from the chair of the DC for Obama Advocacy Committee, participants discussed the criteria that should be used to select Advocacy projects and identified potential projects that could be taken on that could show a meaningful impact in the next year. Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion about Advocacy criteria included:
Hundreds of ideas were generated for Advocacy projects through the table discussions. While each of these ideas will be read by the Advocacy committee, a set of projects were identified as being most common from across the room. Participants used their polling keypads to identify the projects among this list that they preferred.The two advocacy projects that received the strongest support were promoting DC voting rights and advocating for affordable housing, homeless services and poverty support. These were followed by working to improve health care and improving global perceptions of America through foreign aid and diplomacy. Advocacy projects that received less support included advancing community education on tipics such as financial literacy and parental involvement, increasing funding on education reform, supporting HIV/AIDS organizations that provide testing and services, increasing support for tutoring and mentoring programs for DC students, and rallying DC residents to increase the rate of recycling.Eight percent of participants said their top project was not among the list of room-wide themes. Our NameParticipants at the Summit decided to consider a new name for the organization. After talking about the kind of message that their name should convey, they generated 16 options in addition to DC for Obama:
Following a series of votes to identify top choices, the two names that received the greatest support were Yes We Can DC (48%) and DC for Obama (44%). Commitments and EvaluationsAt the end of the day, participants signed up to participate on DC for Obama committees and made personal commitments for the future. Participants were also asked to use their polling keypads to answer two final evaluation questions. 85% of participants rated the meeting as “very good” or “good” with the remaining participants rating it “fair.” 84% of participants said they were “very committed” or “committed” to the outcomes of the day’s meeting with 12% saying they were “somewhat committed” and 4% saying they were “unsure” or “not committed.”Special ThanksSpecial thanks to the College Democrats of George Washington University for helping to support the event and to AmericaSpeaks for donating keypad polling technology as well as staff support. Thanks to the dozens of volunteers who made the Summit possible and who will continue to be the heart and soul of DC for Obama.
Good Day All: I just completed celebrating Thanksgiving & my birthday with four days off work. I can truly say that I feel especially blessed this year because I'm thankfully alive, my family and friends helped me celebrate and I received the best birthday present of my adult life - the president that I wanted, wished for, worked for and helped to elect - Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Yay!!! The only damper I've felt in the past few days has come from the dastardly news going on in Mumbai, India.So, I've been thinking (a dangerous action), and trying to figure out a NEW and more EFFECTIVE way to go about changing the hearts and minds of the overly sensitive hot-headed terrorists of the world. I don't know that mine or anyone else's ideas would help at this point, and we might just help to make them more desparate & volatile, but I believe we MUST use a new tactic or two. Here are my lofty & realistic ideas:* President Obama should call a World Summit for Peace by asking the top aids and/or officials of all hostile nations to meet (probably in groups with neutral mediators), work towards consensus on at least two issues and agree to a cease fire (no bombings or terror actions) while implementing the agreed upon changes within a specific timeframe. If successful, the countries can work on the next two issues and keep repeating the process as needed...
* President Obama can ask our U.S. foreign ambassadors to team up with our foreign aid workers to put an AGRESSIVE plan in place and begin helping with the food, medical, clean-water, agricultural and micro-economic issues of the people in nations that are hostile towards America. A lot of the hostility towards western nations is due to the enormous gap between the haves & the have nots! I believe that we could bring an end to some of the hostile angst by helping the resentful nations to feed, clothe and shelter those in need...
* I believe President Obama's humility, diplomatic attitude and calm demeanor will also help to quiet some of the hostility that other nations have toward America. I would like to see President Obama give a few reality check speeches to some of America's hard-core opposition nations so that they can witness his sincerity and hear his message of peace in person. I don't think they would be able to resist Barack's charm and inspiration...
Yes - I know these are a crazy mix of hope, pipe-dream and realism but, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the above.
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On October 11, 2008, people will gather in cities worldwide to discuss global climate change and to work together to address its effects on the local level. Earth Charter U.S. is coordinating the summits in celebration of U.N. International Year of Planet Earth. They are also underwriting the web connection among participating cities so that people will feel the global connection by being able to see and hear each other.
Earth Charter U.S. is a nonprofit organization that spreads the message of the Earth Charter, an international declaration of principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society ( www.earthcharter.org).
Here in Tampa, our summit will be held at the University of Tampa. Registration begins at 10am in Faulk Theater, and the schedule of activities can be found at http://www.earthcharterus.org/summit-wkend.html
Speakers include:
Dr. Gary Yohe, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (with Al Gore) as a senior member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Alexander Likhotal, President and CEO of Green Cross International and adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev
James Hansen, NASA scientist and Columbia University professor who exposed White House editing of climate-related reports to make global warming appear less threatening
Bill Becker, executive director of Presidential Climate Action Plan, 300 policies that can be enacted by the new president without congressional approval
Michelle Weyman, executive director of ICLEI-US, leading organization for Mayors’ Climate Action Program in 1500+ cities
The Earth Scouts Festival will be held on the same day from 10am-3pm in UT's Plant Hall. The Earth Scouts are "changing the world one fun badge at a time" by participating in hands-on activities that reinforce the principles of human rights, economic justice, participatory democracy, respect for nature, and cultivating a culture of peace and nonviolence. Some common activities include tasting and learning about fair trade chocolate, making slogan buttons, and making seed necklaces that sprout while being worn!
We hope to see you at one of these great events!
All, This is big as we move this country forward and listen, understand and respect other. Obama08 and the leader we need! Reg
PARIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a French magazine in an interview that if he wins office, he will hold a summit with Muslim countries to better the United States' image in the world.
"Once I'm elected, I want to organize a summit in the Muslim world, with all the heads of state, to have an honest discussion about ways to bridge the gap that grows every day between Muslims and the West," Thursday's edition of Paris Match quoted Obama as saying,
"I want to ask them to join our fight against terrorism. We must also listen to their concerns," Obama said in the French-language transcript.
The Illinois senator is running neck-and-neck against senator Hillary Clinton from New York to lead the Democratic ticket in November's presidential election.
Surveys around the world show high levels of anti-Americanism in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Negative opinions are strongest in the Muslim world, according to the Pew Research Center.
(Reporting by Brian Rohan)
