Be Nice to your High School English Teacher

When I graduated from North Penn High School in 1993, I had 700 or so people in my graduating class, and we were the second largest high school in Pennsylvania. Today, one of the volunteers told me that her son is a senior there, and his graduating class has about 1100 students in it. Clearly something’s wrong with education when you can have one school with 3400 students in it in 3 grades (it looks like a small airport now). Anyway, somehow, 15 years later, my high school senior year English teacher, Mrs. Colliver, managed to recognize me when I saw her at the campaign office. She’s retired now, and has been coming in regularly to make phone calls and volunteer however she can. It was really fun to reconnect with her! I keep wondering how many more people will come through the door by the end that I knew growing up.

New note to this post: I also learned that another regular volunteer named Cathy was ALSO an English teacher at my high school, and coincedentally, the mom of a guy in my graduating class! Last night when she was in the office I introduced her to Facebook and showed her pics of a lot of her former students, my former classmates!

Also, here's a picture of the front page of our local town newspaper, The North Penn Reporter! Go Hillary!

Manic Monday - Hello Hillary!

Monday morning started off a bit rough for me, to be honest. I spent the weekend in DC visiting old friends, taking my nephew to the zoo, sorting out our storage unit, and feeling guilty that I wasn’t back in PA at the campaign office. I drove back to Philly early Monday morning and came into the office at about 11am. When I got there, I learned that everyone was out except a volunteer named Monica, minding the office. “Everyone’s gone to the Hillary rally!” she said. “Crap!” I thought. I’m such a loser- this must have been scheduled over the weekend (I vaguely recalled hearing on the news the announcement that the Clintons had announced a new blitz of rallies in Pennsylvania for Obama) and I wasn’t around to hear about it, and get scheduled to volunteer. I’m really not in the “in” volunteer group, I thought – they didn’t even call me! (which is sort of true, since a lot of the regular volunteers from Lansdale have been around since the primaries, and have major streed cred that I don't have.)So instead of sulking, I realized that it was quite close to town, so I decided to drive there and attend it anyway. I mean, I wanted to see Hillary! I was still early enough and when I went to go through the gate, I saw Sheila. I asked if she needed any help, and sure enough she handed me a clipboard and put me to work!!! The rally was at a beautiful state park, and the weather couldn’t have been better, not to mention the fall leaves that were already turning beautiful fall colors. The energy there was contagious and although I’ve heard most of the pieces of her speech in media clips here and there before, I have to say that even I, in my jaded, “I hate canned speeches and prefer to be an intelligent snob and vote based on the issues,” thing, was inspired and cheering and jumping up and down by the end. She really is an amazing woman, and when she came down off the podium and shook hands and greeted people in the crowds, I was about two feet away from her at one point. It was really cool.

What resonated with me so much in her speech, is when she spoke about how many people in the US today hate politics, and see the presidential campaign as a symbol of all the negativity and, well, BS in politics today (okay that’s me super paraphrasing). She talked about how our country was built on hope, on civic engagement, on empowerment of the people for the future, and all that traditional American democracy stuff. But somehow the way she said it, got me almost choked up. Maybe I see too many people in developing countries who don’t have nearly the opportunities for democracy, or maybe it’s because I see the way our country throws away that opportunity as such a sad shame, but either way, I agreed with her that Obama really does represent something different. But then again, I was already going to vote for him.

In the end, I started out my Monday driving home to PA in the dark, having to stop multiple times for coffee to stay awake, just to be back to work on the campaign.
But a depressing start ended with a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the chance to really get to know the other volunteers better and show that I’m a reliable volunteer too. And oh, there were these home-grown vendors that just showed up out of the blue at the rally. I bought a really crazy hot pink pin for my friend Melissa in Philly that says, “Hot Chicks Dig Barack Obama!”

I'd rather be in Kuala Lumpur...(Not Really!)

This week I’m missing a big annual meeting for my team in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That is, my team at my “real job” that I do in Thailand. I’ve been to every one of these meetings since the tsunami recovery program began, but I wasn’t able to take my annual leave any earlier this year, and I decided that volunteering for the campaign was more important to me right now than this meeting. Luckily my bosses were pretty supportive, and in some ways, a few of them wish they were able to do what I’m doing instead of sitting in meetings all day. I hope they’re reading and living vicariously! Frankly, in just over a week of volunteering I’ve heard so many inspiring stories about community mobilization, volunteerism and pure American sense of civic duty that I hope I’ll be re-energized even for my own regular job when I go back.

Persuasion Period is Now

This week, we are in what’s called “Persuasion.” That means that we’re targeting undecided voters and trying to persuade them to vote for Obama. The campaign has these amazing systems which include lists of all registered voters, including your voting history, and an inventory of who is an Obama supporter and who’s still undecided. Part of what’s been happening for the last 6 months or more during the primary even, is that anytime a person got a call at home, or stopped by a table at a store, or came to an event or had someone knock on your door, the person was “identified” on a scale of 1-7, with one being a committed Obama supporter, 3 undecided, 5 a strong McCain supporter, and 6 and 7 being these crazy conservative guys who I guess are apparently on the ballot here and even more conservative than McCain. So through a variety of means, we can pull lists of potentially undecided voters and have volunteers call them and talk about the campaign. We are also sending lots and lots of people out to canvass neighborhoods – but not randomly, only to specifically undecided voters’ houses- to talk to them to try to get them to support Obama. Yes, it’s true- we have your name, phone number, what we think is your political “ID” for the campaign, AND your address. We also probably have your age and sex. Most of it comes from your voter registration, I think, and it’s in this huge online database that we use.

So the main form of persuasion is via phone banking and neighborhood canvassing. We have a script that we give people, and a bunch of different talking points on various issues. I spent my first day last week using my student council/sorority skills making an “Issues Wall” out of poster board and markers, which has photocopies of lots of different issue papers (in summarized, bite-sized talking points) in files that phone callers can use if they get a question they aren’t well informed about. It’s amazing the people who come out to do phone banking- a lot of them are doing it for the first time, and some are clearly uncomfortable with it at first, but really just want to do something to help. And yet it can end up really inspiring, because you actually get the chance to talk to people about the issues. I mean, 95% of my friends are strong Obama supporters, so it’s like we just sit around and talk to each other about issues, but it’s kind of like preaching to the choir. When you do persuasion calls, you get your own soapbox for the issues! Actually, they say that telling your own story about why you’re an Obama supporter, why you came in and gave your time to volunteer, is what persuades people the most. And indeed, when I explain to people that I grew up in Lansdale and now live halfway across the world doing tsunami recovery work and am giving up my once-a-year trip home to the campaign, it’s true, they do listen a bit more.

What does our office do??

Life at the Obama Lansdale campaign office is pretty straightforward, to be honest. We focus on a couple of key things: phone banking, canvassing neighborhoods, and recruiting volunteers to do either of those things. There are also a few people who do data entry and other office work. Oh, and we greet the gazillions of people who walk in the door everyday asking for a yard sign. The whole idea is house by house, person by person, getting people to vote for Obama. Right now, things are looking positive for Obama in Pennsylvania…4 years ago, PA “went blue” for John Kerry, but only barely. The feeling at the moment is that we can win PA, but we’ll have to work for it. And winning PA is important, because we have 21 electoral votes. If we’re not careful, we could be another Florida or Ohio. The crazy part is that Montgomery County, where Lansdale is located, is one of the hottest battleground areas- meaning if we can win here, we can win the state of PA. Lansdale is one of about 6 offices in Montgomery County.

The office is pretty bare bones- it’s just a large space, pretty much what used to be an old car dealership showroom, with lots of folding tables and chairs. Almost everything is donated, too! Dan and Ben have almost no budget. The other day we needed push pins, posterboard, and staples, and Sheila just went out and bought them, and paid herself. We have a food corner with a couple of mini refrigerators, a microwave, and coffee pot, and some shelves with snacks. Supporters come in all the time with food- I’m serious, they just drop off a big box of donuts or bagels or bulk snacks like tons of granola bars or pretzels or cases of bottled water. It’s amazing. We have a kids corner with coloring books and toys and I even brought in a tv/vcr for when it really gets busy, as we do get parents who stop by for an hour or two to help out.


In the picture here, you see a cut out of Obama from our office with a sign that says, "wish list." We keep a running list at the front of things we need and people often just bring it in. This guy Hugh is some sort of delivery guy and owns a big truck, and came by the other morning with his truck full of beat up folding tables and chairs. Yahoo! We have a big roll of plastic table cloth stuff, so we cleaned up the tables, covered them, and there we go! More space for volunteers. Right now our huge wish list item is cell phones or cell phone minutes. We have a bunch of pay-as-you-go cell phones with a lot of minutes, but there are never enough. A lot of volunteers use their own phones too.

The Lansdale Team

I'm still meeting people every day, but let me tell you about some of the folks I work with and have met so far. There are two paid staff – Field Organizers- who work out of our office, Dan and Ben. I’m assigned to Ben, and I’m called a Deputy Field Organizer (still figuring out what that means). Ben’s totally cute- he just graduated from Amherst in May, is from CT, and has been working on the campaign since the spring. He’s been in Montgomery County for about 4 months, and opened up our Lansdale office 2 weeks ago. He’s very sharp and works very hard, usually from about 9am until about midnight, everyday except Sunday when we don’t open until noon. He’s very nice and friendly, though a bit serious compared to Dan, the other Field Organizer, who’s a few years older, grew up in NYC, and is really funny. His joking sense of humor might be what gets us all to the finish line without losing it. Both guys are working non-stop, and both constantly look like they could use a shower, hot meal, 24 hours of sleep, and a haircut. They are being housed by a nice Lansdale volunteer named Kathy, who reminds me of my mom about 10 years ago. In fact, Kathy’s daughter has just graduated college, is looking to go into the field of international development, and is headed to Kenya in December.


And of course there’s Sheila (lady at left in photo)! Sheila is sort of a full-time volunteer from Long Island and is in charge of volunteers. She’s the best saleswoman I’ve ever met. No one so much as walks through the door without her talking them into volunteering for at least an hour in our office. You just can’t say no to this woman! She’s not Jewish, but has that perfect stereotypical NY Jewish mom persona. Only instead of insisting you take another helping of dinner, you find yourself spending hours calling random people and convincing them to vote for Obama. It’s genius, frankly.

I’m still figuring out how it all works (and part of the point of this blog is to give all of you a window to the inside workings of the campaign), but basically the Lansdale office just has Ben and Dan as paid staff, and everyone else is a volunteer. They do a lot with out-of-state volunteers who sign up to give large blocks of time to the campaign, like Sheila, and will pretty much go anywhere they are sent. I guess out-of-state-ers are less likely to get distracted by real life, and so can just work flat out full-time + for the days they are here. I signed up to work on the campaign in a number of places, basically just sending my CV and a cover letter explaining my situation, and filled out a few applications online. Technically I am an out-of-state volunteer, assigned to Lansdale, but actually they did it on purpose because I know the area, already have housing and transport, and can fulfill a need for more full-time volunteers that they had in my area. We just had a married couple from Texas come to Lansdale for 4 days to volunteer. I guess the idea is that Texas is considered less of a priority right now than Pennsylvania, so their time is best used here. I was talking to one of the team lead volunteers, Kelly, who told me that there are all kinds of people in non-swing states who come to swing states like PA to volunteer (in the coming weeks, apparently we’ll be flooded with them), but sometimes people will even volunteer frequent flyer miles or things like that, to pay for out-of-state volunteers to come. Team lead volunteers are usually Lansdale residents who do a lot of regular volunteering, but usually have a job or family, so can’t work every day, all day, like I’m hoping to do for the majority of the month I’m home. Many of these Lansdale team lead volunteers have been working for Obama since the early days of the primary, and really have some great stories.

In the coming weeks, I’ll try to tell more stories about the great people I’m meeting here.

My First Day on the Trail

Okay, I’m not really “on the trail,” but I thought that sounded cool as a header…I work at a local campaign office in Lansdale, PA, which is one of about 8 offices that the Obama campaign has in Montgomery County. The office used to be a car dealership, I think, or a warehouse maybe, but for us it’s a huge space where lots of cool stuff goes on.

Okay, not always. Anyone else might have thought my first day was pretty boring, in fact, but me with my West Wing fantasy was pretty stoked anyway. Tuesday was my first day, and it was kind of slow. I learned how to use the super voter database and did some data entry, made the “Issues Wall,” talked to some people who stopped in, and then made a few phone calls to voters. I went home for lunch (my mom is an angel who is contantly grocery shopping and packed the fridge with all our favorite things- mmmm ham sandwhiches!) and then finished up about 6pm. Debate night!! My friend Melissa lives in Philly and took the train out to the ‘burbs for the debate, so I picked her up from the train station, and she, Steve and I went out for Philly cheesesteaks before we settled in at my house to watch the debate. Of course, jet lag kicked in pretty much exactly as the two candidates shook hands, and I promptly fell into a dead sleep sitting on the couch, for the entire debate.