Saturday I went to Bernie Camp. What is that you say? Bernie Camp, it’s just about the best guided training and team building exercise I have ever participated in, and that includes some forty years of this type of experience at various levels in the business world. It was that good.
The day started with a visibility exercise in front of the IBEW Hall on Airport Road in Concord, site of the “camp”. Beeps and thumbs up from and passing cars greeted our Bernie signs in large numbers. As we joined the group, I was immediately impressed by the number of people present. We ended up with a turnout of 45 individuals who gave up their entire Saturday to become better volunteers for Bernie. These were folks of all ages who certainly had other things to do on these last days of clement weather, as we try to get buttoned up for winter here in NH.
But this was just one of seven locations in the Granite State, from Nashua to Conway and Portsmouth to Claremont, to host the first Bernie Camps. For more about this activity, please follow me below the fold.
The thing that sticks with me most and the reason why Bernie Camp will remain a memorable and useful experience, was the balance between the much needed training in multiple disciplines, and the presence of a fabulous group of volunteers who came and participated in the training. We ran the gamut from the 17 year old political novice to the experienced activist with decades of experience. We learned from the ice breaker sessions of the multitude and complexity of reasons for folks to support Bernie. The richness of these experiences was reinforced by the personal story training, where intimate details of people’s lives gripped us and often moved us to tears. What an incredible group of committed quality individuals. What a joy and what a privilege.
For a grassroots organizer the training sessions were absolute gold. The campaign has now trained data volunteers to access and update VAN databases, allowing us to launch canvasses or provide phone banking lists so that paid staff can do what they are paid to do - organize. A significant group of canvas and phone bank team leaders emerged from this exercise. Through voter contact workshops volunteers learned to become more comfortable with phone banking and door knocking techniques. Further valuable workshops on digital strategy and activating your social networks, complimented sessions on college campus organizing strategies, LTE effective writing, and reaching out to community groups. It was all good.
Bernie Camp couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I have to admit I was feeling kind of down. The large rallies and excitement of summer seemed long over along with the first debate parties. It’s time to get down to the really hard work of the campaign. Just finished a three hour phone bank shift where it seemed that no-one wanted to talk to me. It’s vital work, when Hillary just had her best month in the polls since the summer. We need to keep up the momentum. The campaign has now given us the tools, it’s up to each of us.
That’s why Bernie Camp is so important. It is how we win this thing. By a people powered political revolution. This campaign may not win the money wars or the TV air wars, but we will win the volunteer wars. I have every reason to believe that every one of the three hundred odd participants in this past Saturday’s first Bernie Camp event was the same type of quality individual that I met in Concord. I have yet to meet a soul since I became involved with this movement that I have not genuinely liked or admired. With people like this we can’t go wrong.
And the people keep coming out to feel the Bern. The venues are smaller here in New Hampshire where last weekend the Town of Warner NH downtown was completely taken up by over five hundred supporters who came to see Bernie in a town hall with maximum capacity of 300. 725 Bernie fans came out on a weekday in the middle of the afternoon to cheer him on when he filed to run as a Democrat in the New Hampshire Primary in Concord last Thursday. There is energy and enthusiasm here unlike any other campaign.
The campaign has made the very important decision to empower the volunteer base with the data training, posting of volunteer events on the official website, and the widespread encouragement of self directed volunteer teams. It is up to us now. Look for a Bernie Camp event near you soon and become part of the political revolution. As the campaign is fond of saying, we may be outspent, but we won’t be out organized, and with this type of training and team building we won’t be beaten. Here in the Granite State, we’re the Lake Sunapee Region for Bernie and we’re feelin’ the Bern.