My fellow Camp Obama veterans...Jan, Robert and Susan and I...held an organizing meeting in a local Oakland coffee shop the other night.
It was an unremarkable affair. There were ten of us locals sitting around a table who, two months ago, would not have known one another if we'd met each other on the street. This week, the ten of us came together in a cafe and started organizing to make a change in American politics.
How we did this was very simple. It involved steps that I can teach you in the course of single diary. But the guiding principle behind our organizer meeting represents a force that is changing politics in our country from the roots up.
Let me tell you how...
I met Jan, Robert and Susan at a Camp Obama training on May 31st. Since that time the four of us have held three organizer meetings, hosted a social event at a Pizza Parlor, participated in three Voter Registration events that helped register hundreds of new voters, attended Street Fairs and Backyard Parties and Bake Sales and increased our local community-based volunteer list so that it now includes 58 people.
We did that in 26 days.
And we are just getting started.
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Last Tuesday night we held an organizer recruitment meeting and added six new recruits to our local community team.
That meeting brought together a rich mix of local activists. "Karen" was a member of a longstanding local political group I had invited to coordinate with local Obama activists. "Steven" was a former political rapper who had been nonplussed about politics until the Obama camapaign got him involved again. "Gina" was a student who had travelled the country and was putting down roots in our neighborhood and looking to get involved. "Rita" was an 'over 70' activist, kossack and ardent knitter who had worked on political causes locally for years and came to the event because she'd heard about MyBarackObama.com through my diaries on DailyKos. "Vanessa" was a neighborhood veteran activist from the 60's and 70's whose friends were all interested in 'doing something' this year but didn't have time for more meetings and were counting on her to get involved. And "Terri" was a teacher and friend of "Gina" who came because she heard about the event on MyBarackObama.com.
I know all this, and more, because one of the things that the Obama campaign does is teach you how to be a community organizer.
So, per our training at Camp Obama, one of the first, and essential, things we did at our organizer recruitment meeting was to allow everyone at the table to spend two minutes or so telling their "Story of Self"...an idea centered on the values of Marshall Ganz...each of us talked about what brought us to the event and why we were involved.
It wasn't just the new people who did this. We all told our "Story of Self." And by the time we reached the other side of the circle, all of us had a much clearer idea of why we were there and what brought every last one of us individually to participate in our local organizer group.
That is a very simple thing. You can learn how to do it in 30 minutes at Camp Obama, or you can use common sense and do it yourself on your own. But the point is this: we organize better when we organize locally. We feel more committed to working as a team when we understand what motivates our teammates.
Barack Obama's campaign gets that. If you get it and understand it, you can use that insight as a powerful organizing tool in your own community.
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Jan and Robert and Susan and I briefly described our activities over the last three weeks. We talked about our roles, our goals, our challenges and the overall goals of the organizing team in California's Congressional District 9. We made it clear that we have a ton of work to do.
And then we turned to the table one more time.
We went around the circle and asked our potential organizer recruits a simple question: "Knowing all this, and knowing our group, how would you like to help us organize to meet these goals?"
And, as we went around the circle we gained two "Data entry" activists, we gained three "Fund-Raising / House Party" activists, we added four "Travel to a Swing State" activists, and two "Staff a Local Office Activists," we also gained the skills of two "Event Planners."
But this didn't happen a rote way. Everyone signaled exactly how their strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes fit with the overall objectives of our community group.
Will we succeed at meeting our goals through this 'touchy-feely' process? Dunno.
It sure seems to have worked so far.
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That's how we closed our meeting. It took one hour. No more, no less.
And to follow up that meeting we did something that was drilled into us at Camp Obama. We took the data from our "Sign Up Sheet" and entered into the Spreadsheet at our local community Google Doc.
It was simple. Like in the video above, I logged onto Google Docs. I entered the data into the SpreadSheet I had created three weeks ago. I identified the emails, phone numbers, addresses and skill sets of our new organizer recruits...and, with the click of a button...I shared that data with everyone in our organizing group.
With one email to our Google Group, I had let everyone know how to get a hold of everyone who had attended our meeting.
And with one further invitation on MyBarackObama.com, I invited everyone from that meeting who hadn't already joined our local group on MyBarackObama.com to join us at that website as well.
It was simple, direct, effective. We mixed the best of old school community organizing with the lastest in social networking and communal data management.
In the weeks to come, I will teach you, in specific, broken down steps like the video above, exactly how to do these things using the latest developments. But the point is this; it's simple, it's effective, it works.
We're talking about community organizing. We're talking about doing something a little bit more powerful than showing up and getting involved. We're talking about becoming organizers ourselves.
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I know this community has been roiled with political controversies lately. That's democracy. People care passionately about our nation and want to express their thoughts.
But I would also add that becoming a community organizer in your community is also how our democracy works, too. Barack Obama's campaign has come this far because it understands the power of organizing activists locally and teaching them how to become community organizers.
You may not think you are up to the task. You might be like one of "Vanessa's" friends and hate meetings. You might be like "Rita" and want a friendly DailyKos face to work with to spur your involvement. Or you might be like "Steven" the former political hip hop artist...and wondered exactly why you should get involved at all.
My point is this. It's simple.
Your story is a party of the American story; and in 2008 we're going to use new tools on the internet to help make that mean something powerful. By getting involved in your community you do more than make a statement...you link your efforts to those of your neighbors.
That has a real meaning. That's more than "politics as usual."
You may be surprised to learn that there's a political campaign that sees you as more than just a body to plug into the breach.
I'm telling you that's true.
The simplest, most powerful thing you can do to become a local community organizer is to go to MyBarackObama.com and enter your zip code of find activists and groups and events near you.
And while you're at it, you can "Friend Me"...I'm a bald, friendly guy you'll find when you search for the display name "Paul Delehanty"...you don't gotta, but if you do I will friend you back! I promise!
The most important thing you can do on MyBarackObama.com is get involved. There may not be a Camp Obama training near you soon...but that should stop you from signing up for a local event and getting involved.
That's the point.
This is our country. We share it and our political process...warts and all.
2008 is a time to get organized...a time to make change.
It's simple. All it takes is a little gumption and the click of a mouse.
What are you waiting for?
There are thousands of Unite for Change parties happening this weekend. Why not get involved?