Did the training this afternoon, and I’m doing my first texting shift now. This is much easier than phone banking, at least for me.
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sweeeet!
Also, heads up for the thread: they have been running out of texting assignments pretty early in the day, so if you want to get going on it after you take the training, make sure you get on it right at 1 EST when the first assignments go out, if you can.
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So I logged onto Slack early today to make sure I could get a batch of texts, and it turns out the campaign isn’t doing any texts at all today. They are taking the day off to get organized or something. Way to capitalize on the news dump, Dems!
Wtf. These people are trying to lose!
I’d rather they have a good script than rush something and look bad later
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True I guess there is something to be said for being prepared.
Training just started. First impression compared to the same event for Bernie volunteers is lolBiden/lolBoomers. Feels like a high school production comparatively, but I’m pumped up and ready to volunteer for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris! If you told me 6 months ago that I’d utter those words, I would have had you committed.
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I just started my training. One slot left for tomorrow, then none til 10/6!
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yeah, a LOT of volunteers have a lot of trouble with slack, especially. And not just old people, sadly.
When we were trying to decide on platform for San Diego for Pete, we went with slack because half my leadership team already used it, but I honestly wish more of these campaigns would use Discord. It is SO much easier to get people onboard.
Once you do join the slack, though, the Biden folks have got that thing programmed well. They have a couple things I wish we’d thought of in the primary, tbh.
Most people are not tech savvy, nor are they intellectually curious enough to try to figure stuff out on their own. Political volunteers are in need of more handholding than I ever thought possible. 
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Whoa Lord, you weren’t kidding.
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I just signed up for Wed afternoon
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Welcome to the team Goebs! Unstuck WILL make an impact on removing Trump from office. Let’s goooooooo!
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Training took about 40 minutes, it’s a shame they don’t have separate signups for people who are tech savvy and already have Slack, it would probably shave it down to 10-15 minutes. Took me 12 minutes to pass their quiz, sign up for their Slack channels, sign up for ThruText, and get moved into the Slack channels for assignments.
So you guys should all be able to get set up in under 60 minutes pretty easily, including the training.
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Currently doing my first Biden texting. 300 initial text sent out, 28 responses so far. 26 of those were positive or extremely positive with lots of them wanting to join the volunteer efforts. It really feels good to do something productive that might just make a difference.
Although there is one guy asking if either candidate will be naked tonight and if I’ll come over to watch the debate naked with him. He has snack and a puppy.
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LMAO, yeah, you’ll get some weirdos for sure. At least you’re a guy. I got some creepy shit in the primary. ew
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Lol yup, I had my fair share of creeps when I’ve texted for Bernie and other candidates. Comes with the territory, but it’s worth dealing with for all of the positive interactions.
OK, now that many of you are texting, please consider phone banking ;) Also, long post inc, as there’s some knowledge I want to drop on you all that seems like common sense, but having a defined framework for this is crucial to having meaningful voter conversations.
I’m going to drop it all here today because this is probably my last true day of semi-freedom before the election, as I was just officially hired by the Ammar Campa-Najjar campaign as a field organizer. I will not be sleeping for 6 weeks.
Anyway, I want to talk to you about Relational organizing and Story of Self
Relational Organizing - you can be a field organizer too!
First, the new hotness on the campaign trail is “relational organizing”. Except it’s not new at all, and there still aren’t enough campaigns using it. But it doesn’t have to be officially sanctioned by a campaign for you to start using it. This is how successful movements in the past were organized (Farm workers, Civil Rights, basically any successful resistance movement), it’s how the Obama campaign in CA was done, and it’s something every single one of you can do starting right now.
It’s super easy. Just talk to your own personal social network (friends, family, neighbors, coworkers) about their voting plan, and give a little insight about who you’re voting for and why. To make it easier for you list-making, planning types, set a goal of talking to 5 people per day. Keep track of who you’ve talked to. Then tomorrow, talk to 5 more. Do it until you run out of people to talk to.
Here’s the kicker: when you come across a friend who is super excited to vote and wants to get involved…just tell them to do the same thing. Talk to THEIR friends.
This method works because of fractal growth. Try it.
But what the heck are you supposed to say when you’re not super excited about Biden?
Story of Self (public narrative)
Here’s the part that might be new. Here’s how you can talk about Biden and his campaign, even if you aren’t all that excited about it, and still sell it. You might even become more excited about him as you go through this process. And yes, developing your story of self is a process, but once you do it, you will have a ready-made elevator pitch for ANY time someone asks why you’re voting for Biden.
I should emphasize that this is a values-based approach, and we are going to try talking about specific policy as little as possible. Obviously, this approach is for speaking with lower-info voters, disgruntled republicans who hate Trump, etc. If you’re discussing things with highly-motivated political people like this forum, this tactic is less effective (omg platitudes!).
There are three steps to developing your story of self for a campaign setting:
- Identify a value that is important to you. Things like hard work, perseverance, kindness, compassion, whatever. Just pick one. You want to be able to tell your story in 1-2 minutes, max.
- Identify a specific time/place/anecdote in your life when you first learned or came to appreciate the value you chose. Details are good. You want to be descriptive so your audience really feels like they were there with you.
- Identify how that value and your story relates to the campaign/candidate.
Write it down if you have to. Practice telling it so you can get it down to under 2 minutes. Then sign up for a phone bank shift!
OK, OK, I’ll give you an example. This is one of the stories that I used on the Pete campaign. Admittedly this will be less effective in written form, but hopefully you’ll get the gist. Tried my best to transcribe and flesh out the notes I took at our training for this…
When I was 10, my dad and I went to the Dayton Air Show, and that year there was an SR-71 that actually gave a live demo/flyby. Seeing that plane fly was awesome, and I told my dad that I wanted to fly that plane when I grew up. So after it landed, the pilots were standing on the tarmac, in their space suits, and me, this tiny girl, drags my dad up to them and I began peppering them with questions about how high they flew, how fast it went, how long did they train to fly it, how did they get picked to fly it, and then the money question, how can I fly that plane? Their answer, “aw honey, they don’t let women fly that plane.”
It was like a punch to the gut, but at the same time, a call to action. I swore right then and there to those amused pilots that I was going to be the first girl to fly that plane, and I did everything in my power for the next several years to make that dream a reality, including attending the Air Force Academy. Perseverance against daunting odds and through great hardship is what I learned that day and in the years to come. Sure, the SR-71 was decommissioned before I graduated, and as it turns out, I didn’t grow enough to reach the pedals, but the value was still ingrained in me.
This is part of why I identify so strongly with Pete’s campaign. he faced the longest of odds to become a viable candidate, and yet, here he is, near the front of the field with a real chance to make history. Perseverance paid off for me, and I see it every day working on this campaign.
As you can see…there’s not much politics in this story. That’s the point. The idea is that politics is personal, it’s about values, and everyone has values they can identify with. Obviously, this story is one I can easily tailor to the Biden campaign, or Ammar’s campaign. Give it a shot with your own personal story.
If you want more info on this, there is a whole series on youtube by the creator of this method, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/r1Z2Rog--P8
Anyway, I will try to be on here as much as I can, but my time is about to become extremely limited. Feel free to ask me anything about this!
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Congrats on the position and thanks for your insight! Now go beat the hell out of that carpet bagger and send Campa-Najjar to congress!
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I may not be a field organizer, but I did send out 1,500 texts today, including 600 to GOTV in TX. Suck it Abbott!
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Couple of ways to be helpful if you sign up here. I’m pretty sure this means I’m now legally allowed to thrown down against Proud Boys if they’re bothering people at the polls.