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MoveOn.org Brooklyn Phone Bank: Call for Change Emergency Phonebank
Was talking to our MoveOn.org guest and it seems that they are hitting a harder period for phonebanking. The initial strong response from volunteers has reached something of a burnout level. It isn't that the phone calls aren't effective. It's just that they have started running low on volunteers.
With the election coming up, we really need these phone banks fully staffed. If you haven't yet committed to a candidate or activity between now and November 7th, please join in the MoveOn.org phone bank. Here is their announcement of a special, "emergency" night of phonebanking:
It's an emergency. With just 22 days left until Election Day, we're on the brink of a historic opportunity to take back Congress.
When we started Call for Change, the experts said only a handful of races were in play. But voters really want a change after the disaster of the last six years, and as a result a whopping 26 races are in a dead heat. There's just one problem: to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity, we'll need way more volunteers than we currently have.
So this Thursday, we're holding an emergency phonebank at the new MoveOn office in Brooklyn to call MoveOn members and ask them to join Call for Change. These are fun calls to make—you'll be talking to great people. And each new volunteer your recruit can call dozens or even hundreds of voters before the election.
So far, Call for Change has been a huge success. We've made over a 1.2 million calls into competitive races around the country.
Studies have shown that this type of calling—targeting voters who often miss elections—is extremely powerful. If we can recruit more MoveOn members to make even more calls, we'll have a huge impact on these extremely close races.
And getting involved in our program is easy. Our cutting edge calling system allows folks to call voters from their own home whenever they want.
Here are the details:
Call for Change Emergency Phonebank
6:30 p.m., Thursday, October 19th
MoveOn's Brooklyn campaign office
Carroll Gardens, just off Court St., near the Carroll St. stop on the F/G line
(We'll give you better directions after you sign up)Click here if you can make it this Thursday.
If you can't make it Thursday night, but are interested in joining the campaign on another day, click here.
MoveOn's Brooklyn campaign office, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (sign up for details)
MoveOn.org
Your intern's experience is not
unusual this year. I've seen much more relucantance to campaign this year than in 2004. The stakes are high, the chances are good but many groups are having a hard time motivating volunteers. Why is that, do you think?
Various reasons...
a. It's not a presidential year and so some people STILL don't get how important it is.
b. There are so many efforts going on that I think there really is a lot of activism, it is just spread across many groups.
c. Burnout from the primary season. In NYC there is so much at stake in the primaries, that they got way too much attention. I know that many of the activists I worked with who were pushing for Chris Owens are still engaged: doing Act Now phone banking, working for John Hall, working for Steve Harrison, etc. But I don't know if that is typical and I certainly don't see any of those Yassky and Yvette people out there and I certainly don't see people like Yassky and Yvette raising money for anyone. I hope I am wrong about that, but it seems like the main people who are still active are Chris Owens people.
Which is why they should move the primary
Which is why IMO the State Party needs to move the primary up on the calendar, it takes place too close to the general election. Otherwise in the next mayor's race, we'll have eight candidates beat each other up in the primary, only to again be squashed by a well financed gop candidate who had no primary competition to deal with. Even a guy like Steve Harrison in the NY 13th would benefit greatly from the primary being moved up, because he couldn't raise much money until the primary had taken place. Give him three or four months as the democratic nominee instead of six weeks and he'd have a lot more time and money to work with.
I support moving the primary to mid July. I don't buy that too many people are on vacation then, most people vacation in august. I'd also like to see the city and state declare election day a holiday. federal election day should be a national holiday. Encourage people to participate and vote by making a big deal out of it, and making it so they don't use having to work as an excuse.
Reasons
To mole:
Reason b. ding. ding. ding.
I gave moveon some of my time, but there's only so much to go around, and I'm also volunteering in at least 2 other efforts (so far!).
To rwallner: I'm on vacation in mid-July. So is every other New Yorker who works in an industry that still does annual closing, rather than year-round flexible vacations. This would include pretty much anyone who works in a factory setting, both blue-collar and white-collar.
and I forgot
to mention teachers and students.