More on National Days of Service - Jan 17-19, 2009

Hello Community Organizers!

As I posted earlier in this blog, we are being asked to hold community service events the weekend before the Presidential Inauguration. Serendipitously, this is also the weekend of Martin Luther King Day.

Here's more about the National Day of Service, from the description by the Inaugural Committee:
 

In 1994, Congress transformed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday into a national day of community service to further commemorate a man who lived his life in service to others. As a tribute to that legacy and the very real needs of our nation, the President-elect and Vice President-elect will launch a national organizing effort on the eve of their Inauguration to engage Americans in service. This national day of service will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2009 and, unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama will ask Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods. He will ask all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. Never has it been more important to come together in shared purpose to tackle the common challenges we face.

The call will go to all Americans to organize service projects and join others at events in their communities. As the Co-chairs of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, we invite you and your organization to join other Americans to organize service projects in your communities. The Presidential Inaugural Committee will offer Americans a new website to help promote your events and for Americans to make their commitments, build communities, find opportunities to serve and share their results. These can be events that orient people to your organization's work, engage people in direct service, or bring people together to reflect on Dr. King's legacy and how they can commit to becoming more engaged citizens.

So, this will be a nationwide effort that will be well publicized and posted on the PIC website.  It is important to note since this is an official Presidential Inaugural Committee event, we will not be using any of MyBO's resources for this event.  OK, here are the latest details:

Phase 1 (Dec 17 - Jan 2)

• They are asking people to step forward and volunteer to take ownership of a service project.
• Anybody can be an event lead.
• The project can be any non-partisan event that serves the community interest.
• Volunteer organizers can pick a local nonprofit organization or school to support.
• We are encouraged to work across party lines with these projects.
• They are asking us to host several events in each CD.
• Events can be large or small and we are encouraged to have both.
• Events can be held anytime during the 3-day weekend of Sat-Mon, Jan 17-19.

Phase 2 (Jan 2 - Jan 16)

• On Jan 2, a searchable website for all America is scheduled to go live.
• Emails will be blasted out and there we expect a high level of interest.
• Event leads will recruit through their own social networks.
• We will hold phone banks to help recruit people to attend these events.
• Logistics will be worked out for the event just like any other event we have held.

Now is the time to show we are going to govern in a new way! Pick your charity and let's get going!

You can propose a project by filling out this form.

Thanks!
 Chip

Sign up to lead a health care discussion over the holidays

Health care is a top priority for President-elect Obama and for Senator Tom Daschle, Secretary-designate for Health and Human Services (HHS). They both are committed to health care reform that comes from the ground up -- that's why this holiday season, we're asking you to give us the gift of your ideas and input.

Sign up to lead a Health Care Community Discussion in your home, community center, or even a local coffee shop, anytime until December 31st.

The Obama-Biden team will provide you with a special Moderator's Guide that will give you everything you need to get the discussion going. Secretary-designate Tom Daschle will even choose some discussions to attend in person.

He recorded a short message to talk a bit about why these discussions are so important. Watch the video and sign up to lead your own Health Care Discussion in your community.

Our Local Survey Results

My survey of organizers, volunteers and supporters in California Congressional Districts 1 (D- Mike Thompson) and 6 (D- Lynn Woolsey) is now complete. We had 180 respondents, of which 91% were directly involved in the campaign in some capacity and 32% attended Camp Obama. Here are the main highlights that I took away from the survey.

Almost 90% of respondents found the experience either "Very Rewarding" or "Rewarding".

65% became involved in the campaign because of "the person -- to elect "Barack Obama president". The next highest response, at 17.7% was "the cause -- to bring about change". "Other" received 9.4% and "Pro-party" got 5.5%.

Almost 80% want "to keep the movement going" or are "willing to work depending on the issue or goal".

Respondents were evenly split on whether they wanted "to help the Obama Administration pass its agenda" or "to work on specific issues or causes". "Improving one's local community" was not far behind but definitely came in third.

Across the board, the campaign had a very positive impact on the people who were involved with it and people were happy with the organization, staff, message, training and tools. There were individual gripes but the general response was strongly positive -- 3.9 to 4.7 on a scale of 0 to 5.

As a result of respondent's experiences with the campaign many are significantly more likely to volunteer time in their local community, to a regional or national cause, a state or local campaign and to participate in a social network. They were only slightly more likely to run for office or maintain a blog.

Regarding future of use of MyBO, respondents are ambivalent about visiting MyBO or using its groups. Those who responded are somewhat less likely to post events and not very likely to continue blogging on MyBO.

Regarding future ownership of MyBO, there was no clear winner with 32% wanting it kept in place for the 2012 election, 29% using it as the basis for a new organization and just under 9% wanting to give it to the Democratic Party.

Regarding ownership/use of the database of volunteers and supporters, 31% of respondents want it to be the basis of a new and independent organization, 24% want it to be kept in place for 2012 and 17% want to share it with the Democratic Party.

85% of respondents are currently "Very Likely" to volunteer to work on President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 with and 10% "Somewhat Likely".

So, where does this leave us? Attitudes are positive and there is plenty of willingness to apply our talents and resources toward continuing what we began during the campaign. However, it is going to take some work to transform what we created into a flexible, viable and effective movement that is part of a broader engine for change.

We have the talent; we have the will; we just need to make it happen!

Yes we can!

SVCAN - A model for other communities?

In Sonoma Valley we have begun the transformation of our Obama for America campaign team into a new group focused on “civic engagement and political participation”. This group is called Sonoma Valley CAN (Community Action Network) and you can find our website at: SonomaValleyCAN.org.

I would encourage each of you to look at we are doing in Sonoma Valley and see if it might work for your local community. With minimal effort and minimal resources we have set up the following:

A Website
We used Google Sites to create a free website that can have multiple collaborators maintaining it.

A Calendar
We used Google Calendar to create a free group calendar that can have multiple collaborators maintaining it. Individual users can then subscribe to this calendar or visit it online. It is also placed on our site as it’s own page.

A Blog
We used Blogger to create a free blog where we can post news items for people to follow. As with the website and the calendar, the blog can have multiple collaborators maintaining it.

An Email Discussion Group
We used Google Groups to create a free email list (or “mail exploder”) to allow our members to have a public forum where they can easily communicate with each other. Anytime someone posts a message to our Google Group, it gets sent to all members who have subscribed to the group.

A Group Page a CommunityOrganize.com
Since Community Organize is an evolutionary step in the process of transforming the campaign into a new social movement for “civic engagement and political action”, we created a free group page on Community Organize so are we are tied into the larger network of community teams.

A Domain Name
The only thing that cost us any money was creating a domain name with a domain registrar -- I used GoDaddy -- for about $15 a year. We chose the domain name SonomaValleyCAN.org.

We’ve already held one general meeting (as part of the “Change is Coming” weekend) and two planning meetings which have resulted is us launching the following efforts:

• Adopting a local food bank
• Planning a project for the National Day of Service
• Holding a larger “Valley Forum” to inform and include more people

What can you do? All it takes is one community organizer to get the ball rolling! Are you the one?

Yes we CAN!

A Day of Service - Jan 19, 2009

We are at a “defining moment” in our movement. Andy Grove, in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, describes it as an inflection point:



We have traveled a successful arc that took us to this point but “now what?” Do we ride the curve back down as we let what we built disassemble or do we take this opportunity to redefine ourselves and begin a new trajectory upward? The choice is ours but the time is now.

President Obama is calling on us -- his grassroots supporters -- to participate in a national day of service on January 19th, 2009.  The California team is asking that we keep our geographical organization in place and get these community service projects pulled together at the neighborhood level. 

I am asking each of you to challenge your team to develop (or participate in) a community service project for January 19th.

The Obama team wants to vet the project ideas by January 2nd; so, please reach out as soon as possible (I understand that it is the holidays and it may make things a little more difficult) and let me know, by team, and area what your plan is.

It doesn’t have to be a monumental project but it does need to make a difference in your community. We are “community organizers”, are we not?

Yes we can!

A Call to Action

President-Elect Obama has challenged each of us increase our "civic engagement" before the inauguration. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines civic engagement as: "individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern."

With only 32 days until the inauguration, there is not much time to plan and execute an effort. Three ideas were put forward during our local meeting at Reader's Books Sunday night:

1. Donate 1-2 hours a week over the next 5 weeks to a local non-profit;
2. Run our own food-drive to support FISH and the Redwood Empire Food Bank;
3. Hold an inter-agency meeting to see how we can help fill any gaps in the local community support network of non-profits.

The day after our meeting the following request came from the Community Organizer network leadership:

OUR FIRST CALL TO ACTION!
ADOPT A FOOD BANK FOR THE HOLIDAYS

The first official post-election action will be to adopt food banks for the holidays.

Nearly 30 million Americans rely on government aid and food banks to keep food on their tables amid unemployment and rising prices. In LA County alone, demand has jumped 33%, while contributions have dropped precipitously.

To that end, the hope is that we can focus on both donating some time and goods to the local food banks between now and Jan 19, 2009! Please stay tuned as we had two members from our group who agreed to contact both FISH and Redwood Empire Food Bank and report back to us.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

LA Times: Barack Obama's grass roots in search of new turf

The LA Times ran an article on December 5th that Obama supporters and organizers might want to read. I think the author and some of the people he interviewed missed the point of what’s been happening recently but overall the article hits some important points.

As the article points out, and which is obvious from our discussions and surveys, there are some questions about how to move forward with an organization that is comprised of more than just Democrats. However, my take on what happened in Chicago was not so much a “negotiation” but a “meeting of the minds” for an exchange of information.

There were 320 people at that meeting each carrying with them the information we collected from you -- our organizers and supporters -- which we passed on to our representatives. They in-turn shared that information with everyone there. Now we are trying to get what we learned during those meetings back to you.

We’re very much in the middle of a process but we are moving forward. The best thing our organizers can do is stay engaged and help us as we transform what we learned from the campaign into a useful structure for making our nation and our communities better. That starts with interested organizers and volunteers participating in a “Change is Coming” house party this weekend.

This process will be transparent and successful but only if you stay engaged.

First news from above

OK, I just got notification that tonight at 8PM we will be having a conference call in CA for OFA Staff to discuss the first results from the conference in Chicago over the weekend. Here is a quick summary of what we’ll be discussing.

There will be paid staff on the ground, working with unpaid staff and volunteers, just as in the election.  Details still to be worked out, but the basics should be hammered out by late January.  “They” are moving with "deliberate haste."
 
OFA 2.0 will have 4 goals:
 
1. Organize support for legislation at all levels of government.  This includes pushing President Obama's agenda, and it also includes organizing around state and local laws/initiatives.
 
2. Build grassroots electoral strength at all levels, and train and develop grassroots leaders to organize and serve in their communities
 
3. Be an organ of two-way communication between the White House and the grassroots, so that each knows and responds to the priorities of the other.
 
4. Launch a national, grassroots-driven renewal of civic engagement, again at both the local and national levels.
 
The house parties this weekend are the explicit first step in creating the new organization, so please encourage anyone who's interested in staying involved to either attend one or host one (it's not too late).

The process of creating and structuring this organization is meant to be transparent and open.  The campaign wants feedback from EVERYONE, and has already received it through one-on-one interviews, conference calls, and online surveys (500,000 of them!).  To fill out a survey, volunteers can go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/pesurvpage1/ -- note this is a national survey and different from the local survey I conducted in CA CDs 1 and 6.

I will be updating this blog with more information and I will be holding a conference call with my volunteers

Stay tuned!

About this Blog and my Newsletter

After my most recent newsletter, I received some questions about my efforts that I thought merited a thorough and accessible response.

Q) From where and how did my "site" came about?

I can't say that I really have a site so much as a blog and a list of interested organizers. My goal at this time is to identify and stay connected with the core group of organizers who choose to remain engaged in the efforts we started during the campaign. I feel the best thing I can do in this transition phase is to be a conduit for information and a central point of contact for Northwestern CA.

Q) How is my site (and Community Organize) connected to the Obama transition effort?

Like some of you, I was not willing to wait around to be told by others what I should do. I wanted to step into the post-election gap and help facilitate the dialog and get people thinking about the future of our movement. My objective is to ensure people understand the questions we're facing and that they have reasonable expectations for the future. I also want to make sure the fabulous teams from my region are represented and kept in the loop.

Regarding Community Organize, I think Mary Jane and others are doing what they can to ensure our communities remain organized and ready to move forward when the opportunity arises.

If you read the Rolling Stone article, "The Machinery of Hope", then I liken this to the period leading up to the Iowa caucuses -- the people had organized themselves locally and the campaign just had to come in a connect the dots.

Q) What do I see as the future of my blog and list?

My blog and list could be simply a interim solution for us to stay connected while the movement reforms as "OFA 2.0". Right now, I'm taking this day-by-day and just trying to keep the momentum going.

Q) Will I share your information with anybody else?

I subscribe to an "opt-in" philosophy with my list. I only want to send information to those who have expressed an interest or, going forward, those who specifically subscribe.

When it comes to outside organizations, I will never give your contact info to anyone. Instead, I will inform you of the new site, group, company, etc. and let you make the decision if you want to be on their list. I hope this was demonstrated in how I shared CommunityOrganize.com with you. The choice should always be yours.

You can subscribe to my newsletter, "Community Organizer 2.0", by visiting my general web site. There you will find a button on the right-hand side of the page.

Are you (still) fired up?

Decapitation, Chaos and Opportunity

What was OFA 1.0?

OFA stands for Obama for America and it was "the campaign" that we waged to elect Barack Obama to the White House. "OFA 1.0" refers to this effort leading up to and including the election.

A decapitation?

When Barack Obama became President-Elect Obama, in a sense we lost him as the head of our organization. He is now the President of every citizen of the USA and not just of those who elected him. This means that he cannot use the social network he built during the campaign while he is in the White House. That means MyBO is looking for a new purpose and perhaps a new "owner."

What is "the movement" and "OFA 2.0"?

What remains of OFA 1.0 could be considered a "movement" -- nearly two million people participated, in various ways, to elect Barack Obama as our President. During that time we had a singular leader and a singular goal. Now that our goal has been met and leader has moved on, what is next?

If there was a common theme that I heard during the campaign it was, "Don't let this movement die after the election." I agree. So, now we enter OFA version 2.0 but this time I think OFA means "Organizers for America" -- thus the name of this blog.

A little chaos?

While we had a singular goal -- electing Obama -- it was easy to come together. Now that we are no longer unified over this goal, we have to figure out how we work in an environment where our positions, objectives and priorities may differ. I believe that each person's attention will naturally gravitate to the areas that concern him or her most. Some people will want to focus on passing Obama's agenda, others will focus on a particular set of issues or geographic area. How do we accommodate that within our movement?

One movement or many?

It is very possible that the movement that was OFA 1.0 will not continue as a singular entity going forward -- our interests may be too divergent. However, I can envision our "movement" as a broad platform through which we each may stay connected and from which we may tap resources to meet a specific goal at a specific time.

The question is, can we be bipartisan, so to speak, within our own movement? If our movement is really a platform and individuals come together to work on a specific goal, can we allow space for those, who share causes we may not support, the space to work within the same "movement". If not, we may well let this opportunity slip through our fingers.

We don't have to be a homogenous lot, but I do believe we need to be flexible and tolerant. I think this perspective is in harmony to Barack Obama's message that there is "no Red America and no Blue America but one America" (paraphrased).

How does MyBO fit in and what is its future?

At this point in time, it's not clear what the future of MyBO will be. Hopefully, the meeting this weekend in Chicago will give us some insight.

Who owns the database?

As with MyBO, I do not know what the future of the "My Campaign" database will be. As soon as I hear something I will certainly pass it along.

The opportunity!

I believe that in chaos opportunity lies. I don't use the word "chaos" in a negative sense but more to describe the transition between two states of being. As early discussions indicate people see different goals for our movement; so I think it is safe to say we don't know what the new version of our movement will be.

This is a time to put to use the skills we were taught during the campaign. We are "organizers" are we not? Who better to bring order to a bit of chaos than an organizer?

Don't Wait! Get Active!

We don't have to wait for some central authority to tell us to start organizing locally. Pick your interest, pick your focus and start organizing your friends and colleagues. We will always need "boots on ground" to help achieve whatever goals we may choose to target.

You will never be more effective than when you are working for something in which you passionately believe. When the world catches up to you, you'll be prepared.

OFA 2.0?

Our California State and Northern California data managers from the Obama for America (OFA) campaign will be attending a conference this coming weekend, 6-7 December 2008, in Chicago whose purpose is to discuss the future of our movement. I think the term "movement" is rather broad and probably means different things to different people but given this is coming from Chicago, I'm believing this event could have significant impact on the future of our MyBO social network.

The organizers have asked conference participants to attempt to gather feedback and suggestions from our states' OFA volunteers and staff to bring with them. They want to know what we think the future of the volunteer organization should look like, and they're particularly interested in what it already looks like (i.e. whether anyone has already begun organizing or planning projects in the past month using the existing structure, and with what results).

In order to help facilitate this data collection, I have started a survey to collect the opinions of our organizers in congressional districts 1 and 6. If you haven't taken the survey yet, please take 5 minutes to give us your thoughts (even if it's after Dec 7th).