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.