I just returned home from a local Organizing for America (OFA) phone bank and it was very exciting today. Not only was there a German television crew, but the regional director appeared as well. I was told beforehand that the press might be there, but I wasn't expecting them to be German.
I didn't catch the name, but I did some research and it was most likely Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), which is the German version of PBS. They wanted to see what volunteering was like for the Barack Obama campaign. We have a small but growing group that might split in two in the coming months. The ZDF crew found a warm, energetic, and intelligent group of concerned citizens who are active in the ground work of the election. Our team captain said that he was with the Kerry campaign, but he didn't volunteer as much during 2008. He said that compared to OFA, the Kerry campaign was in a whole other universe. When I look at the GOP, especially at the debates, I see a very conflicted group compared to our side.
The ZDF crew came in as we were about to begin the meeting. We sat in chairs around a table with soda and cookies. We had some new volunteers along with others who've worked with us before. The main goal of today's phone bank was to find new volunteers. This is especially important in our state, Florida because we are the largest swing state with 29 electoral votes. OFA is investing early to build the volunteer infrastructure, especially in South Florida.
During the taping, our team captain brought up the fact that I am to become a Spring Fellow for OFA. There were two others there today who were to become Fellows as well. Basically, the Spring Fellows are people who volunteer for three months and organize the volunteer work in the local areas. There are full-time (40+ hours/week) and part-time (15+ hours/week) and I am going to be the latter due to my work schedule. Not everyone can do this, but it is important work.
The ZDF crew watched us making calls over the course of two hours. I helped out some of the newer volunteers and I let them watch my first two calls. The first call led to an answering machine and I didn't leave a message. I went quickly onto the next number and a very busy mother answered, but she needed to re-schedule her volunteer work. Most of the people who I called were quite friendly, even the only Republican on the list. All in all, I felt that my two hours were very productive.
What made today's event more special was having the southern regional director compliment us on our work. Like our team captain, the regional director emphasized the importance of Florida in 2012. Also, I'm not going to say that having the ZDF and the regional director appear at today's event was a coincidence. It's no secret that OFA has been making efforts to get press coverage, especially when there's a Republican primary election this Tuesday. It's going to be very important that we keep our campaign as positive and productive as possible because the side that organizes the most will have a significant advantage over the opposition.
There is one last note that I would like to make. I will be getting more and more involved in the Obama campaign despite having reservations about some of his decisions like many others on this site. I am not planning to recruit people into OFA, especially those who don't feel like the President has represented them. I only encourage people to get involved one way or another for the left in 2012. Also, I'd like to focus more on issues than anything else in my diaries this year.
That being said, I'll look out for a streaming broadcast of my local group and myself on ZDF.
4:51 PM PT: The team captain sent this in an e-mail.
Greetings,
I want to congratulate the great group we had at the phone bank today. We had 18 enthusiastic motivated volunteers at the phone bank. We made 486 calls, had 77 conversations, and scheduled 9 1:1 meetings for next week. In addition, 4 of the people at the phone bank were people we recruited at our Jan. 14 phone bank.
We had an unusually eventful phone bank as well. We were filmed and interviewed by a German TV crew. Darren, the campaign director for the 11 states of the southern region of the U.S. also joined us to thank us for the work we are doing. He emphasized that Florida has 29 electoral votes.
Go team!