This is an offical, authenticated exhortation to my fellow Oakland/Alameda/Albany/Emeryville/Berkeley/El Cerrito/Etc East Bay Kossacks.
Short version: Last night I went to the MoveOn office in Oakland. These folks have their [expletive] together. It's fun, easy, and unintimidating. You can volunteer any day, any time o' day between 9 and 9. Even two hours is enough time to make an impact. If you have two hours in the day or evening between now and election day, consider coming down and doing some of the easiest, most effective volunteering you'll find this season, and being part of a huge effort that might actually make a difference.
Where: 360 22nd Street, Suite 210, Oakland CA (tween B'Way and Webster). Call Adam: 857-383-0736 for more info (or you could drop me a line at cv@cecilvortex.com).
The longer version is on ye olde flip....
This was my first time working with moveon. I'd done some phone work before and found it a bit gruelling -- a long list of phone numbers for folks in my neighborhood who didn't want to be called. Still, we have 9 days left to go and I figured it was time to eat some gruel.
Instead metaphorically I had, I dunno, let's say BBQ brisket, like the kind you can get down at Flints or mebbe Everett and Jones (catch the home town plugs....).
From the Oakland office we're calling other MoveOn members and asking them to give an hour as a home phone volunteers. It's a pyramid system designed to create a massive, coordinated, hyper-effective phone bank. MoveOn's created this slick, simple web-based system that let's people call infrequent dem voters in the key targeted districts from the comfort of their easy chairs.
Last night in about 3-4 hours I called around 130 MoveOn members. Most weren't home. About 10-20 answered and passed. Most were progressives. Some were republicans who must have signed up at one time or another but weren't ready to vote Dem. But every one of them was either nice, pleasant, or at the very least harmless.
A few were interested and wanted an email with more info. Six people however agreed on the spot to give an hour or more of their time in the next four days. Which doesn't sound like much, but it's a great multiplier. My 3-4 hours will translate to at least 6 hours of targeted phone calls, and possibly more like 12 or even 18.
The word at the MoveOn office was that more than 100,000 people were now part of this gigantic phone bank. It's the sort of army we need to stand up against the GOP's 72-hour plan. There were a fair number of people in the office calling last night, but not nearly as many as there could be. Not with only a week+ to go. Not when it's so easy to call. And not when so many progressives are East-Bay types.
Now of course, a lot of people are already doing great work with DFA, with various anti-Pombo groups, with the DNC, etc etc etc. And to all of you, I say rock on. But if you haven't found your volunteer niche yet, and you're looking for something easy but satisfying, or you want to drop a little 2-hour cherry onto the Fenton's ice cream sundae that is your 2006 volunteer plan (another local plug!)...
...perhaps we can find 5, 10, 15 east bay kossacks who will come by and fill the place. Fwiw, I'll be there tonight from 6-9. Back again on Thursday, same time. As a very random incentive, I'll bring along 10 copies of my favorite Jonathan Coulton mix, 1 free to any kossack who walks up to me and says "I'm a kossack" or "gimme my Coulton" or something like that. I'll be the beared feller sporting a Warriors baseball cap.
(Coulton's Creative Commons, btw, and encourages this sorta distrbution, so copying is cool. If you haven't heard him afore, check out jonathancoulton.com. He is the bomb. But that's a different post for another day.)
And needless to say, for the most-of-you who are not in the East Bay, please consider yourself likewise exhorted to phonebank from home, from house parties, or from your local moveon office -- see moveon.org for the details.
-Cecil