Starting last weekend, the Obama campaign consolidated its Los Angeles phonebanks into four ginormous super-banks. Harnessing the amazing enthusiasm here in the final weeks of the Presidential campaign, these phonebanks are full of great energy, dedication, and cell phone waves (oh, and yummy snacks). In my neck of the woods, our Hollywood-Los Feliz-Silver Lake phonebanks joined forces at the fabled Sunset-Gower Studios, located at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower St. (This intersection was once known as "Gower Gulch" - silver-screen cowboys used to gather there looking for work as extras on western films.) Last weekend, this particular phonebank drew 200 volunteers who made 13,000 calls to battleground states and, in phonebanks throughout California, over 500,000 voters were called! This weekend our goal is higher - the campaign has challenged California volunteers to reach at least 625,000 voters - the Last Call For Change!
Former home of Columbia Pictures ("It Happened One Night", "Funny Girl" and "The Caine Mutiny") and current home to such TV shows as Dexter and Heroes, Sunset-Gower houses many independent film and television production companies. It was also the former home of one of my all-time personal favorites: Six Feet Under. (You can read more about the studio's history here.)
Welcoming faces at phonebank check-in and training:
The phonebank was in a large room on the fourth floor of one of the office buildings embedded deep within the studio lot (with an elevator that stopped only on the first and fourth floors – spooky).
Simon plows through another list of voters:
My peeps - the stellar data managers team:
Collection of memorable lines:
(My fave: "Mrs. Gale isn’t leaning for Barack, she’s falling for him!")
Sustenance. Where would we be without Red Vines?
The Obama Store:
Last weekend, entering data from calls to Colorado, I was really heartened by the number of voters solidly in the Obama camp, versus the ones for McCain. The polls there are bearing this out. This weekend, we're over halfway toward beating last week's totals - 111 volunteers on Saturday, making nearly 9,000 calls! Sunday will surely rock.
Thanks to the incredible volunteer coordinators who are making this phonebank happen every weekend. Your dedication is inspiring. And of course, the roomful of volunteers who didn't want to leave.
Folks, if you haven't tried it yet, it's not too late - get thee to BarackObama.com and find the nearest phonebank. You can make calls, enter data, sell swag, bring snacks - the possibilities are endless. You won't regret it!