I spent the afternoon at the Tarrytown, NY offices of my union, the New York State United Teachers (AFT). My local held its monthly Executive Board meeting there and then helped out with the phone-bank.
If you've never phone-banked before, you should try it. It's lots of fun. NYSUT endorses based on a candidate's views on education, not party affiliation. We endorse Democrats and Republicans at a close to 50-50 split. It's hard to make a call endorsing a Republican, but if you're going to phone-bank, you need to go all in. All of the people we contact live in households that have NYSUT members.
We started calling around 6:00 and I called my first person. When she answered, I said good evening, I introduced myself and told her I was calling to let her know who the union has endorsed for President, Vice-President as well as the Congressional candidate, State Senator and State Assemblyman offices in the members area. When I first started out, she said, "let me guess, Obama." I said, "yes ma'am" and she said in a rather sarcastic way, "what a surprise, the union picked a Democrat." Although I tried to explain that we endorse on both sides of the aisle, she clearly didn't believe me. I thanked her for her time and told her to have a good night.
After that, all I got were Obama supporters. It was great to hear how many people were already on board and a number of people actually thanked me for making the calls. I finished my sheet of names and had to head home to see my wife and three kids, but not before I grabbed an Obama-Biden button and two lawn signs which my 6 year old son and I will put up tomorrow (he lost another tooth today so he's going to wake up with a 1 dollar coin and the button as a gift from the tooth fairy).
Remember, there's more to supporting a candidate than just writing a check. Even if you don't have a dime to spare. even if your 401k is now a 201k, you can still give your time to help out.
Pax vobiscum