Both my husband and I worked really hard in Tampa, FL for the election of President Obama. We organized and ran a canvassing operation out of our home to get out the vote. We worked with our local campaign organizers and learned that organization and follow-through can get the job done. We even helped to increase the votes in one precinct in our area by over 50%. And when we WON, we were ecstatic. We realized that we could make a difference. Fast forward to Jacksonville, FL 2010. The City wanted to close our neighborhood library. They cut its hours back from 50 a week to 20 a week on June 19th. And I swung into action, Obama style.
We moved to Jacksonville a year ago to retire and live a leisurely life, going to the theatre, visiting with our daughter who lives about a mile away, and taking trips every now and then. We moved into an up and coming historic district just outside the downtown area. We had discovered our little neighborhood library and had enjoyed going there to check out materials. It was always pretty crowded. Its 23 computers were always in use and people were browsing for movies, books and other materials.
To our utter surprise we began reading in the paper that the Mayor had ordered that five "inner-core" libraries,including our library, were to have their hours slashed to just 20 a week, and lo and behold on June 19th, that's what happened. I not only couldn't believe it, I was really pissed off. So, I organized.
I visited the neighborhood historical association and asked if they would be interested in taking this on as a project and they said yes. I developed "campaign" flyers and made sure they were plastered up all over our little community, especially in our business district. I organized a steering committee composed of my husband and several volunteers. And then we started recruiting people.
Sitting out in front of the library signing up people to join our Friends of the Library group, getting noticed in the local press and on TV and radio, and organizing public rallies and marches, we got the attention of the City Council and the Library Administration and Library Board of Trustees, those decision makers who had disseminated our library.
We started a telephone system whereby volunteers would call 20 people and inform them of what action we needed to take at any particular time. Sometimes it was calling, emailing and sending letters to the Library Board and Administration or the City Council. Other times it was calling people to rally in front of the library. We always invited the press and they showed up most of the time. This little community had never seen this kind of uproar!
By the end of July, we had over 800 people signed up to become "Friends" of our neighborhood library. We began showing up at Library Board meetings and City Council meetings. We wore our new tee-shirts sporting our new logo. We didn't let up.
On August 26th, the City Council directed the Library Administration to restore the hours at all the five targeted libraries! We won!! By October 1st, we will be up and running again at our neighborhood library.
I credit our experience working with the Obama campaign for our successful organizing know-how. And now we're incorporating into a real "Friends" of the library group, something our library has never had. We will show that we care about our library, so that it won't be threatened again!