i have a few minutes before our staff meeting (America Votes Pittsburgh) and wanted to take the time to lay out what you should expect if you are volunteering on election weekend and not with K/E. all of the other progressive groups will be funneling into one plan: the GOTV 4 day ground GOTV game under America Votes. this includes moveon.org, ACT, Acorn, Sierra Club, HRC, Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, SEIU etc.
this may be PA centric, but the basic guidelines should hold for all places.
first of all. let me thank you for volunteering. your assistance could be what wins this race for Kerry. what happens this weekend and how effective our last minute GOTV is crucial. so get off your ass. there are shifts to sign up for and if you work during the week, come during the weekend.
by this time you should have already confirmed your willingness to volunteer and talked or emailed with a live person. this week or perhaps it has been done already they will contact you with directions to your assigned staging site.
the staging site
most of them will be union halls, civic halls, even resteraunts in some cases. hell in Philly they have the whole g*ddamned Spectrum. basically anything that they can get people inside and has plenty of parking. there should be some food inside and things to drink. it will seem very chaotic, but people will have been working on the planning for months.
walking in the door
the will be a greeter directing you to the proper sign-in table. they will mark your name off a sheet and hand you a clipboard full of information.
lit
they will then send you to another person to get you literature. it could be at the same table.
packet
the front should state how many targets in the precinct and how many people it should take to cover it. most likely will have directions to where your car/van is in the parking lot. inside it will have either a list of doors to knock on or just a general area where you will hit every single door in the precinct. this depends on the voting patterns of the area. targeting is different for each precinct. there will be a map of your walking area.
drivers
you are special. most likely paid, and trained seperately. you will be provided with directions to your precinct and maps within it.
training
this will be short sweet and to the point. we are not trying to sway undecideds right now. the message is get to the polls our nation is counting on you. some shifts will only be doing literature drops with doorhangers or the like.
TIPS
1)park where they tell you. dont block in people and especially not the vans.
- spend as least amount of time in the staging are as possible. get in get out and get in the field.
- things will go wrong. roll with it. if something changes, just say ok and listen adapt.
- the staff is exhausted and overworked. do them a favor and dont be a pain in the ass.
- just because a snot nose 23 y.o. (like yours truely) is bossing you around, dont mouth off and tell them i know what i am doing, i have been working on every election since 1960... just because you may have a slightly different technique it is more important that you get out in the field rather than argue over word choice.
- dont sign up for a shift if you have to leave in the middle. you will be working in a team at it will waste everyones time to take you back to your car.
- follow basic canvassing rules, stay within site of another person. dont go up to unsafe houses.
- dont spend time talking to people, knock deliver your message and go on to the next person.
thats all i can think of right now. if you have questions i will try to answer them.
we really need people in Pittsburgh call 412.434.6192 and ask for Bryant or me Julia.