On July 29, the Sanders campaign will host coordinated house parties across the country but Bernie won't be attending any of them due to his Senate duties - so he’ll beam himself in via a livestream link.
“We have a technology available to us that Barack Obama and Howard Dean did not have,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview with First Draft. “And the idea that I can simultaneously be speaking to people located in 1,000 different places is pretty, pretty exciting.”
The party planning for these events is being done digitaly, with hosts setting up events on the Sanders campaign website, and “super volunteers,” or “builders” as Bernie calls them, will help.
Those attending the house parties will walk away energized, but also with the campaign’s numbers, be able to text the campaign to join a local team and pick a volunteer role. And depending on the level of interest, the campaign will maintain contact with attendees through text messages.
Large-scale, grass-roots events have been used in previous campaigns, but the technology was less sophisticated, back in 2004 and 2008. But Mr. Sanders’s inspiration to arrange these events came from 300 upstarts in Birmingham, Ala., who held their own Sanders rally without any help, motivation or coordination with the campaign. I am not sure what is going on in Birmingham, Alabama, but those 300 volunteers are amazing and they certainly provide a template for how supporters in cities large and small should organize. They certainly understand the concept of building the organization from the ground up.
“We wish we could take credit for them,” Mr. Sanders said, but his campaign didn’t even know about the event until “we read about it in the paper.” He loved the spontaneity, and is hoping to organize around that. “We want to capture the energy of people,” he said.
So, are you hosting or attending a house party for Bernie Sanders in order to participate in these events that will really provide the flooring to build the movement from the ground up?
If not, you can use this link to find an event near you and RSVP:
https://secure.berniesanders.com/...
If you would like to host your own event, you can use this link:
https://secure.berniesanders.com/...
If you are looking for some inspiration to host your own house party, look no further than the state of Michigan, and see what volunteers like Vicki Danielson and Karissa Prikopa have done in Michigan to help grow the movement from the ground up!
http://www.mlive.com/...
And check out this training session for volunteers set up by Michigan for Bernie volunteers:
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Michigan for Bernie Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/...
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GO BERNIE!!!!!
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