It's a start: geographic distribution of North Carolina activist Kossacks on Doc's List, as of May 17, 2015
YOU CAN VIEW THE MOST CURRENT (LIVE) VERSION OF THIS MAP
HERE
Life is like a box of chocolates.
Last week, when I started issuing the call for North Carolina activist Kossacks to KosMail me their first names, ZIP codes, and email addresses, I figured the resulting list would take quite some time to grow to useful size, and that sooner or later the result would come in handy...although I really wasn't quite sure how.
I was completely wrong on the first count, and I've already been pleasantly surprised on the second.
Organizing Kossacks locally is an important and powerful tool...especially here in reddish-purple North Carolina, where we are struggling to take back our state. Meet me below the orange gerrymander to learn more about why, and how.
Just at the moment, I'm providing some support services to MsSpentyouth in her generous efforts to pull together a few NC Kossacks to roll up our sleeves and assist the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in organizing its huge voting rights rally in Winston-Salem on July 13th (note the date change - the diary linked to says July 6th, but the new date, July 13th, should be announced by NAACP any day now).
For some time now I've been assembling a spreadsheet of Kossacks who appear to be North Carolina residents...judging by any or all of criteria such as their user names, the groups they belong to and the tags they follow here on DKos, or comments they've made in the past that either show detailed knowledge of NC or else come right out and say something like "I live in NC...." I've got about 200 user names on that list right now (and counting), plus each member's mojo score (because, let's face it, merely being a member of DKos isn't enough to insure that you're not some kind of flake).
In order to flesh out that list and make it more useful (most immediately in support of MsSpentyouth's effort, but with an eye toward the 2016 election, as well), late last week I began KosMailing mojo-5 and mojo-4 members the following invitation (invites to mojo-3s will come next):
Hi! DocDawg here (but please call me Bill).
In case we haven't met, I'm a pretty passionate blogger on all things political in North Carolina (see a partial diary list here).
Several of my fellow North Carolina Kossacks and I are trying to help get as many other NC Kossacks as possible organized to respond to whatever the work there is to be done here in the Tarheel State, both leading up to the 2016 election and beyond. And, as a first step in that direction, I'm trying to pull together a directory of who we all are and where we all are (as discussed in the comment section to the most recent North Carolina Open Thread, here.
So far, I've assembled a list of about 200 Kossacks who I believe are North Carolinians, based on such clues as their group memberships, their user names, comments they've made on DKos, etc. And you are on that list. If you are not, in fact, a Tarheel, then I apologize for wasting your time; you can just ignore this.
But if you ARE a Tarheel, would you please consider dropping me a reply to share with me the following:
1. Your first name
2. Your ZIP code
3. (Optional) Your email address
I promise I'll keep very tight control of this information. I'll share with my fellow activist Kossacks only a ZIP code map of Kossacks who have chosen to provide their info and, separately, a list of their user names. But anyone who wants to use this data to reach out to other NC Kossacks by email will have to submit a request to me, and only if there is really a valid reason will I send the email, myself. And I won't do that very often at all...I hate junk mail as much as you do, if not more. All you will receive via email is good information regarding ways you can help to turn North Carolina blue again. Your ZIP code will help me insure that that is information that's relevant to you based on your rough location in the state. You can opt out of this list at any time, just by asking me to drop you from the list.
What kind of requests might you receive if you choose to supply your email address to this list? Hard to say; maybe the occasional info on an opportunity for you to influence legislation by writing a note to your state or federal representative. Maybe a call to help get out the vote on election day. Or maybe a heads-up on an activity being organized in your area. I can give you one specific example: right now plans are moving forward for a team of NC Kossacks to assist the NC-NAACP in organizing a massive voting rights rally in Winston-Salem on July 13th (discussed here - but note that the date has changed from July 6 to July 13), and if you're anywhere within driving distance of Winston-Salem you can pretty much count on receiving an email from me regarding how you might be able to help, if you wish to.
Thanks for hearing me out. If you're interested then remember, I need 3 pieces of info: (1) Your first name; (2) your ZIP code; and (3) your email address.
Bill
So far the responses have been trickling in at about the rate I expected (KosMail kinda sucks for reaching out to people...too many folks just don't notice the 'you've got mail' notification in the 'Welcome Back' box in the upper-right corner of every page here at DKos). So far I've received
23 28 32 replies,
3 4 of those letting me know that they don't live in NC, the rest happy to sign up (although one, an honorary Son of NC, resides in Virginia, and another is a DKos staffer in California who's just curious to observe this effort). The map at the top of this diary shows these Kossacks rough locations across the state, by ZIP code area. No surprise here, so far: the crux of the biscuit for NC Kossacks is in what we Tarheels call "The Triangle," bounded by Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill (the largest Blue zone in NC, also the most prosperous, and reputed to have the highest concentration of Ph.D.s in the whole U.S.). To the west, the Asheville area of the Blue Ridge Mountains is in second place. It's interesting to note that
the DKos Asheville group is quite active, whereas
the Triangle Kosmopolitans group is, as far as I can tell, pretty much dormant.
The surprises started to come in pretty quickly after I issued this call. First - and most amusing - I noticed that a member (who shall remain nameless) lives just up the road from me. Then I noticed her email address, and realized that she has on more than one occasion sat at my kitchen table. Holy Ned...we had no idea we were both Kossacks.
Second came the pleasant surprise regarding just how terribly useful this kind of organizational outreach can be. One reader contacted me...not a registered DKos user, but a reader of my recent diaries...and in my reply to her questions I asked if she'd be interested in joining Doc's List. She said yes. Turns out she's a leader in an NC county's Democratic Party organization, and has launched a project to attempt to identify registered voters who lack a photo ID (and who thus won't be able to vote in NC in 2016), so that the Party can reach out to them to help them get IDs. And it just so happens that I know that another member of Doc's List is a computer nerd like me, and was very active in the 2014 election cycle analyzing NC voter registration information to identify Dems who are not in the habit of voting in mid-term elections. I asked these two folks if they'd like to meet each other, perhaps leading to a collaborative effort on the voter ID project, and they both eagerly agreed. Done. They're now beavering away together, saving democracy one byte at a time. Sweet.
If you're an NC activist (or wannabe activist) who is not yet on Doc's List, feel free to KosMail me with your first name, your ZIP code, and your email address. Or if you're a DKos staffer, could you please explain to me why Daily Kos itself isn't doing this (and by "this" I mean empowering Kossacks to efficiently organize locally)? Meet-ups are great, but they're not "this."
Forward together, y'all.