Report on Tuesday's OFA House Meeting

I had sixteen people confirmed or tentatively confirmed yesterday (out of 38 people, many of whom had conflicts and couldn't come but wanted to) to attend the OFA House meeting; eight actually showed up. Jeremy said that was a common percentage of turnout for "confirmed" folks.  (Hmmm.)

The people who showed up all volunteered to make phone calls and nearly all volunteered for the canvassing on June 5th (two are already committed to other things on the 5th).  The callers will be recruiting more canvassers and callers this week and next, so our size should double before the next meeting on May 25th.  When we meet again we're going to role-play knocking on doors (canvassing) so those who have never done it before (that includes me) can get familiar with the idea.  We'll only be knocking on the doors of new voters from the 2008 election who reported that they voted for Obama when asked. Other campaigners are going to tackle other demographics.

I was surprised that it was mostly men who showed up last night. In my experience, most volunteers are women, but I guess not in politics.  Two women did come (besides me), so it was six men and two women (not counting Jeremy and me and another Team Leader, Peter, who was sitting in on our house meeting to see how they go before hosting his own.)

We all told our stories about how we came to be so dedicated to the Obama team during the race to the White House, and most of us specified the causes closest to our hearts that kept us active in the cause.  We had Vietnam and Korean vets, an African-American woman who was a little girl during the civil rights era down south, a Latino who has been active in politics as a mentor and activist for over 30 years... all in all, a cross section of America that still believes in its promise.  It was a terrific time. I look forward to working with this group all year long in some capacity until Election Day, and then I reckon I'll be at Democratic Headquarters for election night (another first for me) -- that is, unless the powers that be in DC snatch me away from here and take me to DC to write for them. (That possibility is still alive, as far as I know. I haven't heard anything different yet.)

I wrote the script for the next round of calling we'll be doing. Jeremy read and liked it and plugged it in, so away we go!!!

I have a lot of Elance work (and possibly non-Elance work as well) coming in here now. That's a good thing because last month was really slow.  You should take a look at my Profile page at Elance again if you haven't in a while (http://kristinemsmith.elance.com/) because they've re-designed their website and it's easier to navigate and see and read feedback and ratings.  That seems to have boosted my "invite" numbers significantly...