63 Magazine - Issue 1

63
Magazine
Inspiration
Marlon
Marshall
Featuring
For Political Organizers
Issue № 1
Winter, 2015

Luis
is a brand new organizer.
Gabby
has already worked
on several campaigns.
Organizers
have very little free time or bandwidth, but want to
excel at their job while continuing to learn and grow.
We made 63 Magazine
for Gabby, Luis, and the thousands of other political
organizers working on progressive campaigns.
This SPECIAL EDITION ISSUE #1 is prepared exclusively for distribution to:
63Magazine.com
This is a convenient PDF version of the first issue (published Winter 2015).
making organizing easier.

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63Mag
Online Community
Alice McAlexander
Editor
Nick Penney
Art Director
Warren Flood
Publisher
Click here for subscription information

Letter from the Editor
Alice McAlexander
Welcome to the first issue of 63 Magazine.
63Mag is all about helping organizers like you do your job even better. Every issue, we’ll
have a few key sections:
• Motivation & Muses: Interviews and guidance to stay inspired.
• Do Your Job: Advice and best practices to help improve your organizing skills.
• Grow Your Skills: Learn about other departments to help your overall development.
• Organizer Life Hacks: Easy changes to improve your work.
• Take Care of Yourself: Improve your health, wealth, and well-being.
• Organizer Spotlight: Highlighting current and former organizers.
• Have Some Fun: Smiling makes you better.
Every issue will be full of inspiration and advice from experts and peers alike, but this
issue is special to me because my friend, Marlon D. Marshall, is featured throughout.
After talking with Marlon to learn about his time as an organizer, what inspires him to
work so hard with such a great attitude, and what practical lessons he applies
every day, we dug even deeper. Not only do we highlight his story and his best
advice for organizers, we walk through his actionable steps you can take to get
over burnout. And following his best resource suggestion for new organizers, we
reached out to Larry Tramutola, the author of Marlon’s book recommendation,
Sidewalk Strategies, to discuss some of the more challenging aspects of organizing
and the evergreen lessons he’s learned through four decades of organizing.
I know just how starved for time you are. We’ve thought of that every step of the way to
create an easy and valuable experience for you that is worth your time.
From advice on how to make call time more fun (hint: it involves dancing), to a peek
inside what your analytics department is doing, to a yoga routine designed
specifically for your busy schedule, we’ve stuffed this issue full of best
practices, wisdom, and inspiration. To do this, we talked to a lot of different
organizers from all over the country and all sorts of experience levels.
When you make your way through all the articles and videos, make sure to check out our
final section “Ready, Set, Action!” to recap the actionable takeaways
you can use right away to improve your organizing.
Now, get reading and keep up the great work!

Letter from the Publisher
Warren Flood
You might be wondering, why the name “63 Magazine”? 63 represents the
highest turnout percent of the voting age population (VAP) in modern U.S. presidential
elections. In 1960, 63% of adults showed up to the polls to vote for Kennedy over Nixon.
We chose the name 63 Magazine because your goal as a political organizer is to increase
the total net votes gained for your candidate or cause; and increasing registration and
turnout of likely supporters is how progressive campaigns can win tough races.
If Democrats can once again achieve 63% national VAP turnout on election day, we will
almost certainly be able to help advance progressive causes for the good of the nation.
Your organizing work pulls more people into the political process and empowers them to
enact change at the local and national level. Not only do you organize to move our country
towards progress, you engage individuals to play an active part in the shaping of their
community. Your work as an organizer is hard and often thankless, but it most certainly
is noble and necessary.
I will always remember July 13, 2007, because that was the day I visited my very first
campaign field office. I was welcomed with wide open arms, minds, and hearts by an
amazing group of dedicated organizers who inspired me and lifted me to great and
unimagined heights. 63 Magazine is a heartfelt thank you to every organizer
who improves so many lives in little and big ways.
Letter from the Art Director
Nick Penney
Hey, I’m Nick, and I run a small animation and design shop in Seattle called
Then Studios. When Alice and Warren first approached me about the idea of teaming up to
publish a digital magazine for political organizers, I was surprised — prior to this project,
I’d had exactly zero experience working on magazines.
There’s been a learning curve to conquer, but I think I speak for the three of us when I say
that 63 Magazine has been a labor of love, and I’m proud of the way it’s turned out. I hope
you enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed making it.

By Alice McAlexander, Editor
I wrote the following letter earlier this year
to all of the field organizers already
working remarkably hard for the
2016 election cycle. I wanted to help
organizers going into the incredibly
hard month of August feel a bit better.
But it soon became more than just
one letter.
It inspired Warren and I to think about
what the organizing community had
available to regularly inspire and uplift
them. Despite the dozens of great
organizations working to train organizers,
we started to realize organizers everywhere
needed a champion. We want to be that
champion, so we created 63 Magazine, a
digital magazine and online community
for progressive political organizers.
Augusts
Are
Hard
The Inspiration for 63 Magazine
I joined my first campaign as an organizing
fellow for Barack Obama in Richmond,
Virginia in the summer of 2008. After a
summer of non-stop voter reg and call time,
I was so lucky to be hired as an organizer
in Chesterfield, Virginia. I soon learned
that being an organizer was a lot more
than doing voter contact all day. It’s hard,
rewarding, consuming, transformational,
exhausting, and inspirational work and
those first few months as an organizer
would prepare me for everything
else I would face in my future.
We hope 63 Magazine will make organizing
jobs a little bit easier to do, and we’re excited
to see how we can help the movement.
Here’s the letter that inspired 63Mag.

Motivation
&
Muses
Interviews and guidance to stay inspired

Inspiration
An interview with Marlon Marshall
BY ALICE MCALEXANDER

Part I
“Organizing is simply about building
relationships to make change in
your community for a purpose,
person, or cause—and that
will never change.”
Marlon Marshall,
who currently serves as
the director of state campaigns
and political engagement for
Hillary for America, has a long history
of organizing. Through natural charisma,
a seemingly endless amount of energy
(I’ve seen him pretend-throw a chair
across the room after a speech to fire up
his staff on more than one occasion),
leadership skills, and a lot of hard work,
Marlon has become one of the most
successful organizers in politics today.
Marlon is the son of a St. Louis computer
teacher and a former airman with
the Air Force. His mother, a teacher
who taught for 36 years in inner city
St. Louis, is his constant inspiration
to work as hard as he does.
Growing up in a well-funded school district,
Marlon noticed the significant disparity
in resources between his school and the
under-resourced school his mother taught
at. Whereas he had access to computers,
his mother’s students barely had enough
pens and pencils. Watching his mom’s
dedication to provide a quality education
to disadvantaged kids, and particularly
youth of color, Marlon became motivated
to help improve the circumstances of
children like those his mother taught.
Following the path not often
taken by ambitious and
successful college students,
Marlon chose a career in organizing.
Through organizing, he fell in love
with engaging and empowering people
around the issues that matter to them.
At the University of Kansas, Marlon’s
classmate drew him into running for
Student Senate. He immediately relished
working with the student body around
important issues at KU. Realizing how
much he loved this type of work, he began
volunteering in local races in 2002 and
he’s been working in politics ever since.
From his first “real” organizing experience
on the John Kerry campaign in 2004
to working for President Obama on
Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment,
Marlon’s encountered the ups and
downs that all organizers face.
Talking with the man who now leads
Hillary Clinton’s major primary state
operations and all political engagement
with federal, state, and local elected
officials, it’s hard to imagine that Marlon
was once a brand new organizer without
a clue what he was doing, or why.
Just like many first time organizers, he was
given a volunteer prospect list and eight
empty phone bank chairs to fill. Luckily,
Marlon didn’t give up despite feeling lost,
trusting the guidance he’d been given. As
he continued to reach out to volunteers,
he began to meet the people who were
giving up time out of their lives to help
move their country forward. He was so
inspired to see those eight full phonebank
lines quickly grow to 40 full phonebank

lines. Every person in each phonebank
seat mattered to Marlon, and all of his
hard work had started to pay off.
Since his first presidential campaign in
2004, Marlon has been busy. After working
in Maryland with the state party, he
worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential
campaign as the field director in Nevada,
Ohio, and Indiana. Marshall stayed
with Clinton’s team until she conceded
the Democratic primary, before joining
then-Senator Obama’s team as the
general election director in Missouri.
In the next six years, he’d serve as the
national field director at the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee,
the deputy national field director for
Obama’s reelection campaign, a founding
partner of the grassroots consulting
fi r m270 Strategies, and as principal
deputy director of the Office of Public
Engagement of the White House.
Marlon describes his best moment as an
organizer (so far!) to be the day the
Congressional Budget Office estimated
there were over seven million signups in
the first year of the Affordable Care Act.
When telling this story, he calls himself
“a small part of the team” responsible for
the ACA rollout, demonstrating that he
heeds his own advice for organizers—
never forget to be humble. As the special
assistant to President Obama, Marlon
actually oversaw the White House’s
efforts to promote Obamacare in cities
with large uninsured populations, and
played a huge role in its great success.
As Marlon’s friend, the first thing I always
wonder when I hear Marlon is signing up for
yet another huge, all-consuming campaign,
is how on earth does he keep doing it?
When Marlon’s on a campaign, he is always
energetic, he is always working hard, and
he is always motivating those around him.
He told me he stays motivated by
remembering why he got involved in the
first place, and by taking the time to look
around him. He continues organizing
to push forward progress that will
improve our education system and ensure
everyone has the same opportunities.
“As an African-American male, it’s
important for me that young kids of
color can grow up to be whatever they
want to be. But I also draw motivation
from our volunteers. When you see folks
taking time out of their day to give back
and move their community forward—
if that doesn’t give you inspiration,
then you’re in the wrong business.”
Marlon Marshall is certainly in the right
business.

Part II
Q&A
with Marlon Marshall
AM: Do you
remember any specific
“Aha!” moment when
being an organizer started
to really click for you?
MM: It was probably in Cleveland, in 2004.
I was in Missouri for John Kerry when they
decided to pull all the staff out of Missouri
one month before the election because
Missouri was going to be a red state. I went
to Cleveland, where I got to work with a lot
of great folks. There were a lot of volunteers
in Cleveland, so it was mostly signing
people up for GOTV shifts on doors,
phones, etc.
Even though we weren’t successful in that
election, it all was just clicking for me. I saw,
“Okay, you build this whole organization
to ultimately get to this point where you
are able to contact as many voters in your
neighborhood and tell your personal story
about why you support that candidate,” and
it all just made sense. Everything I had done
in the two to three months before then—
making all those calls, and getting all these
volunteers into a phonebank—all made
sense because by the end, we were talking
to as many people as possible about the
future of our country.
What I love about organizing, in
particular for the Democratic Party, is
that it’s all about getting people invested in
their communities to move our progressive
values forward. That’s when it definitely
clicked for me—’04 Cleveland GOTV,
when I saw the fruits of what we had built.
AM: What is the best advice you’ve
received about organizing?
MM: I hate to give him credit, but it was
Robby Mook [Hillary for America campaign
manager]. In 2006 I was in a training with
him for folks working on the Maryland
coordinated campaign, when he said:
“When you’re organizing, you want to make
sure you’re leaving something behind that
can last for a long, long time. Yes, you want
to win your election, but it’s also about
leaving something behind.”
After Obama for America in 2008 and
2012, we saw a lot of volunteers who were
interested in running for local office. When
you build neighborhood teams across the
country, that should be part of your longterm
vision. You’re finding volunteers
who will one day be our next members of
congress and more.
Thinking long-term about what you’re
leaving behind in these communities
is something that should be in every
organizer’s mind whenever they go
somewhere. It is—first and foremost
about getting that WIN on election day,
but—are you leaving something that can
last and continue to build and move the
country forward for every day thereafter?

AM: If you were dropped as a
community organizer into a
brand new turf on a brand new
campaign, what would you do that
very first day, week, and month
to set yourself up for success?
MM: I would first figure out who the key
folks in the area are (both elected officials
and activists), sit down with them oneon-one,
ask a bunch of questions, and
just listen. Ask and listen. Particularly if
I wasn’t from that community. Your job
as an organizer is to give people the tools
and resources they need to engage their
community. A lot of times it isn’t about a
specific election—it’s really about how you
move a community forward, period.
It’s not about steam-rolling into a
community, being over-the-top and telling
everyone what they should be doing. Your
job is to support folks and get them engaged
in moving their community forward, by
doing a significant amount of listening
and figuring out what works best in that
community. While in every community you
need to knock doors and make phone calls,
you also need to figure out what the best
ways to get folks involved are. For example,
in some communities you need to build
strong relationships with small business
owners, because they’re going to be effective
mouthpieces for your constituency in that
community.
Spending as much time as possible
humbly listening to key community
members is the first thing I would do if
I was dropped into a brand-new place.
AM: Do you have a book, podcast,
website, or resource you’d
recommend to organizers?
MM: When I first started organizing, I read
the book Sidewalk Strategies by Larry
Tramutola. It’s about how to get people
engaged in your campaign. He told a lot of
good stories about work he did in California
around ballot initiatives. He went to
different cities around California and he
would win these ballot initiatives, which
sometimes you don’t think people pay
attention to, but a lot of times they affect
your everyday life more than anything else.
Sidewalk Strategies is a really good book
because it discusses meeting people where
they are, creating relationships, and really
connecting your campaign values to those
of your voters. It’s these value connections
that really help organizing be successful.
AM: What new development in
organizing are you most excited
about that will elevate our
work to the next level?
MM: Organizing is simply about building
relationships to make change in your
community for a purpose, person, or
cause—and that will never change. People
have successfully organized for years. You
look at the big social movements that have
happened in this country—they came about
from organizing. For example, the civil
rights movement was about getting people
engaged in the process to move the ball
forward. And organizing played a big role
in many large pieces of legislation that have
moved our country forward.
In terms of what elevates organizing today,
I would say, technology in general. Another
central component of organizing is reaching
people where they are. You have a lot of

people online nowadays, so you need to
consider how you use that to organize and
how you use social media to meet people
where they are, whether it be Twitter, or
Facebook, or any of these new apps coming
out.
But, the technology is just a tactic or
channel to help you execute your overall
strategy to hit your goals.
I don’t think there will ever be a day where
you just purely organize online, but it
should definitely be a part of what you’re
doing. Always thinking through new ways
to reach people where they are is the new
focus of organizing. There are all these
tools out there now, and bringing them
into your overall strategy is important.
AM: What personal habit contributes
to your success as an organizer?
MM: Before I started organizing, I was an
unorganized person; organizing actually
made me more organized with my day. I’m
very much a systems person. With my team
I do one-on-one meetings so that we can
drill in on what they are doing and how I
can be supportive to their everyday work.
And then we have a big meeting once per
week, where we can step back and look at
where we are, how we got there, and reassess
what we’re doing.
AM: Do you have a daily or weekly
routine that helps you
improve your health, your
finances, or just to relax?
MM: I should say that my routine is always
going to the gym and eating healthy, which
I try to do, but it fluctuates a lot. It’s really
hard. The biggest thing that keeps me doing
this now is I have a wife who lets me know
when I need to get my butt in the gym. I try
to be realistic about it, but it’s real hard.
I always go back to the fact that you should
be able to fit it into your day, whether it be
early in the morning or late at night, if you
manage your time wisely. But it’s not easy.
It’s about prioritizing and making sure
that you have healthy priorities in place.
AM: Do you do anything right before
you go out to speak at an
event to get pumped up?
MM: Nah, I’m kind of naturally pumped
up. Right before an event I’ll write down
on a little piece of paper some bullet points,
because it helps me think about how I
want to frame what I say, and this helps me
get excited. But I don’t do jumping jacks
or anything; I’m just naturally hyped.
So, I guess my personal habit is creating
systems. These systems help me support
my team by allowing us to dig in when
we need to get the job done, but also
contribute to creating the team culture
that is needed to move forward with a
clear vision of where we need to go.

AM: We got a question for you from an
organizer having a tough time
getting along with a volunteer.
What advice do you have to help
her improve their relationship?
MM: The first thing to consider: is the
volunteer meeting their goals? From there,
you can take a step back, have a one-on-one
with the volunteer, and be real about any
challenges there. The challenges need to
be around where you’re going; everything
should be about if the job is getting done to
help move everything forward.
Ultimately, volunteers are a critical
part of the campaign and what makes
the campaign run. So, you sometimes
have to have real conversations, even
the challenging ones, about any issues
that arise. It’s most important that these
conversations be solutions-based, focused
on how you move the ball forward together.
AM: Do you have any parting words of
advice for organizers?
MM: Always remember why you do the
work. Weekly, take a step back to think
about how you do your work. And
remember, it’s not about you. It’s never
about you. And if it is about you, you’re in
the wrong business.
There’s a family of organizers who
have done this before, so make sure
you ask for advice. Never forget to be
humble. There’s going to be a family of
organizers who come after you, and if
you don’t always help someone get to
where you are, then it became about you,
and it’s definitely not about you.

Part III
How To Get Over Burnout
with Marlon Marshall
For a while, you seemed to have super
human energy! Your days were really
long and full every second, but you were
so excited about the work you were doing
that you never got tired (with the help
of a couple extra-large cappuccinos).
But then, slowly, you sensed weariness
starting to seep in. Tasks that you used
to look forward to, you now dreaded.
Getting out of bed seemed like a herculean
task. And before you knew it, you felt
yourself crashing hard into a wall.
There’s no use denying it—you got burnt
out. Now what do you do?
First, take a step back and realize that every
organizer gets burnt out occasionally.
In fact, our featured organizer,
Marlon Marshall, says:
“If you didn’t hit a wall or get tired, then
you’re not human. It happens
to the best of us.”
Okay, phew. You’re not alone!
Let’s see what steps Marlon recommends
you take to get through those walls. And
hey—he’s been organizing for 13 years.
13 years! If he can work this hard for that
long, you know you can trust his advice.
1. Acknowledge the burnout.
“I think what’s most important is simply
being self-aware. When you hit that wall—
acknowledge it and take a step back.”
The first step in getting over burnout is
recognizing it for what it is. If you
can’t acknowledge that something is
off, you’ll never be able to fix it.
2. Remind yourself why you organize.
“Remind yourself why you’re doing this in
the first place.”
What is your driving motivation? Why do
you care so much about this cause or this
candidate? How are your actions moving
forward an issue that matters to you?
Taking a minute to get sappy and to
re-inspire yourself will drive you to
figure out how to move forward.
3. Talk to someone who can help.
“Talk to someone about it. When you hit a
wall and don’t tell anyone and just keep
going, your performance will suffer.
But if you take a step back and have
a conversation with someone about
it, they can help you through it.”

Hello! This is why you have managers! Talk
to them about it. Don’t be afraid to be
honest with what you’re facing. Your
manager understands and is there to
support you. They can work with you to
figure out how to climb over that wall.
4. Look at how you spend your time.
“When you get burnt out and hit that wall,
it’s often because things have gotten so
crazy that you’re not managing your time
in the best way. This is when you need
to reassess. For one week, write out on
your calendar what you’re doing each
moment of the day. Then the next week,
take a step back and see where you’re
spending your time and reevaluate.”
Often you hit a wall because you’re not
handling your time wisely. And I know
your first reaction is going to be, “ALL MY
TIME IS SPENT WORKING, I HAVE
NO TIME.” I get it. It’s annoying to have
someone insist you need to adjust the way
you spend your time when you feel like
you’re constantly working.
But take yourself and your emotions out of
it for a second. Figure out what habits need
to change. Maybe if you shifted around
when you do certain things or how you do
certain stuff, it will make you more efficient.
And if you’re more efficient, maybe you
might find a little extra time to go to yoga
or do whatever it is that helps you relax.
5. Create systems.
“I create systems that support my team.
These allow us to dig in when we need
to get the job done, but also create a
team culture that is needed to move
forward. These systems make sure that
we don’t get stuck by just doing what
we’re doing now, but always having
a vision of where we need to go.”
Just like Marlon needs systems to manage
his staff, you need systems to manage
your volunteer teams. If you have a system
set up for each task you and your team
need to complete, you can simply follow
the system. This will help keep you less
distracted and stop y ou from worrying
about little details all the time (because
they’re taken care of in the system). It
will allow you to dedicate your time to
the parts of organizing you love most.
6. Adapt.
“Even on this campaign, I’ve taken a step
back and said, ‘Okay, the way I used
my time in April is different than the
way I’m using my time in November.’
But, if I had just done the same thing
from April to November, then I’m not
growing, nor am I supporting my team in
a way that they need to be supported.”
The best way to get over burnout is to never
have it, right? Well, yeah, we don’t have
any magic pills for you or anything, but we
do know that if you adapt your schedule,
your systems, and your management
priorities as the campaign evolves, you’ll
be better prepared to avoid burnout.

Inspirational
Tidbit
Ashley Baia
Senior Grassroots Project Manager,
270 Strategies
On her worst moment as an organizer:
“...While it was one of the more difficult moments for me
on the campaign, it was also such a huge turning point.”
Click here to play video
270 Strategies, a consulting firm based in Chicago and DC, helps its clients build winning campaigns and
put their ideas into action. 270’s sweet spot is helping organizations engage everyday people in their work
by finding people who have common values or goals and connecting with them in a meaningful way.
Learn more at 270Strategies.com

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Sometimes you just need a pick-me-up. Whether you want to
get fired up before you lead an important canvass
launch or you’re just feeling a little down (and a lot over
it), we all need something reliable to turn to for that little
extra oomph. Throughout this issue, we’ll share some of
63Mag team members’ favorite motivational videos.
I’m pretty sure you’ll feel ready to conquer anything after you
watch one. I can’t promise you won’t cry though.

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Click here to play video
Alice’s Pick #1
“Inches”
by Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino)
in Any Given Sunday (1999)
Full disclosure, I’ve never seen Any
Given Sunday. But I’ve seen the
famous “Inches” speech way too
many times to count. My RFD
in 2008 showed this to us when
my whole region had started to fall
behind. I watch it every time I feel like
I can’t do something anymore. And
then, miraculously, I keep doing it.

Do
Your
Job
Advice and best practices to help you succeed

Ask A Field Director
with Meagan Gardner
This issue’s “Ask a Field Director”
is with Meagan Gardner!
Meagan is currently the
organizing director for the
2016 New Hampshire Primary
for Hillary for America.
Meagan first began organizing for Hillary
Clinton in 2007. After working all over
the country in various roles throughout
the 2008 primary, she moved to Ohio
to become a regional field director for
then-Senator Obama’s general election
campaign. After their victory, Meagan
continued to work for President Obama
for many years—at Organizing for America
as the Midwest regional director, on his
2012 reelection campaign as the Iowa field
director, and then for his administration
in the White House. Now, organizing
for Hillary Clinton eight years after she
started as a field organizer, the Granite
State is certainly lucky to have Meagan.
Like so many other successful organizers,
Meagan is inspired to keep working every
day by the people she has met along the
way. The vast community of organizers,
volunteers, and voters working all over
the country to change the world bit by
bit make her want to work even harder
for the common values they all share.
Though she singles out watching victorious
election night returns for Iowa and the
nation in 2012 as one of her happiest
organizing memories, she genuinely finds
joy in the little wins of organizing; the
quiet moments you may not be able to
articulate at the moment, like watching
someone you’re training have a lightbulb
moment, having a phenomenal
conversation with a voter, or empowering
someone to go outside their comfort zone.
That’s exactly why she’s such a perfect
choice to feature in 63 Magazine’s fi r s t
“Ask a Field Director” column.
Meagan answers some of your
toughest questions—I
know you’ll be blown away
(and really grateful)!

What are your top 3 tips for a new
organizer just starting
out this cycle?
MG:
1) Build real relationships with volunteers
and your colleagues – if you’re really lucky,
they will be a part of your crew for the rest
of your life.
2) Have a good attitude and ask for help
– I’m incredibly impressed by people who
want to get better every day and know they
still have a lot to learn. Be humble, positive,
and inclusive every day about how you can
bring more people into your organization,
and be open to new ideas that are better
than your own. Be the type of organizer
and person others want to be around and
follow. Remember – people so often will
mirror your actions and attitude. So be the
thermostat and not the thermometer in the
room.
3) Be intentional and smart about time
management. Figure out immediately
where your time slips are and know what
your time weaknesses are. We can never
get any time back in campaigns, and you
need to make each moment count. Ask
for help and work on tricks to increase
productivity, lower procrastination
and get more time out of your day.”
What is the most important thing
to do when you first meet
with a new volunteer?
MG: THANK THEM! Whether this is
someone who has volunteered for a
campaign in the past or someone who is
coming in for the first time, a volunteer
simply cannot be thanked enough. Let them
know you appreciate them and make them
feel at ease. Help them understand you’re
someone to be trusted and that you and the
campaign have a plan to utilize their skills
and their time wisely. Train them well on
what you need them for that day and always
explain the “why” and the bigger picture.
Community and electoral organizing is
amazing because people get to be a part of
something bigger than themselves and you
want them to understand their place in that
and that their specific role matters.
As they do their work, check in and retrain
if necessary. Thank them a few more
times, and then always ask them when they
can come in again because you and the
campaign need them. Build a relationship
based on honesty and trust and help them
understand that they will be a part of this
campaign in a real way, alongside you.

I have a volunteer that was really
involved and always meeting
her goals, but she’s started
to come in less often and do
less work. What can I do to
push her without pushing her
so hard that it backfires and
I lose a great volunteer?
MG: One thing I would start thinking
about is changing even how you’re framing
the question. You want to avoid “pushing
volunteers.” Volunteers want and deserve
to feel empowered and that they fully
understand their role and its importance
since they’re giving the campaign/the
candidate/you their most precious resource:
their time.
I would have a meeting with her to check in.
Ask her about how her life is going and how
she is doing.
Then have a real conversation. Treat her like
a member of your team and say that you’ve
noticed that she hasn’t been coming in as
much, or that when she does, it is less than
the amazing amount of work she’s done
thus far. I would talk with her about the
urgency of the moment and how what she
was doing in the past really mattered. Make
a plan about how she can get re-engaged.
I’m sure you’ve been influenced by
the many awesome people you’ve
worked with. Would you say
that you try to replicate their
style, have your own management
style, or have figured out some
hybrid that has made it your
own, but includes the best stuff
from mentors, colleagues, etc.?
If so, how did you get there?
MG: What a great question! I think if you’re
working as an open-minded, open-hearted
organizer, everything you do is a hybrid of
what you can do and from observing those
who came before. While I definitely steal
best practices from those I respect around
management, training, operational style,
and working smarter every day, I definitely
would recommend you find your own
voice too. You have to know what your
own strengths are and what you bring to
the table and be confident about that.

Any advice on balancing a career
in politics/field with a somewhat
regular life? How do I give so
much of myself to something,
while still being “me?”
MG: Ah, the question so many
professionals struggle with and so few of
us figure out. One thing I’ll say is right off
the bat, you have to really think about if
this work is right for you. It’s hard and at
so many moments, time- and emotionallyconsuming.
But for me, there’s nowhere else
I’d rather be.
You have to think about what makes you
“normal” – are you someone who gets
hangry (you know who you are!) if you
don’t eat on time? Are you cranky if you
don’t go for a run? For me, I always feel
better when I have theater in my life, so I
make sure to find time every month for a
play (or more likely, a movie). It makes me
feel like more of a complete person when I
have art in my life, even if I usually have to
settle for a few minutes of Netflix as election
days get closer!
You have to know though - you’re an adult
and you run your life and your calendar.
Field organizing can be all-consuming if
you let it, so:
1) Carve out time for what you need,
whether it’s a walk around the block, or
time to get a healthy lunch, or little bits
of time throughout the day to step back
for a second and be you. Also, a good old
stereotypical The West Wing walk-and-talk
meeting can be the perfect thing to jumpstart
your heart and your afternoon.
2) Avoid time creep – it’s easy for one
thing to bleed into the next thing and
all of a sudden it’s midnight and you’re
still entering data and all you’ve eaten is
a handful of peanut M&Ms. Yikes. Put
together a schedule and keep it. And when
you’re done with your work at the end of
the night, go home. Martyrs help no one in
campaign life.
3) Finally – call your mom. Or text a high
school friend. Or FaceTime for 10 minutes
with someone you love. Most people I know
simply feel better and frankly, are better
organizers when they touch base with their
normal life (parents, partners, friends)
and reset back to 0. Then they can go back
and put their whole heart into their work.

Can you name your top tips for
experienced organizers who are
managing Deputy Field Organizers
for the first time this cycle?
MG:
1) Set clear expectations and help them
understand what success is. This means
that as a manager, you need to know exactly
what their goals are, have a vision about
how exactly they can meet those goals, and
be two steps ahead of them by knowing how
they’re doing in meeting those goals day by
day and week by week.
2) You don’t have to be best friends with
them. Good management relationships
should be based on trust, accountability,
respect, and knowing you have each
other’s back. Help them understand where
they’re succeeding but also know that hard
conversations about how they can and need
to get better are necessary to help them not
only succeed as professionals, but to make
the campaign successful.
3) Ask intentional questions in
your check-ins that help you get at the
root of any issues and use that space
to acknowledge the work done thus
far and identify places for growth.
Any closing advice for organizers?
MG:
1) Most day-to-day problems can be
solved with a little more kindness and
empathy.
2) There are no second chances. Make
every moment count.
3) Meet goals and deadlines and be
organized.
4) Practice your hard ask every single
day.
5) Build your organization every single
hour.
6) No drama. No ego. No credit. No
blame. No martyrs.
7) Take time every day to step back and
take it all in. You are changing lives in small
ways, and when all those small ways are
added together, changing the world.

Sidewalk Strategies
An interview with Larry Tramutola

Photo credit: Arturo Oliva Pedroza
ArturoOlivaPedroza.com
One of the questions we ask every expert
we talk to is: “Do you have a book,
podcast, website, or resource you would
recommend to organizers?” When you’re
an organizer, everything feels very in the
moment. You either feel like you know
everything and you’re on top of everything
(let’s just admit confidence isn’t usually
lacking in organizers), or like everything is
crashing down around you and you don’t
possibly have time to do anything except
keep trying to keep everything going.
To continue to grow and tackle difficult
challenges, you have to seek outside
wisdom from the family of organizers
who have been working for so long.
When I asked Marlon Marshall this
question, he immediately pointed us to
Sidewalk Strategies by Larry Tramutola.
Marlon read Sidewalk Strategies as a young
organizer and it helped him understand
the importance of meeting people
where they are, creating relationships,
and connecting your campaign
values to those of your voters.
After our chat with Marlon, I immediately
ordered Sidewalk Strategies and read it
in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down.
As I studied my way through it, I was
thinking about how helpful this would
have been to me as a brand new organizer.
Throughout each chapter, there were
lessons I learned over many months as
an organizer. And beyond this feeling, so
many new lessons were clicking for me.
As Larry says, the only real way to learn
how to organize is to actually organize.
But reading Sidewalk Strategies, learning
about the campaigns and individuals who
would redefine how generations of activists
organize, would certainly help you get
up to speed faster and elevate you as an
organizer sooner than if you had to learn
all these hard lessons yourself, first-hand.
Larry began organizing in the 1970s with
Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers
movement. Larry was trained and taught by
Fred Ross for most of his career. Fred Ross,
the trailblazing organizer who inspired,
trained, and mentored Cesar Chavez (one
of America’s greatest champions for social
justice), helped define the way individuals
organize their communities around a cause.
Tramutola has been organizing ever since
he first met Fred and is widely recognized
as an expert on grassroots organizing,
political strategy, and on passing difficult
ballot and tax measures. We reached out to
him to get some inspiration and advice for
you and our conversation blew me away.
I know once you get even just a little dose of
his wisdom, you’ll rush out to buy his
book (so we’ve linked through to it here).

AM: What are some key takeaways
a busy organizer should focus on
right after finishing your book?
LT: The first thing is you’ve got to try to use
every day to make progress, and make sure
every day builds upon another. It’s really
easy to get distracted and to do things that
may seem important, but that actually take
away from reaching your goal. If you want
be successful doing organizing and you
have a specific objective, whether it’s finding
precinct leaders or building support, you’ve
got to work at it with horse blinders on, to
get you to do that task.
That’s number one—your own personal
discipline.
There are always distractions in organizing,
some coming from others, and some are
your own internal distractions, including
being tired or bored. Throughout all of
this, the successful organizer has to be
focused on the job at hand. I think this
might be the toughest thing for organizers
to understand. Often people new to
organizing think of rallies, demonstrations,
and mass movements; however generally
speaking, the organizing work can be fairly
mundane on a day-to-day basis, but that
repetition is important. That would be the
first thing that I would really think about—
how do you deal with your own personal
motivation and draw upon the motivation
of other people to stay disciplined.
AM: Throughout the book, you had
axioms from your mentor, Fred
Ross. I noticed how evergreen
they are. My favorite was, “Never
get so hungry for volunteers
that you do their work for them
instead of insisting they do it
themselves.” It resonated so much
with my experience. What advice
would you give to an organizer
who’s facing that issue?
LT: I think this is more of an issue for an
experienced organizer, than an
inexperienced organizer, because in some
ways the inexperienced organizer has
got to do it themselves, at least a little
bit. I think that that axiom in particular
is written toward people who are a little
more experienced, because the fresh-faced
organizer has to do this stuff to learn how
to do it, and to be able to ask somebody to
do something that they’ve done. You never
want to ask someone to do something that
you haven’t done or that you’re unwilling to
do.
I believe when Fred wrote that axiom, he
was really talking to Gabby (an experienced
organizer) rather than Luis (a brand new
organizer), because Gabby has graduated
into the role of an organizer. You probably
now have the skills to do it yourself, but
you’re never going to reach organizing
capacity and build movement if you
continue to do it yourself.
Organizing is about building power, and
you can’t do it without lots of people
involved.

We all sometimes think, “Hell, I can
do this better than they can. I can do it
quicker and easier.” But if we do it for
them, they never learn. Now, we model,
but they’ve got to be allowed to make
mistakes. And when they make mistakes,
we have to be in a position to say what was
good, and what they could do better.
AM: Do you have a favorite
of Fred’s axioms?
LT: I’ve got a lot of them! I knew Fred really
well—he was my mentor. The axiom I’ve
always liked is that if you wait until you
have all the resources before you start, you
never start. So, you’ve got to fill this void
of no activity with activity; and by doing
that, things happen. That’s fundamentally
what organizers do. We’re getting people
to do what they should do, but don’t have
the skills or the motivation to do it. We
light fires in people so that they then take
responsibility and they make things happen.
AM: I want to ask a tough question
I struggled with as an organizer.
I often encountered an obstacle
where someone wanted to be
involved but didn’t want to talk
to voters or do any of the normal
tasks I had for volunteers. I would
then spend a ton of time trying to
find something for that volunteer
to do.
LT: This is a difficult thing for people, but
you’ve got to do it. In our work, we’re
dealing with adult problems. This is serious
work at its core, which means it demands
serious attention.
The first thing is: you can’t have people
taking your time when you’ve got other
things to do. You lose the first fundamental,
which is you’ve got to make progress every
day, and virtually every hour of every day, to
keep things moving.
Not everybody comes to the organizing
family or the campaign for the same
reasons. You as a leader have got to be able
to manage people and evaluate people. If
you can’t either get rid of someone who is
a disruptive force, or give somebody who’s
not a disruptive force something that they
can do, then you’re probably not a leader,
because leaders have to make those kinds of
decisions.
There’s this kind of community organizing
dogma that says, “organizers are behind the
scenes and not leaders.” I don’t believe in
that—they are leaders. Organizers have to
provide leadership and part of leadership is
the management of people, which has to do
with elevating people who are really good,
training people who need the training, and
unfortunately at times, getting people out
that sap energy.
This is sophisticated—it’s not organizing
101, this is a graduate course of
organizing, but it‘s really important.
How would you recommend
reconciling making volunteers
of all types feel included versus
dedicating enough time to develop
volunteer leader prospects?

AM: Do you have any advice
for staying motivated to work
as hard as organizers do?
LT: A couple things. Number one: every
organizing campaign—whether it’s one
year long, five years long, or with no end in
sight—needs milestones. You build towards
those milestones, and you create artificial
milestones if there aren’t real milestones. A
real milestone on a presidential campaign
would be that primary, or that local
vote. But there may be some preliminary
milestones prior to that, that you set,
achieve, and celebrate as you’re going
through it, that will help you reach the next
goal.
The other advice is that somebody on
your team has got to be mindful of the
celebration. We shouldn’t carry the
burden of the world on our shoulders in
every organizing campaign. One of the
attributes that an organizer has to have
is joy. We’re trying to create something
better, and when we create something
better, there’s got to be laughter and joy.
There are ample opportunities for fun;
you just need to be creative about it.
AM: Something Marlon mentioned
that I was thinking of a lot when
I read your book was: despite a
lot of changes in technology,
organizing is always about
building relationships to organize
around a cause or person. What
are your thoughts on that?
LT: I’m not one of those people who says,
“Gee, technology hasn’t changed what we
do”. When I started, I had 3-by-5-inch cards
and I had to go to a phone booth and throw
dimes in, in order to make calls to people.
Obviously technology changes the way we
communicate and will continue to do that.
But at its core, organizing is about
relationships, and it’s making a
connection with people. I’m talking about
fundamentally changing people and getting
people in a community to take action
together. Technology can be used to keep
them together, to keep them informed,
and to provide discussion and forums for
people to talk. But fundamentally it’s about
relationships that you make with people to
get them to do things.
One of the things that technology can never
do, is give me the ability to be able to look
at you, in your eyes, and either invite you,
motivate you, or inspire you to get involved
and do something. That human connection
is essential for organizing.
Organizing is a constant. Organizing isn’t
ideology or about proselytization over one
way of thinking. Organizing is taking a
variety of people and working together and
trying to find solutions, which may not be
the ideological solution we thought. That
is such a powerful thing. It’s the human
connection of organizing that is really
important; and you’ve got to be skilled to be
able to do that.
I don’t think we’ll ever change that with
technology. I think twenty or even 100
years from now, the human connection
of organizing will still be the basics.

AM: All that said, are there
any new developments in
organizing that you think will
have an impact in organizing?
LT: First, I am absolutely inspired that you
believe there is a network of folks who
do organizing who will be a part of your
communication family. For those of us who
have been doing organizing for a long period
of time, we’ve felt almost as if we’re the lost
nomads in the desert, and to realize that
there’s a growing group of people who are
looking at this as a profession—I think is
awesome. So that’s pretty cool.
In terms of the industry of organizing,
obviously we have the ability to create
subsets and targeting and messaging that
you could only dream about years ago, and
that will continue. The problem with that,
from an organizing perspective, is that so
much attention and resources go into people
who we know are going to vote, and a lot
of our organizing effort has got to get to
people who need to be inspired to vote who
are not your 5-out-of-5 voters. They maybe
have registered to vote because they got
registered at the DMV or somebody asked
them to register at an event, but they are not
necessarily really motivated to vote. I don’t
know how technology helps that, and that‘s
my concern.
I just think it’s hand-to-hand combat,
you’ve got to drag people into this, and
people are trying different things. But
being able to go door-to-door with
handhelds and with maps and scripts
is huge, and that will just get better.
AM: Do you have any parting
words of advice for organizers?
LT: For anybody who does this stuff, it’s
hard work. What I tried to do in my book
was to give some practical lessons that
successful people have used and will
continue to use. The thing about organizing
for me is that the more you do it, the better
you get. It’s a wonderful profession if you
really care about making change. I wish
there were more people who went into
organizing who want to run for office,
because if you really want to talk about
significant change, organizing is where it’s
at. It’s not being on a board. So I love the
fact that you are, in some ways, building a
community of organizers who can share
things.
You always have to be learning. You always
have to be open to learning, to listening,
to new ideas, and to freshness. I think
that’s what kept Fred Ross organizing
into his eighties, because he had that.
Tramutola Strategies is an Oakland-based
consulting fi rm that provides candid
political advice to those with a desire to
build community support for a variety of
important causes.
Learn more at Tramutola.com

Sidewalk
Strategies:
Seven Winning Steps for
Candidates,
Causes, and
Communities
Available on
Sidewalk Strategies is a book about
leadership and about winning — winning elections,
winning campaigns, and winning the hearts and minds of people.
Originally published in 2004 this NEW edition reframes some of the key lessons,
given the new challenges that communities face and the growing appreciation that
meaningful social change can come through effective organizing.
“Every organizer should read Sidewalk Strategies. I wish I was lucky
enough to read it as a new organizer. Reading it with my few years of
experience, I still learned something new from every chapter. It is full
of specifi c stories and examples from throughout Tramutola’s long and
varied career in campaigns and issue organizing, each of which helps
the reader truly understand the value of his advice. Tramutola speaks to
the mindset and skills you need to be successful in a way that I’ve never
seen so clearly before.” - Alice McAlexander
“Sidewalk Strategies is a really good book because it discusses meeting
people where they are, creating relationships, and really connecting
your campaign values to those of your voters. It’s these value
connections that really help organizing be successful.” - Marlon Marshall

Inspirational
Tidbit
Nicole Derse
Principal, 50+1 Strategies
On why you’re incredible:
“You are empowering people to
own a piece of our public life.”
Click here to play video
50+1 Strategies is a San Francisco-based consulting firm that specializes in civic engagement,
campaign management, and community mobilization solutions. 50+1 helps its clients win elections
and advocacy campaigns by building grassroots community power in diverse communities.
Learn more at 50p1.com

A Day in
the Life
with Nia Bentall
My name: Nia Bentall
I work as a field organizer for: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV).
My job is to: 1) Educate Virginians about how the actions of their state legislature affect
Planned Parenthood and affect themselves; 2) lift up the stories of Virginians to members of the
state legislature; 3) build power for Planned Parenthood through volunteers.
This day in the life follows me through: Get Out the Vote (GOTV) for the Virginia state
senate elections. PPAV coordinated with the state party to organize around the race in Senate
District 10, an open seat.
This day in my life matters because: If we had won, the Democrats would have taken back
the Virginia senate. With a Democratic majority, the senate could have passed a Medicaid
expansion that would have provided healthcare for over 400,000 Virginians. We didn’t win,
but our work doesn’t stop.
Some extra context about this day in my life: GOTV was so bizarrely calm for me because
we worked so hard leading up to it. We had done full dry runs for GOTV each of the three
weekends prior to the final four days. After practicing everything so much, I was most useful
knocking on doors and letting my staging location director run the show, like she’d been
trained to do.
Following this day(s) in my life, I will: Continue my work as a field organizer. The good news
after this loss is that Planned Parenthood remains open. And now that we’ve built such an
incredible team of volunteers, we’re ready for the upcoming General Assembly and for the 2016
election. In Virginia, there are important races every year, so we always have something to
work for. People with a stake in movements don’t give up.

October 31 - November 2, 2015
1:00 AM
Head home for a few hours sleep after assembling canvass packets for the weekend.
We got our fi nal GOTV universe at 10:00 PM on Friday night. Thank goodness I had
an organizer friend from out of town in to help us all assemble packets and put them in
priority precinct order.
8:00 AM
Arrive at my Staging Location (the PPAV offi ce).
9:00 AM
Head out to knock as many canvass packets as possible before the end of the day. My
volunteer, Anne, launches the fi rst canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our
fi eld director: # of volunteers in and # of canvass packets out.
12:00 PM
Anne launches the second canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
3:00 PM
Anne launches the third canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
6:00 PM
Continue to knock on doors to remind people to vote on Tuesday. Anne launches the
fourth canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
8:00 PM
Return to the Staging Location with my completed canvass packets. Luckily, throughout
the day, Anne has done a great job of cleaning up used canvass packets, entering data,
and preparing for the next day, so there’s not much for me to do.

November 3, 2015
5:30 AM
Arrive at my Staging Location and pick up a poll working packet.
6:00 AM
Polls open across Virginia! I complete a shift as poll worker to make sure there are no
issues at the polling location.
9:00 AM
Stop by my Staging Location to pick up canvass packets. Head out to remind voters to
vote TODAY! Anne launches the fi rst canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our
fi eld director.
12:00 PM
Anne launches the second canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
3:00 PM
Anne launches the third canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
6:00 PM
Anne launches the fourth canvass and calls in her reporting metrics to our fi eld director.
Thanks to the dedication of our volunteers (many of whom skipped class to canvass all
day), we’re able to make three full passes of our entire universe on GOTV weekend!
7:00 PM
Polls close. I return to the Stating Location to watch returns.

7:30 PM
Learn that throughout Richmond City and Chesterfi eld County, turnout results show we
exceeded our win numbers.
8:00 PM
Learn that turnout in Powhatan County, an extremely rural and conservative area, is
185% higher than it was in a previous state senate election. I hop in the car with a fellow
organizer (who has a law degree- phew!) to drive to Powhatan County to monitor the
counting of the votes.
10:00 PM
Begin to realize that these remarkable turnout numbers in Powhatan County are
accurate. The unexpected heavy turnout of these rural voters (who showed up in droves
to participate in a hotly contested local race) counterbalanced the high turnout in
Richmond City and Chesterfi eld County.
November 4, 2015
2:00 AM
Arrive at home after a disappointing loss.
12:00 PM
Wake up and schedule some time with my most engaged volunteers. Our work
continues!
Alice’s Note
It’s so great to see inside an organizer’s life during GOTV, and especially one
whose volunteer teams were so well trained and well managed, they could run a
Staging Location on their own. Every organizer should continue to work hard and
work smart so their GOTV looks very similar to this one. I can’t wait to see what
Nia and her team of volunteers do next.

Grow
Your
Skills
Outside lessons to improve your organizing

This Is How I Train
with Anatole Jenkins
Every issue of
63 Magazine, we will take
a look at the skills that every
organizer needs and ask
experts exactly how they do
it. This issue, we talk to Anatole
Jenkins about how he trains.
As a regional organizing director for
Hillary for America, Anatole works
with organizers to implement the state’s
organizing program on the ground, to
identify and manage precinct captains to
execute the program on a localized level,
and to turn out caucus goers in north and
east Las Vegas. He actually worked in
this same turf as an organizer, just three
years ago, on President Obama’s reelection
campaign. Coming back has had its perks.
Before organizers had started in the state
this cycle, Anatole and other members of
the Nevada leadership team were meeting
directly with volunteer leaders who had
worked with Anatole in 2012. At one of
these meetings, one of Anatole’s most
invested 2012 volunteers told him,
“You know, Anatole. In 2012, you were
this young ratty organizer running around
with his head cut off who didn’t kind of
know what you were doing too much. I
got all of your volunteers together and I
told them that we had to hit our goals and
do this to make Anatole successful.”
These volunteers had walked into the
campaign office because of the
candidate, but they clearly continued
to come back for Anatole.
As an organizer, Anatole has learned how to
make a connection with anyone,
motivate people, and lead them in
pursuit of a common goal. He has built
strong relationships with volunteers,
helping to develop a lasting community
of progressive organizers.
Anatole knows that training is a crucial part
of being an organizer. Training has
helped make all of his successes
possible. This is how he does it.

My name is:
Anatole Jenkins
and this is how I:
TRAIN!
Training is important because:
It doesn’t get done without volunteers. You can train an organizer to be the best
organizer ever, but unless their training gets passed to their volunteers, it means
nothing. An organizer’s goals continue to rise and if you’re not replicating your work
in volunteer leaders, you will fail.
But training is also important because it leaves the community better than when you
started. Organizers need to create a new crop of leaders who will continue their
work.
Training others helps you see the real results of organizing on an everyday basis.
You’re developing volunteers and giving them opportunities they couldn’t get without
you.
I approach training by:
Meeting people where they are. Everyone you meet on a campaign starts at a
different level of engagement. Some may barely know who’s running; others may
know exactly how many caucus goers they need in their home precinct.
The fi rst step is to determine the level of engagement of the person you’re training.
If you’re training people who have never been involved before, don’t use insider
political lingo. We just held a mock caucus at our caucus convention and we had
attendees caucus for J-Lo or Selena, and not for political candidates from previous
elections they might not know.

And I always make sure to lead by example. I can’t train on something I’m not willing
to do myself, or something I haven’t done enough to know really well.
So much of organizing is about using your personality, so I make sure I know the
nuances that work for me personally for everything I’m training on.
I take training preparation:
Seriously. But I also know that when an organizer trains someone on phonebanking,
they should know everything about phonebanking like the back of their hand. You
shouldn’t have to memorize exactly what you’re saying in a training if you know the
material well enough.
Here are my basic rules of thumb for training preparation:
1) You need to know the training material remarkably well. If it’s something you
do all the time, you already do! But make sure.
2) Prepare at least two days prior to the training. Give yourself the time to make
sure everything is 100% ready.
3) Have someone else look at the training material. You may think something is
clear, but you’re not the one getting trained. Ask for a second pair of eyes.
4) Do a full walkthrough of the training. This seems like a lot, but it’s crucial. The
little things matter in trainings. Doing a full walkthrough helps you prepare for every
moment and know what needs to be tweaked.
5) Have materials ready the night before. Don’t wait until the morning of to print
something. Come on – you’ve worked in a campaign offi ce. You know those printers
break just when you need them most.
6) Be prepared to follow the material volunteers receive. You may know more
or have more to say, but keep it simple. Stick with what they have in front of them.

Before I train, I like to feel:
Calm. When I feel like everything is ready, I feel calm.
When I train, I like to feel:
Energized. During a training, I know it’s important to be enthusiastic and
motivational. The tone you set is the tone the volunteers will take away. They’ll
remember that tone every time they do that activity for the duration of the campaign.
Be upbeat, engaged, and set a tone of urgency.
To consider a training a success, I need to:
1) Lead with enthusiasm.
2) Set a proper tone of urgency.
3) Involve the volunteers during the training.
4) Conduct a proper debrief.
After a training I make sure to:
Follow up with the volunteers. Is the organizer or volunteer able to elevate their work
with a full understanding and knowledge of what I trained them on?
I also look at specifi c actions. For example, if someone came to our caucus
convention and doesn’t come out to caucus, that’s a failure. If someone came to our
caucus convention and didn’t sign up for a canvass shift, then that’s a failure.
My last advice on training is:
The truth of the matter is, as an organizer, you’re essentially being asked to do the
impossible. You are getting people to work for free – to work hard for free, knocking
on doors in 115-degree heat. As an organizer, you wouldn’t be as good of an
organizer if someone hadn’t trained you. As an organizer, you have to train the
next class of progressive organizers because they’re going to continue the work that
you’ve done after you leave.

Inspirational
Tidbit
Jen O’Malley Dillon
Partner, Precision Strategies
Click here to play video
On how to get through
a tough campaign:
“On those days that were
super- long and super-hard
and I just wanted to stick
my head under the covers,
I remembered that....”
Precision Strategies is a communications, digital and data strategy firm based in DC and NYC.
Precision helps its clients devise precisely the right game plan, analyze and understand their
audiences, articulate and amplify messages, and make technology an ally, not an obstacle.
Learn more at PrecisionStrategies.com

Analytics
for
Organizing
with Andrew Claster
One of the most
interesting things about
organizing is the many
diff erent types of people
you’ll fi nd working by your
side. Strategists generally
assume most organizers are
kids fresh out of college (or
pulled from college—hey!),
and that’s because there does
seem to be a lot of young people.
But as soon as you get comfortable
thinking everyone else in the organizer
training is just like you, you fi nd out
that guy over there is a lawyer, and the
woman next to you was a contestant on
Th e V o and i c e quite , a few people in the
room have left their high-paying corporate
jobs to join the same campaign you did.
This sort of thing happens a lot in
organizing, but I suspect that everyone
working on Obama’s fi rst presidential
campaign in Lebanon, Pennsylvania
was still shocked to discover that their
hardest working local fi eld organizer,
Andrew Claster, had a rich background
in political polling, a master’s degree
in economics, and the skillset that
could have easily landed him on the
campaign’s national analytics team.
Andrew, who now provides data and
analytics consulting for political
candidates and parties, non-profi ts, and
for-profi t organizations in the United States
and overseas, was raised on organizing.
His father, who was a civil rights worker
in Kentucky in the late 1950s and early
1960s, taught Andrew to canvass from an
early age. As a child, Andrew went with
his father on canvasses for the Eastern
Farmworkers Union in Bellport, Long Island
and participated in weekly pro-choice
demonstrations at a women’s health clinic
nearby. He began volunteering on various
campaigns in high school, and even got
arrested for participating in a peaceful labor
demonstration on his college campus.

All of this organizing made a career in
politics an obvious choice for Andrew,
despite his interest in history, economics,
mathematics and physics. Andrew began
working in politics because he had learned
through organizing that the outcomes of
political races can aff ect people’s lives in a
very real way and that it is possible for an
individual to infl uence those outcomes.
After graduate school, Andrew worked on
political polling, doing microtargeting
and developing tested talking points.
But when then-Senator Obama won
the primary election in 2008, Andrew
quit his job and joined the Obama
campaign as a fi eld organizer in the
small town his father grew up in.
Andrew’s experience as a field organizer
was similar to most organizers’
experience: incredibly tough
and remarkably rewarding.
Despite being in a very red county, through
the hard work of Andrew, his volunteers,
and his fellow organizers, the county
saw the second-largest Democratic
improvement out of 67 counties
in the state on election day.
Working as an organizer on a historic
community organizing-focused
campaign in 2008 and as a leader on
a groundbreaking analytics team in
2012, Andrew learned there is a lot of
overlap in organizing and analytics.
The skill he cherishes most that he gained
while organizing? Empowering
others to lead—and in the process,
helping them learn more about
themselves and their own abilities.
The skill he cherishes most that he gained
while working on analytics teams?
Developing the necessary management
skills to delegate to others, to trust
people to learn and make mistakes, and
to train the next generation of leaders.
As someone who has worked both as an
organizer and as an analyst, Andrew has
learned that the skills he’s developed in each
role helps him to be better in the other.
Following this victory, Andrew joined
Organizing for America as the deputy
targeting director in 2009. There he
worked with Dan Wagner to build
the team that eventually expanded
into the Obama for America analytics
department. (You know the team—
it’s been credited with revolutionizing
the way campaigns are won.)

As an organizer, Andrew learned so
much that made him a better analyst.
1) Keep your scripts relatively short and
tight. This is critical for polling, for blind
IDs, and for canvass and phone scripts.
You will lose volunteers and organizers if
your scripts are overly long or complex.
2) Scripts have to be interactive and
fl exible. No one wants to read or listen to
a 30 second monologue on the phone or
at the door and it won’t have any impact.
3) You can’t run every test or experiment
you would like to run. You have to
prioritize based on expected vote
gain per dollar or volunteer hour.
4) There are many opportunities for data
loss or mischaracterization. The question
can be misread by the canvasser, or
misunderstood by the respondent. The
answer can be misrecorded by the canvasser
or misstated by the respondent. The
data can be read or entered incorrectly.
5) Lists and models have to be updated
regularly to incorporate new fi eld data. No
organizer or volunteer is going to trust a list
or a model that keeps sending them back
to the same Republican house every week.
As an analyst, he learned so much that
would have made him a better organizer.
1) There are always an infi nite number of
things you could be working on. (*Alice’s
Note: how REAL is that?) Figure out which
is most likely to deliver the greatest return
on investment (ROI) in terms of votes per
hour or votes per dollar and do that fi rst.
2) Question assumptions and past
practices. Just because something
has always been done a certain way
doesn’t mean it is right or best.
3) If you have a question, fi gure out how
to test it. For example, if you have two
voter registration messages and you don’t
know which is better, test them both
out and see which performs better.
After all of his work in analytics, there’s a
reason Andrew still calls organizing,
“the toughest job I’ll ever love.”
Being an organizer is mentally, physically,
and emotionally demanding. But
it’s also magical—it gave Andrew,
just like it gives you, the chance to
infl uence people’s lives on a one-onone
basis AND on a grand scale.
Next time you hit a challenge, ask yourself
how the principles of analytics (or of
your unique expertise) can improve
your organizing, and how you might be
able to incorporate best practices from
other job fi elds to be better at yours.

The Grass Is Greener:
Analytics
Department
Highlight
with Andrew Claster
What really goes on in those other
campaign departments you’re always
hearing about? You probably have a
basic idea, but we want to take a closer
look with you, every issue, so you can
truly understand how the work of other
departments on your campaign affects
what you do as an organizer and vice
versa.
Every department plays a role in
supporting organizers like you, so let’s see
what’s going on behind the scenes.
This issue we’re learning more about
analytics departments with Andrew Claster.
What does a campaign analytics
department do?
An analytics department on a political
campaign exists to help give decisionmakers
the tools and information they
need to make better decisions. These tools
can include a spreadsheet that ranks media
markets or voter targets, a caucus simulator,
a targeted list of voters, a predictive model,
a map displaying useful information, and
much more.
To do this, analytics teams analyze all of the
internal and external data that a campaign
has access to, including: the voter file, other
internal and external lists, volunteer data,
fundraising data, paid media data, polling
data, voter contact results, etc.
That’s A LOT of data.

A presidential campaign will generate
literally billions of data points. Because
of the huge amount of data, the analytics
department needs to:
1) Prioritize which data and analytics
projects are most likely to deliver highest
return on investment (ROI). ROI on a
political campaign is the votes per dollar per
person and hour.
2) Conduct that analysis of the projects’
ROI accurately and quickly at lowest cost.
3) Communicate the results of that
analysis in a way that makes sense to
decision-makers.
4) Translate analysis into
recommendations that are reasonable and
can be implemented.
5) Measure results.
When Andrew worked in the analytics
department for President Obama’s
reelection campaign, they viewed
themselves as an internal consulting
group. “We met with every campaign
department – paid media, fundraising, field,
communications, operations, political. We
asked them: What do you know already?
What don’t you know that you need to know
in order to do your job better? What can we
give you that will help?”
“Then we figured out how we could
give each department the tools they
needed. Creating the best tools was an
iterative process, but by the end of the
campaign, we were able to support every
department in the most effective way.”
What parts of the work of an analytics
department are most
relevant to organizers?
1) Vote goals: Analysts help determine
vote goals. What is our baseline? How do
we get to victory using voter registration,
persuasion and GOTV?
2) Modeling: Analytics teams create
models to help decide which voters you
target for voter registration, persuasion, and
GOTV.
3) Mapping: Okay, so now that you
know who your targets are, where are they?
Analytics teams map your targets and help
assign turf to reach them.
4) Resource Allocation: How many
field organizers, volunteer leaders, and
volunteers does this campaign need? How
do we assign them?
5) Campaign Techniques: Data
and analytics help determine which
campaign techniques are most effective
for registration, persuasion, and GOTV.
Spoiler alert: it’s almost never yard signs.
How does an organizer’s work affect an
analytics department’s work?
Your work as an organizer affects an
analytics department’s work in two main
ways: execution and data.
1) Execution: Nothing the analytics
department does matters unless the
volunteers and organizers in the field use it.
Andrew describes it this way:

“I used to have an orchestra teacher
who would wave his baton in the air to
demonstrate to the audience that he can’t
make a sound unless he has an orchestra
full of musicians who can play. The
analytics team isn’t exactly like an orchestra
conductor – maybe more like the guy who
tunes the piano. You can be the best piano
tuner in the world. If nobody plays the
instrument, nothing happens.”
2) Data: The data collected by volunteers
and field organizers is among the most
valuable data the analytics team has. Your
data tells analysts who was canvassed, who
they support, how likely they are to vote,
what their most important issue is, and
much more.
The data collected from door knocks and
phone calls placed by volunteers is critically
important. For instance, it’s a major input
into model scores. In addition, organizers
provide both a gut-check and a test-bed for
the conclusions and recommendations that
analysts develop. If analysts have made a
mistake, organizers are often the first to
show them that something is not right.
Well, there you have it. Now we know
what an analytics department does, how
their work affects your work, and how
your work affects theirs. (*Alice’s note:
Though I’m still not exactly sure what they
do on their computers to deliver all this,
and I’m pretty sure I’ll never know.)
If you’re interested in possibly working on
an analytics team in the future, here are
some basic steps you can take to prepare
yourself:
•Learn MS Excel very, very well. This
will help you organize as well!
VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, and text
columns are extremely versatile.
•Learn SQL.
•Consider taking a couple statistics
courses (after election day, obviously).
•Learn a good statistics program. R
and Stata are the most commonly
used options in politics, and SPSS is
common among pollsters.

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Click here to play video
Nick’s Pick
“On Storytelling”
by Ira Glass (2009)
visuals by David Liu
This video is in a slightly different
vein from the other picks, but
it’s inspiring all the same — and
it doesn’t just apply to people
doing creative work. The idea that
someone may have to fail a lot before
they can be successful at something
is universal. If you’re screwing up,
it’s because you’re doing something
difficult, and that’s the best way to
grow. Keep at it, you’ll figure it out.

Organizer
Life
Hacks
Easy changes to improve your work

A B C D
Marlon’s Tip:
Monitor Your Calendar
Presented by Warren Excel
“For one week, write out on your
calendar what you’re doing each
moment of the day. Then the next week,
take a step back and see where you’re
spending your time and reevaluate.”
Want a quick, easy, and powerful way to follow Marlon’s advice?
Click here to download this handy MS Excel “Calendar Monitor”
workbook and watch the video below to see it in action.

Make
Call Time
More
Enjoyable
with Larry Tramutola
We all know the importance of call time. Call time is sacred for a lot of different
reasons. It’s the time you dedicate every day to volunteer recruitment. It’s a
time for your volunteers to get together to take action. It’s a time for volunteers
to reach voters. It’s a time for you to test your volunteers. And it’s a time to
display the kind of discipline that is absolutely crucial for an organizer to have.
Sometimes call time is really great.
Maybe on those nights your volunteers
bring in your favorite food, you have
a really great night on the phone, or
you have a great group of volunteers
in working hard the whole time.
Let’s be real though. Call time isn’t always
fun. Sometimes those five hours feel like five
years. Sometimes no one is home or worse—
the only people home are shockingly cranky.
But you’re an organizer; you’re trained to
use your call time every night, no matter
how miserable it sometimes makes you,
because you know how important it is.
To help you out, each issue of 63 Magazine
will bring you new ideas to make
call time more fun. Because, admit
it: you need it to be more fun.
This issue’s tip comes from Larry
Tramutola. He’s been organizing for
over 40 years and even he still learns
something new every race he works on.
When he was recently working on a
particularly tough soda tax campaign, he
realized his team needed to do something
to keep the spirits of their volunteers up.
Here’s what they tried.
Here’s the problem: you are not the only one
who sometimes dreads call time. Your
volunteers are going to have rough nights
too. It’s your job to keep organizing
fun for all of your volunteers.

Step 1
When volunteers sign in to
phonebank, have them
also write their name
on a slip of paper.
Step 2
Every night and every
phonebank, set an alarm
for the same time. Choose a
time that’s seems best for a
quick break, like 7:00 PM.
Step 3
When the alarm goes off, ask
everyone to wrap up the
call they’re on and to stop
dialing for a few minutes.
Step 4
Draw a name from the slips of
paper volunteers fi lled out
when they signed in.
Step 5
Whoever’s name you draw
becomes Dance Captain
for the evening. As Dance
Captain, they are responsible
for picking one song.
Step 6
Pull up the song chosen by the
evening’s Dance Captain and
play it on some speakers.
Step 7
EVERYONE DANCES!
Step 8
Finish the song, clap it out,
and then get right back
into call time.
These nightly dance breaks turned out
awesome for Larry’s team. Each night it was
so much fun to watch volunteers of all ages
get excited for their nightly dance break.
Try a nightly dance break at your phone
banks! The fun of that one dance
break can kill the restless wriggles and
distractions of a long, slow night of calls.
Here are a couple on–theme songs you can
use if your name gets drawn one night:
Telephone, by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé
Call Me Maybe, by Carly Rae Jepsen
Telephone Love, by Shabba Ranks
Gone ‘Til November, by Wyclef Jean

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Click here to play video
Warren’s Pick #1
“ABC”
by Blake (Alec Baldwin)
in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Organizers are incredible at
selling. Instead of pushing reluctant
buyers through sales funnels, you
pull disengaged citizens up ladders of
engagement. You work on your hard
ask every day, and you hardly ever take
no for an answer.
Frustrated with your prospect lists?
Watch this and then go get yourself
a big steaming cup of coffee.

Take
Care of
Yourself
Improve your health, wealth, and well-being

Take Care of Yourself
by Alice McAlexander
“Take Care of Yourself ” is one of my favorite sections of 63 Magazine. It’s so
important to me because I know that when I was an organizer, I didn’t take care of
myself at all.
I’m not special – most organizers give themselves entirely to their work. There’s
some value in being that committed, but often it’s a liability. On my first campaign,
I sacrificed way too much of myself. I never exercised unless I was walking briskly
between doors with a canvass packet; I ate most meals from the gas station next
to my field office; I slept in my contacts all the time because I was too tired to take
them out.
On the Sunday before election day, all the organizers in my region came into
Richmond at 11 PM to do a doorknocker drop and we all decided to race. That
one-hour of “jogging” was so much for my poor body to handle that I found myself
looking up “muscle atrophy” the next day.
I was a mess, and it showed in a lot of ways. I wasn’t myself and it made me crazy.
I was lucky that all the craziness channeled into hitting my goals, but I had a couple
close calls where I almost entirely melted down.
That shouldn’t happen.
As an organizer, you have got to take care of yourself. Not only is it important to
keep yourself sane, it helps you do your job better. You’re a better organizer if you
get more sleep. You’re a better organizer if your body doesn’t start to fall apart
because you’ve only eaten fried food and energy drinks for six months. You’re a
better organizer if you retain a little bit of yourself.
So much of being a successful organizer is personal. You need to take care of
yourself to be the best organizer possible.
Now, I know it’s not easy. I tried on every subsequent campaign to set reasonable
guidelines and goals, to stay healthy, and to try to stay myself. I never came close to
achieving these, but I did a lot better because I tried.
At 63 Magazine, we want to tell you that it’s okay to take care of yourself, because
you’ll be a better organizer for it.

Inspirational
Tidbit
Alice McAlexander
Editor, 63 Magazine
Click here to play video
On her worst moment as an organizer:
“I couldn’t do
everything by
myself, any more.”
63 Magazine is the premier digital magazine and online community for progressive political organizers.
Learn more at 63mag.com

Yoga for Busy Organizers
with Stacy Berger
This issue, we’re so lucky to have Stacy
Berger lead a quick yoga routine designed
specifically for your busy schedules.
Stacy began organizing for the John Kerry
presidential campaign in 2004 as a field
organizer in Columbia, Missouri. There she
met her future husband, Marlon Marshall.
After finishing that campaign as a Get Out
The Vote lead organizer in Wisconsin, she
continued to work in progressive politics.
Stacy served as a regional field director for
Hillary for President in Las Vegas, Nevada
in 2007, as the deputy national training
director for Obama for America in 2011,
and as the GOTV director for the Obama
campaign in Nevada in 2012. She also
has a ton of experience leading young
democrats and college democrats, and
executing organizing efforts for non-profit
organizations like Planned Parenthood.
Through all of this work, and many other
roles, Stacy has been able to lead a healthy
lifestyle. A certified yoga instructor,
she knows the importance of taking
care of yourself while organizing.
Throughout her grueling work on many
campaigns, Stacy has looked to yoga
to relieve stress and to increase her
ability to stay focused on her work.
I’m so excited she created this yoga practice
for you. Earlier in this issue, Stacy’s husband
Marlon said, “The biggest thing that keeps
me [making time for my health] now is I
have a wife who lets me know I need to get
my butt in the gym.” She is always such a
great influence for everyone around her.
This yoga practice was just what I needed
after a stressful day. Make some time right
now in your calendar for yoga with Stacy
– I know you’ll be thankful after.

Yoga for Busy Organizers
Click here to play video

Healthy
Eating
Tips
with Michelle Berger Marshall
& Stacy Berger
The food you eat is like a lot of stuff in
organizing – to control it, you have to
make an effort and make sacrifices.
When everything gets busy, it gets hard
to make smart decisions about what you
eat and you start to feel like you’ve lost
control. Next thing you know, you’re only
consuming cake, pizza, and an actually
dangerous amount of energy drinks.
It’s easy to lose control of what you eat on
a campaign and then once you’ve
lost control, you feel like there’s no
point in trying to get it back.
But that’s wrong – you can make small
changes that will add up to a big difference.
Eating more healthily will keep your body
better prepared to do all the hard work you
need to do and it will help you feel more
like yourself.
Of course you’ll eat some of the homemade
baked goods that are ever-present in
campaign offices, and of course you’ll
eat literally anything that’s in front of
you during GOTV. But before you
get to those inevitable crazy moments,
make your health a priority.
To help you out, we have some tips for you
from Michelle Berger Marshall and Stacy
Berger. You already met Stacy when she
gave you a great yoga workout. Michelle is
her sister and she’s the director of nutrition
at Feeding America, where she supports
food banks in their efforts to increase
healthy food access, raises awareness of
food insecurity as a public health issue
and promotes nutrition education.
Together, they’ve shared some simple steps
you can implement (even with your crazy
schedule), to give your body the best fuel.

Drink water:
Sip water or other drinks with few or no
calories to help maintain a healthy weight.
Keep a water bottle in your bag or at your
desk to satisfy your thirst throughout the
day. (*Alice’s note: I sometimes try to limit
my bad for you drinks to a certain amount
each day. That way, I have to switch to water
at some point and plan when I’m going to
drink those yummy diet cokes. You won’t
always make it, but at least you tried!)
Go for great whole grains:
Look for whole-wheat breads, popcorn, and
whole-oat cereals that are high in fiber
and low in added sugars, saturated fat, and
sodium. Limit refined-grain products such
as snack bars, cakes, and sweetened cereals.
Nibble on lean protein:
Choose lean protein foods such as lowsodium
deli meats, unsalted nuts, or eggs.
Store unsalted nuts in your desk or hardcooked
eggs and deli meats in the office
fridge to enjoy any time. (Don’t have an
office fridge? Craigslist that right away.
100% worth it.) Wrap sliced, low sodium
deli turkey or ham around an apple
wedge for a great and healthy snack.
Eat throughout the day:
Keep your blood sugar level throughout the
day to avoid that afternoon crash
where you’ll likely crave sugar. Plan
to eat every two-three hours.
Keep an eye on the size:
So we just told you to snack (as you
should!). But snacks shouldn’t replace a
meal. Store snack-size bags at your office
and use them to control serving sizes.
Fruits are quick and easy:
Fresh, frozen, dried, or canned fruits can be
easy “grab-and-go” options that need
little preparation. Grab a bunch of
them! They even have fruit at 7-11 and
McDonald’s, so you have no excuses here.
Make half your plate fruits
and vegetables:
Any time you have a chance, add fruit and
vegetables to meals as part of main
or side dishes. Choose red, orange, or
dark-green vegetables like tomatoes,
sweet potatoes, and broccoli, along
with other vegetables for meals.
Plan, plan, plan!
We know you have very little time to meal
plan and grocery shop (also, meal planning
is SO adult). But most weeks, try to
schedule in an hour to stop by a grocery
store. Plan what you’re going to buy – any
snacks you can have on hand to avoid
eating a third brownie and any meals you
have control over (like breakfast).

Inspirational
Tidbit
Sara El-Amine
Executive Director, Organizing for Action
On her worst moment as an organizer:
“I was absolutely
mortified when my RFD
revealed that....”
Click here to play video
Organizing for Action is a non-profit organization based in Chicago. With more than
250 local chapters around the country, volunteers are building OFA from the ground
up, community by community, one conversation at a time. OFA is committed to
finding and training the next generation of great progressive organizers.
Learn more at BarackObama.com

Organizer
Spotlight
Highlighting your peers and volunteer leaders

Campaign Spotlight:
Morse Force
by
Max Clermont

This spotlight goes out to the entire
#MorseForce organizing team. Led by
David Grizzanti and Elvin Bruno Jr., the
Alex Morse for Mayor re-election campaign
in Holyoke, Massachusetts really proved
that running a positive, data-driven, and
organizing focused program is not only
the way to win but also the way to build
and sustain a dedicated and committed
group of people who will stay engaged in
civic life long after the campaign ends.
The field program was one of the most
inclusive organizing programs I’ve ever
witnessed. There was a place and space
for all to learn, lead, and execute.
From the very beginning, the campaign
made a decision to focus most of its
field efforts engaging individuals in the
historically marginalized communities of
color. These communities have always had
the lowest voter engagement and turnout
- not because elections haven’t mattered
to them, but because they were always an
afterthought to candidates and campaigns.
The campaign decided that they weren’t
just going to go after their votes in the final
weekend before the election. They were
going to meet them where they were, engage
them in a conversation about the progress
that the city has seen under the Mayor’s
leadership, and get them involved in making
the case to their neighbors that this work
wouldn’t continue under a new direction.
This strategic move by the campaign paid
off not only in a victory but in an
election day that saw some of the highest
turnouts from these “lower wards.”
One of my favorite #MorseForce traditions
was the “slow clap”. Every time a volunteer
went above and beyond or showed up
with goodies, a member of the campaign
team would initiate a clap that got louder
and bigger as everyone in all corners of
the office joined in. It was a way to show
appreciation for their sacrifice but also
to reinforce why volunteers matter.
Congratulations, #MorseForce – on
creating a community of engaged citizens
that will last – and also on your victory!

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Click here to play video
Alice’s Pick #2
“There’s Nothing
We Can’t Do”
by Barack Obama (2008)
Man, this speech needs no
introduction. Just in case: this
video shows Obama giving a great
speech at a rally in Virginia in the
pouring rain. But it also has the best
music, the best canvassing montage,
and just the right amount of guilt. The
day after the election, will you be able
to say you gave everything you had?
Well, I’m going to make damn sure now!

Have
Some
Fun
Smiling makes you better

Story from the Field
by Ariane Psomotragos
This is the story of an amazing volunteer.
On any campaign you get those wonderful people who show up, do the
work, spend long hours helping you reach your goals and make your
exhausted life that much easier. This person was one of those inspiring
people but there was something unique about her: she was 79 years old.
She had been a volunteer before I became a summer fellow on the campaign
and had taken some time off for a home renovation. On the first day she
came back it was a miserable rainy Saturday morning and we had only one
other volunteer show up to canvass, a resounding disappointment as we
were used to getting closer to ten people.
Sitting on the porch of the house we used as the staging location that day we
got into a deep discussion about what we had to do to improve the team and
get better results. I knew her dedication and wanted to empower her to take
on a larger role now that she was available to help more often. I encouraged
her to join the new summer fellows. She, knowing the average age of the
fellows was closer to my age of 21, was very resistant to the idea. It took a bit
of persuasion but eventually she relented and joined.
For the final six weeks of the campaign, she and I worked side by side for 12
hours every day, 7 days of the week and our team grew exponentially, hitting
all our goals and running a very successful staging location on election day.
To this day I remain in contact with her and the other wonderful friends I
made on the campaign. It is truly inspiring to see what one-on-ones can do
to build relationships and commitment from people of all ages. This was my
first political campaign and I’ve gone on to do four more since 2012. It never
stops and I love it.

Fun Zone
by Alice McAlexander
Click here to play video
Whine About It:
The Types of Coworkers That Are the Worst
I’m sure you’re already watching Matt Bellassai’s “Whine About It” series, but if
you’ve missed it, here’s one to get you started. Every week, Matt gets drunk at his
desk and complains about stuff. It’s the best.
Here he is complaining about coworkers. I’m sure your coworkers
are so wonderful that none of this resonates… but just in case.

You’ve listened to Hamilton a hundred times already, right? (*Warren’s note: Alice
thinks everyone is as obsessed with Hamilton: An American Musical as she is. For
those who have never heard of it, it’s a new Broadway musical based on the life of
Alexander Hamilton, using hip-hop and R&B to tell the story.)
Okay, okay, I’m on this Hamilton bandwagon hard right now, but trust me–
everyone is so into Hamilton because it’s so amazing. If you haven’t listened, do so
right now! I can’t think of anything better to pump you up as you work to improve
our country.
But first, watch this throwback video of Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator
of Hamilton, performing the opening number at a White House Poetry Jam
in 2009. He’s so great and Obama’s so into it: it’ll warm your heart.
Lin Manuel Miranda
Performs at the White House Poetry Jam
Click here to play video

Motivational Musings
To Pump You Up
Click here to play video
Warren’s Pick #2
“I Was Just
Having Fun”
by Tommy (Chris Farley)
in Tommy Boy (1995)
Do you sometimes feel as if you
can’t close a one-on-one to save your
life? Or that you are on an entirely
different page than some of your
volunteer prospects?
Keep plugging away, be your authentic
self, and have some fun while you’re
at it. It’ll all start to click (again).
Remember, supporters come for the
candidate, but they stay because of you.

Ready, Set, Action!
Actionable takeaways from this issue
1
Be healthier.
Start by drinking more water and stocking your desk
with small protein snacks.
Feel less overwhelmed.
Start by monitoring your calendar for one week.
2
3
Turn call time into fun zone.
Not sure how? Try a dance party.
Act normal, for once.
Reflect on what makes you feel centered and whole.
Schedule time for it, and get out and do it.
4
5
Find your happy place.
Bookmark those motivational songs and videos that
lift and pump you up. Use as necessary.

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