63 Magazine - Issue 4
63 Magazine, for progressive political organizers. Issue 4 is all about Leadership, featuring Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
63 Magazine, for progressive political organizers. Issue 4 is all about Leadership, featuring Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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<strong>63</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Leadership<br />
For Political Organizers<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> № 4<br />
Fall 2016
<strong>63</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Leadership<br />
For Political Organizers<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> № 4<br />
Fall 2016
Luis<br />
is a brand new organizer.<br />
Gabby<br />
has already worked<br />
on several campaigns.<br />
Organizers<br />
have very little free time or bandwidth, but want to<br />
excel at their job while continuing to learn and grow.<br />
We made <strong>63</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
for Gabby, Luis, and the thousands of other political<br />
organizers working on progressive campaigns.<br />
This SPECIAL PDF EDITION is prepared exclusively for distribution by:<br />
<strong>63</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>.com<br />
This PDF version is culled from the fourth issue (published Fall 2016).<br />
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<strong>63</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Motivation & Muses<br />
Contents<br />
Interviews and guidance to stay inspired<br />
Leadership - Origins<br />
A look at President Obama’s<br />
early organizing education<br />
13<br />
Leadership - Traits<br />
How to use Hillary Clinton’s leadership traits<br />
17<br />
Do Your Job<br />
Advice and best practices to help you succeed<br />
23<br />
Ask a Field Director<br />
Saumya Narechania answers your questions<br />
27<br />
Turnout Deep Dive<br />
David Nickerson helps you GOTV effectively
Contents<br />
Grow Your Skills<br />
Outside lessons to improve your organizing<br />
Political for Organizing<br />
Riley Kilburg shares his insights<br />
31<br />
A Day in the Life<br />
Join Riley Kilburg on an event-filled day<br />
33<br />
Take Care of Yourself<br />
Improve your health, wealth, and well-being<br />
36<br />
Dream On!<br />
Tips for getting the sleep you deserve<br />
41<br />
Running on Empty?<br />
How running can help you recharge<br />
Organizer Life Hacks<br />
Easy changes to improve your work<br />
Maximize Your Sleep<br />
Use an app to wake up feeling more rested<br />
47
Contents<br />
Organizer Spotlight<br />
Highlighting your peers and volunteer leaders<br />
49<br />
Organizer Spotlight<br />
Angel Montes’ passion for organizing<br />
51<br />
Organizer Spotlight<br />
Ariba Qureshi’s work to empower parents<br />
53<br />
Volunteer Spotlight<br />
Angelica Cooks Lucas’ commitment<br />
to improving her children’s schools<br />
Have Some Fun<br />
Smiling makes you better<br />
Fun Zone<br />
Here’s what you’ve been missing<br />
56
<strong>63</strong>Mag<br />
Online Community<br />
Alice McAlexander<br />
Editor<br />
Nick Penney<br />
Art Director<br />
Warren Flood<br />
Publisher<br />
Click here for subscription information
Letter from the Editor<br />
Alice McAlexander<br />
Welcome to the fourth issue of<br />
<strong>63</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
Our first issue focused on helping you to<br />
get and stay motivated for the challenging<br />
work of being an organizer. Our second<br />
issue provided guidance to help you be<br />
a more effective, a more efficient, and a<br />
more productive organizer. Our third issue<br />
discussed ways to help you become even<br />
better at building relationships.<br />
In this issue, we’re talking about what it<br />
takes to go beyond being a great organizer to<br />
become an exceptional leader.<br />
When you begin to lead, you transform from<br />
someone who mobilizes people to someone<br />
who creates lasting and impactful change<br />
through empowerment and relationship<br />
building. We want to provide a fresh<br />
perspective that will help you become a<br />
leader in your community and in your work,<br />
making you an even better organizer.<br />
Because leadership is such an important way<br />
to increase the lasting impact of your work,<br />
we’re featuring our country’s most effective<br />
progressive leaders—President Barack<br />
Obama and Presidential Nominee Hillary<br />
Clinton.<br />
President Obama, like many of you,<br />
learned the meaning of leadership through<br />
organizing. Organizing taught Obama that<br />
true leadership—the ability to empower<br />
others, to help others succeed, to connect<br />
a variety of personal stories, hopes, and<br />
dreams to winnable, specific action—comes<br />
from listening first.<br />
And Hillary Clinton has spent her entire<br />
career working to improve the lives of<br />
others, persevering through adversity to find<br />
solutions to challenges big and small and<br />
to build common ground among diverse<br />
groups of people, all while showing empathy<br />
and compassion. We take a look at the ways<br />
Hillary embodies leadership to see how<br />
you can use these same traits to be a better<br />
organizer.<br />
We also talked to so many other organizers<br />
and experts about the work that they do<br />
and the lessons you can learn from them. In<br />
“Ask a Field Director,” Saumya Narechania<br />
answers questions organizers like you are<br />
struggling with right now. In our Turnout<br />
Deep Dive, David Nickerson shares his tips<br />
for improving your GOTV conversations.<br />
Throughout the issue you will find all<br />
sorts of ideas on how to improve your<br />
organizing—such as advice on how to get<br />
over your case of GOTV nerves, thoughts on<br />
what you can learn from your political teams,<br />
and some insight on why your health (yes,<br />
that includes sleeping) is so important to<br />
your success.<br />
After you’ve spent some time soaking in all<br />
of the wisdom offered by our many experts,<br />
make sure to check out our final section<br />
“Ready, Set, Action!” to recap the actionable<br />
takeaways you can use right away.<br />
Enjoy this issue and keep up the amazing<br />
work! Δ
<strong>63</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>Layoutand designby<br />
Animation|Ilustration|Voiceovers<br />
Learnmoreatwww.thenstudios.com
Motivation<br />
&<br />
Muses<br />
Interviews and guidance to stay inspired
Leadership: Origins<br />
A young Barack Obama as a community organizer
Origins<br />
“Communities had to be created, fought for, tended like gardens.<br />
They expanded or contracted with the dreams of men.”<br />
President Barack Obama began organizing<br />
hoping to find a community he could fit<br />
in—while organizing, he would discover<br />
how to connect and empower individuals<br />
to build the very community he longed<br />
for. This community, the victories they<br />
would fight for, and the challenges they<br />
would consistently face, gave Obama<br />
his education in creating change.<br />
Obama, like many of you, learned the<br />
meaning of leadership through organizing.<br />
Organizing taught Obama that true<br />
leadership—the ability to empower<br />
others, to help others succeed, to<br />
connect a variety of personal stories,<br />
hopes, and dreams to winnable, specific<br />
action—comes from listening first.<br />
How remarkable that our current president,<br />
the first African-American president, got<br />
his education in leadership creating change<br />
through years spent in Chicago organizing.<br />
Just like you, he began organizing because<br />
he wanted to make a difference in a<br />
community. Just like you, he was more<br />
than a little naïve when he started,<br />
expecting opportunities for mobilization<br />
to present themselves openly. Just like<br />
you, he hosted horribly unsuccessful<br />
events and mediocre events and events<br />
that exceeded even his high expectations.<br />
Just like you, he worked with all types of<br />
people with all different motivations who<br />
shared a simple belief—that they could<br />
improve their lives and the lives of those<br />
around them. Just like you, he began to<br />
realize that people don’t act without being<br />
invested, without feeling connected. Just<br />
like you, he learned that sharing his stories,<br />
no matter how different they felt to him,<br />
would be what tied him to those he worked<br />
with, what tied them all to organizing.<br />
A few years after college, Obama moved<br />
from New York City to Chicago to organize<br />
for the Developing Communities Project.<br />
With a simple goal to create grassroots<br />
change, Obama arrived to Chicago’s South<br />
Side as manufacturing jobs were leaving<br />
the area rapidly, as politics in the city were<br />
shifting (not as rapidly as many would have<br />
liked), and many were wondering what<br />
they could do to keep their neighborhood<br />
from falling into apathy or chaos.
He began like all organizers should begin:<br />
by listening to as many people as possible.<br />
The only problem was he didn’t know<br />
what he was waiting to hear. After three<br />
weeks of interviews, his boss finally<br />
enlightened him: he needed to look<br />
for people’s self-interest. Obama was<br />
at first skeptical of how calculating<br />
this sounded—of the lack of poetry<br />
present in his boss’ idea of organizing.<br />
He would realize soon though, “That’s why<br />
people become involved in organizing—<br />
because they think they’ll get something<br />
out of it. Once [he] found an issue enough<br />
people cared about, [he] could take<br />
them into action. With enough actions,<br />
[he] could start to build power.”<br />
With this new perspective, he would look<br />
for issues that people truly cared about,<br />
issues that impacted them personally<br />
and that were also concrete, specific,<br />
and winnable. Even after he began to<br />
connect more readily with volunteers<br />
in the neighborhood and even after<br />
their efforts helped him connect to local<br />
leaders, pastors, and politicians, Barack<br />
continued to see that organizing is not<br />
always clear and most often not easy.<br />
But what the community he was helping to<br />
build and empower did have, was poetry.<br />
“That’s what the leadership was teaching me,<br />
day by day: that the self-interest I was<br />
supposed to be looking for extended<br />
well beyond the immediacy of issues,<br />
that beneath the small talk and sketchy<br />
biographies and received opinions<br />
people carried within them some central<br />
explanation of themselves. Stories full of<br />
terror and wonder, studded with events<br />
that still haunted or inspired them.<br />
And it was this realization, I think, that<br />
finally allowed me to share more of myself<br />
with the people I was working with, to break<br />
out of the larger isolation that I had carried<br />
with me to Chicago. I was tentative at first,<br />
afraid that my prior life would be too foreign<br />
for South Side sensibilities; that I might<br />
somehow disturb people’s expectations<br />
of me. Instead, as people listened to my<br />
stories… they would nod their heads or<br />
shrug or laugh, wondering… why anyone<br />
would willingly choose to spend a winter<br />
in Chicago when he could be sunning<br />
himself on Waikiki Beach. Then they’d offer<br />
a story to match or confound mine, a knot<br />
to bind our experiences together – a lost<br />
father, an adolescent brush with crime, a<br />
wandering heart, a moment of simple grace.<br />
As time passed, I found that these stories,<br />
taken together, had helped me bind my world<br />
together, that they gave me the sense of place<br />
and purpose I’d been looking for. Marty<br />
was right; There was always a community<br />
there if you dug deep enough. He was wrong,<br />
though, in characterizing the work. There<br />
was poetry as well—a luminous world always<br />
present beneath the surface, a world that<br />
people might offer up as a gift to me, if I only<br />
remembered to ask.”
As an organizer, Obama learned to<br />
understand community—where it<br />
exists, how you build it, how you<br />
use it—and as our president, he has<br />
constantly continued to seek change<br />
through empowering and uniting others<br />
into a shared community of action.<br />
The lessons President Obama learned while<br />
organizing prepared him for every<br />
successful step in his career, most<br />
importantly his role as U.S. president.<br />
The lessons that Obama learned are<br />
the very lessons organizers like you get<br />
to discover each day, as you work so<br />
hard for the causes you believe in.<br />
Lessons like how important it is to listen.<br />
Lessons like how listening without<br />
action is futile—an organizer’s job is<br />
to connect each story she hears to a<br />
community that is bonded together to<br />
take specific action. Lessons like how<br />
leadership often involves taking a back<br />
seat while you push others towards<br />
success, which requires a vulnerability<br />
and honesty that reminds everyone<br />
why they organize in the first place.<br />
It was as an organizer in Chicago that<br />
President Obama first became a leader<br />
and it’s in working every day that<br />
organizers like you become future<br />
leaders just like him. Maybe someday,<br />
you’ll accomplish even more. Δ<br />
*All quotes from Dreams from My Father by<br />
Barack Obama. Δ
Leadership: Traits<br />
How Hillary Clinton effectuates change
Traits<br />
The best organizers are strong leaders. The<br />
best leaders are strong organizers.<br />
No one exemplifies this more<br />
clearly than Hillary Clinton.<br />
As Hillary Clinton continues to lead her<br />
campaign with dignity, urgency, and<br />
determination despite the circus around<br />
her, it becomes more and more evident<br />
how fit she is to serve as president.<br />
Throughout her entire career, she has<br />
demonstrated her ability to lead others<br />
with compassion and commitment.<br />
The leadership skills she employs so<br />
gracefully are the very skills organizers gain<br />
while working with volunteers. These skills<br />
transform an organizer from someone who<br />
mobilizes people to someone who creates<br />
lasting and impactful change through<br />
empowerment and relationship building.<br />
Let’s look at the ways Hillary embodies<br />
leadership to see how you can use these<br />
same traits to be a better organizer.<br />
A leader is committed to the work.<br />
“Hillary is a great leader because she has<br />
spent her entire life fighting for kids and<br />
families. I want someone in the White<br />
House who wakes up every day wanting<br />
to fight to make others’ lives better. And<br />
that’s exactly the type of person, the type<br />
of leader, she is.”<br />
Leaders are made when they show up for<br />
the work. Hillary has worked her whole<br />
life for the causes and beliefs she cares<br />
about. Just like her, organizers come to<br />
work every day willing to do all sorts of<br />
unpleasant tasks in the name of building<br />
a community that takes action together.<br />
The work you do as an organizer is far from<br />
glamorous. (Despite what your<br />
occasional pictures with celebrities<br />
might suggest.) Your ability to stay<br />
committed to the work, and to help<br />
others do the same, makes you a leader.<br />
“Hillary is a leader to me because she<br />
never gives up and never loses sight of<br />
who we’re all fighting for. I think a strong<br />
leader is someone who brings people<br />
together and keeps the whole team<br />
focused on our common goal, and there’s<br />
pretty much no one I can think of who<br />
better embodies that spirit. I’m so proud<br />
to work for her every day and I get excited<br />
every time I think about how much she’ll<br />
accomplish as president. She’s a workhorse<br />
and just a tireless fighter and I can’t wait to<br />
see what the next four years hold. (We just<br />
have to get her elected first!)”<br />
—Janice Rottenberg, organizing<br />
director, Ohio Together<br />
—Marlon Marshall, director of<br />
state campaigns and political<br />
engagement, Hillary for America
A leader is tough.<br />
“I admire Hillary Clinton’s toughness,<br />
tenacity, and her commitment and<br />
seriousness of her work. I remember<br />
vividly in 2008 how every time we thought<br />
we [the Obama campaign] had won, she<br />
would come right back. Hillary is a fighter<br />
and a champion and I am proud to stand<br />
behind her.”<br />
—Tripp Wellde, founder and principal,<br />
Intellectus Coaching and Consulting<br />
Organizers face challenges constantly. Just<br />
when you think you have everything<br />
figured out, something goes horribly<br />
wrong. But a leader expects these obstacles,<br />
knows what is necessary to move beyond<br />
them, and is committed to persevering<br />
through the ups and downs—working<br />
just as hard when everything runs<br />
smoothly as when everything falls apart.<br />
Be honest with yourself and with your<br />
volunteers about the challenges of the<br />
work—vulnerability helps you connect.<br />
Endurance through difficulties is what<br />
inspires us in our leaders, in Hillary<br />
especially. Help those you organize find that<br />
endurance by demonstrating your own.<br />
A leader listens.<br />
“Strength. Respect. Substance. Steady.<br />
Empathy. Commitment. Resilience.<br />
Action. Those are the words that I think<br />
of when I think of Hillary Clinton.<br />
Those are also the words that define<br />
the type of leader I want to have for<br />
our country, for my family, for my<br />
little girls. Hillary Clinton listens. She<br />
empathizes and understands. Then she<br />
gets up every day, like she has her entire<br />
adult life, and does something to try to<br />
make it better. That is leadership. That is<br />
the thick, muddy, day-in-day-out, not for<br />
the cameras, values-driven leadership<br />
of Hillary Clinton.”<br />
—Jen O’Malley Dillon, founding<br />
partner, Precision Strategies<br />
Leaders know that strength comes from<br />
listening first, not from talking the<br />
loudest. Your strength as an organizer<br />
rests on your ability to empower others.<br />
Empowerment does not come from talking<br />
over people—it comes from listening.<br />
When you listen to your volunteers and take<br />
what they say seriously, you are being a<br />
great organizer. When you take what you<br />
hear and turn it into a way to make them<br />
successful, you are being a great leader.<br />
A leader finds common ground.<br />
“I see Hillary Clinton as a leader because<br />
she is a problem solver, committed to<br />
overcoming challenges to get things done.<br />
As a leader she has the ability to bring<br />
people together on opposing sides of the<br />
same issue, talk through the issue and find<br />
common ground. That’s why I believe<br />
she will be an amazing president of the<br />
United States that will get things done for<br />
working families.”<br />
—Nikki Budzinski, labor outreach<br />
director, Hillary for America
Hillary realizes that despite all of our<br />
differences, we all share common<br />
hopes and dreams. Just like Hillary<br />
works to bring people together, you<br />
work to organize individuals with<br />
vastly different backgrounds and<br />
beliefs around a common goal.<br />
Just because someone shows up with a crazy<br />
idea, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a place<br />
for them in your organization. Organizers<br />
seek out diversity because they know<br />
that diversity makes their team strong.<br />
A leader empathizes.<br />
“Hillary is the embodiment of leadership<br />
for me, because of her… capacity for love,<br />
sensitivity, and understanding.”<br />
Please play video below for Anatole’s full<br />
comments.<br />
—Anatole Jenkins, organizing director,<br />
Minnesota DFL Party<br />
Leaders see love and compassion as a<br />
strength, not a weakness. Caring<br />
about the happiness of those around<br />
you—being heartbroken when they<br />
fail and being overjoyed when they<br />
succeed—makes you a strong leader.<br />
Don’t get so caught up in being a badass<br />
that you forget to be human. Δ<br />
Click here to play video.
Leadership<br />
Lowdown<br />
Kate Catherall<br />
Senior Vice President<br />
270 Strategies<br />
On preparing and leading through GOTV:<br />
“Do what you need to do, but be ready and be prepared<br />
to respond calmly and stay collected and keep cool.<br />
Just be cool. That’s your mantra for GOTV. ”<br />
Click here to play video.<br />
270 Strategies, a consulting firm based in Chicago, D.C., and San Francisco, helps its clients<br />
build winning campaigns by putting their ideas into action. 270’s sweet spot is helping<br />
organizations engage everyday people in their work by finding people who have<br />
common values or goals and connecting with them in a meaningful way.<br />
Learn more at 270Strategies.com
Do<br />
Your<br />
Job<br />
Advice and best practices to help you succeed
Ask a<br />
Field<br />
Director<br />
with<br />
Saumya Narechania<br />
This issue’s “Ask a Field Director” is with<br />
Saumya Narechania! Saumya recently<br />
began a new position as the Florida GOTV<br />
director for the For Our Future PAC. When<br />
we chatted with Saumya, he was serving as<br />
the national field director at Enroll America,<br />
a non-partisan, non-profit organization that<br />
works to maximize the number of Americans<br />
who enroll in and retain health coverage<br />
under the Affordable Care Act.<br />
In his role as national field director, Saumya<br />
oversaw Enroll America’s field program in<br />
eight campaign states, aided and supported<br />
the other 42 states, and led the organization’s<br />
national training program.<br />
Like many others, Saumya was initially<br />
inspired to begin working in politics and<br />
organizing after hearing then-Senator<br />
Obama’s keynote address at the 2004<br />
Democratic National Convention. Listening<br />
to someone who had a funny name just like<br />
him, Saumya really connected with Obama’s<br />
message and applied to become an intern in<br />
his senate office—not once, not twice, but<br />
three times! Saumya didn’t get accepted the<br />
first two times, but he didn’t let that stop<br />
him.<br />
When his application finally got accepted,<br />
Saumya began the first of many years spent<br />
working for Obama. He would later become<br />
an organizer for Obama’s first presidential<br />
campaign, working all across the country,<br />
even in Alaska. Next he would work for the<br />
White House before serving as deputy field<br />
director in Florida for the 2012 reelection<br />
campaign.
As an organizer, Saumya would learn the<br />
management skills, trust, and delegation<br />
he would need to be successful on any<br />
campaign and at any organization. These<br />
skills, learned at a young age in strange,<br />
difficult, and diverse scenarios, have helped<br />
him every step of his career, especially as he<br />
led Enroll America’s field and training efforts.<br />
Earlier in his career, Saumya got to help<br />
read letters sent to President Obama, so<br />
many of which were uplifting stories of<br />
individuals who for so long didn’t have<br />
access to healthcare because of a pre-existing<br />
condition, who now could afford to see<br />
a doctor. Stories like this and of others<br />
positively affected by the change we make<br />
as organizers, motivate Saumya to keep<br />
working so hard.<br />
Saumya gets to hear stories every day that<br />
keep him grounded in how organizing work<br />
actually affects people’s daily lives, and he<br />
uses this inspiration to be an even better<br />
leader.<br />
We wanted to learn from Saumya’s wisdom,<br />
so we asked him to use his experience<br />
as an organizer to answer some of your<br />
toughest questions. I know you’ll be<br />
able to apply his advice throughout<br />
GOTV and into the future!<br />
I feel almost embarrassed to say this<br />
because all of my fellow organizers<br />
seem to be going strong, but I feel like<br />
I am so close to burning out and we<br />
still have weeks left! What can I do to<br />
feel less near my breaking point?<br />
SN: If you feel like you are going to burn<br />
out now, take a break, now. Talk to<br />
your RFD, and ask for a day off. Ask to<br />
adjust your goals by a day this week, and<br />
sprinkle them over the next three to four<br />
weeks to make sure you don’t lose ground.<br />
But if you don’t address your exhaustion<br />
now, it will only get worse. (Believe me.)<br />
Do you have any tips for an organizer<br />
about to face their first GOTV?<br />
I’m pretty nervous.<br />
SN: GOTV isn’t as scary as it’s made out<br />
to be. It’s the same job, with<br />
a slightly different tilt.<br />
You know about organizing your turf,<br />
how to make calls, how to knock<br />
doors, how to stage a canvass<br />
kickoff, how to refresh a list. Now<br />
you just have to combine these<br />
things to make a whole machine.<br />
I find it’s easier to break it down into its<br />
component parts—it’s definitely<br />
less stressful that way. It’s also less<br />
stressful if you have a great team leader<br />
or fellow you can lean on, as well.
I just got assigned a deputy organizer to<br />
help in my turf. Any advice on quickly<br />
getting our relationship strong and<br />
making sure I’m managing him well?<br />
SN: The first way to make sure you have a<br />
strong relationship with a direct report<br />
is to show them you care about them and<br />
want to know what motivates them.<br />
I know it seems like you have a lot going<br />
on, but you should absolutely take half an<br />
hour to get to know them and why they<br />
joined up over coffee. An investment now<br />
will pay dividends when you have them<br />
running their own staging location.<br />
In terms of management, you should ask<br />
them what sort of management<br />
style they prefer and be sure to be<br />
responsive to their needs; e.g., do<br />
they like to communicate via email,<br />
text, or phone? Whatever they say<br />
will be the quickest way to make<br />
sure you are getting the reports you<br />
need or that they are delivering<br />
water to the right canvass kickoff.<br />
And make sure to check in with them<br />
one-on-one at least once a week!<br />
I’m definitely staying focused on the<br />
work in front of me, but I can’t help but<br />
think about November 9th. Is there<br />
anything I can do now to prepare myself<br />
for opportunities after election day?<br />
SN: Yes, think about tomorrow and this<br />
week’s goals. Then, next week’s.<br />
Then, the week after that.<br />
You are in a strong network of people on<br />
your campaign now. Those people want<br />
to see you succeed, and want to succeed<br />
themselves, but all of you are resultsdriven.<br />
The best thing you can do for your<br />
future is to get a reputation as a hustler,<br />
and the way to do that is to hustle.<br />
People will take notice, and it will help<br />
you after November 9th. Plus, it will<br />
help you for November 8th too.<br />
My turf is tougher than a lot of other<br />
areas in my region. It’s hard not to<br />
get frustrated when I have to claw<br />
out every volunteer and others get<br />
walk-ins all the time. Any advice on<br />
how to stop being discouraged?<br />
SN: I can tell you’re the competitive type.<br />
Two things here:<br />
1) Compete with yourself by setting<br />
standards or goals against your previous<br />
weeks. No reason to look across turf lines.
2) Take solace in the fact that the work<br />
you are doing has an extreme degree<br />
of difficulty. Every success will be<br />
all the sweeter when you are up<br />
front with yourself about that.<br />
Closing advice for organizers?<br />
SN: Enjoy the next few weeks—they’ll be<br />
some of the best and most<br />
impactful of your life.<br />
And always take some time—in the<br />
morning, evening, or whenever works<br />
for you—to reflect on why you wake<br />
up every morning to grind it out and<br />
to think about the reasons you got into<br />
this fight. Remember your own personal<br />
story, and also think about the broader<br />
narrative you are now a part of. Δ
Organizing Pillar Deep Dive:<br />
Turnout<br />
with David Nickerson<br />
Through a variety of different goals,<br />
political organizers operate using four main<br />
pillars: persuasion, organizational building,<br />
voter registration, and turnout. Campaign<br />
leadership uses these pillars to determine<br />
the best, most efficient path to gaining the<br />
right amount of votes needed to meet the<br />
campaign’s win number.<br />
Each issue of <strong>63</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, we will take a<br />
look at one pillar, conducting a deep dive<br />
with an expert in the field to provide you<br />
with easy and implementable best practices<br />
to use in your turf. For this issue, we spoke<br />
with <strong>63</strong>Mag regular Dr. David Nickerson,<br />
a professor of political science at Temple<br />
University who served as the director of<br />
experiments on President Obama’s 2012<br />
campaign, to learn from his expertise around<br />
moving voters.<br />
The major focus of David’s research is<br />
working with campaigns to study how<br />
best they can mobilize people to increase<br />
volunteer rates, to increase donation rates,<br />
to persuade more voters, or to get people to<br />
actually vote. He does this using randomized<br />
field trials, using similar techniques<br />
pharmaceutical companies use to test a new<br />
drug. These trials allow researchers like<br />
David to understand much more about the<br />
way individuals make voting decisions.<br />
We talked with David for <strong>Issue</strong> 2’s persuasion<br />
deep dive and his advice was so helpful, we<br />
wanted to learn from his expertise around<br />
turnout. When conducting experiments<br />
around voter mobilization, researchers are<br />
most interested in answering two questions:<br />
who should campaigns be talking to (hint:<br />
most often not those with the highest or<br />
lowest likelihood to vote) and what should<br />
they say when they talk to them.<br />
Though Nickerson and his colleagues work<br />
hard to find what exact approaches work<br />
best to encourage turnout, he believes, “The<br />
magic word that makes a script effective is<br />
hello.”<br />
Despite all of the research behind key<br />
phrases on your turnout scripts, Nickerson<br />
insists there is no magic phrase you or your<br />
volunteers can say to ensure your targets<br />
vote. Instead, he knows that a neighbor<br />
initiating a natural and human conversation<br />
with their fellow neighbor is the most<br />
important part of mobilization.<br />
Nickerson has vast knowledge around voter<br />
turnout, but he continues to test more,<br />
study more, and look for even more effective<br />
practices. After talking with him, we learned<br />
so much about turning out voters.
Here are the best practices he shared that<br />
you can apply right now.<br />
Recruit volunteers who speak the<br />
native language of your voters.<br />
Be human.<br />
Train your volunteers.<br />
“Having your volunteer make contact with<br />
a voter and be likeable and form as much<br />
of a connection as they can (in the context<br />
of an awkward conversation) is going to<br />
be more mobilizing than any other social<br />
psychological trick you can employ.”<br />
Take the time to thoughtfully train each<br />
of your volunteer leaders and make sure<br />
they take the time to train their volunteers.<br />
Remind volunteers to speak naturally, to take<br />
small pauses, and to adapt the script to their<br />
comfortable language. The most important<br />
thing you can do to increase turnout is to<br />
have high quality callers and door-knockers;<br />
that starts with recruiting and training<br />
neighbors to talk to their neighbors.<br />
Trust your targeting:<br />
focus only on turnout.<br />
When you have a conversation with a voter,<br />
you should ask that person to do only one<br />
thing. You can either ask them to vote a<br />
certain way or you can ask them to turn out<br />
and vote. If you layer on requests, you often<br />
undermine your ability to mobilize. Trust<br />
that your targeting is accurate and don’t clog<br />
up your conversation with multiple asks.<br />
Turnout efforts should work largely the same<br />
no matter what neighborhood you’re in or<br />
who you’re talking to. The one exception to<br />
this rule is language. If you have turf where<br />
the language spoken in the home is Spanish,<br />
ideally the turnout conversation would also<br />
be in Spanish.<br />
So as you recruit volunteers in your turf,<br />
remember this and do your best to match<br />
bilingual speakers with voters who would<br />
benefit from a phone call in their native<br />
language.<br />
Hold people accountable<br />
by thanking them for their<br />
previous votes.<br />
Social accountability, showing voters that<br />
someone will know if they are voting, is an<br />
effective way to create pressure for voters<br />
to show up to the polls. But you can do this<br />
without being rude or intrusive. Instead<br />
of shaming the voter, thank the person for<br />
voting in the past, for registering to vote,<br />
and for taking their civic duty seriously.<br />
Both will hold the voter accountable and<br />
will encourage them to vote, but showing<br />
gratitude will make the conversation kinder,<br />
leaving the voter feeling better about voting.
Provide useful information<br />
when asking for plan-making.<br />
Ask your volunteer leaders<br />
for script feedback.<br />
You’ve probably heard that people are more<br />
likely to follow through on activities if<br />
they’ve thought through the different steps<br />
they need to take, forming a mental plan for<br />
that activity. This is why your GOTV scripts<br />
often include the question, “When do you<br />
plan to vote?”.<br />
This effect is real, but try to make the process<br />
less awkward and more natural by providing<br />
information before you ask a question that<br />
might seem invasive to the voter. Say, “I see<br />
your polling place is Barton Elementary<br />
School. Is that close enough to walk to or<br />
will you have to drive?” or “Polls are open<br />
between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM. What time<br />
do you think you’re going to vote?”<br />
Any time you apply a psychological<br />
construct to a script, make sure it doesn’t<br />
alter the casual flow or interfere with a<br />
normal conversation.<br />
As you introduce new scripts to your<br />
volunteers, ask for their feedback. Your<br />
volunteers know your turf better than you<br />
do—it’s their neighborhood! If they practice<br />
the script with you and something feels<br />
clunky or they feel like the language won’t<br />
resonate, work through ways to adapt the<br />
script with them. The more natural they feel,<br />
the higher quality conversations they will<br />
have.<br />
Each phone call and each door knock your<br />
team makes is critical because each one is<br />
a step towards reaching your campaign’s<br />
turnout goals.<br />
Next time you meet with your volunteer<br />
leaders, bring this list of best practices<br />
with you and discuss with them what you<br />
can implement in your teams to be more<br />
effective turning out voters. Δ<br />
Make the voter feel that people<br />
like them are voting.<br />
When you speak to a GOTV target, you<br />
want them to feel that people like them are<br />
all voting. You can do this by using identity<br />
labeling, i.e. “As a voter” or “You’re a voter”.<br />
But it’s also important to connect with them<br />
around other things you have in common.<br />
Establish this by having your volunteers<br />
mention where they’re calling from, showing<br />
the target that they have shared reference<br />
points.<br />
Interested in reading more about the<br />
science behind mobilizing voters?<br />
David recommends Get Out the Vote<br />
by Alan Gerber and Don Green<br />
as the most effective resource on<br />
turnout. He also suggests you join<br />
the Analyst Institute (we featured<br />
them in <strong>Issue</strong> 3!) to receive their best<br />
practices.
Grow<br />
Your<br />
Skills<br />
Outside lessons to improve your organizing
Political<br />
for Organizing<br />
with<br />
Riley Kilburg<br />
Riley Kilburg, the deputy political director<br />
for Hillary for Iowa, has been organizing in<br />
Iowa since he was in high school. Born and<br />
raised in Iowa, Riley has had the privilege<br />
of working hard in multiple historical<br />
organizing movements throughout the<br />
years—first as a volunteer on then-Senator<br />
Obama’s 2008 campaign, next throughout<br />
college for the president’s reelection, and<br />
finally working to help Hillary Clinton win<br />
the Iowa caucus, the Nevada caucus, and<br />
now the general election.<br />
“Organizing is the bread and butter of<br />
Democratic campaigns. It’s how we win.<br />
I think it’s incredibly important that all<br />
Democratic campaign staffers work as an<br />
organizer at one point or another because<br />
all other departments on a campaign exist<br />
to support organizing.”<br />
With so much experience organizing,<br />
Riley understands just how crucial the<br />
skills he learned while organizing are to<br />
his success. Riley may be working in the<br />
political department now, but he still sees<br />
himself as an organizer, just of a different<br />
group of people. He also knows that he best<br />
serves his campaign when his work creates<br />
opportunities for organizers to expand their<br />
efforts.<br />
It was in part due to his experience, in part<br />
due to his deeply embedded understanding<br />
of the political landscape in Iowa, and in part<br />
due to his understanding of the way other<br />
departments should support organizers,<br />
that Riley was able to make the transition to<br />
political after over a year spent organizing<br />
on the Hillary campaign. All of these<br />
experiences and skills made Riley a perfect<br />
candidate for his new role, but Riley also<br />
stood out because he was willing to advocate<br />
for himself.<br />
“Advocating for yourself and what you<br />
want is important in any professional<br />
setting. By having conversations and<br />
demonstrating that I could do the work<br />
and bring something unique and valuable<br />
to the political team, I was able to move<br />
into the position I have now.”
Now, as deputy political director, Riley<br />
manages political relationships throughout<br />
the state with coalition partners, labor<br />
partners, elected officials, and party activists<br />
while also working on surrogate and<br />
principal trips—planning, building, and<br />
executing schedules, travel, and political<br />
engagement with grassroots and grasstops<br />
activists across the state.<br />
Riley works with activists and leaders who<br />
are already politically engaged, finding ways<br />
to plug them into his organization. This<br />
relationship management, recruitment,<br />
and activation is executed in many different<br />
ways. He may work with a partner to pull<br />
together a roundtable or to reach out to<br />
their organization’s membership to deliver<br />
20 volunteers for a Weekend of Action. Like<br />
all relationships, he also works to meet the<br />
needs of his partners—finding surrogates<br />
when a group wants to hear a campaign<br />
update or connecting supporters to an<br />
effective way to contribute.<br />
Riley sees everything he and his team does<br />
as supplementary to organizing and he’s<br />
rightfully proud to be a part of a political<br />
team whose focus is adding capacity to the<br />
organizing program. It’s because the work of<br />
an organizer and a deputy political director<br />
are so similar and so intertwined that Riley<br />
was uniquely prepared for his job.<br />
Here are just a few ways Riley’s organizing<br />
background helps him today:<br />
• Organizing taught Riley how to perform<br />
under pressure. “Organizing taught me<br />
how to get things done. Failure is not<br />
an option as an organizer.”<br />
• It helped him perfect his recruitment<br />
and relationship building skills. These<br />
same skills that are fundamental<br />
for organizing are fundamental for<br />
political work.<br />
• Organizing taught him the importance of<br />
data collection and utilization. Political<br />
staff know relationship building comes<br />
with perfect tracking—data gives him a<br />
way to reach and engage more partners.<br />
• Organizing required Riley to perfect his<br />
hard ask. Thanks to Riley’s perfected<br />
hard ask, he’s more likely to encourage<br />
coalition partners to engage their<br />
networks to add to volunteer efforts.<br />
These experiences help Riley do his job<br />
better every day and give him the foundation<br />
he needs to become even better at the<br />
skills he uses now—skills like attention to<br />
detail, clear communication, and constant<br />
availability.<br />
Without organizing, Riley would not be<br />
where he is today—and without organizing,<br />
Riley wouldn’t be able to do his job in a<br />
way that’s helpful to the important work of<br />
organizers in his state. Δ<br />
To give you an inside look into the work that<br />
Riley does to support organizers, check out<br />
a sample day in his life. On this day, Riley<br />
travels across the state to staff two events:<br />
one with Senator Tim Kaine and his wife<br />
Anne Holton in Ames and a phone bank in<br />
Cedar Rapids with Anne.
September 19, 2016<br />
6:30 AM<br />
Start my day. Today I need extra energy, so I make sure to eat breakfast.<br />
8:30 AM<br />
Arrive at the office and follow up on any emails from overnight or that morning. Print off any<br />
needed materials and updated lists for the event. Most of my prep I do the day before, but I make<br />
sure I have my event supply kit stocked with clipboards, pens, tape, stickers, staff credentials,<br />
string/safety pins, and signs for Table A/Table B/Reserved/ADA Seating.<br />
10:00 AM<br />
Arrive on-site and hold a walk through with the Advance team. They walk us through the<br />
procedure for checking people in through security, signing people into the event, logistics for the<br />
photoline, ADA assistance and tracking things we need to be aware of (such as crowd count or any<br />
malicious actors).<br />
10:30 AM<br />
Set up the organizing and political check-ins. Advance shows up the day before to set up the entire<br />
venue. We’re responsible for training volunteers at the event to make sure that we get everyone<br />
checked in efficiently and on-time. We also collect information so we can follow up about voting<br />
early or volunteering if we couldn’t get them to sign up for a volunteer shift at the event itself.<br />
11:30 AM<br />
Doors open and I start to float around. Members of the political team will help check in our<br />
participants. We check in anyone who is a part of the pre-program and super-volunteers. These<br />
people may have the chance to meet Senator Kaine before or after the event! I spend my time<br />
shuffling people around and getting them prepped for security (for when the principal arrives).<br />
1:45 PM<br />
Pre-program starts. It’s my job to make sure these people are backstage and ready to go. In the days<br />
leading up to the event, I will assist in identifying locals who are interested in saying the Pledge of<br />
Allegiance, singing the National Anthem and introducing Senator Kaine.<br />
2:15 PM<br />
Shortly after the pre-program, Senator Kaine arrives and greets some volunteers as well as local<br />
elected officials and Democratic leaders backstage. I assist in keeping this process moving to keep<br />
the entire program on schedule.
2:30 PM<br />
30 minutes late, Senator Kaine takes the stage with his wife, Anne Holton, to make remarks. It’s<br />
common for principals and surrogates to run a little late because of their very busy schedules, but<br />
the students and Ames community are excited to see the next VPOTUS!<br />
3:00 PM<br />
Senator Kaine and Hon. Anne Holton conclude their remarks and work the rope line. I wait for<br />
this to wrap up and see if there is anything needed of me before I hit the road. Anne Holton is<br />
staying behind in Iowa to hold a few more events! I’m off to Cedar Rapids to help prep for an<br />
event later in the evening, while my boss heads to Cedar Falls for an education panel with Anne<br />
Holton.<br />
5:30 PM<br />
I arrive in Cedar Rapids and touch base with the advance team. I talk with the local political folks<br />
in the room, just chit-chatting to hear their take on how things are going on the ground.<br />
6:00 PM<br />
Anne Holton is late so while we wait for her to come to the phone bank we make calls to voters in<br />
the area!<br />
7:00 PM<br />
Anne Holton arrives to thank volunteers at the phonebank and make some calls!<br />
7:45 PM<br />
Anne Holton departs. I stay for a bit longer to thank people for coming and say goodbye to our<br />
political folks in the room.<br />
8:00 PM<br />
I depart for Des Moines.<br />
10:30 PM<br />
I arrive back in Des Moines and follow up from the many, many missed emails that I neglected<br />
while out on the road about upcoming trips, daily politics that happened and any updates on our<br />
constituency programs. Oh, and I eat dinner.<br />
11:30 PM<br />
Bed.
Take<br />
Care of<br />
Yourself<br />
Improve your health, wealth, and well-being
On!<br />
Get the Sleep You Deserve<br />
Dream<br />
Hopefully by now, most of us have<br />
learned about the power of sleep and the<br />
negative effects of avoiding sleep to work<br />
longer. If that’s true, why do those working<br />
on campaigns still sleep so little? Why do<br />
we praise people for staying at the office<br />
until 3AM to correct a mistake (that they<br />
probably made while tired) or to prepare for<br />
a big event (that they need maximum energy<br />
for)? Why do campaign organizers give up<br />
entirely on getting a good night’s sleep once<br />
September rolls around?<br />
I’ve worked on my fair share of campaigns<br />
so I know just how hard it is to fit in all of<br />
the work (and the face-time, let’s be real),<br />
the occasional trip to the gym, the downtime<br />
activities like watching TV or hanging<br />
out with friends that give you the slightest<br />
sense of normalcy, let alone even just a few<br />
hours of sleep each night. And I know that<br />
no matter how much I wanted to prioritize<br />
sleep, sometimes my (well-meaning)<br />
managers made that impossible.<br />
I also have the perspective of being outside<br />
a campaign and watching leaders in the<br />
progressive space encourage those they<br />
manage to give absolutely everything they<br />
have to the cause and the campaign—the<br />
way organizers are taught to feel like any<br />
time not spent organizing is a waste of time.<br />
Everybody means well when they ask their<br />
organizers to dedicate themselves so entirely<br />
to the work. In a lot of ways, that dedication<br />
is necessary—you use so much emotional<br />
and physical energy to be an organizer, there<br />
just isn’t a ton to spare for other pursuits.<br />
And the urgency your regional creates in you<br />
mirrors the urgency you need to create in<br />
your volunteers and voters.<br />
But when it comes to the way we talk<br />
about and approach sleep on campaigns,<br />
something has to change.<br />
So much needs to be done by managers at<br />
every level to encourage better sleep habits.<br />
Hopefully, as we continue to improve our<br />
prioritization, management and organizing<br />
skills (check out <strong>Issue</strong> #3!), the necessary<br />
shifts will begin to happen. In the meantime,<br />
if you want to do your job to the best of your<br />
ability, you have to prioritize your health and<br />
the most neglected, most essential part of<br />
your health when organizing: sleep.
We did some research with Ariana<br />
Huffington’s book, The Sleep Revolution, and<br />
here are a few reasons she discusses why<br />
you should prioritize sleep:<br />
• Sleep is a time of intense neurological<br />
activity: a time of renewal,<br />
memory consolidation, brain and<br />
neurochemical cleansing and cognitive<br />
maintenance. Huffington rightfully<br />
calls our sleeping time as valuable a<br />
commodity as the time we are awake.<br />
• Sacrificing sleep doesn’t make us<br />
more productive. Our loss of sleep<br />
adds up to more than 11 days of lost<br />
productivity per year per worker. Do<br />
you have 11 days to lose?<br />
• Lack of sleep makes us more<br />
susceptible to all sorts of illnesses—<br />
right now, it’s the common cold,<br />
but with time it could be diabetes,<br />
Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer and<br />
more.<br />
• When you’re sleep deprived, you’re<br />
dangerous. You could fall asleep at the<br />
wheel, make decisions with the same<br />
impairment as a drunk person, or lose<br />
focus right when you need it.<br />
Stop being a martyr.<br />
Every single campaign has martyrs. Even<br />
if you roll your eyes at martyr tendencies<br />
happening around you, you probably do<br />
some of them every once in awhile too.<br />
When you’re working on causes you care<br />
about, trying to contribute as much as<br />
possible to the world, you’re exhausted,<br />
feel underappreciated, and are generally<br />
ambitious. These things make you a little<br />
crazy and make you want to boast about<br />
your challenging circumstances, whether<br />
it’s bragging about how late you worked or<br />
constantly complaining about how you feel<br />
more miserable than the person next to you<br />
because you worked even harder and got<br />
even less sleep.<br />
It’s time to stop that behavior. It helps no<br />
one.<br />
Needing to sleep does not make you<br />
weak—it makes you human. Deprioritizing<br />
sleep does not make you more committed<br />
to the cause—it makes you less likely to<br />
be successful. Don’t encourage or reward<br />
behavior that results in unnecessary<br />
sleeplessness in yourself, your coworkers,<br />
your interns, or your volunteers.<br />
Sleep is key to mental health, memory<br />
capacity, decision-making, social<br />
competence, creativity, and relationshipbuilding<br />
skills. Do you need those things to<br />
be a good organizer? (YES!!)<br />
Let’s put a few things in perspective.
Celebrate sleep.<br />
Now, here are a few tips for getting more<br />
and better sleep.<br />
Just like you recognize a volunteer for their<br />
hard work, you need to appreciate when you<br />
and others make time for sleep. While it may<br />
feel like you’re sacrificing something when<br />
you make time for sleep, you’re actually<br />
preparing yourself to be more efficient and<br />
productive. If you’re more efficient and<br />
productive, you can get even more done.<br />
So congratulate each other when you get<br />
enough sleep (or even just a little more<br />
sleep than the night before). Shout out your<br />
volunteers who hit all their goals while being<br />
well-rested (or just a little more rested).<br />
Encourage healthy sleep habits wherever you<br />
can.<br />
Stress-obsessing over every<br />
challenge you have and every<br />
task you need to do while you’re<br />
trying to fall asleep is wasteful<br />
and useless.<br />
Psychologist Neil Fiore puts it best:<br />
“Calling up the stress response to deal with<br />
dangers that are not happening now is<br />
similar to pulling a fire alarm for a fire that<br />
happened twenty years ago or to fearing a<br />
fire that may happen next year. It would be<br />
unfair to the fire department and a misuse<br />
of its time and energy to ask firefighters to<br />
respond to such an alarm, just as it’s unfair<br />
to demand that your body continually<br />
respond to threats of danger from events<br />
that cannot be tackled now.”<br />
Turn your brain off.<br />
This is the hardest thing to do, but leaving<br />
your brain running is pointless. One thing<br />
to try is to do a brain dump before getting in<br />
bed: write down everything you need to do<br />
when you wake up the next day and then let<br />
it go for the night.<br />
Meditation is also a great way to turn your<br />
mind off (here are some tips on getting<br />
started). Some of you might have little<br />
interest in learning to meditate properly and<br />
that’s fine, but there are easy ways to reap<br />
the benefits of mindfulness. Count how long<br />
your breaths are coming in and out, repeat<br />
a phrase to yourself, and take long, deep<br />
breaths.<br />
Take naps.<br />
Naps are so good! There are so many times<br />
in organizing where you can squeeze in a<br />
quick nap and each time you do so, you<br />
increase your productivity for the rest of the<br />
day.<br />
If you ever ask yourself, “Should I get more<br />
caffeine or take a cat nap?” the answer<br />
should always be “Take a cat nap.” Grab them<br />
literally wherever and whenever you can.
Stop drinking.<br />
Yikes, I know, but when you’re short on<br />
sleep, it’s time to cut out the alcohol. Though<br />
you may fall asleep faster after a couple<br />
drinks, alcohol quickly turns into a sleep<br />
disrupter, taking the few hours you have and<br />
making them less effective. When the hours<br />
get crazy, take a break from alcohol—it’s not<br />
permanent, I promise.<br />
That means sometimes you’re going to have<br />
to leave the office before you’ve exhausted<br />
every action available to you and you may<br />
feel uncomfortable doing that. Work with<br />
your manager to figure out when and how<br />
you can leave the office earlier. Ask for an<br />
opportunity to show that taking more time<br />
to sleep tonight will pay off tomorrow. Be<br />
honest about how tired you are and work<br />
together to find solutions that get you the<br />
sleep you need and deserve.<br />
Talk to your manager.<br />
If you aren’t getting enough sleep, it’s going<br />
to start to show eventually. The earlier you<br />
accept that you need sleep, the less damage<br />
the sleep-deprived monster version of<br />
yourself will have a chance to do.<br />
There is so much work to be done to make<br />
the world a fairer and more just place for all.<br />
It can be so daunting to think of everything<br />
you could be doing to make a difference. You<br />
will not be able to contribute nearly as much<br />
to the world, however, if you are not healthy.<br />
Be intentional and proactive about sleep and<br />
you will reap the rewards. Δ
Available on
Running<br />
On Empty?<br />
How running can help you recharge<br />
“There are a million different campaigns.<br />
There is always another campaign, but there is only one of you.”<br />
Buffy Wicks, founder and principal of<br />
Rise Strategies, knows all to well that<br />
campaigns never stop, but unlike a lot of<br />
others in politics, she also knows how<br />
important her health is to the success of her<br />
work.<br />
For Buffy, me, and a lot of others in<br />
organizing and politics, running is the best<br />
way to take care of our bodies while working<br />
incredibly hard. Running is an incredibly<br />
simple, cheap (at first), and addictive way to<br />
get active, to relieve tension and stress and to<br />
improve your whole body.<br />
Not only will running boost your immune<br />
system and keep you healthier through<br />
intense bouts of organizing, it will give you<br />
stamina to get through incredibly long days<br />
and will help clear your mind of the anxiety<br />
that distracts every organizer from their<br />
work.<br />
I know just how hard you work each day and<br />
I know just how bad I was at taking care of<br />
myself on my first campaign. It’s so easy to<br />
put your personal needs last, but in doing so,<br />
you’re actually jeopardizing all of your work.<br />
As an organizer, you have got to take care<br />
of yourself. Not only is it important to keep<br />
yourself sane, it helps you do your job better.<br />
So much of being a successful organizer is<br />
personal. You need to take care of yourself to<br />
be the best organizer possible.<br />
Running is an easy way to invest in your<br />
health and well-being. Here is some advice<br />
for you on ways to make running (or any<br />
sort of physical activity) a possibility and a<br />
priority while organizing.
Start slowly.<br />
You’re an organizer, so now might not be the<br />
best time for you to train for a marathon.<br />
(But, hey, if anyone could work 16 hours a<br />
day and also train for a marathon, it would<br />
be an organizer.) You don’t need to go crazy<br />
with running to benefit from it.<br />
Just take the first step and start running.<br />
Each time you go will get easier and more<br />
fun and eventually you’ll be so addicted to<br />
what it does to your body and your mind,<br />
you’ll be able to challenge yourself in new<br />
ways.<br />
Find a regular time that works for<br />
you and put it in your calendar.<br />
“I would run from 5PM- 6PM, rinse<br />
quickly, and go back to work for another<br />
three or four hours depending on the<br />
day. It actually made me more energized<br />
for the remainder of the day because I<br />
got my blood flowing and it helped my<br />
mental sharpness as well. For me that time<br />
worked; for some people maybe it’s noon,<br />
maybe it’s 7AM, maybe it’s 11PM at night.<br />
Finding your time, setting it aside, and<br />
being really intentional about keeping it is<br />
really important.”<br />
By scheduling in time, Buffy was able to find<br />
time to run—time committed to her health<br />
that helped her be better at her job. Like all<br />
things on a campaign, if you don’t schedule<br />
running in, it won’t happen.<br />
Experiment to find out what time works<br />
best for you. It might work best to run right<br />
when you wake up or in that late morning<br />
time before voter contact really begins and<br />
after you’ve dealt with the morning crises.<br />
Whenever the time is, lock it in, put it on<br />
your calendar, and commit to spending the<br />
time improving yourself.<br />
“Make running a habit. Make running<br />
a way for you to be good to yourself.<br />
You don’t need to run a marathon (but<br />
if so, that’s great), but set a goal, make a<br />
plan, and stick with it. Before I started<br />
running, I could think of every excuse<br />
not to run. It’s easy to grab a drink or<br />
sleep in, but once I started, running<br />
became my special obligation to<br />
myself. Running gives me order from<br />
the hours of 6AM-7:30AM. Running<br />
gives me new ways of spending time<br />
with people I care about, people I<br />
wanted to spend time with, and friends<br />
I wouldn’t see often. Running gives<br />
me a sense of routine. Running’s also<br />
helped me meet a ton of interesting,<br />
new people—an organizer’s dream!”<br />
—Chris Choi, head of global digital<br />
strategy at 100 Resilient Cities<br />
Download an app that<br />
tracks your distance and time.<br />
You’re a metrics-driven person!<br />
Organizers love metrics, so take advantage<br />
of the built-in metrics of running. Set goals<br />
for yourself (probably small ones if you’re<br />
working nonstop) and track how you’re<br />
doing.
Listen to podcasts, books,<br />
music—anything to take a<br />
mental break from the work.<br />
“I like that mental disconnection from the<br />
work so that it kind of gives you a little bit<br />
of a break, and that’s also helpful to the<br />
work itself.”<br />
Continue to prioritize your health<br />
throughout the whole campaign.<br />
There are always crazy times throughout<br />
campaigns—they never stop. If you say to<br />
yourself, “I’m just going to quit running<br />
through this busy week,” you will never start<br />
again.<br />
Buffy’s right: sometimes, you really just<br />
need a break. When you’re an organizer, you<br />
almost never get a break; the work is always<br />
on your mind. It’s natural that your brain<br />
will run in circles each time you’re not doing<br />
something, but it will drive you bonkers and<br />
eventually, make you less able to actually<br />
execute the work.<br />
It’s super hard to quiet your mind, so try to<br />
distract it while you’re running. Listen to<br />
something that’s not immediately related to<br />
the work you’re doing every second. It will<br />
help your mind relax for a bit and that short<br />
break will help you to focus more effectively<br />
when you come back to the tasks in front of<br />
you.<br />
Looking for a podcast to listen to? We<br />
suggest The Riveters Podcast! Hosted<br />
by Buffy Wicks and Sally Smith, The<br />
Riveters Podcast is an unfiltered ode<br />
to the good, bad, and hilarious that is<br />
#ladylife in 2016! It constantly gives<br />
props to organizing and is funny,<br />
smart, and uplifting—you’ll love it.<br />
Your health is absolutely vital to your success,<br />
now and in the future. Everywhere you look,<br />
people are going to tell you to give everything<br />
you have to the campaign. That’s all good, but<br />
if you aren’t healthy, you can’t give nearly as<br />
much.<br />
Do not feel guilty for prioritizing your health<br />
at any moment. You can hit your goals and<br />
work hard while still taking a few hours a week<br />
to invest in your mental and physical wellbeing.<br />
Don’t underestimate the power a<br />
run can have on your attitude and<br />
outlook on life. Even if the only time<br />
you have is the 30 minutes between<br />
your last meeting and the start of a<br />
debate, lace up your shoes and get<br />
out there. I saw a great t-shirt during<br />
my last race: “running is cheaper<br />
than therapy.” I swear to you, my<br />
commitment to running has gotten<br />
me through this campaign. Even with<br />
my phone buzzing constantly in my<br />
hand, getting in a few miles and a few<br />
minutes to admire this incredible city<br />
[NYC] gives me just the perspective<br />
I need to sit back down and deal with<br />
my inbox.<br />
—Emily Samsel, surrogates for<br />
Hillary for America
Don’t beat yourself up<br />
on the bad days.<br />
Even if you prioritize your health, there are<br />
going to be days you just can’t make a run<br />
happen and sometimes those days might<br />
turn into a week. That’s okay. Cut yourself<br />
some slack—you have an insanely intense<br />
job!<br />
A couple misses on your part do not make<br />
a failure. Sometimes your body needs rest<br />
more than it needs a run, and that’s what you<br />
should give it. Don’t waste any energy feeling<br />
guilty about missed runs. You run and you<br />
exercise to make yourself feel better, not the<br />
other way around.<br />
Just run. It’s that easy.<br />
Running is great for an organizer because<br />
you can do it anywhere at anytime. At the<br />
end of the day, running is really simple. You<br />
don’t need a ton of advice to step outside<br />
and start moving.<br />
Don’t overcomplicate it. Running will keep<br />
you healthy, boost your immune system,<br />
make you feel more energized, and even<br />
make you a better organizer! Invest the time<br />
into it now and thank yourself later. Δ
On Apple Podcasts<br />
On the Web<br />
“The Riveters is my absolute favorite hosted commentary<br />
podcast. Buffy and Sally have fascinating conversations with<br />
fascinating people about fascinating subjects. I find each and<br />
every episode insightful, authentic, and thought-provoking.<br />
Riveters is a podcast by organizers, for organizers;<br />
but also for anyone else who wants to be entertained and<br />
educated for hours on end.<br />
Only have one hour to spend with them? Then make sure you<br />
listen to Season 1, Episode 4, which is all about<br />
organizing. ( And good luck quitting after just one! )”<br />
- Warren Flood
Organizer<br />
Life<br />
Hacks<br />
Easy changes to improve your work
Sleeping<br />
Made<br />
Easier<br />
Organizers like you just don’t get enough<br />
sleep. It’s an unfortunate reality that many<br />
of us are trying to change. You’ll be a better<br />
organizer if you’re well rested—increasing<br />
your energy, your power to focus and make<br />
smart decisions, your ability to regulate and<br />
control your emotions and much more. Read<br />
about why sleep is so important and how<br />
you can increase your opportunities for sleep<br />
here.<br />
While we advocate for your right to proper<br />
sleep and while you do your best to get as<br />
much sleep as possible, we know there are<br />
times during your organizing career that<br />
a full night’s rest isn’t possible for weeks<br />
on end, and that can really begin to wear<br />
on you. We also know that a groggy wake<br />
up with an hour of snoozing can ruin your<br />
whole day.<br />
Sometimes, you don’t have any control over<br />
how much sleep you get, but you can control<br />
how you wake up. Download an app like<br />
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock to use your own<br />
body’s sleep cycles to your advantage.<br />
While you sleep, you go through cycles of<br />
sleep states, starting in a light sleep followed<br />
by a deep sleep and a dream sleep. Each cycle<br />
takes about 90 minutes and when you wake<br />
up during this cycle can vastly change how<br />
rested you feel.<br />
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock wakes you up<br />
during light sleep to help you feel like you’re<br />
waking up naturally rested without an alarm<br />
clock. Of course you would probably sleep<br />
much longer without an alarm, so Sleep<br />
Cycle Alarm Clock wakes you up within<br />
a half hour of the time you set. This way,<br />
you’ll wake up on time to get working, but<br />
you won’t feel jolted awake and crankily<br />
miserable all morning (well, at least not from<br />
how you wake up).<br />
Try this alarm clock (or one like it) to see if<br />
shifting how you wake up can give you more<br />
of the energy you desperately need to get<br />
through the long hours of organizing. Good<br />
luck and let us know what you think! Δ
Organizer<br />
Spotlight<br />
Highlighting organizers doing great things
Organizer Spotlight:<br />
Angel Montes<br />
“I want to leave it all here. I don’t want<br />
to go back wherever I go thinking that I<br />
could have done more. I want to work as<br />
hard as I can, make as many calls as I have<br />
to make, build our volunteer base as large<br />
as we have to make it and then I’ll feel like I<br />
accomplished what I needed to do here.”<br />
Organizer Angel Montes will certainly be<br />
able to wake up on November 9th knowing<br />
he did everything he could to elect Hillary<br />
Clinton as the 45th President of the United<br />
States. On June 14th of this year, Angel<br />
began working as an organizer for the<br />
Wisconsin Democratic Party and since then,<br />
he’s empowered volunteers throughout<br />
Stevens Point, creating a broad organization<br />
of leaders working to elect Democrats up<br />
and down the ticket.<br />
His vast experience empowering individuals<br />
has proved essential as he organizes central<br />
Wisconsin, but his passion to elect Hillary is<br />
even more indispensable.<br />
Born in Santa Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, Angel<br />
and his family came to the United States as<br />
undocumented immigrants when he was<br />
four years old. Watching Donald Trump’s<br />
negative rhetoric towards undocumented<br />
immigrants—people like Angel’s family who<br />
came to the U.S. looking for a better life—<br />
Angel realized he needed to act.<br />
When Trump says that Mexicans are rapists<br />
and murderers, Angel thinks of how hard<br />
he and his family worked to gain their<br />
citizenship, of how hard they worked to<br />
create a better future for themselves.<br />
When he started, Angel was new to<br />
Wisconsin and new to political organizing.<br />
Before accepting the job and leaving Oregon<br />
to move across the country, Angel worked<br />
for 15 years at the American Red Cross<br />
recruiting volunteers to lead blood drives.
“When I was 14 years old, I was working<br />
in the fields with my mom and my sister<br />
in California picking tomatoes in the heat<br />
for 12 cents a bucket. I look at my mom<br />
and my brothers and sisters, and I don’t<br />
see [what Trump sees]. I see really, really<br />
hard-working people who just want to do<br />
better and want to pay their taxes and want<br />
to make sure that they continue to progress<br />
and give their kids a better life.”<br />
Angel watched Trump denigrate people like<br />
him and instead of getting angry, he did what<br />
all good organizers do—he took action.<br />
It’s not surprising to hear from Angel that he<br />
has a laser-like focus on maintaining strong<br />
relationships with his volunteer leaders.<br />
He realizes how important these leaders<br />
are to electing Hillary as president, so he<br />
constantly thinks of new ways to recognize<br />
their hard work and show them how<br />
appreciative he is.<br />
Angel’s passion and commitment is so<br />
evident, it’s obvious to anyone that speaks<br />
to him that he works almost non-stop<br />
building an organization of empowered local<br />
volunteers.<br />
After applying online and speaking with<br />
Chris Garretty, now his deputy organizing<br />
director, Angel began organizing in an empty<br />
room in Stevens Point. Angel still works in<br />
the same room four months later, but it’s not<br />
so empty anymore.<br />
“I’ve worked as hard as I can locally to<br />
convince people not to vote for Trump.<br />
I want to make sure I continue to work<br />
just as hard so that he doesn’t become<br />
president, and so that we have Hillary<br />
Clinton as our 45th President.”<br />
Relishing the opportunity to build an<br />
organization from scratch, Angel has worked<br />
extremely hard to build relationships with<br />
volunteers in his turf, identifying people<br />
who can take on leadership roles and<br />
working each day to organize himself out of<br />
a job. He’s pretty close to accomplishing just<br />
that—recently, a few of his volunteers have<br />
come to him asking for more responsibility<br />
so they can relieve some of the pressure on<br />
him.<br />
With organizers like Angel on her side,<br />
I know Hillary will be successful this<br />
November. Keep up the great work, Angel!<br />
And thanks for all that you do. Δ
Organizer Spotlight:<br />
Ariba Qureshi<br />
In addition to every electoral organizer<br />
working across the country this cycle, there<br />
are many organizers like Ariba Qureshi who<br />
work all year round (for years on end) for<br />
causes they care about. For Ariba, that cause<br />
is access to quality education.<br />
Growing up as a child of immigrants, Ariba’s<br />
parents worked consistently to ensure she<br />
was receiving the best education possible.<br />
When just out of college and organizing for<br />
the 2014 Nashville mayoral election, Ariba<br />
saw the vast disparity that existed between<br />
schools across Davidson County. It was<br />
this disparity—only 16% of K-12 students<br />
in Nashville are enrolled in a high-quality<br />
school—that led to the creation of Project<br />
Renaissance and its parent-led coalition<br />
Nashville Rise.<br />
Project Renaissance works to provide all<br />
Nashville children with the high-quality<br />
education they deserve by empowering and<br />
engaging families, advocating for supportive<br />
policy, recruiting effective educators, and<br />
supporting, growing, and creating great<br />
schools. As part of this work, Nashville Rise<br />
works to inform parents about the Davidson<br />
County school system and how together as<br />
parents, they can work to better their school<br />
system. As an organizer for Nashville Rise,<br />
Ariba works to recruit, empower, and engage<br />
parents to advocate for their children’s<br />
education.<br />
“Getting the chance to meet parents and<br />
community members across the county<br />
has given me an enormous amount of<br />
motivation for the work that we’re doing.<br />
Not only because I get to hear each<br />
individual’s personal story but I’m also<br />
able to bear witness to a passion: parents<br />
wanting to improve education across the<br />
board no matter what situation that person<br />
may be in.”
While organizing seminars, attending as<br />
many community and school events as<br />
possible, and meeting one-on-one with<br />
parents, Ariba has been able to create a<br />
coalition of parents who are empowered to<br />
make decisions for the group, not the other<br />
way around. With an immediate goal of<br />
doubling the number of children attending<br />
high-quality public schools in Nashville<br />
over the next five years, Project Renaissance<br />
knows that parents are the best advocates for<br />
their children, so they invest in organizers<br />
like Ariba who put volunteers in leadership<br />
positions.<br />
“If you involve volunteers at every<br />
level of decision making, they take<br />
more ownership over the success of the<br />
organization and that leads them to be<br />
more engaged.”<br />
Clearly, Ariba is creating an organization<br />
from the ground up—one that will create<br />
real change in Davidson County. We can’t<br />
wait to see what they accomplish together. Δ
Volunteer<br />
Spotlight: Angelica<br />
Cooks Lucas<br />
Campaign:<br />
Project Renaissance<br />
Nashville Rise<br />
City:<br />
Nashville, TN<br />
What makes This Volunteer Special:<br />
With eight children currently attending<br />
public schools in Nashville, Angelica has<br />
been volunteering with the public school<br />
system for 10 years. As a school system<br />
volunteer, she’s worked in many different<br />
roles to support teachers and parents while<br />
also advocating for new and improved<br />
services.<br />
Ariba Qureshi, a Nashville Rise organizer, saw<br />
Angelica’s commitment and drive to improve<br />
schools for her children and knew she would<br />
be a perfect parent captain. Nashville Rise is<br />
a parent-led coalition aimed at empowering<br />
parents through training and leadership<br />
development, collaborating to influence and<br />
increase high quality schools for children in<br />
all of Davidson County.<br />
As a parent captain, Angelica has been<br />
able to participate in and recruit for<br />
transformative seminars with other parents<br />
and school officials, giving parents an<br />
opportunity to learn about and advocate<br />
for programs and services to make their<br />
children’s schools more effective.<br />
“With half of my children attending Title I<br />
and/or Priority/Focus schools, I have to<br />
ensure my children are receiving the same<br />
level of education, access to resources, and<br />
have qualified educators, as any other child<br />
who lives in a different zip code.<br />
My wish was to align myself with<br />
individuals who have the same passion<br />
and drive that I have in ensuring no<br />
matter the demographics, background,<br />
or circumstances, all children would<br />
receive quality education and wrap-around<br />
services.”
Nashville Rise is a relatively new organization<br />
that started work in late 2015 and Angelica<br />
has been with them from the beginning.<br />
Angelica and other parents have worked<br />
together to create the Nashville Rise<br />
mission—a mission that creates<br />
opportunities for parent civic engagement.<br />
This past summer, she worked with Ariba<br />
and other parents to lead a large community<br />
forum informing parents about the school<br />
board election while bringing candidates<br />
directly to them.<br />
“Everything parents have shared that they<br />
wanted to know more about—even if it’s<br />
just different types of schools, or where to<br />
register to vote, or concerns about getting<br />
school supplies—Nashville Rise always<br />
meets the parents where they are and tries<br />
its best to give them the resources and<br />
information that they need to equip them<br />
to make that great choice.”<br />
Nashville Rise is lucky to have Angelica and<br />
other parents like her who dedicate so much<br />
time and effort to improving their children’s<br />
schools. It’s quality volunteers like Angelica<br />
that make organizing success possible. Δ
Have<br />
Some<br />
Fun<br />
Smiling makes you better
Fun Zone<br />
Click here to play video.<br />
Clinton vs. Trump Debate<br />
Saturday Night Live<br />
It just doesn’t get more depressingly accurate and hysterical than this SNL sketch, which is<br />
basically just a verbatim reenactment of the first presidential debate. Watch Alec Baldwin as<br />
Trump melt-down in regular Trump style. Watch Kate McKinnon as Clinton hold in her glee as<br />
she realizes said melt-down will increase her chances of victory. And though we can’t laugh at<br />
Trump’s horrific comments about sexual assault or anything else he considers acceptable “locker<br />
room talk,” we can giggle a little at stupid Trump things like this back-and-forth:<br />
Clinton/Kate: I mean, this man is clearly unfit to be President.<br />
Trump/Alec: Wrong.<br />
Clinton/Kate: He is a bully.<br />
Trump/Alec: Shut up. Δ
Well, this is the joyful dance party we all need right now. Watch this radiant piece of pantsuit<br />
art, turn it up, and have a midnight dance party in your office along with them. This election is<br />
hard and painful and really taking a toll on everyone, especially organizers.<br />
Remember that most people are good and want good things for this country and that dancing<br />
makes everyone feel better. Δ<br />
Pantsuit Power<br />
Flash Mob for Hillary<br />
Click here to play video.
Ready, Set, Action!<br />
Actionable takeaways from this issue<br />
1<br />
Be cool, calm, and humble.<br />
Things are going to go wrong during GOTV.<br />
Show some grace and handle crises calmly. Page 21<br />
Ask your volunteer leaders for script feedback.<br />
The more comfortable your volunteers feel, the higher quality<br />
conversations they will have. Trust them! Page 29<br />
2<br />
3<br />
Advocate for yourself.<br />
First be great at your job, then ask later<br />
about promotions and opportunities you deserve. Pages 25, 31<br />
Wake up more rested.<br />
Download a sleep app that helps you wake up refreshed. Page 47<br />
4<br />
5<br />
Schedule time to work out.<br />
Lock a regular time on your calendar and<br />
make prioritizing your health a reality. Page 42
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