63 Magazine - Issue 4

63
Magazine
Leadership
For Political Organizers
Issue № 4
Fall 2016

63
Magazine
Leadership
For Political Organizers
Issue № 4
Fall 2016

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 PDF EDITION is prepared exclusively for distribution by:
63Magazine.com
This PDF version is culled from the fourth issue (published Fall 2016).
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63
Magazine
Motivation & Muses
Contents
Interviews and guidance to stay inspired
Leadership - Origins
A look at President Obama’s
early organizing education
13
Leadership - Traits
How to use Hillary Clinton’s leadership traits
17
Do Your Job
Advice and best practices to help you succeed
23
Ask a Field Director
Saumya Narechania answers your questions
27
Turnout Deep Dive
David Nickerson helps you GOTV effectively

Contents
Grow Your Skills
Outside lessons to improve your organizing
Political for Organizing
Riley Kilburg shares his insights
31
A Day in the Life
Join Riley Kilburg on an event-filled day
33
Take Care of Yourself
Improve your health, wealth, and well-being
36
Dream On!
Tips for getting the sleep you deserve
41
Running on Empty?
How running can help you recharge
Organizer Life Hacks
Easy changes to improve your work
Maximize Your Sleep
Use an app to wake up feeling more rested
47

Contents
Organizer Spotlight
Highlighting your peers and volunteer leaders
49
Organizer Spotlight
Angel Montes’ passion for organizing
51
Organizer Spotlight
Ariba Qureshi’s work to empower parents
53
Volunteer Spotlight
Angelica Cooks Lucas’ commitment
to improving her children’s schools
Have Some Fun
Smiling makes you better
Fun Zone
Here’s what you’ve been missing
56

63Mag
Online Community
Alice McAlexander
Editor
Nick Penney
Art Director
Warren Flood
Publisher
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Letter from the Editor
Alice McAlexander
Welcome to the fourth issue of
63 Magazine.
Our first issue focused on helping you to
get and stay motivated for the challenging
work of being an organizer. Our second
issue provided guidance to help you be
a more effective, a more efficient, and a
more productive organizer. Our third issue
discussed ways to help you become even
better at building relationships.
In this issue, we’re talking about what it
takes to go beyond being a great organizer to
become an exceptional leader.
When you begin to lead, you transform from
someone who mobilizes people to someone
who creates lasting and impactful change
through empowerment and relationship
building. We want to provide a fresh
perspective that will help you become a
leader in your community and in your work,
making you an even better organizer.
Because leadership is such an important way
to increase the lasting impact of your work,
we’re featuring our country’s most effective
progressive leaders—President Barack
Obama and Presidential Nominee Hillary
Clinton.
President Obama, like many of you,
learned the meaning of leadership through
organizing. Organizing taught Obama that
true leadership—the ability to empower
others, to help others succeed, to connect
a variety of personal stories, hopes, and
dreams to winnable, specific action—comes
from listening first.
And Hillary Clinton has spent her entire
career working to improve the lives of
others, persevering through adversity to find
solutions to challenges big and small and
to build common ground among diverse
groups of people, all while showing empathy
and compassion. We take a look at the ways
Hillary embodies leadership to see how
you can use these same traits to be a better
organizer.
We also talked to so many other organizers
and experts about the work that they do
and the lessons you can learn from them. In
“Ask a Field Director,” Saumya Narechania
answers questions organizers like you are
struggling with right now. In our Turnout
Deep Dive, David Nickerson shares his tips
for improving your GOTV conversations.
Throughout the issue you will find all
sorts of ideas on how to improve your
organizing—such as advice on how to get
over your case of GOTV nerves, thoughts on
what you can learn from your political teams,
and some insight on why your health (yes,
that includes sleeping) is so important to
your success.
After you’ve spent some time soaking in all
of the wisdom offered by our many experts,
make sure to check out our final section
“Ready, Set, Action!” to recap the actionable
takeaways you can use right away.
Enjoy this issue and keep up the amazing
work! Δ

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Motivation
&
Muses
Interviews and guidance to stay inspired

Leadership: Origins
A young Barack Obama as a community organizer

Origins
“Communities had to be created, fought for, tended like gardens.
They expanded or contracted with the dreams of men.”
President Barack Obama began organizing
hoping to find a community he could fit
in—while organizing, he would discover
how to connect and empower individuals
to build the very community he longed
for. This community, the victories they
would fight for, and the challenges they
would consistently face, gave Obama
his education in creating change.
Obama, like many of you, learned the
meaning of leadership through organizing.
Organizing taught Obama that true
leadership—the ability to empower
others, to help others succeed, to
connect a variety of personal stories,
hopes, and dreams to winnable, specific
action—comes from listening first.
How remarkable that our current president,
the first African-American president, got
his education in leadership creating change
through years spent in Chicago organizing.
Just like you, he began organizing because
he wanted to make a difference in a
community. Just like you, he was more
than a little naïve when he started,
expecting opportunities for mobilization
to present themselves openly. Just like
you, he hosted horribly unsuccessful
events and mediocre events and events
that exceeded even his high expectations.
Just like you, he worked with all types of
people with all different motivations who
shared a simple belief—that they could
improve their lives and the lives of those
around them. Just like you, he began to
realize that people don’t act without being
invested, without feeling connected. Just
like you, he learned that sharing his stories,
no matter how different they felt to him,
would be what tied him to those he worked
with, what tied them all to organizing.
A few years after college, Obama moved
from New York City to Chicago to organize
for the Developing Communities Project.
With a simple goal to create grassroots
change, Obama arrived to Chicago’s South
Side as manufacturing jobs were leaving
the area rapidly, as politics in the city were
shifting (not as rapidly as many would have
liked), and many were wondering what
they could do to keep their neighborhood
from falling into apathy or chaos.

He began like all organizers should begin:
by listening to as many people as possible.
The only problem was he didn’t know
what he was waiting to hear. After three
weeks of interviews, his boss finally
enlightened him: he needed to look
for people’s self-interest. Obama was
at first skeptical of how calculating
this sounded—of the lack of poetry
present in his boss’ idea of organizing.
He would realize soon though, “That’s why
people become involved in organizing—
because they think they’ll get something
out of it. Once [he] found an issue enough
people cared about, [he] could take
them into action. With enough actions,
[he] could start to build power.”
With this new perspective, he would look
for issues that people truly cared about,
issues that impacted them personally
and that were also concrete, specific,
and winnable. Even after he began to
connect more readily with volunteers
in the neighborhood and even after
their efforts helped him connect to local
leaders, pastors, and politicians, Barack
continued to see that organizing is not
always clear and most often not easy.
But what the community he was helping to
build and empower did have, was poetry.
“That’s what the leadership was teaching me,
day by day: that the self-interest I was
supposed to be looking for extended
well beyond the immediacy of issues,
that beneath the small talk and sketchy
biographies and received opinions
people carried within them some central
explanation of themselves. Stories full of
terror and wonder, studded with events
that still haunted or inspired them.
And it was this realization, I think, that
finally allowed me to share more of myself
with the people I was working with, to break
out of the larger isolation that I had carried
with me to Chicago. I was tentative at first,
afraid that my prior life would be too foreign
for South Side sensibilities; that I might
somehow disturb people’s expectations
of me. Instead, as people listened to my
stories… they would nod their heads or
shrug or laugh, wondering… why anyone
would willingly choose to spend a winter
in Chicago when he could be sunning
himself on Waikiki Beach. Then they’d offer
a story to match or confound mine, a knot
to bind our experiences together – a lost
father, an adolescent brush with crime, a
wandering heart, a moment of simple grace.
As time passed, I found that these stories,
taken together, had helped me bind my world
together, that they gave me the sense of place
and purpose I’d been looking for. Marty
was right; There was always a community
there if you dug deep enough. He was wrong,
though, in characterizing the work. There
was poetry as well—a luminous world always
present beneath the surface, a world that
people might offer up as a gift to me, if I only
remembered to ask.”

As an organizer, Obama learned to
understand community—where it
exists, how you build it, how you
use it—and as our president, he has
constantly continued to seek change
through empowering and uniting others
into a shared community of action.
The lessons President Obama learned while
organizing prepared him for every
successful step in his career, most
importantly his role as U.S. president.
The lessons that Obama learned are
the very lessons organizers like you get
to discover each day, as you work so
hard for the causes you believe in.
Lessons like how important it is to listen.
Lessons like how listening without
action is futile—an organizer’s job is
to connect each story she hears to a
community that is bonded together to
take specific action. Lessons like how
leadership often involves taking a back
seat while you push others towards
success, which requires a vulnerability
and honesty that reminds everyone
why they organize in the first place.
It was as an organizer in Chicago that
President Obama first became a leader
and it’s in working every day that
organizers like you become future
leaders just like him. Maybe someday,
you’ll accomplish even more. Δ
*All quotes from Dreams from My Father by
Barack Obama. Δ

Leadership: Traits
How Hillary Clinton effectuates change

Traits
The best organizers are strong leaders. The
best leaders are strong organizers.
No one exemplifies this more
clearly than Hillary Clinton.
As Hillary Clinton continues to lead her
campaign with dignity, urgency, and
determination despite the circus around
her, it becomes more and more evident
how fit she is to serve as president.
Throughout her entire career, she has
demonstrated her ability to lead others
with compassion and commitment.
The leadership skills she employs so
gracefully are the very skills organizers gain
while working with volunteers. These skills
transform an organizer from someone who
mobilizes people to someone who creates
lasting and impactful change through
empowerment and relationship building.
Let’s look at the ways Hillary embodies
leadership to see how you can use these
same traits to be a better organizer.
A leader is committed to the work.
“Hillary is a great leader because she has
spent her entire life fighting for kids and
families. I want someone in the White
House who wakes up every day wanting
to fight to make others’ lives better. And
that’s exactly the type of person, the type
of leader, she is.”
Leaders are made when they show up for
the work. Hillary has worked her whole
life for the causes and beliefs she cares
about. Just like her, organizers come to
work every day willing to do all sorts of
unpleasant tasks in the name of building
a community that takes action together.
The work you do as an organizer is far from
glamorous. (Despite what your
occasional pictures with celebrities
might suggest.) Your ability to stay
committed to the work, and to help
others do the same, makes you a leader.
“Hillary is a leader to me because she
never gives up and never loses sight of
who we’re all fighting for. I think a strong
leader is someone who brings people
together and keeps the whole team
focused on our common goal, and there’s
pretty much no one I can think of who
better embodies that spirit. I’m so proud
to work for her every day and I get excited
every time I think about how much she’ll
accomplish as president. She’s a workhorse
and just a tireless fighter and I can’t wait to
see what the next four years hold. (We just
have to get her elected first!)”
—Janice Rottenberg, organizing
director, Ohio Together
—Marlon Marshall, director of
state campaigns and political
engagement, Hillary for America

A leader is tough.
“I admire Hillary Clinton’s toughness,
tenacity, and her commitment and
seriousness of her work. I remember
vividly in 2008 how every time we thought
we [the Obama campaign] had won, she
would come right back. Hillary is a fighter
and a champion and I am proud to stand
behind her.”
—Tripp Wellde, founder and principal,
Intellectus Coaching and Consulting
Organizers face challenges constantly. Just
when you think you have everything
figured out, something goes horribly
wrong. But a leader expects these obstacles,
knows what is necessary to move beyond
them, and is committed to persevering
through the ups and downs—working
just as hard when everything runs
smoothly as when everything falls apart.
Be honest with yourself and with your
volunteers about the challenges of the
work—vulnerability helps you connect.
Endurance through difficulties is what
inspires us in our leaders, in Hillary
especially. Help those you organize find that
endurance by demonstrating your own.
A leader listens.
“Strength. Respect. Substance. Steady.
Empathy. Commitment. Resilience.
Action. Those are the words that I think
of when I think of Hillary Clinton.
Those are also the words that define
the type of leader I want to have for
our country, for my family, for my
little girls. Hillary Clinton listens. She
empathizes and understands. Then she
gets up every day, like she has her entire
adult life, and does something to try to
make it better. That is leadership. That is
the thick, muddy, day-in-day-out, not for
the cameras, values-driven leadership
of Hillary Clinton.”
—Jen O’Malley Dillon, founding
partner, Precision Strategies
Leaders know that strength comes from
listening first, not from talking the
loudest. Your strength as an organizer
rests on your ability to empower others.
Empowerment does not come from talking
over people—it comes from listening.
When you listen to your volunteers and take
what they say seriously, you are being a
great organizer. When you take what you
hear and turn it into a way to make them
successful, you are being a great leader.
A leader finds common ground.
“I see Hillary Clinton as a leader because
she is a problem solver, committed to
overcoming challenges to get things done.
As a leader she has the ability to bring
people together on opposing sides of the
same issue, talk through the issue and find
common ground. That’s why I believe
she will be an amazing president of the
United States that will get things done for
working families.”
—Nikki Budzinski, labor outreach
director, Hillary for America

Hillary realizes that despite all of our
differences, we all share common
hopes and dreams. Just like Hillary
works to bring people together, you
work to organize individuals with
vastly different backgrounds and
beliefs around a common goal.
Just because someone shows up with a crazy
idea, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a place
for them in your organization. Organizers
seek out diversity because they know
that diversity makes their team strong.
A leader empathizes.
“Hillary is the embodiment of leadership
for me, because of her… capacity for love,
sensitivity, and understanding.”
Please play video below for Anatole’s full
comments.
—Anatole Jenkins, organizing director,
Minnesota DFL Party
Leaders see love and compassion as a
strength, not a weakness. Caring
about the happiness of those around
you—being heartbroken when they
fail and being overjoyed when they
succeed—makes you a strong leader.
Don’t get so caught up in being a badass
that you forget to be human. Δ
Click here to play video.

Leadership
Lowdown
Kate Catherall
Senior Vice President
270 Strategies
On preparing and leading through GOTV:
“Do what you need to do, but be ready and be prepared
to respond calmly and stay collected and keep cool.
Just be cool. That’s your mantra for GOTV. ”
Click here to play video.
270 Strategies, a consulting firm based in Chicago, D.C., and San Francisco, helps its clients
build winning campaigns by putting 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

Do
Your
Job
Advice and best practices to help you succeed

Ask a
Field
Director
with
Saumya Narechania
This issue’s “Ask a Field Director” is with
Saumya Narechania! Saumya recently
began a new position as the Florida GOTV
director for the For Our Future PAC. When
we chatted with Saumya, he was serving as
the national field director at Enroll America,
a non-partisan, non-profit organization that
works to maximize the number of Americans
who enroll in and retain health coverage
under the Affordable Care Act.
In his role as national field director, Saumya
oversaw Enroll America’s field program in
eight campaign states, aided and supported
the other 42 states, and led the organization’s
national training program.
Like many others, Saumya was initially
inspired to begin working in politics and
organizing after hearing then-Senator
Obama’s keynote address at the 2004
Democratic National Convention. Listening
to someone who had a funny name just like
him, Saumya really connected with Obama’s
message and applied to become an intern in
his senate office—not once, not twice, but
three times! Saumya didn’t get accepted the
first two times, but he didn’t let that stop
him.
When his application finally got accepted,
Saumya began the first of many years spent
working for Obama. He would later become
an organizer for Obama’s first presidential
campaign, working all across the country,
even in Alaska. Next he would work for the
White House before serving as deputy field
director in Florida for the 2012 reelection
campaign.

As an organizer, Saumya would learn the
management skills, trust, and delegation
he would need to be successful on any
campaign and at any organization. These
skills, learned at a young age in strange,
difficult, and diverse scenarios, have helped
him every step of his career, especially as he
led Enroll America’s field and training efforts.
Earlier in his career, Saumya got to help
read letters sent to President Obama, so
many of which were uplifting stories of
individuals who for so long didn’t have
access to healthcare because of a pre-existing
condition, who now could afford to see
a doctor. Stories like this and of others
positively affected by the change we make
as organizers, motivate Saumya to keep
working so hard.
Saumya gets to hear stories every day that
keep him grounded in how organizing work
actually affects people’s daily lives, and he
uses this inspiration to be an even better
leader.
We wanted to learn from Saumya’s wisdom,
so we asked him to use his experience
as an organizer to answer some of your
toughest questions. I know you’ll be
able to apply his advice throughout
GOTV and into the future!
I feel almost embarrassed to say this
because all of my fellow organizers
seem to be going strong, but I feel like
I am so close to burning out and we
still have weeks left! What can I do to
feel less near my breaking point?
SN: If you feel like you are going to burn
out now, take a break, now. Talk to
your RFD, and ask for a day off. Ask to
adjust your goals by a day this week, and
sprinkle them over the next three to four
weeks to make sure you don’t lose ground.
But if you don’t address your exhaustion
now, it will only get worse. (Believe me.)
Do you have any tips for an organizer
about to face their first GOTV?
I’m pretty nervous.
SN: GOTV isn’t as scary as it’s made out
to be. It’s the same job, with
a slightly different tilt.
You know about organizing your turf,
how to make calls, how to knock
doors, how to stage a canvass
kickoff, how to refresh a list. Now
you just have to combine these
things to make a whole machine.
I find it’s easier to break it down into its
component parts—it’s definitely
less stressful that way. It’s also less
stressful if you have a great team leader
or fellow you can lean on, as well.

I just got assigned a deputy organizer to
help in my turf. Any advice on quickly
getting our relationship strong and
making sure I’m managing him well?
SN: The first way to make sure you have a
strong relationship with a direct report
is to show them you care about them and
want to know what motivates them.
I know it seems like you have a lot going
on, but you should absolutely take half an
hour to get to know them and why they
joined up over coffee. An investment now
will pay dividends when you have them
running their own staging location.
In terms of management, you should ask
them what sort of management
style they prefer and be sure to be
responsive to their needs; e.g., do
they like to communicate via email,
text, or phone? Whatever they say
will be the quickest way to make
sure you are getting the reports you
need or that they are delivering
water to the right canvass kickoff.
And make sure to check in with them
one-on-one at least once a week!
I’m definitely staying focused on the
work in front of me, but I can’t help but
think about November 9th. Is there
anything I can do now to prepare myself
for opportunities after election day?
SN: Yes, think about tomorrow and this
week’s goals. Then, next week’s.
Then, the week after that.
You are in a strong network of people on
your campaign now. Those people want
to see you succeed, and want to succeed
themselves, but all of you are resultsdriven.
The best thing you can do for your
future is to get a reputation as a hustler,
and the way to do that is to hustle.
People will take notice, and it will help
you after November 9th. Plus, it will
help you for November 8th too.
My turf is tougher than a lot of other
areas in my region. It’s hard not to
get frustrated when I have to claw
out every volunteer and others get
walk-ins all the time. Any advice on
how to stop being discouraged?
SN: I can tell you’re the competitive type.
Two things here:
1) Compete with yourself by setting
standards or goals against your previous
weeks. No reason to look across turf lines.

2) Take solace in the fact that the work
you are doing has an extreme degree
of difficulty. Every success will be
all the sweeter when you are up
front with yourself about that.
Closing advice for organizers?
SN: Enjoy the next few weeks—they’ll be
some of the best and most
impactful of your life.
And always take some time—in the
morning, evening, or whenever works
for you—to reflect on why you wake
up every morning to grind it out and
to think about the reasons you got into
this fight. Remember your own personal
story, and also think about the broader
narrative you are now a part of. Δ

Organizing Pillar Deep Dive:
Turnout
with David Nickerson
Through a variety of different goals,
political organizers operate using four main
pillars: persuasion, organizational building,
voter registration, and turnout. Campaign
leadership uses these pillars to determine
the best, most efficient path to gaining the
right amount of votes needed to meet the
campaign’s win number.
Each issue of 63 Magazine, we will take a
look at one pillar, conducting a deep dive
with an expert in the field to provide you
with easy and implementable best practices
to use in your turf. For this issue, we spoke
with 63Mag regular Dr. David Nickerson,
a professor of political science at Temple
University who served as the director of
experiments on President Obama’s 2012
campaign, to learn from his expertise around
moving voters.
The major focus of David’s research is
working with campaigns to study how
best they can mobilize people to increase
volunteer rates, to increase donation rates,
to persuade more voters, or to get people to
actually vote. He does this using randomized
field trials, using similar techniques
pharmaceutical companies use to test a new
drug. These trials allow researchers like
David to understand much more about the
way individuals make voting decisions.
We talked with David for Issue 2’s persuasion
deep dive and his advice was so helpful, we
wanted to learn from his expertise around
turnout. When conducting experiments
around voter mobilization, researchers are
most interested in answering two questions:
who should campaigns be talking to (hint:
most often not those with the highest or
lowest likelihood to vote) and what should
they say when they talk to them.
Though Nickerson and his colleagues work
hard to find what exact approaches work
best to encourage turnout, he believes, “The
magic word that makes a script effective is
hello.”
Despite all of the research behind key
phrases on your turnout scripts, Nickerson
insists there is no magic phrase you or your
volunteers can say to ensure your targets
vote. Instead, he knows that a neighbor
initiating a natural and human conversation
with their fellow neighbor is the most
important part of mobilization.
Nickerson has vast knowledge around voter
turnout, but he continues to test more,
study more, and look for even more effective
practices. After talking with him, we learned
so much about turning out voters.

Here are the best practices he shared that
you can apply right now.
Recruit volunteers who speak the
native language of your voters.
Be human.
Train your volunteers.
“Having your volunteer make contact with
a voter and be likeable and form as much
of a connection as they can (in the context
of an awkward conversation) is going to
be more mobilizing than any other social
psychological trick you can employ.”
Take the time to thoughtfully train each
of your volunteer leaders and make sure
they take the time to train their volunteers.
Remind volunteers to speak naturally, to take
small pauses, and to adapt the script to their
comfortable language. The most important
thing you can do to increase turnout is to
have high quality callers and door-knockers;
that starts with recruiting and training
neighbors to talk to their neighbors.
Trust your targeting:
focus only on turnout.
When you have a conversation with a voter,
you should ask that person to do only one
thing. You can either ask them to vote a
certain way or you can ask them to turn out
and vote. If you layer on requests, you often
undermine your ability to mobilize. Trust
that your targeting is accurate and don’t clog
up your conversation with multiple asks.
Turnout efforts should work largely the same
no matter what neighborhood you’re in or
who you’re talking to. The one exception to
this rule is language. If you have turf where
the language spoken in the home is Spanish,
ideally the turnout conversation would also
be in Spanish.
So as you recruit volunteers in your turf,
remember this and do your best to match
bilingual speakers with voters who would
benefit from a phone call in their native
language.
Hold people accountable
by thanking them for their
previous votes.
Social accountability, showing voters that
someone will know if they are voting, is an
effective way to create pressure for voters
to show up to the polls. But you can do this
without being rude or intrusive. Instead
of shaming the voter, thank the person for
voting in the past, for registering to vote,
and for taking their civic duty seriously.
Both will hold the voter accountable and
will encourage them to vote, but showing
gratitude will make the conversation kinder,
leaving the voter feeling better about voting.

Provide useful information
when asking for plan-making.
Ask your volunteer leaders
for script feedback.
You’ve probably heard that people are more
likely to follow through on activities if
they’ve thought through the different steps
they need to take, forming a mental plan for
that activity. This is why your GOTV scripts
often include the question, “When do you
plan to vote?”.
This effect is real, but try to make the process
less awkward and more natural by providing
information before you ask a question that
might seem invasive to the voter. Say, “I see
your polling place is Barton Elementary
School. Is that close enough to walk to or
will you have to drive?” or “Polls are open
between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM. What time
do you think you’re going to vote?”
Any time you apply a psychological
construct to a script, make sure it doesn’t
alter the casual flow or interfere with a
normal conversation.
As you introduce new scripts to your
volunteers, ask for their feedback. Your
volunteers know your turf better than you
do—it’s their neighborhood! If they practice
the script with you and something feels
clunky or they feel like the language won’t
resonate, work through ways to adapt the
script with them. The more natural they feel,
the higher quality conversations they will
have.
Each phone call and each door knock your
team makes is critical because each one is
a step towards reaching your campaign’s
turnout goals.
Next time you meet with your volunteer
leaders, bring this list of best practices
with you and discuss with them what you
can implement in your teams to be more
effective turning out voters. Δ
Make the voter feel that people
like them are voting.
When you speak to a GOTV target, you
want them to feel that people like them are
all voting. You can do this by using identity
labeling, i.e. “As a voter” or “You’re a voter”.
But it’s also important to connect with them
around other things you have in common.
Establish this by having your volunteers
mention where they’re calling from, showing
the target that they have shared reference
points.
Interested in reading more about the
science behind mobilizing voters?
David recommends Get Out the Vote
by Alan Gerber and Don Green
as the most effective resource on
turnout. He also suggests you join
the Analyst Institute (we featured
them in Issue 3!) to receive their best
practices.

Grow
Your
Skills
Outside lessons to improve your organizing

Political
for Organizing
with
Riley Kilburg
Riley Kilburg, the deputy political director
for Hillary for Iowa, has been organizing in
Iowa since he was in high school. Born and
raised in Iowa, Riley has had the privilege
of working hard in multiple historical
organizing movements throughout the
years—first as a volunteer on then-Senator
Obama’s 2008 campaign, next throughout
college for the president’s reelection, and
finally working to help Hillary Clinton win
the Iowa caucus, the Nevada caucus, and
now the general election.
“Organizing is the bread and butter of
Democratic campaigns. It’s how we win.
I think it’s incredibly important that all
Democratic campaign staffers work as an
organizer at one point or another because
all other departments on a campaign exist
to support organizing.”
With so much experience organizing,
Riley understands just how crucial the
skills he learned while organizing are to
his success. Riley may be working in the
political department now, but he still sees
himself as an organizer, just of a different
group of people. He also knows that he best
serves his campaign when his work creates
opportunities for organizers to expand their
efforts.
It was in part due to his experience, in part
due to his deeply embedded understanding
of the political landscape in Iowa, and in part
due to his understanding of the way other
departments should support organizers,
that Riley was able to make the transition to
political after over a year spent organizing
on the Hillary campaign. All of these
experiences and skills made Riley a perfect
candidate for his new role, but Riley also
stood out because he was willing to advocate
for himself.
“Advocating for yourself and what you
want is important in any professional
setting. By having conversations and
demonstrating that I could do the work
and bring something unique and valuable
to the political team, I was able to move
into the position I have now.”

Now, as deputy political director, Riley
manages political relationships throughout
the state with coalition partners, labor
partners, elected officials, and party activists
while also working on surrogate and
principal trips—planning, building, and
executing schedules, travel, and political
engagement with grassroots and grasstops
activists across the state.
Riley works with activists and leaders who
are already politically engaged, finding ways
to plug them into his organization. This
relationship management, recruitment,
and activation is executed in many different
ways. He may work with a partner to pull
together a roundtable or to reach out to
their organization’s membership to deliver
20 volunteers for a Weekend of Action. Like
all relationships, he also works to meet the
needs of his partners—finding surrogates
when a group wants to hear a campaign
update or connecting supporters to an
effective way to contribute.
Riley sees everything he and his team does
as supplementary to organizing and he’s
rightfully proud to be a part of a political
team whose focus is adding capacity to the
organizing program. It’s because the work of
an organizer and a deputy political director
are so similar and so intertwined that Riley
was uniquely prepared for his job.
Here are just a few ways Riley’s organizing
background helps him today:
• Organizing taught Riley how to perform
under pressure. “Organizing taught me
how to get things done. Failure is not
an option as an organizer.”
• It helped him perfect his recruitment
and relationship building skills. These
same skills that are fundamental
for organizing are fundamental for
political work.
• Organizing taught him the importance of
data collection and utilization. Political
staff know relationship building comes
with perfect tracking—data gives him a
way to reach and engage more partners.
• Organizing required Riley to perfect his
hard ask. Thanks to Riley’s perfected
hard ask, he’s more likely to encourage
coalition partners to engage their
networks to add to volunteer efforts.
These experiences help Riley do his job
better every day and give him the foundation
he needs to become even better at the
skills he uses now—skills like attention to
detail, clear communication, and constant
availability.
Without organizing, Riley would not be
where he is today—and without organizing,
Riley wouldn’t be able to do his job in a
way that’s helpful to the important work of
organizers in his state. Δ
To give you an inside look into the work that
Riley does to support organizers, check out
a sample day in his life. On this day, Riley
travels across the state to staff two events:
one with Senator Tim Kaine and his wife
Anne Holton in Ames and a phone bank in
Cedar Rapids with Anne.

September 19, 2016
6:30 AM
Start my day. Today I need extra energy, so I make sure to eat breakfast.
8:30 AM
Arrive at the office and follow up on any emails from overnight or that morning. Print off any
needed materials and updated lists for the event. Most of my prep I do the day before, but I make
sure I have my event supply kit stocked with clipboards, pens, tape, stickers, staff credentials,
string/safety pins, and signs for Table A/Table B/Reserved/ADA Seating.
10:00 AM
Arrive on-site and hold a walk through with the Advance team. They walk us through the
procedure for checking people in through security, signing people into the event, logistics for the
photoline, ADA assistance and tracking things we need to be aware of (such as crowd count or any
malicious actors).
10:30 AM
Set up the organizing and political check-ins. Advance shows up the day before to set up the entire
venue. We’re responsible for training volunteers at the event to make sure that we get everyone
checked in efficiently and on-time. We also collect information so we can follow up about voting
early or volunteering if we couldn’t get them to sign up for a volunteer shift at the event itself.
11:30 AM
Doors open and I start to float around. Members of the political team will help check in our
participants. We check in anyone who is a part of the pre-program and super-volunteers. These
people may have the chance to meet Senator Kaine before or after the event! I spend my time
shuffling people around and getting them prepped for security (for when the principal arrives).
1:45 PM
Pre-program starts. It’s my job to make sure these people are backstage and ready to go. In the days
leading up to the event, I will assist in identifying locals who are interested in saying the Pledge of
Allegiance, singing the National Anthem and introducing Senator Kaine.
2:15 PM
Shortly after the pre-program, Senator Kaine arrives and greets some volunteers as well as local
elected officials and Democratic leaders backstage. I assist in keeping this process moving to keep
the entire program on schedule.

2:30 PM
30 minutes late, Senator Kaine takes the stage with his wife, Anne Holton, to make remarks. It’s
common for principals and surrogates to run a little late because of their very busy schedules, but
the students and Ames community are excited to see the next VPOTUS!
3:00 PM
Senator Kaine and Hon. Anne Holton conclude their remarks and work the rope line. I wait for
this to wrap up and see if there is anything needed of me before I hit the road. Anne Holton is
staying behind in Iowa to hold a few more events! I’m off to Cedar Rapids to help prep for an
event later in the evening, while my boss heads to Cedar Falls for an education panel with Anne
Holton.
5:30 PM
I arrive in Cedar Rapids and touch base with the advance team. I talk with the local political folks
in the room, just chit-chatting to hear their take on how things are going on the ground.
6:00 PM
Anne Holton is late so while we wait for her to come to the phone bank we make calls to voters in
the area!
7:00 PM
Anne Holton arrives to thank volunteers at the phonebank and make some calls!
7:45 PM
Anne Holton departs. I stay for a bit longer to thank people for coming and say goodbye to our
political folks in the room.
8:00 PM
I depart for Des Moines.
10:30 PM
I arrive back in Des Moines and follow up from the many, many missed emails that I neglected
while out on the road about upcoming trips, daily politics that happened and any updates on our
constituency programs. Oh, and I eat dinner.
11:30 PM
Bed.

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

On!
Get the Sleep You Deserve
Dream
Hopefully by now, most of us have
learned about the power of sleep and the
negative effects of avoiding sleep to work
longer. If that’s true, why do those working
on campaigns still sleep so little? Why do
we praise people for staying at the office
until 3AM to correct a mistake (that they
probably made while tired) or to prepare for
a big event (that they need maximum energy
for)? Why do campaign organizers give up
entirely on getting a good night’s sleep once
September rolls around?
I’ve worked on my fair share of campaigns
so I know just how hard it is to fit in all of
the work (and the face-time, let’s be real),
the occasional trip to the gym, the downtime
activities like watching TV or hanging
out with friends that give you the slightest
sense of normalcy, let alone even just a few
hours of sleep each night. And I know that
no matter how much I wanted to prioritize
sleep, sometimes my (well-meaning)
managers made that impossible.
I also have the perspective of being outside
a campaign and watching leaders in the
progressive space encourage those they
manage to give absolutely everything they
have to the cause and the campaign—the
way organizers are taught to feel like any
time not spent organizing is a waste of time.
Everybody means well when they ask their
organizers to dedicate themselves so entirely
to the work. In a lot of ways, that dedication
is necessary—you use so much emotional
and physical energy to be an organizer, there
just isn’t a ton to spare for other pursuits.
And the urgency your regional creates in you
mirrors the urgency you need to create in
your volunteers and voters.
But when it comes to the way we talk
about and approach sleep on campaigns,
something has to change.
So much needs to be done by managers at
every level to encourage better sleep habits.
Hopefully, as we continue to improve our
prioritization, management and organizing
skills (check out Issue #3!), the necessary
shifts will begin to happen. In the meantime,
if you want to do your job to the best of your
ability, you have to prioritize your health and
the most neglected, most essential part of
your health when organizing: sleep.

We did some research with Ariana
Huffington’s book, The Sleep Revolution, and
here are a few reasons she discusses why
you should prioritize sleep:
• Sleep is a time of intense neurological
activity: a time of renewal,
memory consolidation, brain and
neurochemical cleansing and cognitive
maintenance. Huffington rightfully
calls our sleeping time as valuable a
commodity as the time we are awake.
• Sacrificing sleep doesn’t make us
more productive. Our loss of sleep
adds up to more than 11 days of lost
productivity per year per worker. Do
you have 11 days to lose?
• Lack of sleep makes us more
susceptible to all sorts of illnesses—
right now, it’s the common cold,
but with time it could be diabetes,
Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer and
more.
• When you’re sleep deprived, you’re
dangerous. You could fall asleep at the
wheel, make decisions with the same
impairment as a drunk person, or lose
focus right when you need it.
Stop being a martyr.
Every single campaign has martyrs. Even
if you roll your eyes at martyr tendencies
happening around you, you probably do
some of them every once in awhile too.
When you’re working on causes you care
about, trying to contribute as much as
possible to the world, you’re exhausted,
feel underappreciated, and are generally
ambitious. These things make you a little
crazy and make you want to boast about
your challenging circumstances, whether
it’s bragging about how late you worked or
constantly complaining about how you feel
more miserable than the person next to you
because you worked even harder and got
even less sleep.
It’s time to stop that behavior. It helps no
one.
Needing to sleep does not make you
weak—it makes you human. Deprioritizing
sleep does not make you more committed
to the cause—it makes you less likely to
be successful. Don’t encourage or reward
behavior that results in unnecessary
sleeplessness in yourself, your coworkers,
your interns, or your volunteers.
Sleep is key to mental health, memory
capacity, decision-making, social
competence, creativity, and relationshipbuilding
skills. Do you need those things to
be a good organizer? (YES!!)
Let’s put a few things in perspective.

Celebrate sleep.
Now, here are a few tips for getting more
and better sleep.
Just like you recognize a volunteer for their
hard work, you need to appreciate when you
and others make time for sleep. While it may
feel like you’re sacrificing something when
you make time for sleep, you’re actually
preparing yourself to be more efficient and
productive. If you’re more efficient and
productive, you can get even more done.
So congratulate each other when you get
enough sleep (or even just a little more
sleep than the night before). Shout out your
volunteers who hit all their goals while being
well-rested (or just a little more rested).
Encourage healthy sleep habits wherever you
can.
Stress-obsessing over every
challenge you have and every
task you need to do while you’re
trying to fall asleep is wasteful
and useless.
Psychologist Neil Fiore puts it best:
“Calling up the stress response to deal with
dangers that are not happening now is
similar to pulling a fire alarm for a fire that
happened twenty years ago or to fearing a
fire that may happen next year. It would be
unfair to the fire department and a misuse
of its time and energy to ask firefighters to
respond to such an alarm, just as it’s unfair
to demand that your body continually
respond to threats of danger from events
that cannot be tackled now.”
Turn your brain off.
This is the hardest thing to do, but leaving
your brain running is pointless. One thing
to try is to do a brain dump before getting in
bed: write down everything you need to do
when you wake up the next day and then let
it go for the night.
Meditation is also a great way to turn your
mind off (here are some tips on getting
started). Some of you might have little
interest in learning to meditate properly and
that’s fine, but there are easy ways to reap
the benefits of mindfulness. Count how long
your breaths are coming in and out, repeat
a phrase to yourself, and take long, deep
breaths.
Take naps.
Naps are so good! There are so many times
in organizing where you can squeeze in a
quick nap and each time you do so, you
increase your productivity for the rest of the
day.
If you ever ask yourself, “Should I get more
caffeine or take a cat nap?” the answer
should always be “Take a cat nap.” Grab them
literally wherever and whenever you can.

Stop drinking.
Yikes, I know, but when you’re short on
sleep, it’s time to cut out the alcohol. Though
you may fall asleep faster after a couple
drinks, alcohol quickly turns into a sleep
disrupter, taking the few hours you have and
making them less effective. When the hours
get crazy, take a break from alcohol—it’s not
permanent, I promise.
That means sometimes you’re going to have
to leave the office before you’ve exhausted
every action available to you and you may
feel uncomfortable doing that. Work with
your manager to figure out when and how
you can leave the office earlier. Ask for an
opportunity to show that taking more time
to sleep tonight will pay off tomorrow. Be
honest about how tired you are and work
together to find solutions that get you the
sleep you need and deserve.
Talk to your manager.
If you aren’t getting enough sleep, it’s going
to start to show eventually. The earlier you
accept that you need sleep, the less damage
the sleep-deprived monster version of
yourself will have a chance to do.
There is so much work to be done to make
the world a fairer and more just place for all.
It can be so daunting to think of everything
you could be doing to make a difference. You
will not be able to contribute nearly as much
to the world, however, if you are not healthy.
Be intentional and proactive about sleep and
you will reap the rewards. Δ

Available on

Running
On Empty?
How running can help you recharge
“There are a million different campaigns.
There is always another campaign, but there is only one of you.”
Buffy Wicks, founder and principal of
Rise Strategies, knows all to well that
campaigns never stop, but unlike a lot of
others in politics, she also knows how
important her health is to the success of her
work.
For Buffy, me, and a lot of others in
organizing and politics, running is the best
way to take care of our bodies while working
incredibly hard. Running is an incredibly
simple, cheap (at first), and addictive way to
get active, to relieve tension and stress and to
improve your whole body.
Not only will running boost your immune
system and keep you healthier through
intense bouts of organizing, it will give you
stamina to get through incredibly long days
and will help clear your mind of the anxiety
that distracts every organizer from their
work.
I know just how hard you work each day and
I know just how bad I was at taking care of
myself on my first campaign. It’s so easy to
put your personal needs last, but in doing so,
you’re actually jeopardizing all of your work.
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.
So much of being a successful organizer is
personal. You need to take care of yourself to
be the best organizer possible.
Running is an easy way to invest in your
health and well-being. Here is some advice
for you on ways to make running (or any
sort of physical activity) a possibility and a
priority while organizing.

Start slowly.
You’re an organizer, so now might not be the
best time for you to train for a marathon.
(But, hey, if anyone could work 16 hours a
day and also train for a marathon, it would
be an organizer.) You don’t need to go crazy
with running to benefit from it.
Just take the first step and start running.
Each time you go will get easier and more
fun and eventually you’ll be so addicted to
what it does to your body and your mind,
you’ll be able to challenge yourself in new
ways.
Find a regular time that works for
you and put it in your calendar.
“I would run from 5PM- 6PM, rinse
quickly, and go back to work for another
three or four hours depending on the
day. It actually made me more energized
for the remainder of the day because I
got my blood flowing and it helped my
mental sharpness as well. For me that time
worked; for some people maybe it’s noon,
maybe it’s 7AM, maybe it’s 11PM at night.
Finding your time, setting it aside, and
being really intentional about keeping it is
really important.”
By scheduling in time, Buffy was able to find
time to run—time committed to her health
that helped her be better at her job. Like all
things on a campaign, if you don’t schedule
running in, it won’t happen.
Experiment to find out what time works
best for you. It might work best to run right
when you wake up or in that late morning
time before voter contact really begins and
after you’ve dealt with the morning crises.
Whenever the time is, lock it in, put it on
your calendar, and commit to spending the
time improving yourself.
“Make running a habit. Make running
a way for you to be good to yourself.
You don’t need to run a marathon (but
if so, that’s great), but set a goal, make a
plan, and stick with it. Before I started
running, I could think of every excuse
not to run. It’s easy to grab a drink or
sleep in, but once I started, running
became my special obligation to
myself. Running gives me order from
the hours of 6AM-7:30AM. Running
gives me new ways of spending time
with people I care about, people I
wanted to spend time with, and friends
I wouldn’t see often. Running gives
me a sense of routine. Running’s also
helped me meet a ton of interesting,
new people—an organizer’s dream!”
—Chris Choi, head of global digital
strategy at 100 Resilient Cities
Download an app that
tracks your distance and time.
You’re a metrics-driven person!
Organizers love metrics, so take advantage
of the built-in metrics of running. Set goals
for yourself (probably small ones if you’re
working nonstop) and track how you’re
doing.

Listen to podcasts, books,
music—anything to take a
mental break from the work.
“I like that mental disconnection from the
work so that it kind of gives you a little bit
of a break, and that’s also helpful to the
work itself.”
Continue to prioritize your health
throughout the whole campaign.
There are always crazy times throughout
campaigns—they never stop. If you say to
yourself, “I’m just going to quit running
through this busy week,” you will never start
again.
Buffy’s right: sometimes, you really just
need a break. When you’re an organizer, you
almost never get a break; the work is always
on your mind. It’s natural that your brain
will run in circles each time you’re not doing
something, but it will drive you bonkers and
eventually, make you less able to actually
execute the work.
It’s super hard to quiet your mind, so try to
distract it while you’re running. Listen to
something that’s not immediately related to
the work you’re doing every second. It will
help your mind relax for a bit and that short
break will help you to focus more effectively
when you come back to the tasks in front of
you.
Looking for a podcast to listen to? We
suggest The Riveters Podcast! Hosted
by Buffy Wicks and Sally Smith, The
Riveters Podcast is an unfiltered ode
to the good, bad, and hilarious that is
#ladylife in 2016! It constantly gives
props to organizing and is funny,
smart, and uplifting—you’ll love it.
Your health is absolutely vital to your success,
now and in the future. Everywhere you look,
people are going to tell you to give everything
you have to the campaign. That’s all good, but
if you aren’t healthy, you can’t give nearly as
much.
Do not feel guilty for prioritizing your health
at any moment. You can hit your goals and
work hard while still taking a few hours a week
to invest in your mental and physical wellbeing.
Don’t underestimate the power a
run can have on your attitude and
outlook on life. Even if the only time
you have is the 30 minutes between
your last meeting and the start of a
debate, lace up your shoes and get
out there. I saw a great t-shirt during
my last race: “running is cheaper
than therapy.” I swear to you, my
commitment to running has gotten
me through this campaign. Even with
my phone buzzing constantly in my
hand, getting in a few miles and a few
minutes to admire this incredible city
[NYC] gives me just the perspective
I need to sit back down and deal with
my inbox.
—Emily Samsel, surrogates for
Hillary for America

Don’t beat yourself up
on the bad days.
Even if you prioritize your health, there are
going to be days you just can’t make a run
happen and sometimes those days might
turn into a week. That’s okay. Cut yourself
some slack—you have an insanely intense
job!
A couple misses on your part do not make
a failure. Sometimes your body needs rest
more than it needs a run, and that’s what you
should give it. Don’t waste any energy feeling
guilty about missed runs. You run and you
exercise to make yourself feel better, not the
other way around.
Just run. It’s that easy.
Running is great for an organizer because
you can do it anywhere at anytime. At the
end of the day, running is really simple. You
don’t need a ton of advice to step outside
and start moving.
Don’t overcomplicate it. Running will keep
you healthy, boost your immune system,
make you feel more energized, and even
make you a better organizer! Invest the time
into it now and thank yourself later. Δ

On Apple Podcasts
On the Web
“The Riveters is my absolute favorite hosted commentary
podcast. Buffy and Sally have fascinating conversations with
fascinating people about fascinating subjects. I find each and
every episode insightful, authentic, and thought-provoking.
Riveters is a podcast by organizers, for organizers;
but also for anyone else who wants to be entertained and
educated for hours on end.
Only have one hour to spend with them? Then make sure you
listen to Season 1, Episode 4, which is all about
organizing. ( And good luck quitting after just one! )”
- Warren Flood

Organizer
Life
Hacks
Easy changes to improve your work

Sleeping
Made
Easier
Organizers like you just don’t get enough
sleep. It’s an unfortunate reality that many
of us are trying to change. You’ll be a better
organizer if you’re well rested—increasing
your energy, your power to focus and make
smart decisions, your ability to regulate and
control your emotions and much more. Read
about why sleep is so important and how
you can increase your opportunities for sleep
here.
While we advocate for your right to proper
sleep and while you do your best to get as
much sleep as possible, we know there are
times during your organizing career that
a full night’s rest isn’t possible for weeks
on end, and that can really begin to wear
on you. We also know that a groggy wake
up with an hour of snoozing can ruin your
whole day.
Sometimes, you don’t have any control over
how much sleep you get, but you can control
how you wake up. Download an app like
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock to use your own
body’s sleep cycles to your advantage.
While you sleep, you go through cycles of
sleep states, starting in a light sleep followed
by a deep sleep and a dream sleep. Each cycle
takes about 90 minutes and when you wake
up during this cycle can vastly change how
rested you feel.
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock wakes you up
during light sleep to help you feel like you’re
waking up naturally rested without an alarm
clock. Of course you would probably sleep
much longer without an alarm, so Sleep
Cycle Alarm Clock wakes you up within
a half hour of the time you set. This way,
you’ll wake up on time to get working, but
you won’t feel jolted awake and crankily
miserable all morning (well, at least not from
how you wake up).
Try this alarm clock (or one like it) to see if
shifting how you wake up can give you more
of the energy you desperately need to get
through the long hours of organizing. Good
luck and let us know what you think! Δ

Organizer
Spotlight
Highlighting organizers doing great things

Organizer Spotlight:
Angel Montes
“I want to leave it all here. I don’t want
to go back wherever I go thinking that I
could have done more. I want to work as
hard as I can, make as many calls as I have
to make, build our volunteer base as large
as we have to make it and then I’ll feel like I
accomplished what I needed to do here.”
Organizer Angel Montes will certainly be
able to wake up on November 9th knowing
he did everything he could to elect Hillary
Clinton as the 45th President of the United
States. On June 14th of this year, Angel
began working as an organizer for the
Wisconsin Democratic Party and since then,
he’s empowered volunteers throughout
Stevens Point, creating a broad organization
of leaders working to elect Democrats up
and down the ticket.
His vast experience empowering individuals
has proved essential as he organizes central
Wisconsin, but his passion to elect Hillary is
even more indispensable.
Born in Santa Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, Angel
and his family came to the United States as
undocumented immigrants when he was
four years old. Watching Donald Trump’s
negative rhetoric towards undocumented
immigrants—people like Angel’s family who
came to the U.S. looking for a better life—
Angel realized he needed to act.
When Trump says that Mexicans are rapists
and murderers, Angel thinks of how hard
he and his family worked to gain their
citizenship, of how hard they worked to
create a better future for themselves.
When he started, Angel was new to
Wisconsin and new to political organizing.
Before accepting the job and leaving Oregon
to move across the country, Angel worked
for 15 years at the American Red Cross
recruiting volunteers to lead blood drives.

“When I was 14 years old, I was working
in the fields with my mom and my sister
in California picking tomatoes in the heat
for 12 cents a bucket. I look at my mom
and my brothers and sisters, and I don’t
see [what Trump sees]. I see really, really
hard-working people who just want to do
better and want to pay their taxes and want
to make sure that they continue to progress
and give their kids a better life.”
Angel watched Trump denigrate people like
him and instead of getting angry, he did what
all good organizers do—he took action.
It’s not surprising to hear from Angel that he
has a laser-like focus on maintaining strong
relationships with his volunteer leaders.
He realizes how important these leaders
are to electing Hillary as president, so he
constantly thinks of new ways to recognize
their hard work and show them how
appreciative he is.
Angel’s passion and commitment is so
evident, it’s obvious to anyone that speaks
to him that he works almost non-stop
building an organization of empowered local
volunteers.
After applying online and speaking with
Chris Garretty, now his deputy organizing
director, Angel began organizing in an empty
room in Stevens Point. Angel still works in
the same room four months later, but it’s not
so empty anymore.
“I’ve worked as hard as I can locally to
convince people not to vote for Trump.
I want to make sure I continue to work
just as hard so that he doesn’t become
president, and so that we have Hillary
Clinton as our 45th President.”
Relishing the opportunity to build an
organization from scratch, Angel has worked
extremely hard to build relationships with
volunteers in his turf, identifying people
who can take on leadership roles and
working each day to organize himself out of
a job. He’s pretty close to accomplishing just
that—recently, a few of his volunteers have
come to him asking for more responsibility
so they can relieve some of the pressure on
him.
With organizers like Angel on her side,
I know Hillary will be successful this
November. Keep up the great work, Angel!
And thanks for all that you do. Δ

Organizer Spotlight:
Ariba Qureshi
In addition to every electoral organizer
working across the country this cycle, there
are many organizers like Ariba Qureshi who
work all year round (for years on end) for
causes they care about. For Ariba, that cause
is access to quality education.
Growing up as a child of immigrants, Ariba’s
parents worked consistently to ensure she
was receiving the best education possible.
When just out of college and organizing for
the 2014 Nashville mayoral election, Ariba
saw the vast disparity that existed between
schools across Davidson County. It was
this disparity—only 16% of K-12 students
in Nashville are enrolled in a high-quality
school—that led to the creation of Project
Renaissance and its parent-led coalition
Nashville Rise.
Project Renaissance works to provide all
Nashville children with the high-quality
education they deserve by empowering and
engaging families, advocating for supportive
policy, recruiting effective educators, and
supporting, growing, and creating great
schools. As part of this work, Nashville Rise
works to inform parents about the Davidson
County school system and how together as
parents, they can work to better their school
system. As an organizer for Nashville Rise,
Ariba works to recruit, empower, and engage
parents to advocate for their children’s
education.
“Getting the chance to meet parents and
community members across the county
has given me an enormous amount of
motivation for the work that we’re doing.
Not only because I get to hear each
individual’s personal story but I’m also
able to bear witness to a passion: parents
wanting to improve education across the
board no matter what situation that person
may be in.”

While organizing seminars, attending as
many community and school events as
possible, and meeting one-on-one with
parents, Ariba has been able to create a
coalition of parents who are empowered to
make decisions for the group, not the other
way around. With an immediate goal of
doubling the number of children attending
high-quality public schools in Nashville
over the next five years, Project Renaissance
knows that parents are the best advocates for
their children, so they invest in organizers
like Ariba who put volunteers in leadership
positions.
“If you involve volunteers at every
level of decision making, they take
more ownership over the success of the
organization and that leads them to be
more engaged.”
Clearly, Ariba is creating an organization
from the ground up—one that will create
real change in Davidson County. We can’t
wait to see what they accomplish together. Δ

Volunteer
Spotlight: Angelica
Cooks Lucas
Campaign:
Project Renaissance
Nashville Rise
City:
Nashville, TN
What makes This Volunteer Special:
With eight children currently attending
public schools in Nashville, Angelica has
been volunteering with the public school
system for 10 years. As a school system
volunteer, she’s worked in many different
roles to support teachers and parents while
also advocating for new and improved
services.
Ariba Qureshi, a Nashville Rise organizer, saw
Angelica’s commitment and drive to improve
schools for her children and knew she would
be a perfect parent captain. Nashville Rise is
a parent-led coalition aimed at empowering
parents through training and leadership
development, collaborating to influence and
increase high quality schools for children in
all of Davidson County.
As a parent captain, Angelica has been
able to participate in and recruit for
transformative seminars with other parents
and school officials, giving parents an
opportunity to learn about and advocate
for programs and services to make their
children’s schools more effective.
“With half of my children attending Title I
and/or Priority/Focus schools, I have to
ensure my children are receiving the same
level of education, access to resources, and
have qualified educators, as any other child
who lives in a different zip code.
My wish was to align myself with
individuals who have the same passion
and drive that I have in ensuring no
matter the demographics, background,
or circumstances, all children would
receive quality education and wrap-around
services.”

Nashville Rise is a relatively new organization
that started work in late 2015 and Angelica
has been with them from the beginning.
Angelica and other parents have worked
together to create the Nashville Rise
mission—a mission that creates
opportunities for parent civic engagement.
This past summer, she worked with Ariba
and other parents to lead a large community
forum informing parents about the school
board election while bringing candidates
directly to them.
“Everything parents have shared that they
wanted to know more about—even if it’s
just different types of schools, or where to
register to vote, or concerns about getting
school supplies—Nashville Rise always
meets the parents where they are and tries
its best to give them the resources and
information that they need to equip them
to make that great choice.”
Nashville Rise is lucky to have Angelica and
other parents like her who dedicate so much
time and effort to improving their children’s
schools. It’s quality volunteers like Angelica
that make organizing success possible. Δ

Have
Some
Fun
Smiling makes you better

Fun Zone
Click here to play video.
Clinton vs. Trump Debate
Saturday Night Live
It just doesn’t get more depressingly accurate and hysterical than this SNL sketch, which is
basically just a verbatim reenactment of the first presidential debate. Watch Alec Baldwin as
Trump melt-down in regular Trump style. Watch Kate McKinnon as Clinton hold in her glee as
she realizes said melt-down will increase her chances of victory. And though we can’t laugh at
Trump’s horrific comments about sexual assault or anything else he considers acceptable “locker
room talk,” we can giggle a little at stupid Trump things like this back-and-forth:
Clinton/Kate: I mean, this man is clearly unfit to be President.
Trump/Alec: Wrong.
Clinton/Kate: He is a bully.
Trump/Alec: Shut up. Δ

Well, this is the joyful dance party we all need right now. Watch this radiant piece of pantsuit
art, turn it up, and have a midnight dance party in your office along with them. This election is
hard and painful and really taking a toll on everyone, especially organizers.
Remember that most people are good and want good things for this country and that dancing
makes everyone feel better. Δ
Pantsuit Power
Flash Mob for Hillary
Click here to play video.

Ready, Set, Action!
Actionable takeaways from this issue
1
Be cool, calm, and humble.
Things are going to go wrong during GOTV.
Show some grace and handle crises calmly. Page 21
Ask your volunteer leaders for script feedback.
The more comfortable your volunteers feel, the higher quality
conversations they will have. Trust them! Page 29
2
3
Advocate for yourself.
First be great at your job, then ask later
about promotions and opportunities you deserve. Pages 25, 31
Wake up more rested.
Download a sleep app that helps you wake up refreshed. Page 47
4
5
Schedule time to work out.
Lock a regular time on your calendar and
make prioritizing your health a reality. Page 42

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