well, we're getting started on organizing our county for '08

[NMDemDist2]

we have a list of 30+ people who showed up to meet the State Party Chairman a couple weeks ago.

we're going to pick one precinct and try and have an "Open House Party" with a local town councilman and see how it goes.

I think we can make invitation calls to the precinct's registered Dems (mail is too expensive, we have ZERO budget)

if that works, we'll try another precinct then another and see if we can build up 3-4 people for each precinct that will be willing to knock on doors and make phone calls

any suggestions??

[wildeyed]

1. Sounds great!

I can't remember, is your area primarily conservative or more liberal?

I was doing that for my precinct for a while. I got a few people who would volunteer with me, but none who wanted a leadership role. My non-partisan voter registration work is still my primary interest, and with the new same-day registration law to test drive, the precinct is taking a backseat this year. I may give it a serious go again in 08 since people will be more gun-ho during a prez election year.

[NMDemDist2]

2. it's a pretty Red county and has a lot of poor people too

very rural too outside the small towns

we have three towns 25K, 12K and 2K

everybody else is spread far and wide LOL, we're not sure how to tackle the rural areas other than have a presence at all the local activities

I hope we can get enough folks to man a booth at the goings on, then we'll work a getting a booth :rofl:

[LiberalFighter]

3. Questions

Is there an active County Chair?

Does the County Party utilize the VAN?

Is the VAN being utilized down to the precinct level?

[NMDemDist2]

4. is VAN the state party's voter roll? if yes, then no. we're still trying to get the

'code' in order to access the system :banghead:

our County does have a chair but with his new job, he's hard to reach......

the co-chair is completely old school and computer illiterate. did I mention 'old school'??/

I have some names and numbers I'll be contacting this week to try and get some activists moving toward getting some precinct action going...

[LiberalFighter]

5. It is the DNC Voter Activation Network

It is almost fabulous. It should be used year round to be effective. Identify individuals that write letters to the editor in support or against candidates, issues, etc. Identify activists, financial supporters, etc. in both parties. Identify state convention delegates in past and 2008.

I hope you all have monthly precinct meetings with the county officers present. The officers should be able to find time to attend a meeting that is scheduled only once a month.

Update phone numbers, addresses, email addresses. Identify whether phone number is home, work, cell, other.

Walk or phone canvassing could be done before a campaign starts to identify political affiliation giving all of the other campaigns a head start.

I would suggest alerting other political activists within the county about the VAN and the necessity of taking advantage of it.

This will make the county chair's job easier as well. THIS KEY POINT SHOULD INTEREST THE CHAIR. If the VAN is utilized it should free up time to do other functions critical to a campaign.

[NMDemDist2]

6. our little town is only 25,000 people and only about 45K in the whole county

so we're little bitty. we do have monthly county meetings and the Dem Women have a luncheon monthly

I called up to the State Party HQ today and I need to take some 'training' to get into the data base. The guy is calling me back to walk me through it

[LiberalFighter]

7. Good... I was just asking the campaign manager what we should be doing

between campaigns. Trying to gather info so I can get our County Chair to implement the full features of the VAN.

Being a small town should make it easier to do some things like identifying decease.

When you have your monthly meetings talk up the VAN. If you are up to be the resource person that knows how to use the VAN functions.

It can be set up to have each precinct person access to their area. Of course, the County Chair would have access to the whole county. And there should be access at the ward level if you have them.

A city mayor or other city-wide office campaign would have access to voters within the city. While city council district campaign just within their district.

Walk lists can be created and with maps. 3 up tear sheets can be created. Identifying supporters or Democrats during voter registration drives.

There are different ways of inputting data into the VAN besides manual. We were using scanners for canvassing and phone banking. Later we switched the phone banking to something called predictive dialing and the service makes it possible to download the results and upload into the VAN. That is something that should be used in at least a mid-size or larger city.

Voters not already in the VAN can be uploaded if in the right format. So if you are able to obtain the data from your voter registration office it will be very helpful.

Outside of the VAN I am using Google Map to mark the voting locations for each of the precints.

[NoodleBoy]

8. god I would kill to get a crack at organizing that

wow, a tiny universe but an abnormally large activist base it seems, local offices to run campaigns for and being able to do something to every precinct.

but that comes with the normal party crap: "we've got a voter activation what? and I'm in charge of adminstering it?" "yeah I ran for and was elected to a position in the party structure, but does that mean I really have to do anything for it?" "well I would do that, but I just don't like the way that person smells/talks/looks so I'll just refuse to do it."