Obama district organizers, care to pass along some wisdom?

[mahina]

Hi all,

So we're getting ready for our caucus on Tuesday, and I volunteered to help in our district. Well I'm getting emails about every minute from people who want to help, and I'm out of stuff to give them to do.

Any suggestions? Words to the wise from those who have been there already? What did it take to run a sucessful caucus? What mistakes occurred that were preventable? How did you handle the pandemonium?

Please respond by DU mail if you think it's not something you want the world to read, and thank you in advance for helping to make our Hawaii caucus a success for one of America's greatest presidents.

Aloha!

ps Barack's grandmother still lives about four blocks away, and I want you all to know, that Barack Obama is going to win this state in a great big way. Aloha.

[Luftmensch067]

1. Howzit, Mahina!

I have no wisdom, but just wanted to chime in on this thread to thank you for your work! One mainland haole, but I grew up in HI from the age of 8 to 18. I'm the same age as Barack (Kailua High, but!) and I'm really happy to hear your confirmation that he's going to win big!

Love the photo! Have fun and good luck!!!

[mahina]

3. Howzit!

I bet you have lots of wisdom. What state are you living in now?


Same vintage as me! There's another Kailua high grad around here somewhere...Hekate I think maybe, not too sure. Yeah, it's tough with Senator Inouye supporting Hillary, but people here do love Barack, as I guess people all over the world do as well.

Take care, be well, thanks for the note!

ps Do you remember the words to Hawai'i Aloha, for sing with us, even though you are across the water, when the caucus is pau?


Chords:

G C G
E Hawai`i e ku`u one hanau e
D7 G
Ku`u home kulaiwi nei
D7 G (C) G7 (C) G
`Oli no au i na pono lani ou
D7 G
E Hawai`i, aloha e


Hui:
C G
E hau`oli no`na opio o Hawai`i nei
D7
`Oli e! `Oli e!
G (C) G7 (C) G
Mai na aheahe makani e pa mai nei
D7 G
Mau ke aloha, no Hawai`i

Aloha, thanks for supporting the next great American president. Imua!

[mahina]

5. oh ps

so the chords moved all over after I posted that, but you remember yeah?
Not goin jam you up I hope.

[Luftmensch067]

8. Rememba da tune fo shua!

Da words stay helpful but! :-) Will print and sing with you all after da caucuses stay pau! (haole pidgin, but you get da idea!):hi: :hug:

[mahina]

9. cool...

:hug:

[beachmom]

2. I have no wisdom either, but your pics reminds me of a story:

I went to Chicago YearlyKos last summer and went to the breakout session for Barack Obama (honestly, at that time, I assumed Hillary would win the nomination, but I just so completely admire Obama, that I knew he was the one I wanted to see). Anyway, there were all kinds of groups at YearlyKos giving us free stuff that plugged their cause (unions, teachers, net neutrality, peace, etc.), and one group gave us all leis, which a lot of us wore but took off when the cameras were there for the presidential debate. Well, one guy still had his on. Guess who Barack Obama called on to ask a question? Yup, you guessed it -- the guy with the lei, for which Obama said -- you with the lei!! And his question was, "Do you have an LBJ side to you?". Everyone laughed. Obama paused and then said, "First of all .... welcome to Chicago." He was really funny and charming and witty. But anyway, I think he still is quite fond of Hawaii, but hey -- who wouldn't?

[mahina]

4. Thanks for the story!

Barack's grandma is still here. When he won a big race late at night, she called another woman I know who has been close friends for many years and said, "Are you still up? Can you please come over here and pinch me?"

So cute!

Aloha Beachmom!

[StoryTeller]

6. As an observer, here are things that our district did right...

I wasn't one of the organizers or even a volunteer, but here are things I saw the volunteers doing that helped our caucus location do well:

1) There were several volunteers outside reassuring the line of people waiting that since they were in line before the official caucus start, we all would get to vote and to not worry. Our line didn't have to wait long, but it was a good idea to be proactive about keeping the line calm and reassured.

2) They anticipated that they might run out of candidate preference cards/ballots and photocopied a bunch so there was no lag time.

3) The volunteers culled the line and pulled out anyone who needed to register so that they wouldn't have to wait and so they wouldn't hold up the rest of the line.

4) They had plenty of people directing voters through the line and to their candidate's area of the caucus location.

5) They skipped having us look up our voter numbers. I'm assuming that then they had to fill those in themselves after the caucus.

6) The campaign volunteers for each side did a good job of controlling their crowds. At least on the Obama side. I don't think I'd call the Hillary people a "crowd." :) There were several of them who got us cheering but then were able to pull us back in so the caucus could be kept moving along.

7) Since we had signed up as Obama supporters, we got a postcard from the campaign with our caucus time and location on it.

8) Volunteers helped facilitate the counting of the caucus goers. This was important, especially as the Obama side had SO many people. We were in a school gym, so everyone on the bleachers counted off "1, 2, 3, 4..." along the rows, but we needed campaign volunteers to watch this and make sure the count didn't get screwed up (and a couple people did get confused and say the wrong number, so this is important to watch). For the rest of us on the floor, we were told to stand until a volunteer came by, counted us, and told us to sit. They had several volunteers doing this, and they just kept track of their own counts by groups of 10 and then added it all up when they were done. We had over a thousand Obama supporters, and I think they got us all counted in under 10 minutes. It was quite a feat.


I don't know what all went on behind the scenes to make these things a reality, but I would imagine a lot of it was having well-trained volunteers who understood the rules of the caucus and the process and who were able to anticipate potential issues and be prepared to deal with them.

I would think that with your volunteers, make sure they know the rules and understand the process of the caucus. Assign the ones with loud voices and outgoing personalities to work the line and make sure the voters are calm and reassured and have the information they need.

Every state with a caucus so far has had enormous turn-out, so anticipate what help you will need to deal with extra crowds. You might run out of ballots--photocopy some. You might have lots of late registrants--assign volunteers to facilitate that. You might not have enough room (especially for those crazy, but lovable, Obama cultists :) ) so have a back-up plan for how you will get the caucus done. Have enough volunteers to count everyone. Make sure there are people to direct traffic and give information as people are coming in.

I don't know how much of this is stuff the campaign volunteers can do and how much will need to be party/caucus volunteers. But if you can find out from your caucus director, then maybe you can shift some of your campaign volunteers to the caucus at large to volunteer if they need more help.

I was in Nebraska, and it was our first time caucusing. Some of the districts in the Omaha area had a really bad time and lots of problems. Our district really went smoothly, and I think it was mostly because we had a lot of volunteers and they were prepared ahead of time for potential problems.

Hope this helps at least give you some ideas. Go Hawaii! I hope you guys have a terrific caucus and give Obama a HUGE win. :)

[mahina]

7. Mahalo, that is super handy!

Thanks!