Camp Obama

I went to Camp Obama yesterday! No, there weren't any smores, arts & crafts, or scary stories (unless you count talk of the last eight years) - but there were some fantastic and enthusiastic people.

I applied for Camp Obama about a month ago, and had almost forgotten about it until they contacted me last week. On Friday at 3:00 I found out that I would be going to an all day, Camp Obama event in Oakland on Saturday starting at 8:30 in the morning. Luckily, I was able to attend and had a great time.

What is Camp Obama you ask? I was wondering pretty much the same thing up until I went. They train you to be a "Deputy Field Organizer" for Obama's campaign. We were taught some of the basics of phone banking, going door to door, and they taught us how to tell our own story so we can better connect with the people we meet.

It was a really fun experience. There were about 200 people at the camp and they each had incredible stories about what has motivated them to get out and help the Obama campaign. One thing that most people had it common was that the devastation of the 2004 election made them realize how important this really is. As I passed a table I heard a woman say that she wanted to help however she could because she didn't want to see Obama lose this election and wonder if she could have done more. That really resonated with me, that is why I want to get involved while I still can.

Camp Obama also gave me my first chance to make phone calls to a swing state - New Mexico. They had a goal for Northern California to make 100,000 calls this weekend. We each made phone calls for just under an hour and collectively we made almost 4,000 calls! I was nervous, but it only took a couple of calls to realize that it wasn't as intimidating as it seemed.

During our time, which was actually only about 40 minutes, due to a lengthy explanation about how to make phone calls by our table facilitator, I made 26 phone calls.

There where only a few things they wanted us to say. First, we would tell them our name and that we were calling as a volunteer on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign (giving them the chance to hang up right away). Then we asked them which candidate they plan on supporting in the upcoming election. If they said McCain, we thanked them for their time and moved on to the next call. It is not an efficient use of time to try and persuade those who have already made up their minds. If they said they were undecided we asked if them which issues concerned them the most, and let them know that they would be given more information on that topic in the near future (either someone would call them back, or would mail them the information they requested). And finally, if they said they were Obama supporters we would tell them about the early voting options in New Mexico and ask them if they were interested in volunteering.

Here were my results:

• Out of 26 calls 9 people answered
• 1 was the wrong number (or so they say)
  
• 1 hung up after I explained who I was and where I was calling from
  
• 2 were not home
• 2 did not speak English (they both spoke Spanish)
• 1 answered "Never Obama" and when I asked if that meant he supported McCain he hung up
• 2 said definitely 100% Obama! They both were not interested in volunteering, but one had already voted early, and one was going to vote on Tuesday

Not so bad. Doing those first calls really broke the ice for me. I plan on making many more calls leading up to the election, and hopefully will plan a phone banking party or two (since I should do something with my "Deputy Field Organizer" title).

Finally, the camp really stressed the importance of giving our time out of California in a battleground state. The name of the program is "Drive for Change" and typically those from Northern California would travel to Reno, Nevada. I signed up to drive to Nevada over election weekend a while back and had been planning on it ever since. Well, I guess Northern Californians have been volunteering like crazy and they have many volunteers already lined up. They are asking people to get to other Western battleground states if they are able to - and the one they mentioned the most was Colorado. It is a very tight race there and they can use all the volunteers they can get.

So, I changed my trip and now I am planning on going to Colorado for election weekend. I was even able to talk my boyfriend, Justin, into coming with me. We will get in on October 31st and stay until November 5th. It should be exciting to spend election day working in a battleground state!

Only 19 days until I go to Colorado, and only 23 days until the election...