The Complete Story

OK. let's start from the top. This assessment is based on my own experience in deploying ERP systems in the private sector. While I of course do not have privy to inside sources in mybo, I do have a communications network of experienced political and technical professionals. Their assessment is identical to mine. Simply put, it is obvious to anyone in the business.

The Democratic Party has many databases of voter information. The must useful database sources are provided to the public from the County Elections Board or through the sign-up sheets made available during the Primary. Other database sources are available from private sources, others from polling networks, etc.

Enter mybo.

Mybo is a powerful database and communications network. Every contact with the public also serves the critical purpose of entering a massive amount of critical voter/supporter names and contact information into the mybo database. By integrating the database into an integrated platform mybo now has the ability to immediately retrieve and specifically direct this database information for any purpose they chose. Mybo has instantly become one of the most powerful integrated database platforms in the world. It's potential is limitless.

When mybo was originally launched it is obvious that the planners were not aware of the immense possibilities this new system could offer them. A good deal of potential was not realized during the first Primary pass. It is too late for mybo to go back and update the system. But it is not too late for we Obama supporters across the country to help them to fill in the gaps before November. This accomplishment of this specific objective could easily decide this election.

Our task in the creation of OAN-IN is to assist the Obama Campaign to immediately and more fully utilize much of the currently untapped potential of mybo.

The fact is that mybo simply can not logistically handle this task at it's current level of complexity. It is logistically impossible. We however are perfectly positioned for the task.

All we have to do is to simply get together and do it.  - G

Internet Tools

The following 2 posts are an explanation of how to use the most powerful networking tools available to Obama supporters on the Internet today: Social and news groups. You will notice that our blog has a Digg link feature built into it.

It is critical that every member to OAN-IN to learn how to fully utilize this powerful networking tool. Please take the time to use OAN-IN to post and thoroughly explore this topic today. This will be a powerful networking tool for OAN-IN. We must be fully capable of using it. Our first County launch will be tomorrow. - G

- - - - - - - - -Original Message- - - - - - -

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 1:01 AM, T A Hayes III <tah3@charter.net> wrote:

[Edited]

All the social news aggregation sites, DIGG, reddit, and even stumbleUpon, are valuable to use in TWO ways.  Not only do they drive traffic to interesting/positive stories, blogs, websites, etc., but even the way they are described has an impact on what people think... from headlines to comments, it's all a form of advertising.  The greatest blog post in the world is useless unless and until somebody reads it, and tells a friend.

So, if you're a blogger, it behooves you to learn about more than one, and use them to promote your pages (with help from folks here at MyBO, naturally.) 

If you're NOT, if you're the sort who comments but never originates, then it would be most helpful if you would pick one or two and concentrate on them... on digg, or on reddit, you can have a big impact by looking routinely at what's NEW as opposed to what's HOT, for instance.  If a new story gets squashed it won't reach the point where it's HOT enough to come to most people's attention.

The younger you are the more likely you are to have given up on traditional sources and be relying on pages you find in facebook, stumble, etc.  So to the extent we are helping young voters find and read good content our taking the time to lend our perspective on these new-media sites matters a lot, followed next by our rating of other comments.

In closing, let me remind you that some of our best minds here are very active bloggers, and while you may not agree with every single post they make they are working to provide a positive backdrop for when people search the internet, so please take the time to comment on their stories, and cast your votes on the aggregators like digg and reddit... think about what we're trying to accomplish ... and remember that Saint Neil is working hard to keep ORR an efficacious, rapid list. Not every list can be all things to all people.  We're not here to bash the opposition, just to keep them honest while helping people learn about Obama - and if the primaries and caucuses have taught us anything, it's that the more people learn about Obama the more likely they are to realize they support his goals, and accordingly to approve of and support his candidacy.

So if you have more questions, drop me a line directly.  I don't know it all, but I can help without cluttering up the mailboxes of those others who either 1) already knows, or 2) doesn't care. I generally check email many times/day (although a minor traffic accident and a flat tire cut into my time today.)

Tom Hayes

- - - - - -Follow-Up Message- - - - - -

Nice job on the Tutorial, Tom.

For clarification purposes it would be useful to expand on your statement: “It would be most helpful if you would pick one or two and concentrate on them... on digg, or on reddit, you can have a big impact by looking routinely at what's NEW as opposed to what's HOT, for instance.  If a new story gets squashed it won't reach the point where it's HOT enough to come to most people's attention.”

Here is how to do this using Digg.

Go to the upper right hand corner of the screen.

There you will find a green menu bar with two buttons: Popular & Upcoming. Select, “Upcoming”.

A new screen will appear. It will show the upcoming stories sorted on “Newest Stories” by default. This screen view is useless.

Go to the top of this new screen. Under the “My Profile” & “Add Friends” menu times you will see a 2-toned green menu bar.

Directly under that bar(s) is a search box that reads “Show Newest Stories.” It will have a light blue check icon next to the text field. Click the check icon.

A drop down menu of 5 choices will appear. Click on the middle list item “Show Most Popular”. Your screen will then change to show those stories that are right on the edge of going to the Front Page. This is the view that you will want to work from.

Searching this view mode is the way experienced Diggers find good stories to comment on before everyone else fills up in the comments section before them. This is also the surest and best way to become known as a regular Digg member.

All you need to do is to get in early and hook your comments to a sure-bet front page article. Yours will be one of the first comments to be read. If people like your story they will email you to become your friend. This network of friends is the Digg underground.

Happy Digging, all - G

--
http://obama08thedrive.blogspot.com/

It's Time!

This was posted to the Mybo Blog today. If we move here in Indiana, OAN has been designed to plug into every State in the Nation. It's all up to you, now.  - G
- - - - - - - -
An Idea for Organizing Via the Web

By Jeff from Holmdel, NJ - Jun 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am EDT

Comments |  Mail to a Friend  |  Report Objectionable Content

Something's Missing
I love the Obama website and Community Blog. It's easy to express yourself, it's easy to donate and it's easy to pick up on timely campaign info. But, as the campaign grows bigger and broader, the one thing lost in the shuffle is constant and personal contact up and down the vertical hierarchy. (Sometimes I wonder whether anything I post on this blog actually gets read by more than 2 or 3 people).

Suppose We Organized Cyber Space Like We Do in Precincts
Traditionally, campaigns are organized geographically - often block by block, precinct by precinct. The effectiveness of the local ground game often varies state to state, town to town, depending on a multiplicity of factors, including but not limited to candidates' appeal, local issues, quality of local political leadership etc.

What I'm thinking is:

Every 25 people who've registered on this site as bloggers is (a) made a member of a sub-blogger news group and (b) assigned a Blogger Community Leader who serves as a liasion between the group and the campaign hierarchy. The Leader's job is to find answers to questions made by members of the group, communicate directives, suggestions and info from on-high and to funnel suggestions up the pipeline to campaign leadership.

You could still organize this by state and maybe even by county - and thismight reap additional geographical benefits. But cyber-space makes it easy to simply bring 25 people together and organize them, regardless of where they lived.

Doing the math - If 1.5 million people have joined the Obama Community Blog and assuming that all 50 states are equal in blogger population, each state would be 30,000 Obama bloggers, and 1,200 Group Leaders would have to be appointed (or perhaps elected by the 25 members of each subgroups).

If need be, there could be an additional supervisory layer of 48 Division Supervisors for each state; each in charge of 25 Group Leaders.

Any blog posted in the Community Blog could simultaneously be posted in the 25-person subblog so that members of the group could read it and respond. The idea would be to keep all 35 bloggers consistently engaged and involved day by day week by week.

Bottom Line
The Obama campaign would be organized and plugged in top to bottom, with sub group supporters communicating with one another daily and being armed with material and talking points needed to win over friends, neighbors and family members and to promote the campaign.

Being "Fired Up" goes without saying. What this would do is make more people "Readier to Go."

The Democratic State Convention

---------Original Message--------

From Jyoti Weaver <jyotirae@gmail.com>

Hi Glenn,
I guess that I didn't get to respond to your email before you left.  Too bad that we didn't get to find each other, but without even name tags to use as references, it was literally impossible to find people that we didn't already know.

Anyway, I had some very good conversations today with group leaders from Central Indiana and with the new state director for the campaign.  I have one question: Who are you talking to with the campaign to get your OAN-IN listserv going/approved?  The director would like to know as we continue to try to streamline the communication process here in Indiana. 

Let's keep our communication going!

Thanks.
Jyoti Weaver

P.S.  I hope that you had as much fun at the convention as I did.  It was a really GREAT time!

 

-------Reply----------

Hi, Jyoti. Thanks for touching base. I truly regret that we were unable to meet personally. There were several people that I did not manage to contact that I would have liked to, but many that I did. I take it that you did not receive my email telling everyone that I would be wearing a white T-shirt with "Obama '08 - The Drive" printed in bright blue? Oh, well. While I did enjoy the event tremendously, it was also quite a bit of work. I had the pleasure of meeting many new and interesting individuals within the Democratic Party.

For the time being, rest assured that OAN-IN has taken a great deal of careful planning just to get us to this point. I will cover this topic in another post. Just for your information, we expect to be launching some Counties in NW Indiana this week. This area has been very pro-active in recognizing and supporting this network. For everyone's information, I have already made inquiries regarding setting up a meeting between OAN-IN and the newly appointed Obama State Campaign Coordinator before proceeding any further with the impending launch.

Frankly, Jyoti, I did not attend the Convention "to lobby" for OAN-IN. Having worked the IN primary, I have personally been very concerned about strengthening the Obama support down here in Southern Indiana. The area is known as "Kentuckiana." It is a hybrid blend of Indiana and Kentucky values. We all know, only too well, what happened to the Obama campaign in KY. This concern was the compelling motive that lead me to volunteer to work in the Obama State HQ in Kentucky during the KY primary. In fact, it was the campaign staff in Louisville who affectionately gave me the nickname, G, for 'go-to-guy."

We are happy to report we were able to communicate directly with Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Jill Long-Thompson and Democratic Lieutenant Governor Candidate Dennie Oxley our assessment that the Jill Long-Thompson campaign will be vital to the success of the Obama Drive in Kentuckiana and in the rural areas of Indiana. As it turned out, we were preaching to the choir. We did, however, obtain a public commitment from Jill Long-Thompson to launch a very strong campaign effort specifically targeting Southern and rural Indiana. Jill Long-Thompson graciously explained in some detail the campaign structure that she has in place to ensure the continuous and active collaboration between the Obama campaign and her own campaign. We were deeply impressed with both Jill Long-Thompson and Dennie Oxley.

As impressive as Senator Obama is as a Presidential Candidate, Jill is as a Gubernatorial Candidate. She radiates warmth, integrity and ability simply through the act of exchanging eye contact. Dennie Oxley will be a very effective deputy. He is well qualified to win bi-partisan support for Jill's agenda in the State Legislature. This is critical to the Obama supporters in Kentuckiana as we are convinced that an Obama/Thompson campaign strategy will be vital to securing a Obama/Democratic Party majority in the Southern and rural areas of this State.

We look forward to fully supporting this extraordinary combined campaign effort.

Yes, Jyoti, I fully agree that we all need to communicate far more actively with each other about this network. The NW region has been in regular phone contact with us for several weeks now.  - G

--

http://obama08thedrive.blogspot.com/

Netiquette

NW Indiana has really jumped on this project. As a result we will soon be activating OAN-IN in this area. If anyone is interested in volunteering to act as a GA for this area please let me know. As of now we are no longer accepting volunteers to act as GAs in the NW counties of La Porte, Porter, St Joe, Newton & Tippacanoe. We have offers in many others, but we would like to give the most qualified volunteers the opportunity to act in this capacity. Email us if you are interested in volunteering for this region or any other County in Indiana.

Anticipating the success of our network, we must now establish a few specific policies that will facilitate clear and accurate communications on a long-term basis.

Please refrain from acting as a campaign information source. This will be the sole prerogative of the Obama campaign staff; that is if they choose to utilize our communications network. Obama staffers will be the only persons who will be allowed to post campaign informational posts. Again, our posts must be confined to the active logistic support of volunteer activities on an appropriate basis. We are not an information source. We are a work group.

Existing local volunteer groups on mybo are already in place to handle their own local activities. It would be counter-productive for us to interfere with these efforts. We must allow them to do their work unfettered by any outside individuals or groups; especially us. These local groups may decide to use our communications network to help them organize their efforts. They may use the network to seek support from any other volunteers/groups to assist them with their ongoing work. That is their, and only their, choice.

Unless local groups specifically request input from outside volunteers/groups we must make it a point not to offer any form of unsolicited input. The existing mybo groups must be free to use the communication network as a private channel. No one will be allowed to interfere in the public communications of any other members of the network. If we do, we immediately become a source of interference; not communication. Any member of this network is, however, encouraged to email any other volunteer/group off-network. We must be fastidious about allowing other members/groups to set their own boundaries; and then respect them.

One of the most obnoxious and counter-productive features of most listserve groups is when some member decides to adopt the group as his/her own personal pulpit. When you confront him he/she always counters that, as an American, he has the right to free speech. Our position is absolute on this issue. Everyone has the right to speak - right up to the point when their words meet our ears. That's when his/her right ends and our rights begin. Groups are formed for the sole purpose of reaching a mutual consensus for the benefit of the members of the group. The right to speak must be continuously earned by each member based solely on his/her contribution to the purposes for which the group was formed. There can be no exceptions to this rule if we expect to have even the hope of succeeding.

The bottom line is simple and obvious. If we can not successfully speak together as a group, we will never be able to act together as a group. This will be the great social/political achievement of this century. The times demand it. Our network is a commitment to an implied right to free group speech. The individuals right to speak is not relevant in this context. To debate this issue is lunacy. The group right to communicate must be respected. Violations of the group right of free speech will not be allowed.

Please keep in mind that all of these irresponsible, often destructive individuals, are simply using their distorted conception of the right to free speech as an excuse for forcing their feelings of entitlement down every one else's throats. We are all sick to death of being compelled to endure other people's personal misery - all in the name of some prevarication of "an individual's legitimate freedom of speech." Sheer nonsense.

If we are to actually accomplish our mission of helping Senator Obama bring his message of real change to the world, then we are going to have to start right here.

Accordingly, please feel free to forward our emails to individuals who you personally know. We must respect the rights of the members of other mybo groups not to be inundated by our rhetoric. As of now we will now voluntarily and unilaterally curtail future mass mailings.

Again, this is entirely our decision. We have received no complaints or pressure. In fact, we have received only one letter expressing disapproval of our mission.

We have simply decided to walk the talk.  - G

For The Record

--------- Original message ----------
On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 8:27 AM, Janet Chilton <Email address deleted upon request> wrote:

G,

I live in Carmel and will be attending the Dem Convention this weekend. I am interested in OAN-IN, although I don't have time to be a group administrator. Maybe there is another active role that would fit my schedule. I was very active during the primary, even had a staffer living with me. She's coming back to Indiana on Friday, so I know Indiana is definitely on the radar.

Do you know who is eligible to attend the County training on Friday night? Do you have more information about that?

FYI, I am also running as a candidate for the 5th district National delegate, although I think there are about 100 of us (just kidding) vying for 1 position. Being a newbie I have little hope of winning, but it was an honor for the Obama campaign to ask me to run.

Thanks for the work you're doing. Keep me posted.

Janet Chilton
Carmel, IN

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: G <jedmed@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Subject: OAN-IN
To: Janet Chilton <Email address deleted upon request>

Welcome aboard, Janet. Thank you for your offer. When this network takes off, I can assure you that there will be lots of ways that we can all help. I have bookmarked this eamil.

Regarding your question; "Do you know who is eligible to attend the County training on Friday night? Do you have more information about that?"

Contacting your local groups is still the best way to answer these questions. This is one of the important functions of local group membership. By contacting your local group for answers to these questions, it will also provide you with an opportunity to join the existing group closest to where you live. This, in turn, helps to activate local grassroots activities. Local grassroots political groups are absolutely indispensable to the success of the campaign. A large part of OAN-IN's mission is to support local grassroots networks.

It must, however, be made clear that Senator Obama has successfully reinvented the political wheel. With the elimination of soft money and PACs no one literally knows what is going to happen next. This is the reason for the very conspicuous lull in momentum. The Obama campaign machine is laying out a brand new strategy with the Democratic Party machine. For the first time in political history the candidate has more money than the Party. It is no longer the Party who is running the show. It is the candidate. Talk about a whole new paradigm.

Add to this situation the fact that for the first time in political history, not only is the Obama campaign completely grassroots based, but this grassroots effort is extensively technology/Internet based. As a result, all the old systems are being organized and integrated into an I-based system. This is such a pronounced transition that it is affecting campaign activities at the both the highest and the most fundamental levels at the same time. It's a target shoot.

The one thing that we can all be certain of: Little is going to be certain. We do know that at long last politics will be driven by the voters, not the special interest groups. Take about a power shift.

We also know that every activity that the campaigns employ will be I-based. It is simply more reliable, faster, less resource consuming and more accessible to voters. It provides an unparalleled opportunity for clear communications; as well as larger more inclusive and more accessible databases; that will be updated in real time and will always be instantly available to staffers. Wow.

As I have said before, the possibilities are limitless. What we are participating in is the rapid "techologicalization" of the political campaign process. The implications are as limitless as was the introduction of the machine was to the Industrial Revolution. OAN-IN is the first volunteer driven application of this technology in the history of American political campaigning. It takes mybo and gives it a good shove.

For future reference, all you need to do is to log on to mybo. Go to the find you local group page. Enter you zip code and you will be provided with those registered groups closest to you. Yes, the list is as yet incomplete. But it will tie you into the local volunteer network.

Until mybo has the opportunity to establish a more complete database of local groups, complete local group membership in OAN-IN will temporarily provide a complete and accurate database of every local group in the State of Indiana, including a communications network for contacting them. This is another component of the OAN-IN mission statement.

However, if you can not get your questions answered by contacting your local group, or you would like to communicate with a broader network of groups, then feel free to post to the larger group here at OAN-IN Janet; at least for now. As the campaign grows we may have to curtail some postings if they interfere with higher priority communications. Since no one has ever done this before, we will all have to put our heads together and work this thing out every step of the way. This is really entirely a grassroots project.

To all members: Please feel free to use OAN to help you coordinate your intra-County and inter-group activities for the County Trainings and the Dem Conv this weekend. Over time, OAN-IN will authorize County based networks for exactly this purpose.

Btw, we are going to try to get some OAN members together for an impromptu "do" in Indianapolis this weekend. Given the short notice, we are just going to do the best that we can. So no one should sweat it if we don't hook up. This is, after all, an I-based network. :-)

Indianapolis is just a great opportunity to get to know each other face to face. It also will allow me to explain this powerful tool in person. OAN-IN simply anticipates the next logical step in I-based grassroots political campaigning. We are attempting to utilize this powerful technology now, while there is still time to use these advances to help Senator Obama get elected in November. Our success will be entirely dependent upon the hard work and enthusiasm of the community of grassroots volunteers.

The potential advantage to the Obama campaign by using OAN-IN in Indiana is enormous.

If you like, please e-mail me your itinerary for your stay in Indianapolis including where you will be staying. Some of us will definitely be getting together.  - G
--
http://obama08thedrive.blogspot.com/

Exciting News

"We must interrupt our regular scheduled programming to bring you the latest breaking news."  ;-)

Mybo has approved our application for an OAN-IN network group for each of the 92 Counties in the State of Indiana. If you are interested in serving as a group administrator (GA), please contact me. You must be qualified for this position.

There have been a few inquiries of late that need to be addressed to the whole group.

OAN-IN is not a mybo group. OAN-IN is a communications and deployment network.

Mybo groups play a vital role in organizing and supporting local grassroots volunteer/campaign strategies. The current mybo groups need to continue to fulfill their traditional and critical role in exactly the same way that they have always done.

OAN-IN is a communication network designed to improve and facilitate the communications process between the Indiana volunteers (local mybo groups) and the professional campaign staffers. Part of our mission is to enhance the functionality of current and future local mybo groups.

OAN-IN is strictly a volunteer sponsored and driven effort. We volunteers are responsible for our own success. Mybo's contribution to this effort is allowing us to utilize their powerful infrastructure for our communications purposes. We expect to be receiving assistance from other Obama volunteers from across the country. We are already in discussions with other groups in other States. Their assistance will be invaluable to us.

The bottom line is this. We volunteers are finally taking charge of organizing and directing our own area of responsibility - volunteer field operations. Ultimately, the end user of the system is the staffers. They will be the ones to send requests to the volunteer network. That's when we will go to work. Everything we do must be directed towards the deployment of volunteer resources to any staffer immediately upon their request - especially come GOTV time. Everything we are doing, with OAN-IN or in our local groups, is simply preparation for what we all hope will be the most massive and successful GOTV Drive in American political history.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Please let me know if you will be in Indianapolis this weekend. It is time for the potential GA volunteers to get together.  - G

Going Public

This year Indiana has the opportunity to make grassroots political campaign history. Senator Obama will win Indiana. We volunteers will deliver it for him.

Those of us who worked as Obama volunteers during the long primary run learned a lot of things. Most of all we learned what works and what doesn't.

The one issue that clearly stood out was the disconnect between staffers and volunteers. The Obama Action Network - Indiana (OAN-IN) was established to address this problem. OAN-IN is a volunteer organized and self-directed volunteer communications network. There is one iron-clad rule: This is a work group; not a discussion group. Every post must directly focus on the support of physical grassroots organizing activities. This network is a Rapid Response Battle Group. If utilized to it's maximum capabilities, it will revolutionize the political campaign process here in Indiana.

We have already received mybo approval to test this system here in Indiana. Today we finished submitting every County group for final approval.

While we volunteers will be responsible for the organization and maintenance of this network, the end users of this network will be the Obama Staffers. We exist to support them. In the process we can drastically reduce the staffers current administrative work load. This will then free the staffers to more directly monitor their field operations. We will accomplish this seemingly impossible feat simply by taking full advantage of the technological capabilities of I-based communications which mybo first initiated.

Some of us have already logged on to the network. We have posted the relevant emails to a blog. If you would like to get up to speed on what has happened so far, please read the entries for the month of June starting with the post titled "The Launch" and read forward.

Later today we will change our focus from volunteer organization to staff support function. It is the built-in powerful staff support functionality that makes this communications network so powerful and useful.

As of now we are posting to the OAN-IN group. This is the State level group. County groups will soon follow. If you would like to participate in the launch, or place your name into consideration to act as a Group Administrator, you may log in by going to Mybo Groups and join the "OAN-IN" group. Please remember that this is exclusively an action group. If you would like to engage in political debates, post articles or wax poetic there are a good number of excellent mybo groups already available to you. Just not this one. ;-)

For right now, please take the time to read the archives. More to follow tomorrow.  - G

Here's How it Works

While monitoring other active groups, several days ago we came across a group that was experiencing some major communications problems.

The group administrator had decided to block out some very active listserve members. Listserve members could not post to the group. This situation continued unchanged for months despite repeated appeals to the GA. We at OAN-IN then posted some suggestions to the group.

The group acted immediately.

Note the powerful positive energy that occurs when a committed local Obama support group finally decides to own their problem and finds their own unique solution.

Please take the time to read it carefully. Ultimately, this is exactly what we are determined to accomplish with OAN-IN. 

Please read from the top down.  Notice the dates and times.  - G

- - - - - - - - -

-------Original Message-------From: s.gray [mailto:s.gray@alum.drexel.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 11:23 PM
To: dudestein1958@yahoo.com
Cc: JerseyShoreforObama@groups.barackobama.com
Subject: Fw: Re: Fw: Need Help responding to the obama jersey shore listserve

Hello,

Could you please post my reply about finding folks in the "real south jersey".

I'm getting so frustrated trying to send to the group and not seeing it get posted.

I've sent messages since last year and never see them in the emails to the group.

Thank you,

  Sharon

Mays landing

- - - - - - - - - - -

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 6:38 PM, Robert Marmorstein <dudestein1958@yahoo.com> wrote:

Fuzzebear- We are going to meet as a group. Network between all the people there. Exchange information such as Events coming up, questions on campaign activites. Some people want to do a Car Wash Fund raising for instance. We can connect people in that fund raiser to make it HAPPEN. There are others who may hold Meet and Greet parties with neighbors or even whole Neighborhoods. This is something that has come down from the Main Website. Well, we can amongst the people meeting, organize one of those events.

It's harder to do it by yourself. But the group will give us strength and the impetus to do it. Having others that will help us makes it good for all of us.  Mostly though, we are meeting because we want to start do so Something. Taking the first step on the thousand mile journey, so to speak.

Robert Marmorstein

- - - - - - - -

From: Bob Tanner <bmtanner3@gmail.com>
To: Jersey Shore for Obama <JerseyShoreforObama@groups.barackobama.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 7:42:13 PM
Subject: [JerseyShoreforObama] Re: RE: Re: Updated Contacts and possible meeting time and date.

All,

The contact list ia great idea but it's very hard to track via email.  People may not have the correct updated list, names might be dropped, etc.  I may be a bit ahead of myself but since the group page on Obama's website has very limited functionality, I created a new network site for our group to coordinate on.  Here's the address: http://jerseyshoreobama.ning.com/.  Just sign up on the top right hand side.  I've created a forum on the site for discussions as well as polls for meetups, etc.  I would be more than willing to add more admins for the site if anyone wanted to manage it.  I feel it would add a lot more organization to the process of meetups, discussions and events.

Regards,

Bob

- - - - - - - -

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 9:31 PM, Robert Marmorstein <dudestein1958@yahoo.com> wrote:

Bob Tanner- You Da Man...YOU DA MAN! OH Yeah! Good work!

I'll get myself oriented and get back to the group tomorrow by noon!

robert.marmorstein

From: Robert Marmorstein [mailto:dudestein1958@yahoo.com]

Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 9:50 PM
To: Jersey Shore for Obama
Subject: [JerseyShoreforObama] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Updated Contacts and possible meeting time and date.

Hello All,

I just want to say that I am proud of all you out there that are now starting to take the initiative. This is what it takes to start a movement. We are going to to get a helluva lot more votes for Senator Barack Obama in this coming election. And then we can all feel proud of the role we played in changing our world!

Love you all,

robert.marmorstein

---

----- Original Message ----
From: Bob Tanner <bmtanner3@gmail.com>
To: Jersey Shore for Obama <JerseyShoreforObama@groups.barackobama.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 9:43:02 PM
Subject: [JerseyShoreforObama] Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Updated

Contacts and possible meeting time and date.
Thanks Winter.....glad you enjoy.  Hopefully it helps out alot.

- - - - - - - -

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 , Robert Marmorstein <dudestein1958@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hey Rob,

No problem.  It's the least I can do to help.  I'll be more than  happy to add you as an admin for this site so you can take charge of it.  Hope it helps in the organization of events and such.

---

 

---------- Final message ----------

From: Kathleen Walsh <kathleen.walsh@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Subject: [JerseyShoreforObama] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Updated Contacts and possible meeting time and date.
To: Jersey Shore for Obama <JerseyShoreforObama@groups.barackobama.com>

I have to tell you, you guys are FRYING my blackberry..... I think it may explode from all the emails.

But your enthusiasm gives me such hope that I just don't care!

Kat

"What washington needs is adult supervision."

- Barack Obama

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http://obama08thedrive.blogspot.com/

The Critical Objective

from: Bob Mattson mattson1996@yahoo.com

reply-to: mattson1996@yahoo.com

to: Glenn Dixon <jedmed@yahoo.com>

date: Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 9:48 PM

subject: Re: Fw: LAUNCH - Indiana Volunteer Network

Hi Glenn,

I am writing on behalf of Democracy for Lake County.  I am very interested in what you wrote below.  We have some great ideas but are having a heck of a time getting the logistics worked out.

Two of the things that we are considering are:

-Campaign training seminars. 

-Connecting volunteers in to national, state, and local campaigns.

How can we plug in?

Bob Mattson

- - - - - - - - - -

G to OAN-IN, mattson1996

Hi, Bob. Sounds great. Let me update you on our progress to date.

I spent 4 hours on the phone with Carla Mays, the former Team Leader of Team Puerto Rico. Carla has been a professional Democratic strategist for 12 years. She is  well connected and experienced with the Obama Volunteer Network, particularly in So. California. She is one of the most energetic and naturally pleasant human beings that I have ever met. She also really knows her stuff. She will be contacting technical specialist experienced in these types of operations to contact me straight away.

There is really only one potential obstacle that we can not control. We can not ultimately succeed without mybo HQ actively supporting our enterprise. We have accomplished the first step: Getting mybo to agree that it is a good idea. Historically, however, this is not enough. Eventually, unless mybo makes a solid and active commitment to assist us, we simply will not succeed.

The volunteer specialists that will be contacting me will explain to me in detail how we can structure our activities in a such way that we will be practically useful to the campaign. We must structure our activities in such a way that we can easily and productively employed within their new framework and game plan.

The new campaign will be much stronger than was the primary campaign. As we speak the Obama campaign machine is integrating seamlessly with the Democratic Party machine. This new entity, the Obama Democratic Presidential National campaign will have tremendous resources at their disposal. They will have their own agenda. They will view us according their agenda.

Either we establish ourselves as a useful component of their infrastructure or we will eventually be viewed as just another fly on the wall. Essentially we must undertake those strategies that the Democratic Party decides will be useful to them. If we are not useful and available to help them achieve their purposes, we really are useless.

Please be advised that I did a good deal of homework before getting started on this.

If anyone has any resources that they can bring to bear to assist us in achieving this next critical objective they should contact me immediately.

Regards  - G

The Big Picture

Here is the post that puts it all together.

So far we have established only one of the primary functions of this network: To assist us in coordinating our volunteer recruitment and organizational activities at the local level. This new network will allow us to focus our efforts exclusively on organizing local grassroots activities without the background noise. The rules are clear: This is a work group, not a discussion group. This expanded network will also allow us to share our resources and knowledge throughout the State.

The second function of the OAN will be to act as an immediate response network between every Obama staffer and every local campaign volunteer on a moment-to-moment basis. Any staffer or volunteer coordinator will be able to input each separate request for assistance to every potential volunteer within the local geographic area.

Staffers do not currently posses this ability. This is the Achilles Heel of the current communications network. Someone, usually a volunteer coordinator assigned to the specific activity, has to reach out to other individual volunteers on an individual basis. This is inefficient, time consuming and inadvertently misses every volunteer who isn't on the pre-approved A List for that one volunteer coordinator. It is a tremendous waste of volunteer manpower.

This network will allow the staffers, or the volunteer coordinators, to immediately post their requests to the entire group. Any member could then offer to assist in solving the current problem. Usually this will be a request for people to canvass, or work phones, etc. But there are many other tasks that are vital to the success of our campaign efforts such as driving to another county to pick up signs or buttons, or bringing food to feed the field workers. This new system will allow any member who is available to immediately volunteer. The network will be fast, accurate, reliable and internally self-administered. This model also allows for anyone to join the GOTV drive at any point in the campaign and immediately start pitching in. As long as there are enough volunteer members, every volunteer will be free to respond or to take a couple of days off for a break without risking bringing the whole system down. No one needs to sign up from day one and then commit to lose their entire life for months just to earn the right to be able to participate. ;-)

A political campaign is very similar to fighting a war. "No battle plan ever survives [the first] contact with the enemy". - Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke. During a political primary, priorities change hourly. This network will allow each of us to effectively respond to this ongoing challenge.

Our immediate goal is to obtain a list of qualified Group Administers (GA) so that mybo can initialize the County based OAN groups. It would be counter productive to have every Obama supporter join the network at the State level. It would also be impossible to administer a network of this magnitude.

As soon as enough counties have an OAN-IN GA we can start registering every potential Obama volunteer throughout the State of Indiana on mybo.

Please contact qualified Obama volunteers such as current mybo Group Administrators to see if they are able to come on board. We can not risk putting our message out to the general community until the county groups have been activated. This is also a perfect opportunity for each of us to contact our local newspapers, faith based groups, etc. to inform them of our upcoming launch. It will help if they make a commitment to assist us when the time comes.

Today and tomorrow I will start calling key potential resources to bring them up to speed, get their input, and perhaps even their direct support. Please keep in mind that this is completely a volunteer project. The planning stage is moving along nicely. We will soon be up and running.

Only we volunteers can deliver the State of Indiana for Senator Obama. We aim do exactly that.  - G

The Goal

Every campaign effort needs specific goals. The goal of mybo is to mobilize volunteers to assist the professional campaign staffers for the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) drive at the local level. However, there is a persistent logistics problem with the current system.

Staffers can not direct volunteers. The rules governing staffer-volunteer interactions are strict. Staffers can only offer advice and assistance. We volunteers must manage ourselves. Volunteers are free to come and go as we wish. We are free to abandon a task when the task is only half done. Not exactly an ideal arrangement from a staff perspective.

From a staffer's point of view the ideal would be too many volunteers who are already organized in such a way that whenever the need arises the staffers can dependably contact, immediate mobilize and specifically direct this inexhaustible supply of volunteers. ;-)

The bottom line is simple. If want to give the Obama staff the most support possible, we need to build a volunteer communications network that staffers can rely on. By building this self-administered network we will very likely successfully eliminate all of the built in communication complexities of having to go to people; who know people; who might know people; who might be willing; who then might even show up. Our ideal goal is to make it possible for the staffers to plug directly into the volunteer network with their requests.

We must all do our best to get this network up and running as soon as possible while there is still time left to make a difference come November.   - G

Btw, we now also have Hamilton County covered. Yes!

County GA update

So far we have experienced GAs to cover Marion, Newton, Jasper, Benton, & White counties. We have possibles on several others.

Considering that I am proceeding very slowly with the launch, this is really very impressive.

If any members know experienced Obama GAs please contact them and let them know what's going on.

Thanks.  - G

Obama grassroots update

What do staffers have that we do not? Three things. An ongoing structure (buildings where people get together daily to accomplish specific objectives); ongoing activities (knowledgeable people, a proven action plan, clear objectives); and most important - and access to an organized database (a huge list of Obama supporters and volunteers).

If you have volunteered to work in the field you know that your work will primarily consist of 3 tasks. Canvassing; working the phone banks; and entering volunteer data into the database system. Have you ever noticed that staffers can usually be found hiding behind some desk, typing furiously, talking on their cells and looking up only when they have no other choice? They are furiously engaged in entering data into the system.

They are entering the voter and volunteer data from all the countless forms, applications, even merchandise receipts and entering it into the HQ database. Perhaps the most important part of field work is collecting contact information from every registered pro-Obama they can reach? The database and the people are the two most important ingredients to launch a successful grass-roots campaign.

All we have to do is copy their time-tested recipe for success. Reach out to people. Get their contact information and then follow it through until you start getting responses. Do you see where we are headed with this?  ;-)

The turning point for me to actually personally commit to the Obama campaign was when I saw the red graffiti massage that had been painted on the brick wall next to the image of Senator Obama: "I am not asking you to believe in me. I am asking you to believe in yourselves."

The turning point is always the same. We finally understand that we are our only real solution.  - G

LAUNCH - Indiana Volunteer Network

Mybo has just authorized the launch a new state-wide Obama communications network here in Indiana using the mybo listserver. Unlike the current mybo groups, this is a volunteer organized and directed network with the sole purpose of building and supporting grassroots support groups throughout the State of Indiana.

This is not a discussion group. It is a work group. All communications will be directed towards the goal of building and maintaining active grass-roots activities at the local level. According, all posts to the network will be actively monitored by volunteer administrators to ensure a continuously effective working environment.

We are requesting that the leaders of all active Indiana based volunteer groups please contact us. Be advised that mybo administrators will assess our efforts so that they may gage the potential effectiveness of employing this format on a larger scale.

The choice of Indiana is no accident. The success of the hard working volunteers from Indiana during the Primaries impressed the nation.

This is entirely a volunteer effort. Each of us has the opportunity to contribute our vision, ideas and suggestions now when it will count the most. Obama staffers can not direct volunteer activities. This direction must be provided directly by us, the volunteers. If the staffers are to maximize their work efforts during their stay here, they need a knowledgeable and well-coordinated volunteer network already in place.

To find out more email the Obama Action Network - Indiana.
OAN-IN@groups.barackobama.com