Oct 4, 2008

VOLUNTEERS - CHANGE FOR COLORADO Boulder Colorado is a wonderful place to Volunteer and work for CHANGE. I have described in previous diaries the decision and actual trip to Colorado to work for Change COLORADO VOLUNTEER - my swing state action BOULDER VOLUNTEERS TRIPPIN FOR OBAMA - XCountry Photo Diary XCountry part 2 Now 11 days into the trip I want to share the actual experience for those of you who might be thinking about traveling to VOLUNTEER to make certain that this guy is the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES The BOULDER COLORADO office is nothing fancy  but it is a large space that once housed a food co-op. Lots of mismatched chairs, tables and desks with phones and computers and 100's of VOLUNTEERS    The Boulder office is a beehive of activity from 9am til 9pm each weekday as dozens of VOLUNTEERS rotate through the office making telephone calls, doing data entry on the computers, registering voters, and planning canvassing runs. We call other VOLUNTEERS to make up teams for events like Michelle's speech at CU this week or a sign making party for the event. Every new registration to vote is taken to the county clerk and a copy is entered into the permanent database. Every attendee at an event like Michelle's speech is entered into the data base as is every canvassing report Boulder County is averaging 1000's of new registrations a week. Add to that the 9000 who attended the Michelle Obama rally at CU, the phone contact data of dozens of phone bankers, and the data gathered by the door to door canvassers, and you get an idea of how much information gets entered into the VoteBuilder data base.  Most of the VOLUNTEERS bring in their own laptops for doing the data entry and we are building a permanent voter database that will serve the Democratic Party for years to come. Now I'm not going to get more specific than that about the operation and these are things anyone who enters the office and offers to work will know. The wonderful thing about the Boulder operation are the people. Sure there are many college students this being a college town but there are people who came here from across the country like I did Like Kathy and Bob from Berkeley or Judd from New York or Jenna who was on her way to Stanford from New Jersey but decided to stay in Boulder and delay her education for a semester. Or Deanna from Idaho or Holly from Cambridge. Some local folks bring in cakes, cookies, pies, and lots of snacks. Some offer rooms in their homes for out of state Volunteers. Now I know this isn't possible for everyone but if you are in a position to spend some time in a battleground state don't let this opportunity pass you by. Not only will you be working to save our country from the ravages of Republicans but you will make new friends and be a part of a great victory. I hope this diary give you a little push toward spending a little time crossing a state line to work in Ohio, Pa, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia, or another state where Barack has a good chance to win with extra effort. You might just meet a guy like my new friend Joe Joe took many of these pictures of Barack, Michelle, and the DNC final night at Invesco Field. I will leave you with them and the hope that you will feel inspired to take a little trip and VOLUNTEER.  

Oct 1, 2008

This VOLUNTEER from TENNESSEE made it to Boulder to VOLUNTEER for the CAMPAIGN FOR CHANGE - OBAMA, UDALL, POLIS, & MARKEY I've made a few 100 calls, canvassed, and entered lots of new voter registration data down at the Boulder office but today was a real treat Michelle came to the CU COLORADO UNIVERSITY CAMPUS and spoke this morning and I got lots of Great Pictures - follow me below This was the scene at FARRAND FIELD at 8am this morning when I arrived The FLATIRONS make a great backdrop There were about 100 VOLUNTEERS divided into teams for different tasks I got to be on the best team - VIP check in with Holly from Cambridge, Bob and Kathy from Berkeley,and Matt. Lots of us came from out of state to help. The crowd started to gather early and were entertained by Meniscus - I hope I spelled that right.  I got to meet Jared Polis who is running for Congress to replace Mark Udall Jared got the crowd fired up and ready to go He was followed by Maggie Foxx Udall the wife of Senate Candidate Mark Udall Former Pro receiver Rod Smith fired up the Bronco's fans  A CU sophomore active in the campus campaign introduced Michelle