What I Wish I Had Known At (Almost) 30 With Nancy Leeds

I love, love, love getting and giving advice. When I write "Ask Nancy" blog posts I try to think of what I needed to read 5 or 10 years ago and share that insight with you. As many of you know I am turning 30 a mere 4 months from now (yikes!) and am doing everything in my power to get the most bang for my big birthday buck!

To that end, rather than wait and tell you what to expect at 30 in retrospect, I thought I would reach out to friends with similar paths to mine who have already taken the 3-0 plunge and ask them what they wish they had known. I've learned so much in the past year from the amazing men and women I have asked for career advice in my transition to DC and I am looking forward to getting it down in writing. Some FABULOUS leaders in the field of Democratic politics have agreed to share their stories with us over the next four months. Get excited!

Before we begin, however, I thought it was only fair to share my answers to the 10 questions I asked of my guest bloggers. Here you go!

Nancy Leeds, 29, Deputy Political Director at Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund & Founder/Blogger at Campaignsick

Tell us a little about your career path.
You can learn more about how I fell into campaigns here, but my first campaign was on the Minnesota Coordinated in 2006. I worked my way up the ranks in field and management on campaigns across the country until 2011, when I moved to New York for grad school. I started CampaignSick as a way to keep in touch with the campaign world and took on short-term projects as a GOTV Director while I was in school. When I graduated I was super lucky to find a job that let me use my degree (in gender and public policy) and keep working on campaigns while living a more sustainable lifestyle.

What are you most proud of?
Professionally, my blog. It has been an immense privilege to get to entertain, advise and interact with campaign people around the country whom I would not have met otherwise. Personally, and due in part to the amazing gift that this blog has been, my confidence. I've always been an emotional, excitable person and as I've gotten older I've been able to temper the more negative aspects of that with the belief that no matter what happens I'm going to be okay. Some of that has to do with my faith, which I don't often blog about because I don't like to shove down people's throats, and some of that, like anything else, is a learned skill. Like any skill or faith, it's an evolving practice.

What is the best advice you've received?
I was delinquent in getting my regular treatment for my chronic illness when I was working on the Edwards campaign and my doctor said, "Do you think Elizabeth Edwards skips her chemo for campaign events?" Setting aside my feelings on that campaign, I've learned to prioritize my health and self-care. I know that sounds oddly specific, but if I could go back and change one thing about my 20's that would be it. I wasted a lot of time "sucking it up" and not going to the doctor because I didn't want the immediate, temporary inconvenience of taking care of myself. Consequently, I spent a lot of time in unnecessary physical and emotional pain, not being my best self. I could kick younger Nancy both for not recognizing the loss in productivity and not believing that I deserve to feel better.

What is the worst advice you've received?
"No one is going to vote for a first term Senator named Barack, go work for John Edwards." ;) Although, that one actually wound up working out okay in the long-term.

I would say any advice that discourages authenticity. There's this perception that women can't be authentic in the public sphere or they will be seen as weak. And in general political people tend to be, well, political. Many of my campaign friends will go to great lengths to avoid coping to not knowing something. In my experience, people respect when you are real and upfront with them even when that means admitting that you're imperfect or having the strength to seek advice. And also, that's how we learn. My most successful blog posts are the ones where I talk about being vulnerable because they're the most relateable. Of course there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to share yourself, but I fundamentally disagree with any advice that discourages people from being genuine.

What lesson are you still trying to learn?
Not to take other people's actions personally. When my friends/volunteers/candidates/boyfriends can't show up for me in the way that I need them to, I tend to get so frustrated and hurt. But you have to realize that everyone is making decisions based on emotions and history outside the context of your relationship with them.

I keep having to remind myself that there is no amount of loving, or coercive or good at your job that you can be to make someone who or how you want them to be. I have found that when I identify that feeling of disappointment and accept people where they are at, my relationships, both personal and professional, are much more positive.

What was the best thing about being in your 20's?
Definitely the adventures. Traveling around the country, working campaign hours, meeting all different kinds of people was a wild, amazing ride. It's not something I still have the energy for in the same way, but it made me who I am and I am eternally grateful for every moment of it, even the ones when I was sleep-deprived and tearing my hair out. It wasn't just the campaigns; I once went on a second date that was a cross country road trip. I made bold, passionate choices and I'm really proud of that.

What one thing should I absolutely do before I turn 30?
Forgive yourself. Your early twenties are for making mistakes.

What's the best thing about being 29?
Designing my own life. In my early 20's I felt like so much was out of my control because of my health and financial circumstances, and of course because campaign life can be very restrictive. The experiences I had in my younger adulthood taught me a lot about what I want and don't want in jobs and relationships. When I graduated with my masters I was very deliberate about choosing next steps that reflected what I'd learned about myself. I continue to seek out experiences that I think will enrich me or provide me the opportunity to grow. I'm very grateful to have a life that I love and to have the agency to change things when I'm not happy.

What are you looking forward to?
Security. I'll never be the kind of person who can sit still for too long, either literally or metaphorically, but I am looking forward to a time in the not too distance future when I won't have to wonder where I'll be living, who I'll be dating or whether I'll be financially secure 6 months from now.

What else?
You guys really have a lot of my "other" advice from everything I've written on the blog. In more practical information though, five things I wish I had tried earlier: kale salad, Excedrin, maxi dresses, yoga and french press coffee.


Can't wait to share more with you!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

PS. I need to get better at reminding you to do this. If you like this post, please consider donating to Campaignsick!

How Having a Rare Disease Made Me Good At My Job

As many of you know, I have Takayasu's Arteritis, which is a form of vasculitis and a rare, chronic auto-immune disorder. February 28th was Rare Disease Awareness Day and many people shared and encouraged other to share their stories about living with vasculitis online.

Before I go any further, I want to emphasize that I am fine. I've been in remission for years and was lucky that I had parents and doctors and healthcare (hello, HEALTHCARE) such that I was diagnosed early and avoided some of the more serious complications associated with the disease. That said, being sick sucks any way you slice it. Now that I've been in remission for a long time, I can look back on my experiences being actively sick and see how they shaped who I am today. I've been meaning to write a post like this for a while and since Rare Disease Awareness Day occurred while I was traveling for work, I had the kick in the pants/layover down time to make it happen. (Sorry person sitting next to me who saw me cry in the Minneapolis airport.) So without further ado, here is how being sick eventually made me good at my job:

1) It taught me empathy.

I posted about Harold Ramis dying from vasculitis on Facebook the other day and a friend jokingly responded, "but you don't look sick." This is a common response to people with a rare disease and one of the most surprising things about being sick. On the one hand, your life is entirely about your disease. Things like what you eat, how much sleep you need, managing pain, and the stress of dealing with doctors and insurance companies are always on your mind and often the lens through which you see your day. At the same time, when I was most actively sick it was from my Freshman to Junior years of college. I was making new friends, picking majors, doing internships and studying abroad in St.Petersburg, Russia. Most people I interacted with besides my close friends and family had no idea I was sick. When I routinely arrived unprepared to meetings with my academic advisor, I must have seemed irresponsible. When I slept 12 hours a day, I must have seemed depressed and anti-social to my Freshman year hallmates. When I was constantly sweaty, often out of breath and bright red walking around campus, frequently screaming on the phone to my parents or insurance company, I must have seemed...gross? crazy?

I tell you this not to play the world's tiniest violin, but to paint the picture that has informed my interaction with volunteers, party activists and other less than savory, more difficult characters. It's also what makes me so supportive of Democratic causes like access to education, providing universal healthcare, and rehabilitation in our prison system. I am as big a proponent of personal responsibility as you're likely to meet, but it seems to me that people who don't support these causes have never been the victim of circumstances beyond on their own control.

We've all seen the Ian Maclaren quote on Facebook, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Being sick has taught me to temper my natural inclination toward judgement with the understanding that you never know what's going on with someone else's lived experience.

2) It made me better at dealing with candidates.

I remember once while waiting for MRI results that from a specialist who was slow in responding, I sent an exasperated email that included the line, "please remember, while this is your JOB, this is my LIFE." Sure, it was a tad dramatic, but I often reflect on those interactions when dealing with finicky candidates. It can be very frustrating when your candidate doesn't seem to trust you or your judgment, but at least from a candidate's perspective at the end of the day, it's their job and reputation on the line, not yours. Of course, good campaign staffers are deeply emotionally invested in their races, but that's sometimes hard for a candidate to see. It doesn't make them right, but it does help me to remember what it feels like to have a stake in something that is deeply personal to me, and primarily professional to somebody else.

3) It taught me to push myself.

I've said before that the greatest lesson to learn from working on campaigns is that you are capable of more than you know. As I mentioned above, despite being pretty actively sick I (probably unwisely) studied abroad, started college, interned at the Massachusetts State House, and for a while swam a mile every day. Although in retrospect this probably wasn't the wisest decision for my physical or mental health, it did give me strength, self-confidence, and a deep rooted belief that I can accomplish anything. This served me well when I started campaign life. Fourteen-hour work days? I can sleep after the election. Eight hour call time? No problem. GOTV goals? Sure, I like a challenge.

The flip side to number 1, of course, is that knowing what one can do in the face of adversity, as a manager I don't take kindly to people who make excuses and I don't make them for myself.

4) It made me crave something outside myself.

The sad reality of being sick is that it forces you to become somewhat narcissistic. I was lucky to be at the center of a network of friends, family, and health care professionals all taking care of me. So many of my conversations were about my body and how I was feeling. So much of my mental bandwidth was taken up by my physical being. There wasn't an hour of my day where some part of my brain wasn't thinking about doses of medicine, test results, side effects, or endless arguments with insurance companies. By the time I graduated college, I was ready for my brain to be obsessed with anything but my body.

Campaign people joke that the best way to get over personal trauma is to hop on a campaign because you simply won't have time to be in your own head. Never has this been more true than when I graduated college. Although I had been in remission for over a year, it wasn't until I began my first job on a campaign that my life became about something other than my illness. After years of feeling like a victim of circumstance I was suddenly eating, sleeping and breathing agency--not only empowering myself, but empowering other people. I was able to redirect the single-minded focus that had allowed me to graduate college, join a sorority and live a relatively normal life despite being sick to something bigger than myself. (Sometimes to my doctor's and parents' chagrin) I didn't have time to think about my body all the time anymore. I wasn't a sick person, I was an organizer.

5) It taught me crisis management.

Long-time readers may remember a post last year in which I shared that I've suffered from fairly intense anxiety and panic attacks--a phenomenon I attribute almost entirely to having been sick. When I was diagnosed, I was about to graduate from high school. I had been admitted to Tufts University, which to my 17 year old mind was as close to a utopia as a smart, passionate, sensitive girl from Chappaqua could get. I had worked really hard to get into Tufts and was eager to start my new life among like-minded people far from the hometown where I never felt accepted. And then, just like that, I had the rug pulled out from under me. Being diagnosed with a chronic illness, especially one no one I knew had ever heard of, threw a wrench in my plans to say the least. Visions of college a cappella and studying on the quad were replaced by fears of hair loss and weight gain (which, by the way, are drug side effects I was way more afraid of than having a stroke or heart attack, thanks for that, society.) Since then I have been wrestling with the underlying awareness that no matter how well things are going, everything can change on the drop of the dime. Little things like my boyfriend not texting me back right away or my boss emailing me "let's find a time to talk later" have been known to send me into a tailspin of worst case scenarios.

That said, when the rubber hits the road, I am excellent in a crisis. Due to the curve balls that being sick has thrown me, I learned to make bold, firm decisions quickly and see their next steps and consequences, even under pressure. I can fire staff, hire new staff and issue a press release while other people are still freaking out about the offending tweet. I know there's no point in fixating on what cannot be changed when there are circumstances that still can be. And even when things are bad, I can put them in perspective.


So that's that. I always feel a little awkward when I post something intensely personal, so I hope you found value in it. Hoping you never have to experience this stuff first hand.

Campaign Love and Mine,


Nancy

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Help Crowdfund CampaignSick!

I am VERY EXCITED to announce crowdfunding for CampaignSick!!! Please watch the video or click the link to find out more!

Text of the video pasted below.

Thank you for all that you do!

Nancy

http://www.patreon.com/campaignsick

Patreon is like Kickstarter but rather than working toward one big project allows me to fund an ongoing project, like CampaignSick. You can pledge any monthly amount you want. Could be as low as $1. Could be more.

CampaignSick is absolutely a labor of love, but it is a labor. I view CampaignSick as a community project and that’s why I’m asking for your support.

CampaignSick readers always write in: “I wish I could buy you a beer.” So think of it like that. If everyone who reads this blog gave $8 a month, which is the cost of a beer in New York, I could quit my job, travel the country visiting campaigns and do this full time. Now I don’t expect that, but the more people who give, the more time I can spend supporting the campaign community, which is what I love.

Now that I’m working full time instead of in grad school it is hard to prioritize blogging and fostering this community that we all love. Patreon will allow me to create content on a more regular basis, answer more of your questions, involve more collaborators and maybe even do things like this, shoot videos.

I want you to know how much I appreciate you reading and also how much it would mean to me if you could give.

So, can I count on you to help crowdfund CampaignSick?

Thank you for all that you do.

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

CampaignSick AMA

Better late than pregnant? Sorry, guys. These are the FAQ's from Rootscamp weekend that I promised I'd answer on my blog.

1) You work on CampaignSick? What do you do for them?
Everything. Well, basically everything. CampaignSick is just me, Nancy, army of one. I write the articles, curate the GIFs and answer the questions submitted to the blog. I also accept submissions from the fabulous campaign community, without which CampaignSick would just be me laughing at myself, which I do enough of anyway.

2) How do you make money from the blog?
I don't really, but I am hoping to change that. Last year I made $73 dollars from Passionfruit ads which you see at the top of the blog and Tumblr. I am hoping to create a sponsorship program and add a PayPal button over the next couple of weeks, but don't worry. CampaignSick will always be 100% free for the poorganizing community.

3)What campaign do you work on?
It's usually not hard to figure out where I work by doing some very light social media stalking, but in most cases I don't like to write about specific campaigns I'm working on. Even though I try to make it very clear that I am not writing or tumbling about my current projects (and unless otherwise specified, I'm really not) I don't want there to be any cause for confusion or for something I say to reflect negatively on my campaigns. The first rule of field organizing, after all, is don't talk to the press. I have worked on campaigns for seven years on everything from Presidential (John Edwards=oops4lyf) to City Council. I currently work at a DC based organization that advises candidates across the country at every level of elected government, so I get to have my hand in a lot of pots.

4) Have you ever worked for OFA?/What do you think of OFA?/ What do you think of Organizing for Action?/It seems like you love OFA./It seems like you hate OFA./It seems like you get a lot of your stuff from OFA.
Your OFA questions revealed!

I did work for OFA briefly during the 2010 election cycle when it was Organizing for America. I also worked with OFA in 2008 when I worked for a State Democratic Party electing a US Senator and we coordinated with OFA for the last couple months. And of course, I volunteered in 2012 and got to advise, talk to and be on conference calls with a lot of OFA field staff in various non-official capacities.

The reason it seems like I get a lot of my stuff from OFA even though I spent relatively little time working for them is that OFA was born out of a long and prestigious organizing tradition of which I am a part. Mitch Stewart, for example, who was part of the birth of the OFA field program, was my Coordinated Director in 2006. (I don't know why the Wikipedia article doesn't mention that...or why Mitch Stewart has a Wikipedia Article.)

When it seems like I "hate" OFA it is usually because I'm reacting to the misconception that the OFA created field or that it was the best/only thing that's ever happened in campaigns. Obviously neither of those are true. OFA was the best campaign possible...for electing Barack Obama. I think sometimes people who have only ever worked for OFA don't have an appreciation for the fact that smaller or less glamorous campaigns face different obstacles. No one wants to hear your personal story on a State Leg. race. You cannot send an email about an event featuring a City Council candidate and expect people to attend.

I love, love, love a lot of OFA-ers and am eternally grateful for the people OFA has brought into my life and to the general organizing community. In my mind OFA's biggest and most applicable contribution to the campaign community is creating a culture that invests in and values its low-level staff and volunteers. That isn't to say no one had done this before, but especially in 2008 (Respect, Empower, Include) OFA articulated and emphasized it in a way that felt pretty revolutionary and jived with my organizing ethos. I myself was an organizing newbie at the time. OFA's social media/web team is also incredibly innovative and has really redefined the limits and created a new standard for integrating media, web and field.

I really don't know a lot about Organizing for Action, and I'm hoping someone will agree to write about it for me soon!

5) How/why did you start your blog?
When I left campaigns to go to grad school I wanted a way to stay connected to what was going on in the organizing/elections community. I also wanted to put it on my grad school applications. In December of 2011 when Feminist Ryan Gosling was sweeping the Internet, I made a corresponding Tumblr as a joke for myself/my friends. It took off and the rest is history.

6) Why is your blog called CampaignSick?
My intention was for CampaignSick to be like homesick for campaigns, but it is definitely also a sickness.

7) How come my GIF didn't get posted on the tumblr?
I post everything unless it is offensive or the GIF is broken so...if you keep submitting and not getting published, you might want to get someone to help you with the formatting. (It's hard! Tumblr changes the rules like every day!)


I think that's it! Feel free to keep 'em coming.


Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

How to Make a Placard Hat

Halloween is almost upon us and that means it's time for everyone's favorite costume, the sexy yardsign. This year I thought I'd add a new addition to the costume, the placard hat. Good for GOTV, Halloween or really any occasion this is by far my favorite use of the legless yardsign. Modeled below by intern to the stars, Captain Jack Sterne of the SS Stringer.

I did not have a placard with me so I recycled this NYC Recycles Poster. How To:

Step 1: Place your placard length-wise in front of you. (Some lengths of placards work better for this project than others.)

Step 2: Fold your placard in half.

Step 3: Starting from the creased edge, fold down the corners of your placard until they meet in the middle leaving about 2" (or to taste) for the brim. Those are my toes.

Step 4: Fold up the remaining surface of the placard so as to secure the folded triangles and create a nice little brim. Optional: Secure your brim in place using campaign stickers, like Capt. Jack above.

Step 5: Impress your friends and coworkers with your fashiony fashion sense.

Ask Nancy: How to Invest When You're At Your Most Stressed

One of the strange things about being a field organizer is an overwhelming sense of professional responsibility juxtaposed with an almost complete lack of control over one's personal life. You're often in a new city, sleeping on someone's couch, with very limited income and less time to spend it. By necessity and by choice, organizers tend not to take very good care of themselves preferring instead to devote every last resource to their jobs. Personal health, fitness and relationships take a back seat to recruitment, turf cutting and canvassing. I myself have been known to live by the mantra "you can sleep on November 5th."

When I started writing this post 2 weeks ago, I was on my way to yoga reflecting on how I ever put my body through the rigors of being a field staffer and wondering what I would advise if I could go back in time and tell little organizer Nancy to take better care of herself. Flash forward a week and I had accepted a short-term job as a Field Director on an extremely intense high profile race. I quickly found myself trying to figure out how I was going to move out of my apartment of 2 years in the middle of GOTV and not drying my hands in the bathroom because I was in too much of a rush to get back to the office (brilliant time saving strategy, Leeds.) I'm getting a first hand reminder of the fact that "self care" is easier said than done.

So, from one very sympathetic field person to another, here is my advice for what to put your energy and money when both are at an absolute premium.

When it comes to money, there is no better investment than controlling your space.
1) Scented Candles. I know this sounds girly, but smell is the most powerful sense in terms of evoking memories and enhancing your mood. It's a great way to quickly change the vibe of your space. (Get ready coworkers, I am totally bringing in a scented candle tomorrow.)
2) Fans, window unit air conditioners and space heaters. I know you don't want to take the time away from the office to get them or invest in a big ticket item, but you'll save yourself HOURS of productivity if you are not constantly sweating, freezing or suffocating in stale air.
3) Comfortable bedding and pillows. A good night's sleep makes a huge difference and is often the only "you" time you ever get. You will be absolutely miserable if your sleeping arrangements are uncomfortable. Even if you're sleeping on a couch buy yourself an extra comforter if you need one. You'll often be getting 4 hours of sleep a night so you best make them count.
4) Laundry, F. That. Noise. I know it seems impossibly privileged and we field folk are supposed to be scrappy but suck it up and pay for a laundry service or a fluff and fold. You don't need another tedious yet stressful activity on your plate.
5) Microwave, mini-fridge, coffee maker. This stuff costs money but you will save yourself much more in delivery and Starbucks in the long-run. Plus the ability to have healthy snacks nearby keeps you from binging on volunteer doughnuts. Sometimes.

Manage Your Mental Health.
1)Plan something to look forward to. It is really debilitating to look onto the horizon and think "and...after this I'll be unemployed and homeless." I'm trying to reframe my choice to find a cheap sublet in the village when my lease runs out and spend the two weeks after GOTV applying to jobs as a staycation that will allow me to finally allow me to enjoy the city I've lived in for two years unencumbered by grad school or campaigns.
2)Have one outside friend who "gets it." The last thing you want to do is spend 20 minutes of your time explaining why yard signs are such a necessary waste of resources before complaining about having to distribute them. Sorry in advance for all the text messages, my beloved broworkers.
3)Be grateful. Besides being Jewish, I am devoted member of the church of Oprah. One of the tenets of Oprahism is recording five things you are grateful for every day, a practice I've participated in for about a year. I have to say it really helps because it keeps you aware of the little victories even on a crappy day. I do it before I go to bed and since I have begun doing so (don't laugh at me) I've been waking up in a better mood.
4)Don't take other people's stress personally. I tweeted about this the other day because it is SUCH a common campaign pitfall, at least for yours truly. When you have a crappy call time, its stinks but you don't fester on it afterwards. Getting snapped at, dismissed, or talked down to are similar unavoidable campaign pitfalls and reflect as little on your worth or abilities as getting hung up on. The more you can let things roll off your shoulders, the happier you'll be.
5)Have something that's "yours." Despite my best intentions, it never takes long for my whole life to become about a campaign. Whether it's your ten minute walk to the office, a weekly home manicure, or a fantasy sports league you need something, albeit small, to remind you that you're still you. Mine starts with a C and ends in "ampaignSick."


Thanks for being my little bit of sanity. I hope I helped yours.


Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy


PS. Please support CampaignSick!

Thank You!!!

I have so much to talk about and I told myself I wouldn't blog until I cleaned my apartment and did my reading for this week, but that has just led to me neither blogging nor reading nor cleaning...and I wanted to write this because it is somewhat time sensitive. I got back from the inaugural festivities on Friday afternoon and I just wanted to say THANK YOU.

To My OFA-ers:

You guys don't know, and I hope you never have to know, what it means to me to be included in our 2012 Presidential victory. When I tried to explain to my first-time field-organizing prom date the weight of the journey between my own campaign virginity and being at the inaugural staff ball, he cut me off. When I roll my eyes at the idea that OFA was the best and the most important campaign and its organizers were better than all other organizers, my OFA babies think I'm being cynical, but in fact I'm just old. If you've never worked on another campaign you are naive, but lucky. If you keep doing this job you're eventually going to lose.

But just like falling in love, you can't really appreciate a good victory until you've had your heart broken. I will share with you that I cried twice in full ball regalia before I even left for the ball this weekend (and more than once at the event itself.) Sure, the entire bottle of wine I consumed while getting ready didn't help, but the truth is I was just so moved thinking about far we've come. (You're welcome, drunk dialed broworkers.) To go from pajamas in the office in the 2008 Iowa Caucus for John Edwards to a ball gown for Barack Obama's second inauguration was nothing short of surreal. To be with the people who have been my mentors, my organizers, my friends, my broworkers, my campaign hookups, my boyfriends, my bosses and and my rivals, who knew me at a time when I couldn't come to DC because I was so disillusioned and so embarrassed of my reputation, dressed up, accomplished and embracing each other is better than the ending to any cheesy movie. To celebrate with them and with you, knowing I was there because you appreciate my contributions to this incredible community because I have and return your love and respect...I guarantee you I have had no wine and I am tearing up writing this.

I have no right to ask to be included. I was stubbornly not on board the OFA train until well into the 2010 elections. For all of my criticism, I've always been a little jealous because let's face it, for the past four years OFA has been the cool kids. I wouldn't trade my experiences for the world, but I sometimes can't help but fantasize about what life would be like if I had taken my 2007 offer with Obama instead of Edwards. You were right. I was wrong. I fucked up and I've never been happier to admit it. It's true, OFA was not the first or the only campaign but there is no denying that it was something very special, something that changed the face of the job I love. I am humbled that you've included me in your lives, your campaigns and your celebrations. I've thought it every time you tweeted, facebooked called or contacted me, but I wanted to make sure I said it explicitly: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.


To all my other campaign people:

As I was driving down to DC with two local New York City organizers, we couldn't help remark that after a campaign "OFA gets a ball, everyone else gets a nap." When I brought this up to a first time OFA organizer he answered, without the slightest hint of sarcasm or irony, "You know why, because we deserved it. Because we were the best campaign ever. Seriously that's what they kept telling us that no field team has ever been as good as us." By now I'm sure you can anticipate my reaction this statement because I, like you, have been on the short end of the Obama stick. Don't get me wrong, he should feel that way, every organizer should feel that way...and you should too. I agree with him, the OFA field team absolutely deserves a fancy ball with Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, but then again so do you. This was the kind of celebration I have always wished I could give each and every one of you (but mine would have had more food.) I know it's not realistic to hope for that. To those of you who couldn't be there I wanted to say thank you too, for the part your Democratic organizing did in electing and supporting our President and for the important role you played in electing Democrats up and down the ticket.

There are really no words to express how much this community means to me. I love you guys so much. Thank you and congratulations to all of you.

Love,
Nance

Your Official CampaignSick Pep Talk (TM)

I'm laying on my stomach on my bed at the Red Roof Inn. My comforter has a cigarette burn in it. I was supposed to go out with my coworkers, but I got stuck in 30 mins of traffic, so instead I ordered pizza hut because it is the only food that delivers here. In fact, I have not seen a vegetable that was not deep fried or covered in cheese since I arrived. My first day here, I was awake for 22 hrs during which time I left the office once to get coffee and once to get toothpaste since I had not brushed my teeth in that long...but Goddamnit if I don't love my job.

I've been thinking a lot about what to write in this pep talk, which has been requested multiple times over the last few weeks. It wasn't that I couldn't think of anything inspirational to share with you. It was that I couldn't narrow it down.

Do you realize how amazing our job is? With all the money, and the negativity and the minsinformation that goes into campaigns, it still comes down to neighbors talking to neighbors. Field is the purest expression of democracy, and it's what's going to win this campaign. Sure it can be maddening when people don't seem to give a shit, but you don't have to do this, you get to. You get to spend your days empowering people and helping them believe in what's great about our country. You get to wake up every morning albeit on 4 hrs sleep and know that what you do at work today absolutely makes a difference. And you get to believe in the power of democracy, and in your own ability to effect change, more so than the average American, because you see it every day first hand.

These are not trivial issues we're dealing with. We're talking about health care, war and civil liberties. You do your job for the people who ACTUALLY can't because they are sick in the hospital because their insurance wouldn't let them go to the doctor on time. Do your job for a 15 year old who is bullied in school for being effeminate and whose teachers have no recourse to protect him. Do your job for a 16 year old who was molested by her cousin and is afraid to seek abortion counseling because her rape might not be considered "legitmate."

If you are lucky enough to have a candidate in whom you truly believe, do your job for him. But even if you aren't, that's not always what it's about. Volunteers come into the office for the candidate, but they stay for you. You join the campaign for the candidate, but you do it for each other. No matter how crazy your boss or your co-workers might be driving you right now, there is someone on this campaign you love. You know how she takes her coffee, you mock each other's taste in music and you could pick her volunteer ask out of a line up. And you should, because campaign people are incredible. No offense to my wonderful classmates, but I feel more comfortable out for drinks with the people I've known here for three days than with the people I've spent time with for over a year. We get each other. We've dealt with yard sign activists, we've built 10,000 person events on 24 hrs notice, we've knocked on doors, looked strangers in the eye and promised them that their vote can make a difference. We are all willing to dial a phone until our fingers break if that's what it takes, because this is just that important. In what other world can I wear sweatpants to work, curse like a sailor, and have a beer with a Congressman? It's an incredibly special community that you're a part of.

And what of those volunteers? I tell candidates that when they ask donors for money that they're making an implicit promise to do everything they can to get elected in exchange for that support. It's the same bond between you and your volunteers. Everyone has that one volunteer whose story they tell over and over again, who offered to do your laundry, who cooked you dinner when you were dragging on the floor, who wheeled her chemo bag into the office to make calls. For all of the frustration that some activists can bring, I've had volunteers I met as an organizer who to this day follow me in my heart to every campaign office.

Finally, I wanted to share something that a now prominent member of the Obama campaign once shared with me.

State Director: Everyone raise your hands!
Field Staff: (Raises hands)
State Director: As high as you can!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Higher!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Higher!
Field Staff: (Raises hands higher)
State Director: Liars.

You are capable of more than you believe. It is a great a lesson that campaigns have taught me, and a good one to remember during these last couple days. This work is too important to give up now and your bosses wouldn't let you do it if they didn't know that you could. You can sleep, shower and eat on Novermber 7th. As Muhammad Ali says "suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

I can't tell you how proud I am of you all and how grateful I am that you let me into your offices each day. I know you are working just as hard for me as I am for you and I promise you, win lose or draw it will be worth it.

Now go! Leave it all on the field!

Campaign Love,
Nancy

My Favorite Mistake- Why I am Way More Excited to Vote for Barack Obama in 2012 than I Was in 2008

I want to share you guys on a little secret: I actively disliked Barack Obama when he ran for President in 2008. As a Democratic operative for a Senate candidate in a swing state, I even turned out voters for him, but I didn't like the guy. Don't get me wrong, I still voted for him. I'm not a self/poor/gay-hating feminist. But unlike the vast majority of my contemporaries, I was the proverbial voter holding her nose in the voting booth.

I'll be the first to admit, some of my reasons for disliking now President Obama were petty. I had spent 11 months in Iowa working for his opponent (John Edwards) in the caucuses. To work those kind of hours in that kind of climate (particularly for that kind of candidate) you have to believe that anyone else securing the nomination is tantamount to armageddon. In part because of the attitude and inexperience of certain staff members with whom I interacted, and in part because of my lingering sadness and confusion over John Edwards losing the primary and the subsequent scandal, I found his campaign condescending and difficult to work with.

Even after Obama's inauguration, I remained skeptical of his liberal credentials and his penchant for compromise. I was worried that he was more smoke than substance. I’ve always been more of an LBJ than JFK kinda girl.

But there was another reason I was wary of Obama’s 2008 campaign, and the candidate himself: Hope. The fervor and enthusiasm that accompanied Obama’s 2008 campaign is the stuff of legends. Hordes of activists my age and younger knocked doors, made phone calls and attended rock concert-esque rallies with the belief that this man could single-handedly change the way we do business. As a career Democratic operative, I worried that Obama could not live up to this promise and that the result would be a generation of disappointed and disenfranchised voters.

Despite having missed out on the fun (and career opportunities) of supporting the President in 2008, I view my former skepticism as a tremendous gift. I can look with clear eyes (and full heart) over the past four years and say this President has met and exceeded my wildest expectations.

I could talk about 800,000 jobs created and 32 consecutive months of private sector job growth, and all of that would be true. But I don’t really work in the private sector, and by dint of what I do, any Democratic nominee would contribute to my job opportunities. Let’s talk about what matters to me, as a voter.

1) Health Care. Devotees will remember that I’ve had a rare life threatening illness since I was 17. Had I not been on my parents’ insurance when I started feeling symptoms, I very easily could have died. Without quick diagnosis and access to specialists, I could have lost my vision, had a stroke or needed to have a limb amputated by the time they figured out what was wrong with me. I know this because there are people in my Takayasu’s Arteritis facebook group who were diagnosed too late because they couldn’t afford to go to the doctor or their HMOs didn’t provide them access to tests and doctors familiar with my disease, knowledge that is never far from my mind. Needless to say, this is an intensely personal issue for me. My President has successfully passed the first meaningful health care legislation in my lifetime, ensuring that no little Nancy is afraid to go to the doctor because her family won’t be able to afford ensuing health care costs.

2) Equal Rights. My first internship in politics was at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an AIDS advocacy organization in New York City. It was the summer after John Kerry lost the 2004 election and spirits were extremely low. Every day I would go up to the lunch line (we served free lunch to clients who could not afford both food and the rising costs of medication) and try to get our clients to call the Speaker of the New York State Senate asking him to block a bill that cut funding for Medicare, a program on which many of our clients relied. Every day my requests were met with the same responses. “I'm sick and I'm gay. The government doesn't care about me.” or “It won't make a difference. There's nothing I can do.” It was there that I first fell in love with organizing. When I finally convinced a client to make a phone call, a light went off in my mind. He would not have made that call without me. I wasn't just giving him the opportunity to speak out on one issue, I was showing him that there was someone listening on the other end of the phone. I thought about my clients when Barack Obama made history by coming out in support of equal marriage. I thought, “See? Your President sees you, he cares about you.” I wept. It wasn’t just because some of the most important people in my world are gay and I want them to be able to get married (although they are and I do.) This could be any group. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue and my President is on the right side of it. I feel safer and prouder to be an American knowing I have a President who takes the concepts of equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness seriously.

3) Meritocracy. There’s this myth that liberals want to move toward a socialist society where everyone’s the same and makes the same amount of money. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a huge advocate for personal responsibility and frankly,a snob. I firmly believe that there are people who are smarter, more talented and more driven than most of society and they deserve to have more, better stuff. What I don’t believe is that all of these people are magically rich, white, cis-gendered men. Meritocracy means equality of opportunity, not equality of result. My President passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, doubled funding for pell grants and established a college tax credit to ensure that the true cream rises to the top and our country can continue to lead and innovate.

4) 9/11. I didn’t realize how much September 11th had affected to me until I spent a September across the country from New York. While seeing a plane crash into the twin towers was shocking and terrifying to anyone watching, New Yorkers experienced the immediate fear that we knew someone who was down there. I was a Senior at High School at the time and I remember comforting a girl I had never met before who was sobbing hysterically because her father worked downtown and cell phone towers were down so she couldn’t get in touch with him. Where were our parents and grandparents? My father, who grew up in the city, couldn’t bear to hear it discussed in public for weeks afterwards. While I found it crass to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, especially with the knowledge that it could never bring people back who had died, his death settled something in me that I hadn’t even know was unsettled. It reaffirmed American supremacy in a way I found deeply comforting. My President shot the boogy man and signed the First Responders bill.

5) The war in Iraq. Have we all forgotten that this President ended the war in Iraq? A war that should never have been started in the first place? A war that was an international embarrassment? My President followed through on his commitment to end the war, saving countless lives to say nothing of money that could be spent on education and health care.

As you can imagine, its very difficult for me to relate to someone who is not excited about voting, and this year in particular. If you are one of those people who was fired up about the President in 2008 and isn't feeling it this year, I urge you to show up at a campaign office and see if you don't get inspired. I could scare you by asking you to consider what a President Romney would mean for women, gay people, and the working class, but the truth is I shouldn't have to. Our President has done so much in these past 4 years to move our country forward that his record stands on it's own even without comparison.

If after all that you still resent our President for not living up to whatever ill defined expectations you may have set for him 4 years ago, I'll make you a deal: I voted for him when you were guzzling kool aid, even though I was dragging my heels to the voting booth and the sounds of the man's voice made me viscerally nauseous- so please return the favor. I'm confident that gamble will work out just as satisfyingly for you as it has for me.

Fired Up and Ready to Go,

Nancy

Nancy's Ultimate GOTV Playlist

You've been asking for it and here it is! A really good GOTV song has two things 1) It's upbeat or fast paced and can be played loudly in an office or a car. 2)It has some relevant line that can serve as motivation for the weary listener. I've broken up the list into personal favorites, twitter suggestions and honorable mentions. I'm about date myself as to when I was in the field and also reveal my proclivity for loud, mainstream rap music. Enjoy!



Stronger- Kanye West
Not only was this song wildly popular during my formative organizing years, it has just the right beat and tempo to cut and print lists to at 1am.

Standout lines: "That that that that don't kill me can only make me stronger. I need you to hurry up now, cause I can't wait much longer" AND "There's a thousand yous, there's only one of me" "You know how long I've been on ya...don't act like I never told ya" All make me think of late in the game persuadables.




Lose Yourself- Eminem
The slow intensity of the song is perfect to listen to right before for example...walking into the caucus you've been preparing for for 11 months? Psyching your organizers up before the last persuasion canvass of the season?

Standout lines: "You only get one shot do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime" AND "Success if my only motherfuckin' option, failure's not"



4 Minutes- Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake
I love this song before a late in the season canvass or call time. Perfecting for instilling a sense of urgency.

Standout line: "We only got 4 minutes to save the world."



Vote Baby Vote- Deee-lite
Unlike the others, this song was definitely made for a GOTV'ing purpose. I am still trying to figure out how to make this my ringtone.

Standout line: "Vote, baby vote. Are you registered, baby?"



In The Ayer- Flo Rida
I love that feeling when your GOTV operation is in full swing and it's so well planned that things are running like clockwork. This can't always be the case, but when it is, it's a thing of beauty. Whether you're training people or driving between staging locations, there's nothing like seeing your months of hardworking come to fruition. All you have to do is sit back on auto-pilot and enjoy.

Standout lines: "Oh hot damn, this is my jam!"



Your English Is Good- Tokyo Police Club
I have to admit, I heard this song for the first time this summer and all I could think was "Where have you been all my life?" The vibe is one of both intensity and abandon and the standout lines speak for themselves.

Standout line: "Oh give us your vote, give us your vote, if you know what's good for you!"


Remember The Name- Fort Minor
Not gonna lie, this was a tumblr submission but it was so perfect I moved it up here.

Stand Out Line: "This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, Fifteen percent concentrated power of will, Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"



Yes We Can, Can- Pointer Sisters
How every Obama organizer in 2008 wasn't blasting this 24/7 is beyond me. The whole thing is basically a 6 minute long campaign rally as far as I'm concerned. As a bonus, I first discovered this song through listening to a charity set that my advice-giving guru, Dan Savage, DJ'd.

Standout lines: "Now's the time for all good men to get together with one another." AND "I know we can make it. I know that we can. I know darn well we can work it out. Oh yes we can. Oh yes we can. I know can can."



All I Do is Win-DJ Khaled
Also a new edition and favorite amongst my Twitter followers. The name basically says it all.

Standout line: "All I do is win."
My Favorite Follower Suggestions:
When I put the call out, these were some new additions I got from my followers.

Young Leaders of Tomorrow by Duwende
Sing by My Chemical Romance
Down The Road by C2C
Who Needs Sleep by Barenaked Ladies


Honorable Mentions:
Many of my twitter and tumblr followers suggested "I won't back down" preferably Johnny Cash version. I veto'd this off my list because 1)As evidenced by the number of suggestions it received, I believe it to be overplayed and 2) It's too low key, it sounds to me like we've already lost and somewhat related 3) It is inextricably linked in my memory to the Edwards campaign.
Gone'Till November is a campaign staple and certainly in my most frequently played list for obvious reasons. I left it off this one because by the end of GOTV it IS November and this is really a campaign-long anthem.
I Turn My Camera On by Spoon. This didn't make the cut because I couldn't find a standout line to fit rule number 2, but it's a hellava jam. It is on my personal GOTV list.

At a follower's suggestion, I also made a Campaignsick GOTV Playlist on Spotify which you can search for and I believe edit...but feel free to correct me on that one.

Happy GOTV'ing!
Nancy

My Mom Tells You What To Eat

My momma!

Have you ever thought to yourself, “man, I wish I had a Jewish mother telling me what to eat on the campaign trail?” Probably not. But mine is a Nutritionist Registered Dietitian and she has generously offered some advice to keep you healthy for the next couple of months! I’m going to offer this disclaimer that I know it is not realistic to expect any organizer to follow these rules 100% of the time, (I already talked my mom down from her suggestion that you eat non-fat cheese sticks and yogurt instead of pizza) but in the spirit of rule 5, let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Ladies and broworkers, I give you, my mommy:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

I have second hand experience with the campaign trail but my first hand experienced daughter informs me that it can be quite the challenge to maintain any sort of a healthful diet while working in the field.

As a registered dietitian, and, well, someone with common sense, it comes as no surprise that poor eating habits will only serve to sap the much needed energy one needs to campaign. I offer therefore my suggestions for easy ways to maintain a healthful diet for anyone with a very busy job, limited income and very little if any time prepare your own food.

The microwave oven and office refrigerator can be your best food friends on the trail. The grocery store freezer section, as well as the produce aisle and the dairy section are filled with ready- made low-calorie, low-fat foods that are both low cost and flavorful.

In the produce section choose fruit that is in season. Not only will this fruit be the lowest cost, but it will also have the best taste. Fruits that you can buy in larger quantities but that do not spoil quickly are apples, pears, and oranges (think clementines!). These are all fruits that are coming into the groceries stores now at good prices. Keep the fruit in the refrigerator but be sure to grab a few on your way out to knock doors. That way when your stomach growls you will have a handy and delicious snack.

Pre-made bagged salads allow you to rip open a bag, add a little (no more than 2 tablespoons) of dressing or better yet use lemon juice with a small amount of healthful oil such as extra-virgin olive oil on your salad and enjoy. Top with one of those foil bags (~3 oz) of tuna packed in oil and you have an instant meal. Add a slice of high-fiber bread if you’d like but keep away from those bagels. Keep in mind¼ of a bagel is the equivalent to one slice of high fiber bread. Don’t forget bags of baby carrots that are a great snack anytime!

Check out the freezer section for individual servings of brands like Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, and Healthy Choice. There is a wide variety of entrées available. Look for the brand on sale and stock up with enough to go a week or two depending on freezer space at your home or office. A few minutes inthe microwave and you have a tasty meal without splurging on excess calories, fat or sodium (check the nutrition label).

Can’t stop yourself when the late night pizza comes in the door along with your co-workers? Limit yourself to one slice and add your own heaping topping of salad or chopped spinach (raw or cooked).

Need a sweet treat? Buy individual Dixie cups of ice cream instead of a big container. The proper portion size is premeasured for you and should be just enough to fend off binges. Or if you are more of a cookie person, try chocolate (or your favorite flavor) of graham crackers. 2-4 squares provides the sweet taste you are looking for without much fat and with a little fiber as a bonus. Cereal bars and fiber bars can be a treat as well but check out the calories before you buy. Some of those are over 200 calories, about the same as many candy bars.

Want something great you can share around the office? Popcorn! Skip the prepackaged microwave brands which are not only expensive but usually full of fat and chemicals. Instead opt for a bag of kernels that is sure to last until well after election day. An air popper or a plastic pot (microwave safe with air holes to let steam escape) can be used over and over again. Each person can top their
own generous popped portion of 2-3 cups. CampaignSick’s Nancy Leeds recommends crumble dried seaweed snacks. Other ideas are sea salt (be sure not to overdo it), a few tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese or a few shakes of herb seasoning.

Now that you have the tools, you’ll be able to campaign, keep your weight in check and keep your energy up until November 6th. May the best candidates win!

Sari Schlussel-Leeds, MS, RD, CDN

Another Year Older and Shockingly, Wiser.

A year ago, I shared with you what amounted to my Dear John letter to campaigns. I reflected on everything that campaigns had given me and the reasons I felt I needed to take a break. So at the precipice of my second and final year of graduate school (and likely my final year away from campaigning) I had to ask myself: Was it worth it? Am I accomplishing my goals? Am I on the road to what I set out to do? My answer is resoundingly "Yes."

When I worked on campaigns full time, I kept telling myself "when I'm in the same place for a while," "when I have free time." Before campaigns, I was in college and coping with health problems that provided me (however legitimately) with similar scapegoats. Moving to New York meant taking on a huge amount of responsibility that I had been delaying for years. Time to take care of myself means that I actually have to take care of myself, even when I would rather eat junk food, avoid going to the doctor or leave clothes on the floor. Time for relationships means putting myself out there without the campaign caveats of being too tired, too busy and too far away. The unfettered opportunity to reach for my goals also means the possibility of failing, on my own with no excuses. Fear is the fact that what you want is a real possibility.

What I've really longed for the past few years, much more than weight loss or a boyfriend, was stability. I didn't want to be thirty and running around the country not sleeping or knowing when or where my next job would be. What I feared was that nothing but that lifestyle could satisfy me and that I would be forever stuck between those two worlds. One of my best friends describes people with that kind of passion and intensity as fire. When you're in control, you're a campfire. You create glow, warmth and inspiration. People are drawn to you. When you're not in control you're like a four alarm, unpredictable and destructive. I spent the last year learning how to be a campfire, terrified that the only options were to spend the rest of my life burning through things or put the fire out. Here's what I know how to do now that I didn't before:

1) I quit things and I change direction. I spent some time on awful mismanaged campaigns where my work and passion was unappreciated. Same goes for friendships, boyfriends, really anything in which I had invested time and effort. My friends and family didn't understand why I didn't just leave, but quitting seemed anathema. It seemed like admitting failure to leave something or change my mind about what my goals were. It would mean that my investment was wasted. I learned a lot from sticking it out on bad campaigns and less than ideal relationships. There's no doubt that that was what I needed to do at the time. What I know now is that there is a way to take value from something while admitting that it no longer works.

2) I'm getting better with uncertainty. Part of my intensity is that I've always tended to see things in black and white. As Heidi Klum would say "you are either in or you are out." When I was deciding whether to go back to school or go on a campaign, I contacted a friend who has been in and out of campaigns for the past decade. His advice was "whatever you decide, it won't be the last time you have this conversation with yourself." It sounds simple enough, but it never really occurred to me that it was okay to not know when and whether I would go back. One thing I've learned this year is that every choice and every relationship is an ongoing conversation. It's okay not to know where things will end up.

3) I accept people for what they're capable of right now. On campaigns, we're taught to ask the most from people and expect them to rise to the occasion. This is a good and effective management technique, but it's a recipe for failure in your personal life. I've been guilty of holding the people around me to the high standards to which I hold myself and coming to some pretty harsh conclusions. "This friend wasn't there for me when I wanted her to be, therefore she must not care enough about me." As opposed to, "I know this person cares about me, but she wasn't able to be there when I needed her. I wonder what's going on with her." Even when this line of logic causes me to end a relationship, especially a romantic one, I can do so with much more peace and clarity.

4) I identify what I want. I'm not a big fan of the "Law of Attraction" because I think the concept that people bring things like death or disease upon themselves through their thoughts is some new jack bullshit. But I do think that there is something to putting your intentions out into the universe. When you really whittle down what it is that you want, you may not attract new opportunities into your life but you recognize them when they come. It's like when you learn a new word: Once it's in your head you start seeing and hearing it everywhere. When considering why I was so tempted to take time off and go back on a campaign even though I had explicitly decided not to do so, I realized that more than gaining experience or electing good candidates, it was important to me to contribute to the campaign community. Since then, I have been honored to have my blog and tumblr become a mainstay of many campaign offices. Through my blogging, I was invited to lead a volunteer recruitment training for several hundred people, a long time dream of mine. My blog and tumblr already existed, but since I clarified for myself what I wanted I was able to steer them in that direction.

5) I don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. One of the factors that kept me making excuses about things like weight loss and cleaning is that when I set a goal, I tend to pursue it obsessively and relentlessly. As a lifelong mess maker saying "I'm going to keep my apartment clean" felt too daunting. I couldn't imagine never again leaving clothes on the floor or dishes in the sink, but I also couldn't imagine committing to do something and then accepting less than 100% from myself. It doesn't take a masters degree to realize that that approach to self-improvement is unsustainable. Without campaigns to channel my manic and obsessive tendencies, I've had to learn to be okay with deciding to keep my apartment cleaner rather than spotless or eating pizza in the larger context of trying to lose weight.

I guess that's why I'm able to deem this year a success despite so much disappointment. Do I still miss campaigns? Yes. Have I found a way to be happy without them? Not entirely. Will I break these rules and make choices that bring me from campfire to four alarm territory? Absolutely. But for the first time in my life, I'm okay with that. I'm looking forward to a year with just as much learning, but more happiness.


Thanks for sharing this last year with me,

Nancy

Everything I Need to Know About Dating I Learned As a Field Organizer

I was recently on the phone with a fellow Political Operative mining him for career advice and catching up on life in general. When the conversation turned to our love lives I remarked, "That's how I am. I either don't care or I care a hundred and crazy percent...it makes me great at campaigns and horrible at dating."

I do think there's some truth to that. I can make any event happen, recruit any number of volunteers or raise any amount of money through what is more or less sheer force of will. I set a goal, I make a plan, and I achieve it. The great disappointment of my adult life has been that dating does not work this way. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do or say, you cannot organize your way to finding your soul mate. From what I understand, these things tend to happen when you're not trying at all, which can be maddening to the organizing mind.

Reflecting on my latest romantic misadventures, I realized I’m learning the same lessons I learned years ago as an organizer, only this time in my personal life. I’ve often written here as if campaigns were my primary romantic interest and I have to own that it’s easier that way. When it comes to campaigns, I know what I’m doing. Although, walk lists are notoriously bad kissers.

I’m always hesitant when I post something so personal. Curse words and innuendo notwithstanding, this is a professional blog. God knows who could be reading this. However, as my blog becomes more popular, I endeavor for this to be first and foremost a resource that I wish someone had created for me. Plus, I like rules, and like all advice columnists before me this is as much about figuring my own stuff out as it is helping anyone else. So without further ado, seven things I know about field organizing that I am still learning about relationships:

1) It's a numbers game. When you have a string of crappy phone calls, it is tempting to give up, call it a night and pour yourself a beer. Instead, you double down on your recruitment efforts because you know you’ll have to make that many more phone calls to meet your goal. When I think about my very deserving single friends, one of the main barriers to their romantic success is that they don’t meet new people. It becomes increasingly difficult and frustrating to make new friends after college, and I’m certainly finding that life in the big city doesn’t forge the same bonds as 14 hours workdays in the wilderness. Campaign people know better than anyone just how mind numbingly average the average person can be. Getting out there, even non-romantically, can be frustrating and draining. It’s tempting to spend your evenings on your own or with people you already know you like and who like you, but you’re certainly not going to meet anyone sitting alone on your couch.

2) If they're not going to vote for you because you called them during dinner, they weren't going to vote for you in the first place. When a relationship doesn’t go my way, I almost want it to be my fault. I want to be able to pinpoint exactly what I said or did to shoot myself in the foot so that I can be sure not to make that same mistake again. The flip side is that it can leave me replaying conversations over and over in my head wondering what I could have done differently. In both relationships and campaigns, outside of violence and affairs, if things were going to work out there is no one action that will mess the whole thing up. It’s convenient when we’re breaking up for both parties to have a concrete excuse as to why it didn’t work…it absolves the breaker of blame and it gives the breakee a sense of closure. The truth is, if someone was going to be there for you, they would be there regardless of the grammar you used in your text message or the way you asked them to call you again.

3) Make your expectations clear. Every good organizer knows that if you want your volunteers to finish their packets, you need to set goals. “Most people do about 80 calls per shift” or “It’s important that you finish your packet.” Sure, volunteers may or may not live up to your expectations, but they are a lot more likely to disappoint if they don’t know what you need from them ahead of time. The same goes for relationships. I’m never afraid of coming off as needy or demanding by stating my expectations in a professional context, yet I crumble when it comes to my personal life. We’re so afraid of being rejected that we don't ask for what we want and in the end we end up living with both the fear and the disappointment. As one of my friends pointed out recently, needy isn’t saying “If you’re going to be late, it would make me feel better if you called me” needy is not telling someone what you need and then getting angry when he doesn’t do it.

4) Think about what you have to offer. When we’re recruiting volunteers we want them to come in and help us meet our goals, but (except in the cases of very special volunteers) we don’t call someone up and say “Hi, I need you to help me with my job.” We focus on what we have to offer them, whether it be the excitement of a campaign office, an internship opportunity, or the feeling of fulfillment one gets from being part of a greater effort. Though I’m not suggesting you need to market yourself to your future someone, I have learned that it’s best to focus on how you can enrich each other, rather than how that someone can fill a need in your life. As Bob Proctor, puts it “you want to leave everyone you come in contact with with the impression of increase.” As a friend put it, “we spend all this time looking for someone to complete us, but ultimately when we find someone we wind up completing them.” It turns out all the cliché advice that you need to love yourself before you can love someone else and that you’ll only find someone when you’re comfortable being alone is true. (See also, rule number 7.)

5) People are selfish liars. It’s not necessarily bad, so much as it’s just true. People act in their own self-interest and do not often think about how their actions impact other people. This is one of the basic truths you learn about humanity in the course of being a field organizer. Volunteers make a commitment and decide not to show. I have to say this drives me crazy even in a professional setting. I’ve listened to this song on repeat after many a disappointing canvass. My personal pet peeve is people wasting my time. Maybe they forgot, maybe they had something more appealing to do, or maybe they just said yes to get you off the phone. I guarantee you they don’t consider the time you spent the night before cutting turf and map-questing directions so that they could have a walk packet. When a someone stops calling or a boyfriend breaks a promise, we have a tendency to feel tricked. Our first (and oft recurring) thought is “how could they do this to me?” The truth is, they probably weren’t even thinking about you. Maybe they became overwhelmed at work, maybe they just weren’t feeling it anymore, maybe they had something else going on entirely. Very rarely is someone engaging in an evil plot to break your heart just for the fun of it. Like volunteers, you make your expectations clear but in the end you have to accept that people can only give what they are capable of at any given point in time.

6) Learn from failures, predict success. Sometimes (and you won’t hear me admit this often) I do make mistakes…like failing to follow rules 3 and 4 or printing out a walk packet with the wrong script on it. Part of the Type A, pitta, field organizing personality is that I tend to be my own worst critic, which I suppose also makes me guilty of breaking rule number 2. It’s natural to beat ourselves up, especially when we care passionately about something, but it’s so much easier for me to forgive myself at work than in my personal life. I’ve never sent my field team the wrong list, snapped at an organizer or for that matter lost and thought “I ruined the campaign!!!” or “I’ll never have a shot at winning a campaign again.” In the first place, it’s ridiculous and in the second place, it’s not productive. I think “that was a mistake and I’m embarrassed” then I do what I can to rectify it and vow to use better judgment next time. I can tell you in my ripe old age of 27 that even when you think you should know better, it doesn’t mean you do. Sometimes you need to shock your system into knowing emotionally or instinctively what you already knew intellectually. And then you learn it, and then you move on. As Oprah says “when you know better, you do better.” Rather than dwell on the past, better to learn from it and move confidently into the future.

7) Wisdom is wisdom for a reason. I get a lot of messages on my tumblr about baby organizers trying to reinvent the wheel. “Sure I’ve only been doing this for five years but you tell me how to recruit volunteers/raise money/build for an event.” Classic methods like calltime are classic because they work, even if they’re a tough pill to swallow. I’m a big believer that asking for advice when you need it is a sign of strength, not weakness. People who know are more than willing to share. Heck, I’ve made a blog out of it. In my ongoing quest to become a non-campaign-nomadic adult, I’ve become insatiably hungry for advice. Sure there’s a lot of crappy and conflicting advice out there when it comes to dating, but the basics “you need to love yourself first,” “it always happens when you’re not looking,” “the right one won’t make you cry” always seem to rear their ugly heads…I just might not want to hear them at the time. I’ve come to realize that that’s exactly when I need to hear them the most.

Obviously, there are some key differences between dating and volunteer recruitment. I’m not suggesting that you phone bank someone until they fall madly in love with you. When it comes to recruitment the goal is to get as many volunteers as possible, quality is nice but it’s not a prerequisite. When it comes to love exactly the opposite is true. However, if we release ourselves from the clawing suspicion that we have one chance and we blew it, the way we do at work, we free ourselves to accept our limitations and ultimately be more resilient.

There you have it! Who thinks I could be the Carrie Bradshaw of field organizing?

Hoping to leave you with the impression of increase,

Nancy

Volunteer Upkeep: Damn, I'm Good. Part III

Are you guys sad that this is the final part of my three part treatise? Me too. It is the smallest piece, but by no means the least important!

Volunteer Upkeep
“Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization”

Training Doesn’t End after Vols have been Trained
•Check In with your volunteer after 10 mins and every ½ hour after that. Thank them every time (do you notice a theme?) Ask how the calls are going and if they have any questions. Casually listen in on calls and see if there is something you can encourage or that needs to be nipped in the bud. Ensure that the volunteer is coding the responses appropriately.

•Know your volunteers. A good volunteer coordinator and organizer knows their volunteers. They know their name, face and story. It is critical that the organization develops a close relationship with volunteers.

•Praise in public, correct in private. Reinforce positive behavior by thanking volunteers in front of everyone. “Doris you’re a rockstar! Thanks for pushing it up to 100 calls.” Correct mistakes constructively, with encouragement and one on one. “Sandy, you’re doing such a good job and you obviously know your stuff. Hey, do me a favor and don’t worry about arguing with McCain supporters. It drives me nuts too, but we have so many calls to get through, why waste our time on people we cn’t convince? Awesome job so far..”

•Team Cohension. Make your volunteers feel a part of the team. Do not put a volunteer in a room alone. Introduce volunteers to other volunteers. Organizers should take 2-5 minutes out of their calltime to visit with the volunteers and thank the volunteers.

Check Out
•Debrief. Ask how the calls went and if any issues you came up that you should know about. Ask if there were any particular calls you need to know about (someone who wants to volunteer or wants to vote by mail.)

•Look it over. Quickly go through your volunteers’ tallies and call sheets BEFORE they leave. The last thing you want it to be stuck with a pile of data you can’t decipher.

•Reschedule. Ask every volunteer who comes in when they can come back. Get them to commit to as much as possible in person. “This was great. Can you come every Thursday?” If they can’t reschedule right then, at the very least schedule a time to reschedule. “Okay then. I’ll call you on Monday when you’ll have a better sense of what your week looks like”. No volunteer should leave the office without being rescheduled.

•Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Two little words, you can never underestimate their importance.

Volunteer Training: Damn I'm Good, Part II.

If you missed Part I of my three part manifesto (Part I is about recruitment) you can catch up on it here. Part II is all about volunteer training. Specific notes are below but the main thing you need to know is to make like Scar and be prepared. There is no need to be running around your office like a chicken with your head cut off when volunteers come in if you invest a system beforehand. This means preparing your volunteers as well. A well trained volunteer is a happy volunteer and a happy volunteer is a return volunteer. As always, if you plan on using these tools in your race, please do a me a favor and let me know!

Volunteer Training
“Volunteers come for the candidate, but they stay for you.”

Before
Be Prepared!!! (Told ya.) Cut lists and have them ready in walk or call packets well beforehand. Always have extras on hand for walk-ins. This includes any scripts, maps, directions, etc. IT IS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE TO BE UNPREPARED FOR YOUR VOLUNTEERS.

Know who you are expecting. Have your vols sign in as they enter, with a space on the sign-in sheet to schedule another shift, of course! This way you’ll have a record of who came and you can greet people by name! If anyone hasn’t shown up, call them approximately ½ hr after their shift started. If they can’t make it that day, confirm them on the spot for another shift.

Maintain a fun and pleasant office environment. Think of your office as any other place of business. If it isn’t clean and the staff isn’t organized and friendly, volunteers are likely to take their hard earned time elsewhere. Therefore, make sure your volunteer space is clean and inviting before vols get there and that there are posters and snacks to make them know that they are loved and appreciated. The best campaign offices resemble elementary school classrooms.

Greet your volunteers and thank them as they come in. Set them up right away. In general, no one should walk into your office without being greeted. No matter what else is going on in your day, everyone should be treated with a smile and a positive attitude. Your enthusiasm will be infectious.

Training
Value your volunteers! Tell them how excited you are to have them and how important their job is. The best way to make a volunteer feel valued is by preparing for their arrival and training them properly.

Explain the universe and what the expectations are for the calls. (You are calling Democrats today who usually do not vote every cycle. It is critical to turnout each and every one of the individuals in cycle. It is critical to turnout each and every one of the individuals in important to elect Mark Udall and Barack Obama. You will likely encounter about a 20% wrong number rate, do not be discouraged as you are doing very important list clean up, so that our staff and volunteers are not still calling these numbers in the critical 1-2 months before the election.)

Go through the script. Provide your volunteers with a list of DO’s and DON’Ts. Make sure to cover common first time pitfalls. (DO ask supporters to volunteer. DON’T write notes on the sheet instead of using the codes.)

Go over the coding and tally system. Let them know beforehand that you will ask for their help in tallying. Explain what happens with each code (5's are removed from the Universe, 1's and 2's will get reminded to vote during GOTV and invited to events) so that they know how important it is to use the system.

Give them a goal. (To new vols “Most people make about 80 calls in a shift. To return vols “Last time you made 80 calls. This time can you go for 90?”)

Give your volunteer the opportunity to role play the script with you so s/he gets practice.

Make calls with a first time volunteer. First time volunteers are generally nervous, so you or a pro volunteer should make a minimum of 10 calls next to them to make sure they feel supported as they begin their volunteer experience.

Ask for and answer questions. Saying “What questions do you have?” instead of “Do you have any questions?” is an effective way to let them know it is okay and encouraged to ask for clarification .

Pay your volunteers with kindness. Thank them again and again and again and again. Offer them water and snacks. Let them know where the bathroom is. Make sure they know how much you appreciate them.

Alright my loves, I hope these were helpful to you and yours. Part III is about volunteer maintenance. Until next time!

-Nancy

Volunteer Recruitment: Damn, I'm Good. Part I

Seriously you guys, I am the Muhammad Ali of volunteer recruitment. When I was an organizer, I was consistently the top recruiter in the state, no matter where I was. I once recruited 100 shifts in 3 days for John Edwards after Iowa. I have to say, there's really no magic to it except you have to really believe in what you're doing and you have to be relentlessly persistent. You also need to genuinely love your volunteers, which tumblr jokes aside, I absolutely do.

I wrote the following in 2008 for the Colorado Democratic Party, but they've been used a bunch of other places since. There's a copyright warning on the blog, but obviously I want you to have these if they're helpful to you. For the sake of my pride please do me a favor and if you use/share these give me credit for them? Tell people or put my name on them or something and definitely message me so I know where my babies are going! (If you have seen them please let me know too!) Can you tell I'm proud of these? It's really not rocket science (it's more like common sense consolidated) and in fact, it hasn't been edited since before I worked with OFA. If I ever do this over I am going to incorporate some of the elements they use although I feel like it has a pretty "Respect, Empower, Include" vibe to it already. You can also check out an excerpt on DownTicketDems.com. If you haven't liked or visited that page you really should.

Here it is. Nancy's Best Practices for Volunteer Recruitment and Training: An opus in three parts. This is part one. Enjoy!

Volunteer Recruitment
“Everyone is a potential volunteer.”

Where Should I Look?
Everywhere! You are a representative of the campaign at all times and this means you are always recruiting. Work it in into the conversation at the grocery store (I’m just stopping in for some Red Bull, I work at the Democratic Party Headquarters and…) 9 times out of 10 the cashier will keep bagging, but the 10th time you might have gotten yourself a phone bank captain!

Democratic or Community Events. Have a sign up sheet wherever you go. Pitch the program to people at the Central Committee or folks dropping by the County Dems table, these people are already interested all you have to do is sell them on how fun it is and how great they will feel for being involved.

Your 1’s! Make sure you stress to your volunteers that they should be asking supporters if they would be interested in getting involved, and MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW UP soon after, if the volunteer can’t schedule the person on the phone/door right away. No supporter should leave the office without being asked to vol.

Lists in the VAN, Obama lists, Caucus Attendees, Party Volunteers, Community Activists, House Party attendees, anyone who has expressed interest in the past.

Other Volunteers and Activists! At every One on One meeting you should be asking people if they know anyone else who would be interested in getting involved. You should also ask your volunteers to help recruit their friends, spouses, etc. One of the reasons it is so important that your volunteers have a good experience in the office is that their experience will surely be spread by word of mouth.


What Should I say?
Have a plan/Be Specific. Know what you are going to say before you get on the phone. What will your first ask be? What if that doesn’t work, etc. Ask for a specific time, date and activity. If that doesn’t work, ask again. Don’t go into battle without a plan.

Know your audience. Keep specific notes on your volunteers and read them. If a volunteer just got back from visiting her kids for example ask how her trip went. If a volunteer has knee problems, don’t ask him to canvass. If you’re calling someone for the first time, let them know where you got their name from. Think about what makes this person tick. For college students, highlight internship opportunities. For the elderly it’s a chance to socialize and connect with the community. Tailor your ask to the individual.

Be persistent. Don’t take no for an answer. If a time doesn’t work, ask for another and another. If they won’t canvass this time ask them to do phone calls, if you absolutely can’t get them to do direct voter contact, ask them to do data entry, but always push for more. This is important work we are doing, you have the right to be a little bit pushy.

Never end a conversation on a yes. If a volunteer says yes to canvassing, ask the volunteer to canvass 2 shifts that week. If the volunteer still says yes, ask until the volunteer says no. Never be afraid to over ask.

Confirm, Confirm, Confirm. Though call time is your top priority, it isn’t everyone’s. Getting an extra commitment from a volunteer the day before not only reminds them they are signed up, it gives them one more reason to show instead of going elsewhere. Confirmation calls should be attempted 3x the day before a shift with a message left on the last round. If a volunteer can’t make it, reschedule on the spot. Always recruit 30% more volunteers than the number you actually need.


Stay tuned for Part II: Volunteer Training!