[Grassroots-l] Grassroots building: learning from other campaigns

[Mel Chua]

Okay. How can we learn from this? (Ignore, if you like, who and what the 
campaign is for - my point is that we should learn from their tactics 
whether or not we agree with their cause.)

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/546

"We decided in terms of timeline that [our organizers] would not be 
measured by the amount of voter contacts they made in the summer—but 
instead by the number of volunteers that they were recruiting, training 
and testing. It was much more an infrastructure focus. So there would be 
no calls from Chicago saying, 'Why haven't you made more calls?!' 
Instead there would be calls saying, 'Where are your neighborhood team 
volunteers?' Or, if the numbers seemed high, 'Are they real?' It was a 
whole shift in mentality that was really, really good."

Also, see:

     "Rather than say we have X leadership roles to fill, we're creating 
leadership roles for as many leaders as we have. So we have people in 
charge of whatever they ARE. We are saying, 'What's your social 
network?' We say, 'OK, you're The Balcony Coordinator—your job is to go 
party at Balcony [a local bar] every weekend—like you do anyways—but now 
wear a Barack Obama button—and bring voter reg forms.' Or, 'Hey, you 
work at Brunos—when you go out on deliveries—as long as it's OK with 
your boss—ask people if they're registered. You're going to be our, um, 
pizza coordinator.' "

Discuss.

-Mel