The Out-of-Staters
I've fallen in with a nice group of staffers at HQ who are working to bring as many volunteers into Philadelphia from other states as possible to canvass on the weekends and do phonebanking and other office stuff during the week. My role is to answer emails from volunteers, assign them to particular offices around Philly (some of which are still in the somewhat hairy process of being set up and staffed) on certain dates with specific organizers.
All of us participate in making phone calls to identified willing volunteers. Most of them are from NY and DC, but some are traveling from California, Texas, and other locales. A group of 35 from Palo Alto, CA will be arriving shortly.
There are two Japanese guys in the office who don't speak English and I'm not quite sure why they're here (other than to help Barack get elected as best they can). Some Canadians arrived to help and were sent to the "smoking hotel," which is a Holiday Inn of some sort that still allows smoking in the guest rooms.
CNN was in the office yesterday, and I'm told that Caroline Kennedy and her kids have stopped in to do some phonebanking. One of her kids made the beautiful "countdown-to-primary day" calendar that hangs in our new office that was rapidly procured before most people knew it was vacant.
I'm learning that one really doesn't acquire any material goods in the office honestly--they're either usurped from someone before others can elbow their way in, outright stolen, or bargained for. One staffer has even been accused of stealing phone chargers, which are always in short supply, and even of taking air mattresses from the person in charge of finding housing for volunteers!
I overhead another staffer lamenting about the three hours she spent arbitrating between bickering staffers in field offices around Philly. I'm told that campaigns are like large dysfunctional families who spend too much time together under very intense circumstances.
I was saying to no one in particular this afternoon that the atmosphere is like finals week in school, but all the time. Ravi, the guy next to me, said that finals week for him is more like a vacation, compared to the campaign. He's a second year law student at Yale.
All of us participate in making phone calls to identified willing volunteers. Most of them are from NY and DC, but some are traveling from California, Texas, and other locales. A group of 35 from Palo Alto, CA will be arriving shortly.
There are two Japanese guys in the office who don't speak English and I'm not quite sure why they're here (other than to help Barack get elected as best they can). Some Canadians arrived to help and were sent to the "smoking hotel," which is a Holiday Inn of some sort that still allows smoking in the guest rooms.
CNN was in the office yesterday, and I'm told that Caroline Kennedy and her kids have stopped in to do some phonebanking. One of her kids made the beautiful "countdown-to-primary day" calendar that hangs in our new office that was rapidly procured before most people knew it was vacant.
I'm learning that one really doesn't acquire any material goods in the office honestly--they're either usurped from someone before others can elbow their way in, outright stolen, or bargained for. One staffer has even been accused of stealing phone chargers, which are always in short supply, and even of taking air mattresses from the person in charge of finding housing for volunteers!
I overhead another staffer lamenting about the three hours she spent arbitrating between bickering staffers in field offices around Philly. I'm told that campaigns are like large dysfunctional families who spend too much time together under very intense circumstances.
I was saying to no one in particular this afternoon that the atmosphere is like finals week in school, but all the time. Ravi, the guy next to me, said that finals week for him is more like a vacation, compared to the campaign. He's a second year law student at Yale.
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