Wake Up America

The importance of grassroots efforts, WE NEED YOU!

With the political climate at what it is today grassroots are more important than ever.  Lets start with what is grassroots.  A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. Often, grassroots movements are at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time to support the local party, which can lead to helping the national party. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_roots )

Boy that is a lot of words for just working your butt off.  So let’s get into the specifics of what the grassroots really does.  First of all grassroots main goal is to GET THE WORD OUT!  No matter what the word is.   Whether it is working for a specific candidate or just the party itself, the messages needs to be heard. 

There are a lot of ways to do this.  First one to discuss is attending large demonstrations.   Now the Tea Party that the nation held on April 15 was one of the best efforts the conservative movement saw in a long time.  They as a large group showed politicians that we don’t like higher taxes and whatnot.

Second way to help is raising funds for your group.  There are lots of ways to do this. One is attending your parties annual dinner.  Many times these dinners have extra money in the cost to help support the party itself.  It is also a great way to hear about what is going on and what is needed.  Also watching for drop boxes for a dollar here and a dollar there goes along way.   During the recent campaign season our office put out drop boxes and we collects several hundreds of dollars, which comes in handy when you are looking for things like candy and water for parades, office supplies, and day to day needs for the party.

Next we will focus on the campaigns themselves.  First a candidate needs to get on the ballot.  Helping with gathering signatures to get enough to get on the ballot is a challenge for every candidate.  Next setting up information is important.  Now there has come to pass lots of new ways to do this.  Working on websites facebook twitter are all great ways to get the information out. Also handing out material for the candidate at fairs, parades, social events, door to door, and your local party headquarters can take time but a great way to see the climate of the election.  Next are yard signs, now the democrat party has been great at doing this.  This is usually set up in wards however I learned a new way to maybe get this ball rolling even better.  Set up block captains for key areas in each town.  For instance: Main street is always a key street in almost any town.  Lots of traffic for visibility is always best.  This is really a great way to start and when your volunteer sees the difference it makes they have become vested in the campaign.  The Media plays a huge roll in the campaign. Writing letters to the editor and or blogging is a sure fire way to get the word out about your candidate or even just the party and its values.  And lastly phone calls phone calls phone calls.  An hour a week is not asking too much to make a few calls to inform voters of the real choice.

Other volunteer opportunities are but not limited to: walking in parades, going door to door for surveys, driving the people to the polls however do not give them cigarettes and tell them how to vote, like one group did in Milwaukee WI, county fairs and festivals, and signatures for petitions, stuffing envelopes, and internet maintenance(facebook, twitter, blogs).

Now a lot of you say “I don’t have enough time for myself let alone time to do volunteer work”.  However you are the one who complains about the current climate and how we need to do something.  As you can see above there are lots of day to day activities that go into the grassroots efforts and all the bodies are needed, even if it is just an hour here and there. 

Again the key to success is getting our word out there and grassroots has been proven the best way to do that.   For the Republican/Conservatives it is key to let people know we are for lower taxes, less government, sanctity of life, and national security including right to bear arms.  Now if the other side does a better job at this then they win.

So now you are sitting there saying “Jessi you have convinced me, what do I do now?”  Call your local party or go to there website or facebook page, or your candidate page and sign up.  Don’t worry about waiting too long to get a call with help that is needed.  Your hours of volunteering make all the difference it can’t be done without your help!

Tags: elections, Grassroots, Republican volunteering, Volunteering, we need you

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