{"id":11562,"date":"2008-10-22T23:44:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T06:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/jed\/2008\/10\/22\/11562.html"},"modified":"2008-10-22T23:44:59","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T06:44:59","slug":"how-you-can-help-no-on-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/2008\/10\/22\/how-you-can-help-no-on-8\/","title":{"rendered":"How you can help No On 8 (no calling required!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I'm disheartened to see that the latest poll<\/a> shows Yes On 8 way ahead of No On 8. That poll was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, who've donated heavily to the Yes On 8 campaign, and I have no idea whether it's a legitimate poll; but I was already worried by the very close numbers from the previous two (more clearly legitimate) polls.<\/p>\n

So I've decided it's time for me to take action<\/a>. And in case you're feeling similarly, here's some info on how you can help.<\/p>\n

Y'all already know that you can donate money<\/a>. But there are other things you can do as well. In particular, you can volunteer<\/a>--and if you're willing to make phone calls, you don't even have to live in California.<\/p>\n

There are various things you can do as a volunteer (including vitally important Get Out the Vote work<\/a> on election day), but in this entry I'm going to focus on two things: making phone calls and providing administrative support.<\/p>\n

Phone calls<\/h3>\n

If you're comfortable calling people and talking to them about political issues, then sign up to call voters<\/a>. The No On 8 campaign provides a detailed script. A couple of people who don't normally like doing this kind of thing have told me that it was a lot easier and more comfortable than they expected.<\/p>\n

I'm told that going to a phone bank also makes it easier--you're in a room with a bunch of other people doing the same thing. There are phone banks<\/a> all over California; in some places (like the South Bay<\/a>), there are even phone banks in outlying cities on different evenings (as well as at the field office itself), so you may not have to travel far at all.<\/p>\n

However, what if you can't easily get to a phone bank? What if, say, you live in some other state? Or you'd rather work from home?<\/p>\n

You can sign up online to phone from home<\/a>, from anywhere in the US. (I assume that the system doesn't work outside the US, though; sorry to those of you living elsewhere.)<\/p>\n

To participate from home, you'll need a computer with broadband Internet access (not dialup Internet). I'm not clear on other details. If you're interested, go sign up and I'm sure they'll answer any questions.<\/p>\n

Non-calling work<\/h3>\n

If you're like me in that the thought of calling up a stranger to talk about politics (even with a script) makes you want to run and hide under the bed, and if you live in California, there's another way you can help: with administrative tasks at a local field office. (Sadly, this aspect isn't something you can do from out of state.)<\/p>\n

So if you, like me, have been sitting around thinking \"Oh, I can't cope with calling people, woe is me, I can't do anything to help other than sending money,\" now is the time to stop thinking that and take action.<\/p>\n

I didn't call all the field offices--only the San José and San Francisco ones. But I betcha your local field office<\/a> has similar needs. Call them and find out.<\/p>\n

If your closest field office is San José or San Francisco, read on.<\/p>\n

San José<\/h4>\n

They need general administration help--handing out packets to callers, tracking numbers of calls, etc. They need this kind of help mostly in the evenings, from 5 to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

If possible, sign up ahead of time by calling their main number: 408-453-4592. But if you aren't sure of your schedule ahead of time, you can just show up.<\/p>\n

They're located at 43 East Gish<\/a>, near 1st St., in San José, right near the airport; they're on the second floor of the Democratic Party building.<\/p>\n

I can't go tonight or tomorrow night, but I'm thinking I'll probably head down there regularly starting Friday. If anyone in Mountain View wants a ride, lemme know.<\/p>\n

San Francisco<\/h4>\n

In addition to general administrative stuff and phone-bankers, they need data entry people. They handle the data entry for the South Bay office as well.<\/p>\n

They do data entry training every day at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. I think you can just show up to those sessions without advance notice, but if you want to make sure, call their main number: 415-252-8132.<\/p>\n

They're located at 2278 Market<\/a>, at Noe, near Castro, in the old Tower Records building.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n

This administrative stuff is stuff that any of us (in California) can do, without having to make phone calls to strangers. No more excuses for me--I'm gonna go volunteer. Hope y'all will too, if you can.<\/p>\n

And spread the word. I imagine that other No On 8 field offices need help as well; if you aren't near San Francisco or San José, please visit the list of field offices<\/a> and call your local office to see how you can help.<\/p>\n

There are offices in Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa, as well as a bunch of places in SoCal and a few in the Central Valley and coast.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m disheartened to see that the latest poll shows Yes On 8 way ahead of No On 8. That poll…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-samesex-marriage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}