- Campaign
Videos (June 2012) «
Obama for America
Obama for America
"The
Neighborhood
Team
Model" +
3:55 web video from June 11, 2012.
[Music] Male
Announcer: Unlike other presidential campaigns our strength
resides in the thousands of volunteer leaders already organizing
themselves into teams across the country. This is an introduction
into the leadership roles that keep our organization running.
This is the Neighborhood Team Model.
TEXT: The Neighborhood
Team Model
Cheryl Ellis, Neighborhood Team
Leader: I am
Cheryl Ellis. My title is Neighborhood Team Leader. I just
try to do the best that I can so that we can grow and build as an
organization.
We need to make sure we're
getting more volunteers involved and continuing to grow the electorate,
and it's urgent that we start now. I've been able to recruit
volunteer team members who are now experts, and now they're acting as
coordinators.
Cheryl Ellis (nat. sound):
Who is planning to come to tomorrow night's phone bank? Awesome.
Laura, Phone Bank Coordinator: One way that I have seen this
campaign empower people is just watching them learn to phone bank.
Laura (nat. sound): Okay,
we're going to be focusing on two main things this evening. We're
going to be signing up volunteers and then we're also going to be
moving undecided voters.
Laura, Phone Bank Coordinator:
One
of
the
most important things I do as the phone bank coordinator is
train new people.
Laura (nat. sound): And when you run across an
undecided voter, give them a chance to express their concerns.
Woman (audio): If we can
relate to them and tell them how we've been impacted personally, that
is what's going to make the difference.
Laura, Phone Bank Coordinator:
Every phone
call I make, that could be the phone call that re-elects President
Obama.
Woman
(nat. sound): The goal today is to register four people per
person.
Chrissy, Canvass Coordinator:
I
actually
love
being the canvass coordinator.
Woman (nat. sound): Over
here we're doing canvassing, knocking...
Chrissy, Canvass Coordinator: We're going door to
door and we're going to community events to find new voters...
Woman (nat. sound): Alright, woo...
Chrissy, Canvass Coordinator:
I'm
out
in
my community, people know me.
Chrissy (nat. sound):
Hey young man, how you doing?
Cheryl: Chrissy's such a good canvasser because she has a passion for this.
Chrissy (nat. sound):
We can definitely get your contact information to give you a call.
Cheryl: I think it's
wonderful when neighbors talk to neighbors because you know that person
is invested in your community.
Woman (nat. sound):
Oh, look at you, you have on my hat.
Chrissy, Canvass Coordinator:
I'm
responsible
for
training people to go out and arm themselves with
the proper knowledge to go out and canvass their neighborhoods.
Woman (nat. sound):
Chrissy, we just got somebody at that house...
Billie, Data Coordinator:
Since
it's
a
team we're doing so many different tasks all the time, we
really need a system to track all those activities.
Man (nat. sound): Billie, I've got two sheets for you here.
Billie, Data Coordinator: Data really equals
winning, and that's why it's really one of the most important parts of
the campaign.
As a data coordinator we record everything that
the volunteer does. That data is used to generate more call
lists, canvass packs so that we're the most efficient we can be in
contacting the voters so that when the time comes we can get out the
vote, and that's really what data entry is all about.
Cheryl: Now that we
have these team members who are leaders they're now training other
people to be experts and it just continues to snowball and snowball and
that's the beautiful thing about Neighborhood Teams.
Hanna, Core Volunteer:
I've volunteered in presidential elections for many, many, many
years. You're given your script and you go to your cubicle and
you make your phone calls and at the end of your time they say thank
you very much and you leave and that's about it.
Working in this campaign is totally different from
that. I feel connected to the neighborhood people who I work
with, like I'm part of something larger.
Cheryl: The story
that's happening here is happening all over the country and it's just
inspiring.
This campaign is about us. President Obama
is the inspiration but he lit the fire and now we've just run with
it. Once you feel that, there's nothing that can stop it.
Notes:
This is a rather complex video that weaves together clips of
Neighborhood Team members talking about their work and scenes of them
in action.