I’ve volunteered for a lot of campaigns over the years. I pretty much know what’s going to go smoothly and what should probably be avoided. If you’re expected to be there for hours upon hours and there’s no mention of access to food or water, then avoid. Some events even have catering donated, and I’ll go anywhere for a free buffet. The important thing, of course, is what the campaign is trying to accomplish, but a lot of time can be put in for little or no result if you fail to anticipate how well organized those employed by the campaign will be… or won’t be.
I should have anticipated that there might be some otherwise unforeseen problems when I signed up for a 3pm to 6pm shift at the Fountainbleau Hotel for Fair Districts Florida. First of all, they had asked for volunteers to get petition signatures to re-district the state from Florida Democrats gathered for meetings before the annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner, but it took a few emails from me to get info on parking (no free parking) and what to wear (red T-shirt, if you have one). I had also never received a response from anyone about their website not working, which meant I had been unable to make a donation… that was a sign of potential trouble, but I forged ahead with volunteering anyway.
Despite the fact that there are unpaid volunteers working towards a cause that should benefit us all, there have to be at least 3 basic standards for a campaign, especially for those who are paid to work there:
1) Do not abandon your volunteers when you’ve asked them to commit to a particular shift and you are coordinating what they are there to do. Remain in the area where your volunteers are working, or at least be available by telephone if you leave the area.
My shift was 3-6pm on May 30th at the Miami Beach Fountainbleau Hotel. I was on time, and I kept working throughout the conference areas until 6pm. I also paid for my own parking, which turned out to be $12 by the time I exited the parking garage. One volunteer had taken the bus from the University Drive area to gather signatures at the Fountainbleau.
I was in other parts of the hotel and conference rooms collecting signatures and talking to voters about the issue. When I got back to the Fair Districts Florida table just before 6, everything had been packed up and removed.
According to the one volunteer who had been manning the table, she saw some guy come along and pack everything up before 5 o’clock, including my umbrella, but she didn’t know who he was, and he left her no instructions about what to do if anyone from the campaign was needed after they had apparently decided to leave early. The conference and hotel areas remained very busy even after the Fair Districts Florida campaign workers had taken off.
I had phoned the Deputy Campaign Manager, Julia Lopes, who was in charge of the volunteers that day, over and over again during the next ninety minutes while I remained on the property because it was continuouly pouring outside and I wanted my umbrella back. To this day I haven’t gotten a call back. I had also called two other numbers, and had gotten a call back from Ellen Freidin, Campaign Chair, later that evening, and she had assured me that the issues we’d experienced would be attended to and that I’d hear from someone. That didn’t exactly happen.
2) Ensure that your website is working, and respond to any reports of non-working links and malfunctions, let alone any other emails.
Other volunteers at the Fountainbleau last Sunday had reported the same experiences with the FairDistrictsFlorida.org website that I had. The website had not been able to process donations, probably because the minimum donation is $50. Many people will attempt to fill in a lesser amount in the OTHER box, but any other amount would get an ERROR message. The website also would not accept email addresses entered into the ‘Send this Website to a Friend’ section of the site.
I had emailed Campaign Manager Jackie Lee about those issues on May 1st, but I had never received a response. There were other volunteers at the Fountainbleau who had reported the same experience. One volunteer claimed to have met Jackie at the hotel and told her that she had also reported website problems without a response, and she alleged that Jackie had responded, “Oh yeah, we’re working on that.”
3) Be sure to collect all signed petitions and other campaign materials from your volunteers before they leave the premises.
Julia’s email to me today finally addressed the fact that I am still in possession of petitions, fliers, a clipboard, etc. She wrote:
“As far as the petitions, you can put them in the mail to PO Box 330868 Miami, FL 33233.”
Uhhh… I don’t think so. For all she knows, I could use them for the bird cage I’m going to get for the bird that I’m going to buy just for the purpose of crapping all over those signed petitions.
Do not simply trust your volunteers whom you only just met to eventually get needed materials back to you unless you’ve provided a simple and easy way to send them in or drop them off, or… better yet, have them picked up, especially if you’ve mistakenly taken somebody’s umbrella.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but I was faced with walking several long blocks to my car in the pouring rain with signed petitions and no umbrella.
And I do know this: I committed to driving down there, paying for parking, and looking stupid for three hours wearing an ill-fitted T-shirt covered with various campaign buttons while approaching strangers and bugging them for their time while they were all wearing business attire and looking a lot less kooky than I, and most of them had felt like they had already “given at the office.”
Will I volunteer for Fair Districts Florida again? No. Do I hope Florida is fairly re-districted? Yes- but I expect to work on that on my own time from now on, not on theirs.
Oh yeah… Julia Lopes finally got back to me yesterday. They lost my umbrella.
BlueBroward.org
