training

Campus Progress is planning an upcoming campaign training event, How to Win in 2010: Mobilizing Young Voters, taking place on June 21st at the Center for American Progress. This nonpartisan day of trainings, which is being co-sponsored by , the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, and the American University Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, will focus on equipping campaign staff, candidates and members of the media with tools to help them effectively engage, utilize, and turn out young voters. Campus Progress has a number of great speakers lined up so far, including Steve Hildebrand (former Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager), Karen Hicks, and trainers from Rock the Vote, PEW, the Fair Elections Legal Network, and many other organizations.

The training day is free, and limited travel and housing scholarships are also available. You can find more information and register on the Campus Progress website: www.campusprogress.org/WinIn2010.
If you have any questions, you can email Katie Andriulli at kandriulli at americanprogress dot org.

The Green Lantern is running for Mayor of DC. Wait, what?

Yes, it's true. Well, sort of true. The New Organizing Institute is running a BootCamp this week, and five dozen promising progressive activists have traveled to D.C. to learn the ways of online organizing. We've been split into teams, each supporting a different superhero candidate for mayor, and we're running a mock campaign that ends this Friday, July 10.

These trainees could well be the new face of online organizing tactics, and they're come up with some interesting innovations.

Let's take a look:

Lots of new stuff in today's Quick Hits - from social media strategies, to training programs and service legislation:

• Yesterday the Washington Post threw-down the gauntlet, claiming that Facebook Causes was a disappointment because it had failed to open the spigot of small dollar donations hoped for by nonprofits. Allison Fine immediately rose to the defense of the Causes Application, noting that the Washington Post piece misses the true nature of fundraising on the web, and the true purpose and value of Causes to non profits.
• Campus Progress notes that 1/3 of all unemployed Americans and call for the creation of a New Deal for Young Workers.
• USA Today notes that public universities are about to see hefty tuition hikes.
• At the Politics Online Conference, Nancy Scola reports on an interesting conversation about how mobile activism differs from traditional online activism.
• Over at his other blog, FM contributor Kevin Bondelli explains how the Young Democrats rapidly grew their membership on Facebook in the last month.
• PolitiCorps, the political boot camp operated by the Bus Project, is accepting applications for their summer program.
• James Carville is fully on the youth bandwagon. In his new book, he notes that the GOP has become the Grand OLD Party.
• Peter Levine reports that the size of Americorps is about to triple. He's also got some very interesting thoughts on how Obama has developed a deeper than usual conception of service.
• On a related note, the Huffington Post reports on service as a new kind of patriotism.

The folks at the Bus Project have put together an incredible working document of progressive and non-partisan training programs. You can find the full document here (and the folks at the Bus are encouraging people to edit the document to add in new opportunities or more information about those already listed. It's a great, great resource already listing almost 40 different training programs ranging from the hyper-partisan and political to more non-partisan, social justice and civic oriented opportunities.

As usual, nothing but excellence from the folks at The Bus.

The Roosevelt Institution is recruiting for their summer academy:

The Roosevelt Summer Academy combines a full-time internship with a training curriculum and weekly networking events as part of an integrated program of leadership development. Our objective is to bring new, diverse, and progressive voices into the political process. The program runs for ten weeks, from June 9 to August 15. Contact Kurston Cook (kurston.cook [at] rooseveltinstitution.org) for more information.

Bumped. --Mike

Young Americans elected change on Nov. 4. Now who will turn the buzzword into reality? Electing the right people is just the beginning- we still have to fight for the right policies- like health care and living wages for all. Making change a reality requires a lot of people- not a lot of Obamas, but a lot of people behind the scenes.

Let me give you an example. Do you know who Charles Moskos was? Probably not. But you probably do know that the US military has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for LGBT service members, and that when you finish college, you will pay back your student loans based on how much you earn. These were both ideas crafted by Mr. Moskos as a policy advisor to President Clinton. These are the people behind the scenes who influence major ideas and decisions- decisions that will eventually become the policies that govern our lives. So, how do we ensure that the next generation of influential policy advisors is waiting in the wings?

Our answer is the DMI Scholars program. Each summer, DMI Scholars brings together progressive minded college activists to intensively train on the policymaking process and analyze policies, while exposing them to the who’s who in progressive policy circles- a world that expands far beyond presidential advisors. DMI Scholars will become the future heads of think tanks, advisors to elected officials, grassroots campaigns directors and media commentators to collectively steer our nation in the right direction.

The program, poised to introduce its third cohort of Scholars this summer, will ensure that as baby boomers age out, the current cadre is ready to take up the charge of implementing real change. Interested college sophomores and juniors should check out www.dmischolars.org and apply to the 2009 DMI Scholars Summer Institute, to be held in NYC, August 1-15.

The first class of Scholars has now completed their training and internship, and are already beginning to change the public policy landscape in places like the US Senate Judiciary Committee and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Apply to DMI Scholars today. Tell a friend about it.

APPLICATION DEADLINE FEB 1 AT 11PM!! www.dmischolars.org

Looking to get more involved in 2009? Here are some opportunities:

• Roosevelt Institution: America's student think tank is looking for interns to help with communications, field work, policy and development.
• The Young Democrats: YDA is looking or full-time or 20-hour-per-week interns and is willing to pay a stipend. There are no links yet to a job description. If you are interested, contact me and I'll pass you on to the appropriate person.
• The American Prospect: It's not a youth group, but this excellent progressive magazine is looking to hire interns and junior staff. Details here.
• Center for Progressive Leadership: This excellent leadership development org is now accepting applications for its 2009 paid summer internship positions.

Bumped. -Craig

I've been in Denver at the College Democrats of America convention for the last two days. I will comment on state of CDA in a future post, but first I'd like to share what was my highlight of the convention so far.

During the four hours of the "Be Kick Ass! '08: Training" sessions today, I attend a presentation given by Parag Mehta, the DNC's Director of Training. I was fortunate enough to have caught a training that Parag led at Netroots Nation a few weeks ago, but this was even more engaging and informative. The presentation was geared for College Dems, but many of the tips are applicable to student organizations in general. Here are some things Parag suggested to help campus leaders as they head back to school this fall:

How do you get off to a good start with your group's first two meetings?

First meeting: This is when you should greet new and continuing members and motivate them to get involved. Welcome members, introduce the organization and its goals, have a good time, and get students pumped up for the coming semester.

Second meeting: This meeting should be a work meeting. Show new students that your organization actually cares about doing things. Ideas include leading a phone banking training, voter registration training, or community service project.

Where should you hold your meetings?

There are many lot of options: student unions, student lounges, etc. Don't use a lecture hall or classroom. Students are in classrooms all day and lecture halls don't work as well for a collaborative meeting where everyone feels like they are a part of the organization.

How do you get food for your meetings?

We all know that college students gravitate towards free food, but how do you get food if your organization has little to no spare money? Try going to businesses that you know tend to lean Democratic (Costco, Whole Foods, etc) and ask them if they would be willing to donate some food for your first meeting. You'll be surprised by what they're willing to give friendly student groups.

What do you do about people who don't show up?

When you have your first meeting or event you'll get people who RVSP on Facebook or MyBO say that they'll attend, but then never show up. Instead of simply shrugging it off and letting these people go, keep a list of everyone who RSVPed for your meeting/event. Then after your meeting/event, pull a few students aside who enjoyed it and ask them call through everyone on the RSVP list who didn't show up. A simple message like "hey, I went to this event and had a great time, here's what we did, and I hope you can come next time" can be very effective at pulling these people back in.

Also, make sure to send a follow up message to everyone who showed up to the meeting. Remember to thank them, ask them to bring their friends next time, and let them know what's next for the organization.

I wanted to call your attention to two new handbooks about online politics that came out this week:

Colin Delaney of the excellent ePolitics updated his monster Online Politics 101 handbook (50+ pages). It's an excellent primer on the basics of online organizing - from Search Engine Optimization and online advertising to blogging. It's lacking in case studies to illustrate his points, but if you want to make sure your online organizing/media campaign is following basic best practices, it's an invaluable guide.

Rock the Vote also released a much slimmer guide to New Media Tactics. The guidebook focuses heavily on tactics Rock the Vote employs, including how to best make use of their voter registration widget online.

The Obama Campaign just announced the launch of a summer training program, Obama Felowships. Considering the truly impressive field (and internet) operation the Obama campaign has put together this year, this is a unique opportunity to learn a really good ground game. If I was just finishing school (or still a student), I'd jump at the chance to be on the inside and learn from the campaign.

Introducing the Obama Organizing Fellows

This summer we are looking for people who want to be a part of a new generation of leadership that believes, like Senator Obama, that real change comes from the ground up.

Fellows will be trained on the basics of organizing & campaign fundamentals and then placed in a community to carry out grassroots activities. Fellows will be asked to commit to a minimum of 30 hours per week and will:

• participate in training on field organizing, messaging, and other activities
• organize in a community, working in conjunction with grassroots leaders and campaign staff
• continue to build the movement

Applications are due at the latest by Monday, May 5th at midnight eastern time. We strongly encourage individuals to apply early. Applicants should expect to receive further communication in May. Program participation will start on June 5 and run through the end of the summer.

Note: this is an unpaid position.

Questions? Please email fellowship@barackobama.com.

If Hillary is your woman, or if you're looking to join the movement outside the bounds of the campaign, there are a number of other high-quality training opportunities this summer. A colleague at the Oregon Bus Project sent me a brief email to remind me of them:

"One of the most inspiring things about the Obama campaign is their desire to build for the future and their commitment to training young leaders in grassroots organizing. Organizations like the Bus Project's PolitiCorps Summer, Center for Progressive Leadership's New Leaders Fellowship, EMILY's List Campaign Corps, GreenCorps, and many others are also providing leadership training programs for young progressive leaders this summer. Some of these opportunities are paid, and all of them have deadlines rapidly approaching.

Here is a calendar of trainings for young progressive leaders in 2008."

For questions about the Bus Project's PolitiCorps Program, email emily.kintzer@busproject.org or call 503 233 3018