Obama Administration

Yes, Copenhagen is nearing, which is partly why the White House hosted a Clean Energy Economy forum with young progressive leaders last Wednesday, though there were a few patriots from the other side of the aisle also in attendance. Thanks to FM friend Sujatha from the PIRGS, we got invited to attend this forum as press (our video from the event is being edited now and should be up soon). The real push for this forum came from the Energy Action Coalition and its executive director Jessy Tolkan. Kudos, EAC.

As a first-timer to the White House, I followed the flock of well-dressed young leaders to an entrance and was promptly rejected and then redirected to the press entrance. This is proof that bloggers get some respect from the WH - thank you. My shots at how the WH ran the event come later; first, the good stuff.

The event was separated into two sessions, the first included speakers such as Labor Secretary Solis, Secretary of the Interior Salazar, Energy Secretary Chu, and EPA Administrator Jackson. Each speaker also answered audience questions in addition to delivering their prepared speeches.

On the HeadCount blog, Andy Bernstein shares his perspective on the second session, a breakout discussion between young leaders and "mid-level executive-branch staffers":

The final hour of the meeting was spent in breakout sessions with middle-level executive-branch staffers. That’s where I really started to drink the Kool-Aid and feel like I was getting an eyewitness view of democracy functioning as it should. Myself and about a dozen attendees sat down with Brandon Hurlbut, the deputy chief of staff to Energy Secretary Chu. He explained he quit his law job in spring 2007 to work on the Obama campaign in New Hampshire and joined the Department of Energy after the election. He shared some of what they’re working toward, such as an energy-efficiency rating system for homes realtors can use to increase property values. “I didn’t quit my job and come here to not get things done,” he said off-handedly at one point.

As press, I witnessed only the forum, which was not as exciting as the breakout session which Andy described in his blog. Andy describes what Congress and the youth activists are able to do well - lobby days.

I don't know if the breakout sessions allowed for digital participation, but if it didn't, then the White House should know that speaking to invite-only youth leaders isn't enough. The Obama administration has used online tools to collect and evaluate ideas and should use this tactic regularly with the collaborative-loving Millennial generation.

The forum itself felt like a pep-rally for young climate activists. Secretary Solis even brought-back campaign slogans and chants, which didn't seem to catch on with the live audience. The campaign is over, now is the time for governing and that's what the young leaders were eager to hear about.

Zachary Stark-MacMillan over at It's Getting Hot in Here expressed some of my own opinions about the disconnect between the administration and youth leaders:

Second, you urged us to take the lead and take action for what we believed was right. This is great advice to give to young people. However, you were speaking the “youth leaders” of the climate movement, to perhaps the most accomplished group of young people in the country. There were young entrepreneurs who have started their own businesses, founders and leaders of student groups, and veteran organizers who have made real change in their communities. We were at the White House because we have taken the lead, we are taking action, and we are powerful. We were at the White House because we want to start working with you on climate change, but if the administration keeps talking about ‘clean coal’, subsides for nuclear power, and 450ppm of carbon in the atmosphere instead of 350ppm, then we have serious disagreements. We need to resolve these issues and move forward together, before we end up fighting each other. We elected President Obama to be a leader on climate change, we would like him to start leading with strong and specific goals, and we will support him.

There was more than just a policy disconnect. When the secretaries were asked directly about how young people can help the administration move forward on climate change, there was the knee-jerk response - vote[!?]. And the other response was to convince your parents. Like Zachary mentioned in his open letter on It's Getting Hot in Here, the administration needs to understand that they are talking to the people who organized one of the highest voter turnout rates in modern history...on a budget. These leaders, regardless of age, are talented innovators and organizers. Telling them to vote and convince their parents is very nearly condescending.

Ian Shapria has an interesting story in today's Washington Post - Wishing and Hoping and Waiting. The piece outlines the long, drawn-out process of obtaining a job in the Obama Administration, and how many young, hopeful staffers are dealing with the length and uncertainty of the process:

They are the Obama-wannabes, many of them young and heady former campaign workers, frantically networking or waiting, just waiting, for the ultimate status symbol in their generation's caste system: a job in the Obama administration.

Flocking to the District's creative-class encampments of Mount Pleasant, the U Street corridor and Dupont and Logan circles, people in their 20s and 30s -- those, that is, with a liberal bent -- are prowling progressive Wiki pages and joining Google groups in the hunt for an Obama job. Those already employed elsewhere are secretly uploading their résumés to whitehouse.gov, while others are quitting their jobs to concentrate on the search.

Some are deft anglers: Melody Mathews, 29, a former Obama field worker-turned-Navy contractor, co-hosted a celebratory dinner recently at Old Ebbitt Grill that included top Army brass with whom she campaigned. Her hope is that they will get presidential appointments and, in turn, hire her. Others, such as Noland Chambliss, 25, a former Obama deputy field director, are in come-down mode. He applied for a position in the Energy Department but hasn't heard anything for months. So he has applied for a job at a pizza shop near his shared house off U Street NW.

"It was a pretty big drop-off, going from every moment of your day being filled with extraordinary purpose and intensity, every moment of your waking hours is bent aggressively toward this goal," Chambliss said. "And then there's a large chasm of uncertainty for you."

It's an interesting read shedding a little light on an otherwise shady process. I find that it is also reflective of what is going on in the larger political/non profit sector. Due to the economy, many organizations have a freeze on hiring, and we are still too far out from the midterms to really see a surge in campaign hiring. Depsite President Obama's call to service, it's a tough time all around for anyone looking to get involved in government or progressive politics.

Here's a question - whatever happened to the proposed White House Youth Liaison?

You'll remember that during the Presidential Transition, many youth leaders met with the transition team in DC. Part of that conversation touched on the creation of a White House Youth Liaison - someone to represent Millennials of all ages (not just children) in the White House and help young organizers and policy geeks get their voices heard in the policy making process. I even wrote a memo, submitted to the transition team and endorsed in part by many youth groups, outlining why the position was necessary and what it should aim to accomplish.

Almost three months later, the transition has closed up shop, and rather than more clarity as to the process and what is happening, we seem to have far less. No one seems to have any clue what the White House is thinking wrt the creation of such a position within the Office of Public Liaison, or the process by which a final determination and/or hire for such a position will take place.

One step forward, two steps back. Anyone have any idea what's happening on this front?

Recently, news broke that President Obama's new Director of Citizen Participation would be Google's Katie Jacobs Stanton. Kudos to the new President for sticking to his word that active citizenship would be at the forefront of his administration. Stanton was behind some of the Google applications that can be put to wholesome democratic use, such as Google's Moderator tool. Stanton's background is in technology, but what experience does she have in the way of citizen participation? A simple Google search doesn't turn up much, but maybe that's by design. To be sure, her knowledge of Google applications and other products can help turn the White House into the most connected and engaging executive office ever.

As Peter Levine points out in his post about young people and education, most young people do not attend college. As we know from the 2008 election and past elections , young people with some college education, especially current college students, are much more likely to vote than young people with no college experience whatsoever. In other words, college go-ers don't need much help from the Obama Administration to get involved. If anything, online Millennials will probably innovate new technologies and applications that increase their online influence. Stanton's help may quicken this process, which means that online Millennials will have a disproportionate voice in government when compared to their peers. At this moment, low-skilled and lower educated youth are suffering the most from the economic downturn. January's unemployment rate will be released tomorrow (February 6th) by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so be on the look-out, data-geeks. December 2008's unemployment rate for 16 to 18 year old youth was a whopping 20.8 percent, a one-year high--compared with 7.2 percent for the entire nation.

College students and recent graduates are experiencing a tough job market as well, but they have strong advocates on Capitol Hill and elsewhere that are fighting to include certain higher education provisions into the stimulus package. I'm in favor of these provisions, but where is the clamoring for the unemployed teenage youth and low-skilled workers that are being laid off in droves from large corporations. Where is their lobbying group? Which Senator or Representative is the "Champion of Under-served Youth Everywhere?"

I'm calling on Stanton to use her office for the most good by incorporating the ideas and wants of young people that don't go to college. People that are generally left-out of the democratic process, sometimes by choice and sometimes by design. (She can do this with technology, and this task will be easier once the promised broadband technology reaches every part of this nation.) One way she can succeed is to tap into existing networks. Groups like the Hip Hop Caucus and The League of Young Voters focused much of their GOTV and voter registration efforts on young voters with no college experience, as well as non-White urban youth--one of the least likely demographics to attend college. As the Director of Civic Participation, Stanton should work closely with the Corporation for National and Community Service--the government agency responsible for AmeriCorps--to create a citizen corps that does not recruit heavily on college campuses, but in rural towns and urban centers away from the ivory towers. Moreover, Stanton should form a working group that includes a diverse sampling of citizen-centered organizations in order to design programs that engages directly with America's most under-served populations. Research organizations such as CIRCLE and the National Conference on Citizenship can help measure the effectiveness of these programs.

Millennials that are comfortable with technology and have college experience voted for Obama by a wide margin over McCain, so it's no surprise that Obama should cater some of his policies to that demographic. Stanton's appointment seems to be a step in that direction, but she should take this opportunity to bring serious change to America for those who need it most. As the Director of Citizen Participation, Stanton's measure of success should be how high she raised the lowest bar. We'll be watching...and working with her, too.

So... a couple of months ago some video guys hired by the state department came out to interview me in the land of farmers and such. I was nervous this was a ploy to send me to Getmo for all those mean things I say about the government. Turns out they wanted to talk tech. Which was cool. America.gov is designed to be a face to international youth to show them who we are.

I'm eager to see what the Clinton State Department will do to use this as a means to really develop grassroots democracy abroad and generate relationships with international youth. So many possibilities for this site in the new administration, particularly with HRC at the helm.

Before I launch into the insanity of Inauguration Day let me just say that some of the events I attended leading up to Jan 20th's swearing-in where unbelievable. Including the Netroots Nation ball which was organized, delicious, ample in drink tickets which came with your purchased ticket, and all around the best event I attended.

However, I was first able to attend the New Leader's Council cocktail party where many of the DC fellows were in attendance. I've talked about the NLC quite a while back, but as a refresher its a training organization for youth who are in entry level political jobs who want to gain the skills necessary to climb the latter - but don't want to quit their jobs. Many times in training programs an applicant can't have a job because they are sent to a campaign or an org for 3-6 months. So, for folks who don't have the freedom to leave their life don't have a real option for advanced training.

The NLC provides that kind of quality training at that advanced level but does so in an area that is near to its fellows but on Saturdays for the course of what amounts to be a semester.

The theme of the NLC event was 10 by 2010. They have chapters now going strong in LA, San Francisco, Boston, DC, and NYC and are eager to grow to 10 within the next year. I know there is someone excited to develop one in Oklahoma City and there is buzz of one starting in Kansas that I'm trying to push along as well.

At a time when so many organizations are faltering because of the economy or the Madoff scandal and other organizations spend tons of money on parties or concerts, the NLC has tangible results in leadership development that grows young people into a generation of political and organization workers.

Their event on Sunday was great. I was able to connect with old friends and meet with new ones. Newly elected State Rep from Maine spoke, as did California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

Monday I had a great lunch meeting with a few people who are also leaders in the youth movement. While the purpose of the meeting was truly just to catch up, shop talk ensued and we shared our fears of the new administration only paying a lip-service to the youth movement and trying to funnel us all into "service" rather than meaningful policy initiatives.

For example: one member of our party lamented that the Obama Administration didn't have a youth representative working with any economic recovery or jobs packages or efforts. There is a huge focus on labor and helping older workers develop new tech skills so they have options in the jobs market. However, there is an entire generation graduating ... possibly the largest graduating class in our nation's history who is just now entering the work force with these skills already... and yet our generation has a 20% unemployment rate.

Why aren't young people or a rep from our generation anywhere near the table when discussing these issues, particularly since we have a much higher unemployment rate even with the skills policy makers say are necessary to get jobs??

Our further fear/discussion was that the Obama Administration will simply continue to pat us on the head and we will miss out on any real meaningful possibilities of engagement. When the Administration Youth Liaison met with leaders of the youth movement she commented that the one thing the youth movement wanted as a unit was a seat at the table. The fear we discussed at lunch was that those seats at the table will be minimized to meaningless outreach tools that merely create an appearance of engagement.

Perhaps we have a complete lack of trust from our years of experiencing what I just described to believe that an administration will actually consider us assets to policy initiatives.

Initial thoughts, I will have more on the insane disasters we saw at the actual Inaugural ceremonies and the pointlessness of the Youth Ball that had so much promise but in the end was a total FAILURE.

Inbox refugees from the last week:

• At Next Gen GOP, Aaron Marks grades the youth outreach plans of the many candidates vying for chairmanship of the Republican Party. Almost all get failing marks.
• Looking for a job in the Obama Administration? Jamal Simmons has some advice.
• MTV will broadcast the official youth inaugural ball. Look for me and Sarah in the crowd.
• The New Yorker covers last week's hack of Soapblox, ending with an important quote from Markos of Daily Kos:
  

  We have built this new progressive movement on a lot of volunteer labor, a shoestring budget, a lot of heart and soul, but not a lot of resources. We’ve got to professionalize our movement, and we can’t rely only on labors of love, like what Paul did."

  Here here.

• At The Nation, Cora Courrier picks up on our coverage of the Belcher memo and the new staff picks at the DNC.
• You should read everything in yesterday's tech/politics round up from Tech President.
• Check out this great interview that Change Congress's Larry Lessig did with Stephen Colbert. I got Remix for Christmas but have not yet read it.

• Network Centric Advocacy surmises that the economic downturn will shrink the nonprofit space. They suggest that this will not necessarily be a Darwinian survival of the fittest, but that by pure luck and stupidity the unfit may survive at the expense of some of the better non profit advocacy groups.
• Speaking of Change Congress, the organization recently launched a donor strike, asking people to pledge not to give money to candidates who don't support public funding of elections. This strikes me as a bad idea. Wouldn't this just result in a large number of decent if not perfect candidates getting handicapped while corrupt GOP competitors continue to rake in the cash?
• Here's an interesting idea that we should perhaps pursue here at FM: Tweetbacks on blog posts.
• Next New Deal has resources for understanding the new economic stimulus package.
• McClatchy offers yet another attempt to compare Obama's youth support to JFK and the 60s, with a caveat that we're all going to become disillusioned.

This is my first attempt at blogging from my iPhone. Here's hoping it works.

As we are waiting on Obama to name his CTO, it is worth talking about how we might expect that person to reshape our government for the 21st century. Personal Democracy Forum has an excellent white paper outlining much needed reforms.

I'm finally starting to feel better and catching up on things today. Here's some must-read stories from the last week of 2008:

• Jose Antonio Vargas writes that politics is no longer local, it's viral, in his latest piece making the rounds among the technorati. He hits the nail on the head when he writes:

  Looking back, I realize that it was on that Thursday night that a new political reality was cemented in my head. In the past, we've thought of politics as something over there -- isolated, separate from our daily lives, as if on a stage upon which journalists, consultants, pollsters and candidates spun and dictated and acted out the process. Now, because of technology in general and the Internet in particular, politics has become something tangible. Politics is right here. You touch it; it's in your laptop and on your cellphone. You control it, by forwarding an e-mail about a candidate, donating money or creating a group. Politics is personal. Politics is viral. Politics is individual.

  And we're just getting started.

• Also in the Post, Eli Pariser of MoveOn writes that both MoveOn and Obama are tapping into the same thing - people power and the voices of ordinary Americans.
• Over at Open Left, Chris Bowers has an excellent plan to help activists to take advantage of the first Democratic President and friendly congress in over a decade. This is something all youth organizations should be following, and contributing to.
• According to PEW, when it comes to where American's get their news, the Internet has surpassed all mediums except television.
• Want to work for the new administration? Filling out a form on Change.gov is only the first step. The Politico has a rundown on the sophisticated strategies that advocacy organizations and interest groups are using to influence the hiring process.
• Finally, The New York Times notes that as teen unemployment skyrockets, so is teen violence. The paper calls on the Obama administration to address the problem.

Update: Kudos to Lily Rothman at the transition team for responding almost immediately to my final question. Any youth group who has such recommendations can submit them into the endorsement process by emailing their recommendations to Lily. Again, it's best to be super specific about the person and position involved. If anyone wants to do this and doesn't have Lily's contact info, email me.
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Yesterday, the Personnel Department and the Transition's Youth Liaison held a conference call with 15 or 20 youth organizers to go over the hiring process. My understanding was that this call was to help walk us through the process of submitting resumes and making personnel recommendations for the incoming administration. It ended up being more about general information about the hiring process and personal advice to any of us who have submitted applications. Here's what they had to say:

• Be patient if you haven't yet heard anything. There are 7,000 positions and they have yet to progress below cabinet level positions in their hiring. They are just beginning work on senior staff, and this process may take until June to fully play out.
• As you apply, be realistic wrt expertise and the level at which you can participate. The staffer on the call made it clear that this would likely be confined entry and middle level positions.
• There are over 300,000 resumes in the database at this point. The way they sift through them is data mining. The more specific you are about the position you desire, the more likely your resume will get pulled from the database.
• The best tool to determine what is available and feasible in terms of political appointee positions is The Plumb Book, an online book listing all the political appointee positions available, broken down by department.

These were all great tips - especially letting us know about the Plum Book - though the conversation left a little to be desired. Namely, there was no conversation at all. A staffer talked at us for 10 minutes and there was no time for Q&A. I have to admit I was a little annoyed by his confidence that we would all be applying for mid or entry level positions. No one expects to be running cabinet departments, or being the deputy in a government agency, but the message was pretty condescending and my own interpretation was that none of us should expect to be hired into a position with anything resembling a level of authority or power.

There was one question in particular that the call left unanswered. If we ourselves are not going to be hired into any positions that will give us a seat at the table, what can we do to make hiring recommendations or support the applications of more qualified people who we feel will represent us and our issues well in the new administration?