26th
Volunteer Criteria
Not all help is good help.
People have been telling me for months, “Annaliese you should keep blogging.” I always say I’ll try but when it comes right down to it I don’t. I feel like a have a lot of good reasons for keeping my thoughts a little closer to the vest. I don’t want to offend anybody unnecessarily and I do communications for the campaign so I worry about the musings on this blog being misrepresented as the thoughts of the campaign or my mom.
Anyway, there are my lame excuses. So what has caused me to return to this venue? Well, partly guilt for my negligence of this site and partly my spelling errors.
Yes, my spelling errors. Actually, my spelling error. The campaign office received a call today that a friend of a friend was perusing the various campaigns’ websites and was, I quote, “appalled at Annaliese’s spelling errors” even saying “I know Annaliese went to college and everything but…”
I had to laugh. I tell people sometimes that every thing I do and every move I make offends somebody. Today my spelling has offended someone.
Actually, one word has offended someone. The only word I can find misspelled in my blog is “rememeber”, darn extra e.
The e has now been corrected!
This is just one example of the myriad concerns campaign staff addresses daily. We always need feedback on a campaign to know where we are weak and where we are strong, so I write this post with the disclaimer that feedback and constructive criticism is imperative to the success of every campaign.
On the flip side, No Drama is also key to campaign success. When people say they want to help on the campaign I tell them “That is great! Thank you so much and welcome to our team!” I want volunteers to help in whatever way they feel most comfortable (talking to friends, writing letters, door-to-door, displaying a yard sign or bumper sticker, the list goes on and on) but to volunteer on my mom’s campaign I ask for three things:
- Be positive about Cynthia and the campaign (this includes dispelling negativity and bringing constructive criticisms to staff so we can fix problems),
- Commit to our effort and take an ownership in our campaign and
- No Drama (I don’t want this campaign to feel like a hybrid of the West Wing and High School Musical)
Those three things can do wonders to squash the rumor mill, get positive buzz for our campaign and make this gun-hoe effort fun and rewarding for everybody.