Help from Experienced DU'ers - how should people get involved

[The Straight Story]

You're involved in the party/community. How would you recommend others get involved as well?

When I lived in Whitehall, Ohio (crackerHall...heh heh) I used to attend every single city council meeting, read what was being proposed, and had my say (regardless of which party was in favor of what, I based my views on the facts and not the party line - if there was one).

So let's say Joe/Joette six pack is sitting at home and wanting to get involved somehow in politics - state, local, fed, etc. How did you get started, where you at now in it all, and how would you recommend others get started?

My own personal advice: Set some goals based on what you can do (time wise). Find out your local reps, house reps (state/fed), senators (same), visit their sites, see if they have events scheduled, attend city council meetings as well party meetings (if available in your area), and so on.

The hardest part is getting started - and to get started you need a plan and data. If you need help, ideas, etc, post here and hopefully folks can help you out. I am looking to get more involved once again, as soon as wife's health improves and I can get some time away from home to go to functions.

I do remember a time when I was injured and off work working with some state senators to defeat some legislation by sending out letters, getting friends to write etc - all of which I could do without leaving home.

So tell us how you're involved, how you want to be involved, and how we can get where we want to be.

[murielm99]

1. Get involved at the county level.

Go to meetings of your county Democrats. If they need a precinct committeeman, run for the office. If they already have one, help that person walk the precinct. Become a voter registrar. Volunteer for whatever else is needed at the county level. One you start doing that, other opportunities to be involved will present themselves.

[The Straight Story]

2. For those in Franklin county, Ohio, here is that link:

http://www.fcdp.org/

And the get involved link:

http://www.fcdp.org/involvement.html

Thanks for the post and ideas!

[EFerrari]

3. I notice that people tend to get more motivated when they go for

what directly affects their family or their block. School board meetings, town meetings about a neighborhood issue. They go, they get confortable and blam, they're running for congress.

:)

[The Straight Story]

5. True that, mom got involved that way

She was a pta member and got involved as best she could locally. Her dad was a repub mayor, her brother a dem mayor. She was up on both sides of things and you couldn't pull the wool over her eyes on things (no matter which party was doing it).

She did not get involved in a party side of things, but she did get involved in issues.

She would be seen here as odd I am afraid. She fought busing, because it took us far from home for no good apparent reason (although for only one year as it worked out). She also was one of two people who welcomed the first black family to our neighborhood during the same time (by baking them a cake and taking it to their house with her best friend, while others were moving out and telling the black people to get out). It was tough for me as my best friend had lived there and moved out, but I did become friends with the young boy that moved in there (Arthur).

One guy in the hood was a school teacher, and moved out as soon as he heard they were moving in. Mom just wanted good will to all (we are a small neighborhood with less then 100 homes and pretty close knit). She didn't like the forced busing, at all. Felt it would harm us kids, take parents out of the local school loop, etc. Turns out I met my best friend (to this day) because of busing. But mom was right in some ways early on as race issues resulted in violence at the schools and education suffered a lot for all us kids.

I am not sure what bussing here accomplished, and now this area is more minority and poor then the places we were bussed to (and they stopped it a few years back). We were poor to middle class here already, with some diversity (more now). The placed we were bussed to was the same. Just a longer drive.

[DinahMoeHum]

4. The following orgs have chapters at state and local levels. . .

www.democrats.org

www.democracyforamerica.com
(click on dfa-link, then enter zip code)

www.pdamerica.org

Good Luck and good hunting...

:kick:

[The Straight Story]

6. Awesome links, thank you!

2006 elections coming up, the more we can all get involved the better. I need to get off my butt and get going. If wife gets better soon I hope to spend some time at meetings and gatherings, if not I did volunteer to make calls, stuff envelopes, etc.

[Robbien]

7. DFA and PDA are the two groups which helped my activism on

a national level.

Otherwise I went to my town city hall meetings and signed up for participation in local matters.

[MuseRider]

8. Jump in with both feet!

I found an issue that I cared very much about, went to a meeting to join a campaign and never looked back. Figure out just what moves you and get into it. Now I have gone from local to local and sitting on a state board. Just this week I got involved with some city council stuff because of those groups. It just grows as big as you let it. Find your muse and go for it.

[The Straight Story]

9. Here is a problem though....

In the early/mid 90's I jumped into an issue I was passionate about. Outcome based education as it was called in the day. Dems here were for it, many repubs against it. I fought against it.

Funny how the tides turn. bush and crew renamed it and rammed it through, and the folks I worked with against it before were for it now, and vice versa.

Frustrating to me that the very people fighting this suddenly changed directions with a new administration and were for it (after it was renamed to protect them) and the dems that were for it suddenly saw it as a bad idea when bush and crew came to power.

I am an issues based person, so while I will work for Ohio dems, I won't always work to support them on issues I disagree with.

Just forewarning folks that getting involved won't always work smoothly :) sometimes, you have to put aside party politics and fight for what is right.

[niyad]

10. speaking of your wife, how did the neurologist's visit go, if I may ask?

[The Straight Story]

11. New Dr

Running more tests to insure all is ruled out, we meet again in October. New meds.

She is having other issues not related, and we spent 7 hours at dr office and emergency room.

If all goes well things will finally get better soon. Another dr appt tomorrow.

[niyad]

14. will continue to send good and positive thoughts your way.

[The Straight Story]

17. Thank you, things have been bad for months

was real bad last night. Worst night in the last 2 years. They still don't know the cause, but we will find out. In the meantime, drugs and patience is all we can work with :)

[never_get_over_it]

12. Given that almost nothing is more important right now

than to stop or slow down this monsterous administration my recommendation is to volunteer for a Senate or House race - or find a group working to stop this vote fraud and help them.... I myself just volunteered to help in a Congressional race - so I'll be making some phone calls and writing some letters....

[helderheid]

13. Go here:

www.pdamerica.org and find a local group. :)

[LoZoccolo]

15. There are DNC meetups around the country.

http://dnc.meetup.com

In Illinois we have this really neat organization, Illinois Dem Net: http://www.illinoisdemnet.org

The web site is basically a go-to for various things to do.

Or, just call your local Democratic Party headquarters.

[niyad]

16. one of the simplest is to see if there is a chapter of "drinking liberally

in your area--it's fun, there are always campaigns, issues, etc, that need volunteers, it's a great way to meet candidates, etc. etc.

www.drinkingliberally.org and find the nearest chapter.