This week and next week were/will be a very exciting time for me within the campaign. Much of what I have been doing for the campaign such as creating flyers and planning events have just started to come to fruit with the Streetcar Charlie’s fundraiser and will end next Saturday with the Parade, and since there will not be anymore big events until after we go citywide, I am excited to see what will come next for us interns. I hope that I can partner with the webguy and revamp the website because I know we could do better without throwing any money into it, but we will see what happens!
I am really interested in learning more about fundraisers and meet and greets. Things like, what makes one successful and another a dud, both in the perception of the campaign team and the public, and what you can do as far as advertising it that will give you the best return. With the event this week, the flyer that we had sent out had suggested contributions of 50, 100, 250 & 500; if we had suggested 75, 150, 250 and 500 how many of those $50 checks turned into $75 and how many people would not have shown up or would have shown up but skipped the donation. I guess to some degree that is the sort of question that can’t be answered but it’s pretty interesting. I am looking forward to our lecture on finance and budget, especially if we go over information such as generally expected returns on fundraising methods.
The big thing that I did this week, that was not covered above was planning for the parade. I am the booth anchor, so I am in charge of making sure that the booth is fully staffed and stocked with all the gear we will need. Christine is supposed to be my assistant in this process, but I have not encountered any assistance from her which is frustrating now that we are about a week out. Luckily, Carlos has been there to help me gather some of the tools and give creative advise for the display board or else it would seem that I would be planning this end of the parade all by myself! So far I have gathered a list of volunteers who have been okayed to staff the booth, made artwork for the display board, created volunteer signup forms, and made a handy dandy checklist for the night before so I don’t leave anything behind. We have to be at the site to setup at 7AM which means I have to leave the house by 6, and I am just not a morning person so I will be loading up on coffee! I still have a lot to do, and I really hope that Christine steps up to the plate next week. Unfortunately, what I have heard from Mike and Carlos is that my experiences with
Christine are similar to theirs with Theresa and Katie. Now, I don’t know if it is Carlos or Mike who is actually organizing the march for Saturday since that is mostly getting bodies and Mike is the one with the volunteer list.
At the moment I am a whopping 15 minutes behind, but I feel a bit like I am slacking because I have not done too much work in the field, and most of what I have done is sitting at home helping out with graphics and going to events which is very interesting and fun but maybe not the most well rounded view of campaigning but I am the only one that Mike does not hound on a daily basis. He has never had to call me and ask where I was or when I was planning on getting any work done for the campaign, which I know he has done to the other interns because he has had me call them for him, so that makes me feel a lot better about where I stand. I’m also pretty sure that once we change gears and stop having as many events I will be hitting the pavement and phones more often. I’m still hoping to work on the website though, I may just throw something together in my spare time (if I can find any!) after I finish my paper for my other class.
