One thing that’s become clear over the campaign season is that there are some campaign things I am great at and some things I am terrible at. Perhaps the worst is keeping track of helpful people. More than one experienced campaigner told me at the start of this that I should use the petition-signature gathering time and the canvassing time to build up a big list of supporters whom I could then contact for volunteer help, to give them information, to get out the vote, etc.
I have done a TERRIBLE job at that part — I’ve probably talked to hundreds if not thousands of people, but did I get down all of their names and contact info? No, no I did not. This is where a campaign manager might have been helpful, and for a bigger campaign, I would totally hire one. At the very least, I should probably have carried a clipboard around with me everywhere I went.
More distressing to me is that I completely failed to keep a master list of volunteers. (A volunteer coordinator would also have been super helpful.) There were so many people who helped me in big ways or small, and I know some of their names, but certainly not all. I’m not even sure I’ve invited them all to the election night pizza & board games party tomorrow, or the thank you dinner coming up.
So let me take this moment to say that if you put up a yard sign, handed out bookmarks, talked me up to your friends, or otherwise helped in any way with the campaign, I would love to invite you to the election night party at our house tomorrow, and the volunteer thank-you dinner on the 14th. Kids welcome. So you should make sure I get your e-mail if you haven’t gotten invites to those things already!
And win or lose, thank you, thank you, thank you all. This has been a fascinating experience, I have learned so much, and Oak Park is just full of wonderful, kind, helpful people. I feel tremendously lucky to live here.