Goddamn these people. I know they mean well, but...
All I want to do is help out this weekend with the GOTV efforts, but the various groups organizing it are making it very difficult for me to do so.
So, first I was going to try to go to Philly. I signed up with ACT, figured I could take the train down there at my own expense and that they would probably be able to find a host family for me or somewhere for me to crash. No dice. They provided basically no logistical help at all on how to get to their headquarters or where to stay. And there's no way I could afford a hotel, or a rental car, or anything like that. The idea here was to give time... I've already given more money this election cycle than I really should have.
So, I scrapped that. Next, I decided New Hampshire was a pretty good alternative. It's close by, and there are probably a lot of other Bostoners headed up there, so the logistics should be easier, at least in theory.
Well, they weren't. I signed up with Moveon to work in Manchester, or at least with their office in Manchester, it wasn't very clear exactly where, but I assumed I would at least begin there and maybe be bused elsewhere to actually work. Then I tried to find a way to get up there, preferably on a day-to-day basis since they also aren't really provisioning anywhere for people to stay. Moveon doesn't have rideshare setup integrated into their own site, but they directed me to another site that is setting people up with rides to go do GOTV in swing states, and I messaged all the contacts for BOS-NH trips. Of course, for most of the week, there was only one contact for that particular combination, and it turned out that they were only doing transport for people working with ACT(so much for all this fabled cooperation between the different lefty groups.)
This morning I finally found and arranged rides for Sat. and Sun. with other people who are headed up there, as more contacts did at last pop up on that site, basically individuals going up there on their own to work for various groups. I thought I was finally set.
Then moveon emails me this afternoon to let me know that I'm not supposed to start in Manchester at all, but at my assigned site somewhere in the state, and that they'd call me to let me know the details sometime today(why can't they email? I do not know.) What. the. fuck? This is New England. Do they really think everyone is using their own personal transportation to get up there? Now if my destination doesn't happen to match up with where the people I'm riding with are going, I'm just hosed. I really doubt I can get a bus to random bumfuck New Hampshire, and finding a rideshare to some really specific, small place on such short notice will be pretty much a crapshoot. I guess I could rent a car, but again, I have time to donate, but not so much with the money right now(and oh yeah, I forgot, my driver's license is expired as well, so that's definitely out.) I'm not sure what I should do. Maybe I'll just go man phones and do computer work for the Democrats in Boston, as I saw something about chances to do that in an email earlier this week, but that's less than satisfying, since the Dems could run a fetid corpse for office and still win in Mass. I want to do something that's actually effective in terms of helping to win the election on the ground, I want to feel some solidarity and fight the good fight here, not just do busywork cooped up in an office in Boston.
Really though, this is a mess. I'm not asking to have my hand totally held. I had no problem with having no idea what the fuck I was actually going to be doing once I got there(well, actually, I sorta did, but I'm willing to hold my tongue and understand on that) but they should at least make it possible for people with money/transport limitations to help out if they want to, especially in an area where that probably constitutes a considerable proportion of their potential volunteer base. It's not like they have the excuse of being underfunded this time around.
Really, they're just not using the web to its potential. It shouldn't be hard, with the kind of resources they have access to, to set up a web interface for a)picking a community to go work in, b)finding a place to stay/volunteering your place for crash space, and c) finding a ride/offering rides, with the latter two sorted by the location where you have decided or been assigned to work. The only human intervention that moveon should need to do at all is maybe in the assigning volunteers area, to make sure they actually get enough people in less popular destinations. Instead, it's all a big clusterfuck, just like almost every other lefty activism thing I've tried to participate in and been frustrated to death by.
*sigh*
So, first I was going to try to go to Philly. I signed up with ACT, figured I could take the train down there at my own expense and that they would probably be able to find a host family for me or somewhere for me to crash. No dice. They provided basically no logistical help at all on how to get to their headquarters or where to stay. And there's no way I could afford a hotel, or a rental car, or anything like that. The idea here was to give time... I've already given more money this election cycle than I really should have.
So, I scrapped that. Next, I decided New Hampshire was a pretty good alternative. It's close by, and there are probably a lot of other Bostoners headed up there, so the logistics should be easier, at least in theory.
Well, they weren't. I signed up with Moveon to work in Manchester, or at least with their office in Manchester, it wasn't very clear exactly where, but I assumed I would at least begin there and maybe be bused elsewhere to actually work. Then I tried to find a way to get up there, preferably on a day-to-day basis since they also aren't really provisioning anywhere for people to stay. Moveon doesn't have rideshare setup integrated into their own site, but they directed me to another site that is setting people up with rides to go do GOTV in swing states, and I messaged all the contacts for BOS-NH trips. Of course, for most of the week, there was only one contact for that particular combination, and it turned out that they were only doing transport for people working with ACT(so much for all this fabled cooperation between the different lefty groups.)
This morning I finally found and arranged rides for Sat. and Sun. with other people who are headed up there, as more contacts did at last pop up on that site, basically individuals going up there on their own to work for various groups. I thought I was finally set.
Then moveon emails me this afternoon to let me know that I'm not supposed to start in Manchester at all, but at my assigned site somewhere in the state, and that they'd call me to let me know the details sometime today(why can't they email? I do not know.) What. the. fuck? This is New England. Do they really think everyone is using their own personal transportation to get up there? Now if my destination doesn't happen to match up with where the people I'm riding with are going, I'm just hosed. I really doubt I can get a bus to random bumfuck New Hampshire, and finding a rideshare to some really specific, small place on such short notice will be pretty much a crapshoot. I guess I could rent a car, but again, I have time to donate, but not so much with the money right now(and oh yeah, I forgot, my driver's license is expired as well, so that's definitely out.) I'm not sure what I should do. Maybe I'll just go man phones and do computer work for the Democrats in Boston, as I saw something about chances to do that in an email earlier this week, but that's less than satisfying, since the Dems could run a fetid corpse for office and still win in Mass. I want to do something that's actually effective in terms of helping to win the election on the ground, I want to feel some solidarity and fight the good fight here, not just do busywork cooped up in an office in Boston.
Really though, this is a mess. I'm not asking to have my hand totally held. I had no problem with having no idea what the fuck I was actually going to be doing once I got there(well, actually, I sorta did, but I'm willing to hold my tongue and understand on that) but they should at least make it possible for people with money/transport limitations to help out if they want to, especially in an area where that probably constitutes a considerable proportion of their potential volunteer base. It's not like they have the excuse of being underfunded this time around.
Really, they're just not using the web to its potential. It shouldn't be hard, with the kind of resources they have access to, to set up a web interface for a)picking a community to go work in, b)finding a place to stay/volunteering your place for crash space, and c) finding a ride/offering rides, with the latter two sorted by the location where you have decided or been assigned to work. The only human intervention that moveon should need to do at all is maybe in the assigning volunteers area, to make sure they actually get enough people in less popular destinations. Instead, it's all a big clusterfuck, just like almost every other lefty activism thing I've tried to participate in and been frustrated to death by.
*sigh*