total time: 4.72 minutes
total words: 750
[SPEAKER_07]: Great. Well, I think we're in good shape. Obviously, people can keep on joining in as they wish. And we'll keep on letting them in. But we'll kind of just get started with some updates with the campaign. The goal of today is that we'll be doing some updates until 830. Just everything going on in the campaign. just all of it because there's so much all the time and I want to make sure that everyone who's interested knows about it. And then at 8 30 ish once we've finished updates will be an option if anyone wants to pop off and be done for the night they can but that will that's also when we'll open it up to other questions. So either for the kitchen cabinet, or I assume most questions will be for Anna, but that will be kind of towards the end of the whole thing. And I'd say for the most part, she likes to answer anything under the sun. So it can be policy related, it can be campaign strategy related, it can be funny story related, all that. So feel free to start cooking up those in your mind as we get going. But so again, welcome, welcome. I am very excited about everything that we have Going on right now, we have a lot of momentum building. I don't know if anyone knows what today is, but today is the exact marker of seven weeks until primary day. Seven. So we've got seven Saturdays. We've got seven Monday, Wednesday, and Sundays of phone banks. We've got seven meet and greets. We've got seven of everything. So that's the plan. Seven to win. And we are totally, we've got all this momentum. We've gotten some great endorsements coming in recently, particularly from Sunrise Tufts, which is so exciting. Spencer is here, one of our Sunrise representatives. So, so, so excited about that. And we, a couple weeks ago, had a forum. There was a forum that Anna attended and Christine Barber was at as well. Gotten some great video from that, some great, it was very well received, where Anna was able to make her case, which was exciting. And overall, so campaigning under COVID has been, difficult to say nonetheless. And we have, I think everyone in this room has really risen to the occasion. So I just part of tonight, I just also want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for the fundraising, for the volunteering, doing it all virtually and remotely. We've really made Black our home in a lot of ways. I do want to make a quick plug before we get to some brief introductions that in Slack, there are basically four channels where if you're not a part of, I definitely recommend you consider joining besides just the general channel. There is our communication, our comms channel, so hashtag comms. At this point, any time we have new lit or designs or copy for things to go up, we tend to post it there. And Anna is nothing but about transparency. and always wants opinions. Every time she and I have a disagreement, her answer always is, great, so let's ask other people. Let's open it up. And one of the things I love about her. So comms is one of the places that we aim to do that. We also are doing more coordination in our social media channels, so hashtag social media for posts, things that we want to get out there. And then we also have our we have a random channel for just fun random things and jokes and we have a brand new spanking canvassing channel where obviously there's some great photos and things going on since we just launched canvassing last week. So just want to make a quick plug for those. I do also just want to go around and I we have a very large expansive kitchen cabinet, which is very exciting. So I just want to go down the line and have those introduced themselves, and so just giving, I'd say almost everyone here is involved in a little bit of everything, has many, many hats, but they will just mention the most common hat or hats that they wear, because I'd say it's very fair that everyone does a whole lot. So with that being said, so I'll just mention, I'm Caitlin, her pronouns are she, her, and I'm the campaign manager.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Erin, she, her pronouns, and I'm the field director, and I write policy and emails.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello, my name is Ann Sheeher, and I'm a social media coordinator as well as research coordinator.
[Kyle Eaton]: I'm Travis. I'm he, him, and I am part of the organizing squad as well as a phone baking captain.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi, I'm Aislinn. I am also involved in organizing squad and a meet and greet captain.
[SPEAKER_16]: Amanda Betham, organizing and food I'm Joel Heahim, get out the vote captain and policy. Hi, I'm Howard Heahim. I work on analyzing data.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Susan? Hi, yeah, Susan. She, her and phone banking, treasurer and recruitment.
[x7GBP-iY0Ew_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Greg Heahim, political strategy.
[SPEAKER_16]: Ryan Black. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Nick. I skipped. You go first.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm Nick. He, him, digital comms and video.
[x7GBP-iY0Ew_SPEAKER_00]: Ryan Black. He, him, data, and I'll make donuts for the victory party.
[SPEAKER_13]: Frankly, he, him, and I published a podcast and work on database.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm Jacqueline. She, her, and I'm helping with the website.
[SPEAKER_07]: Wonderful.
[Anna Callahan]: Is it okay? There's not so many people on. Can those folks?
[SPEAKER_07]: Sorry, I was literally just about to get into that. I'm totally with you. Luckily, it looks like we spent enough time together. I will just mention we have a few other people who are not able to join tonight who are also constantly doing things with Kitchen Cabinet. We have Sam who is also involved with our website. Lisa, who does sticks thousands and thousands of mailer stamps and stickers for us. Matt, who does a lot of phone making and captaining there. And Louise, who does fundraising and house parties. So really, really great crew. I would also love to just, for introduction, kick it over to Josh and then Steve and Lena and Steve.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, I'm Josh. I've been volunteering phone making for many weeks now. It's been great.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great. And Steve or dad, I should say.
[SPEAKER_15]: Hi, I'm Steve. Him, her? Him, he? Sorry. I don't know. I'm just supporting my daughters and supporting this great campaign and just very proud of them. Great to be here.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. And Lena and Zach.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, we're here. We handed out literature for Anna once on primary night for the presidential election, and we've phoned banks a couple times, and Aaron just called us the other day, so I wanted to join.
[SPEAKER_07]: Love it, welcome.
[SPEAKER_15]: And Steve. Hi all, Steve, he, him, and I'm helping out with a strategy around racial justice.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great, and Spencer.
[Yonc-FEd4Ek_SPEAKER_02]: Hi, I'm Spencer, and I'm from Sunrise Tufts and just here to help.
[SPEAKER_07]: Love it. Great. Okay. And with all that being said, I will now kick it over the last, but absolutely certainly not least, because the reason we all are all here, Miss Anna Callahan. Who are you again?
[Anna Callahan]: Yeah, Anna Callahan, she, her. I am running for office. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. And let's see, I'm so happy to be back at the doors, right? Knocking on doors and talking to voters is super fun. I really love it. I'll just tell you a little bit about what I say to people because it's kind of fun and how people react. I'm like, hey, you know, I'm I'm Anna Callahan, I'm running for state rep, software engineer and mom. And then I ask, do you know much about the state house? And they're like, not really. And I'm like, oh, well, I'll tell you two fun facts that you can share with your friends. Number one is that there's no way for any of us to know how our state reps are voting. And number two, is that the last three speakers of the house have all been convicted of felonies related to corruption and bribery. So I just had someone today who after I did that, and then of course I go on to explain why that matters and what the policies are that we cannot pass because of this broken system, blah, blah, blah. But somebody just today was like, I really like your pitch because when you said there were two things that are fun facts, I thought, oh, well, there's only two. I have time for those. And then when you're done, it was really interesting. I was like, yes, that is what I was going for. So, you know, almost everyone I talk to is convinced and they're going to vote for us, or they just want to do some due diligence. They just want to kind of look and read up a bit. But I've even, I tell you, I've had a number of people who, the longest conversations I have are with people who, the rare person that I talk to who has worked with Christine on something or who, you know, is a kind of regular caller and those people are, all very, very rare, but just talked to one the other day. And you know, she had time, I had time. We talked, the concentration of power in the hands of the speaker She was interested in that, but she wasn't convinced by it. And it wasn't until I started talking about the work I've done over the last four years and co-governance and how the people who have been marginalized, who are not engaged in the political process have got to be at the decision-making table. And that was what convinced her. That's kind of my, you know, I keep it in my back pocket for the people that aren't convinced by the first argument, which is almost everyone is convinced by the transparency and the power of the speaker argument, but that's always there. You know, the movement building aspect, which in my heart is kind of the true reason why I am running and the thing that will be different about me from most other people who are elected representatives is that once I've always got that. Okay, I probably spoke too long. I'm supposed to say something about the difference between me and Christine. I'm not sure anybody here doesn't already know, but you know, we've got we've got a real problem at the state house, right? We cannot pass no brainer legislation. Caitlin, you're gonna love this. I was at a door today and I was like, and we can, you know, because of this concentration of power in the hands of the speaker, we cannot pass election day registration. We can't pass, you know, 100% renewables by 2050, 2050. And she was like, those are no brainers. And that's what I always say at the door, is no-brainer policies. So she took the words right out of my mouth. Those are no-brainers. I'm like, yes, they are. All right. That's enough from me. I am going to go ahead and pass this on to a voter in the district, Mr. Greg Nadeau.
[x7GBP-iY0Ew_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, everyone. My name's Greg. And 30 years ago, I was legislative aide, campaign manager, then legislative aide for a state rep. Worked in the statehouse and observed firsthand the concentration of power in both branches really prevented progressive legislation from moving forward. In recent years, I've been pleasantly seeing that the State Senate, ever since Stan Rosenberg has been president, has improved substantially, but the House really hasn't. And so I've been saying for a number of years that you cannot be a progressive and vote for the Speaker. And no matter how many times progressive legislators say that they co-sponsor wonderful things, vote the right way. The only vote that matters is the vote that prevents all progressive legislation from continuing and that is the vote for the speaker. So I got a phone call from one of you, I'm not forget whom, someone can identify themselves who called me and I was driving along doing some errands and said voting for Alec in a Callahan or support in a calendar and I said, No, I'm with Christine. Christine is a great rep. She's my favorite in the delegation. And I like her very much. I think she's smart. I think she's got integrity, blah, blah, blah. And then I just sort of had this pause. I'm like, well, wait a second. From the message that the person said about reforming statehouse, I said, well, OK, I'll come to a house party. I went to attended a house party, asked some questions. My son, Max, was also there.
[Anna Callahan]: And really- I think you actually grilled me.
[x7GBP-iY0Ew_SPEAKER_00]: Which was late. Well, you've completely passed. And then I said I would, and I did talk to Christine a couple of days after that. And Christine did not respond with a firm commitment to oppose the speaker and to dilute the concentration of power in the House that prevents all progressive legislation from falling. So I said that I would now be shifting my support. So here I am, happy to be involved. I'm pretty involved in Somerville in a lot of ways. I've been here for 20 years. definitely know every city councilor and school committee member and mayor and everyone else very, very well and tend to talk to all of them and say, look, either you're with the speaker or you're with progressive causes. There's no in between. It's like racism. You cannot be neutral on racism. Either you're actively opposing racism or you are part of the status quo that is perpetuating. And so everyone who is supporting Christine is fundamentally supporting a status quo that is preventing climate change, racial justice, and everything else that we care about from progressing.
[SPEAKER_12]: And because that house party was so successful with Greg being able to have all of these answers or these questions answered by Anna, we are now gonna have more opportunities for people to come to meet and greets to directly speak with Anna and fall in love with her. They're gonna be at seven o'clock every Thursday until the election. We are so excited. Amanda and I are working on that. Sorry, city. So we're really excited. to do this every week. It's going to be great. Caitlin?
[SPEAKER_07]: Let me unmute myself. There we go. Perfect. Yay. So with that all being said, I also just wanted to give a couple just overall kind of updates on where we are on the fundraising front, on our kind of plan to win and all of that, because I know I mentioned that before. So for those of you who, if you didn't see the email we had sent out before, which if you didn't read all the emails, I totally understand. Anna and I both cannot keep up with our inboxes at times. But we, as of the end of June, we had actually raised not only more money than, oh wait, one second, we have a guest joining us. Let me, great, so we have a guest who just joined us. Hey Bob, how are you?
[Unidentified]: Wait, where? I'm well, Caitlin. How are you?
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm very, very good. I'm so glad you could join us. For those of you who do not know, Bob Massey ran for governor here in Massachusetts in 2018 in the Democratic primary, lives here in Centerville and is beloved. And I think, Bob, do you want to share some thoughts that you have with us about the campaign or how you're thinking of voting?
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I'm so glad to see all of you. I know a couple of you from other work. Hi, Anna, I see you over here in the corner. And Frank, how are you? Good to see you. But I'll tell you, I didn't know anything about Anna a couple of months ago. I was over in Italy, because my wife Anne was running their Rhode Island School of Design's program, and then it became pretty clear by February that Italy wasn't the place we should stay, so we came back to the U.S. and lived in Providence for a little while because we had rented our house in Somerville. And then we came back, and I began hearing a little bit about Anna here and there, and I thought, well, this is interesting. I'm someone who had you know, thought Christine was doing an okay job, but when Anna really made it her business to get in touch with me, which I appreciated, we had the chance to, I had the chance to learn about her and then we had a chance to talk. And I must say, I was just super impressed. You know, it's clear from everything that Anna has done that she has not only the kind of values that I think we all care about, but she has the passion and the willingness to really work hard and take on those people in the structures who don't really want change. And they talk about change, but they don't really want to do it. So in conversations with Anna and looking at her skills, strategic skills, organizing skills, and then uh seeing her energy and her boldness and uh and frankly I said this and I wasn't sure that she would like it but I said you know you seem very energetic bold and noisy and I wasn't sure that noisy would be received as a compliment but it was and uh and I think being noisy is a very very important qualification now in this crazy time when, on the one hand, everything is falling apart and we are at risk of being, and I say this not as hyperbole, but I think the country itself, the idea of what the United States should become, that is under threat from this lunatic criminal president and many of the people who are enabling him. On the other hand, this turmoil creates opportunity for change. And one of the things you hear from many people is, you know, today in July, we're talking about things that would have seemed impossible and insane in February. the standard of what we're allowed to talk about, what we're allowed to imagine, what we're allowed to do has changed in just a couple of months. And as somebody who's been hoping for that kind of change and working for it for many, many more decades than I want to tell you, this is an exciting moment. But it depends on the courage of people to run. And then when they run to say the things and do the work to win, and then And this is really one of the most important things when they win to do what they said they were going to do. And this is a problem that I have seen many times that there's some, you know, when you walk through the doors of the State House, they hit you with some kind of electric voltage. So you forget what it is you wanted to do and you become dominated by the idea like how do I not piss off the speaker or how do I, you know, all these internal things. And frankly, I've had many conversations with progressives who got elected and then they tell me things like, well, I can't really do it because I would annoy the speaker and I have to bring home some goodies. for my district, well, I think reps should serve their district, but more than anything, they should serve our state and serve our country and our ideals. And I would much rather that somebody did that than they came home and they told me they got $85,000 for a streetlight somewhere. We need streetlights, but we need our values a lot more. So as I've gotten to know Anna and see not only what she's trying to do and how she's doing it, I'm very enthusiastic. And it's a great pleasure to turn on and see 21 participants. And I hope we can turn that into 121 and more. We don't have that much time. So it's a good thing that we all have a little, I'll speak for myself, a little extra time. And I am trying to engage with a couple of different campaigns and I'm very happy that Anna's is one of them. So thank you for inviting me to show up. And this won't be the only time you see me, I promise.
[Anna Callahan]: Great to see you, Bob.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, thanks so much for being here. Yes, I really wanted particularly to share Greg's story and Bob's thoughts as a chance. I know so many people here are doing a lot of direct voter contact, talking on canvassing and on the phones, and these are the types of things you can absolutely talk about, of things that you're hearing. I think us really feeling really good about how we're talking to voters on every, you know, wording and stuff is a little different for everyone, and so the idea is that it's very helpful to understand other people's perspectives as well because obviously everyone here very much supports and I know we don't we're not trying to convince anyone at the moment. But so thank you so much so we're going back to our regular scheduled programming and just with a couple updates like I said on the fundraising front we at the end of June had actually raised more money than any of any other challenger in the area so the similar races in the area We need to raise more money in our campaign than others. Don't get me wrong, stuff is difficult under COVID. Campaigning under COVID is more expensive and it's harder to raise. So it doesn't mean we're done. We still absolutely need to keep going. But this is my chance to say thank you to all of our recurrent, anyone who signed up for recurring donation, as I know a lot of people have here. Those donations, every second that Anna and I, that we're not spending on fundraising, it means we're spending it on direct voter contact. And so it is, I just really, really appreciate all the support, because I know everyone here has like, gone above and beyond and it's just amazing and it's really paid off and it's shown in very hard concrete numbers the amount of amazing incredible support that we have. That also being said, what we are doing, and I'm gonna kick it over to Erin in just a minute to talk a little bit about some of our field plan, but basically overall right now, our whole focus is being super COVID safe and figuring out how to campaign differently in the COVID era. So we are doing way more phone calls than what would be normal for a campaign like this. We are doing extra, extra safe canvassing, which is super exciting. And so part of our effort and aim of what we need to do is actually focusing so much on communicating all of those things. So, I also wanted to make sure that there are some proper updates from our amazing organizing squad, which keeps growing every single week and I absolutely love. So, with that being said, I'm going to kick it over to Erin.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. So, I want to talk for a little bit just about what we have accomplished thus far. So, like Katen said, canvassing under COVID is not easy. Organizing under COVID is not easy. Campaigning is just way, way more challenging. That being said, we've been really creative in coming up with different ways to engage the community and talk to voters, and we have just started our canvassing program. So that means we are kind of fitting a whole program into just seven weeks. So it's like knocking doors on speed. Extremely excited about it. I just spent the last couple of days cutting the entire district, and we are already well on our way through making a first pass. And the goal is to not only complete our first pass, but then to go back and do it all over again and make sure that we're talking to every single voter that we can. So our Doors universe, basically, people that don't have phone numbers. There are a lot of them. We've also done enough phone banking that we found a lot of people just don't pick up the phone. So those people go on our Knock Doors list. Let's go. Ring-a-ding-ding. You're not picking up the phone? Knock, knock. It's me. It's Anna. Talk to me. And we've had a lot of good luck with those folks, too. So our campaign is on track right now to knock over 8,000 doors and make over 70,000 calls. Anna alone is knocking around 100 doors a day right now, which is insane. And even more insane is that her persuasion rate is over 50%. So the best thing that we can do to win this campaign is just get Anna in front of more people, and more volunteers in front of more people, because when you hear about the platform, people are really, really receptive. And I am gonna kick it over to Anne.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello, good evening everyone. So I'm just gonna talk about what is canvassing safely under COVID-19. So this is a beautiful link that I've sent you. It'll take you to Anna's beautiful website. And essentially it is an infographic about how we do our canvassing. First and foremost, Your safety as canvassers are key because we need you. Anna spoke beautifully on Saturday that this work goes beyond this election. It goes beyond this moment. It is for a lifetime, and we need everyone safe and healthy, and that is first and foremost. So with that being said, what it basically looks like is you show up with your mask, some sunscreen, as I learned, because I got a nice burn. One of the voters called me out on it too, so that was great. You bring your sunscreen, water bottle, we will provide the rest. We will give you gloves, we will give you all the hand sanitizer, contact-free lid, which Caitlin is going to demonstrate. It's like a little baggy there you get a goodie bag. I mean, everyone loves a goodie bag. Right. We remember that just from like our childhood. So there we go. You show up. I am Canvas captain, I will be there to motivate you to tell you all of the details, everything you need to know you will be prepared. I can assure you, if you have any questions. I'm gonna call you the day before, so that way we don't even have to get within six feet of each other. You're gonna have everything set up on your phone, and then I'm gonna have a whiteboard, and I'm gonna write it out. If there's a question, we're gonna figure it out. I'm a professional performer, so I will do charades. We will communicate it. Safety is first. That is all I have to say in that regard. And now I'm gonna kick it to Susan.
[Unidentified]: Susan, are you still there?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you're on mute. Oh. OK, so did you want me to talk about the Canvassing or a phone bit any phone bank updates. Oh for the phone baking. Um, yeah, so Matt was handling that but I believe we're doing it. We're gonna be doing it on Monday nights and Sundays at 12 o'clock and then Monday, I think it's from 530 530s till like 730 on Mondays Yep
[Anna Callahan]: Great. Thank you. And we still have Wednesdays as well. Mondays, Wednesdays and Wednesdays. Yeah. Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Love it. Great. And I'm going to kick it over to Travis for any other updates we have for ways to get ahold of voters.
[Kyle Eaton]: It is yes, actually, that you asked. We have something called relational organizing. For those who are uninitiated, it is a little bit different than traditional, you know, like phone banking door-to-door. You are pretty much reaching out to people you already have records with. So it's like friends, families. Facebook friends, you know, whoever is a familiar face. And one of the reasons behind it and like empirical proofs of it is that the people you already have reports with are always more likely than someone you're cold calling or knocking on a door to actually vote for the candidate. So there's actually data proving that. And it's also one of the quickest ways to organize because it's usually like a one and done deal. You organize a list of people you already know, reach out to them, and it's all taken care of. You don't have to wait for it to make a phone call. You don't have to go from door to door. It's quick, easy, and fun. A lot of your old connections actually like hearing from you again, which is always interesting in its own right. So we're using, for relational organizing, we're using an app called Reach. It was an app developed by AOC's team, actually, when she ran. And it just ended up kind of becoming like an industry standard. It's like very simple to use and pretty fun. There's like fun chat features. But I'm going to post a link in the chat that invites you to join. And it's really easy, simple. We will follow up with you, help you out, give you training. It's really easy, fun. I've said fun like three times already, but I just want to emphasize it. And I believe that is it. I will kick it off to Aaron again.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Um, so I want to talk a little bit about volunteering and recruitment. So we have a growing and robust recruitment squad and recruitment program. We've got, you know, about half a dozen organizers who are making recruitment calls throughout the course of the week. We have a really great dedicated volunteer base, but it's really, you know, it's an election. It's a numbers game. Anna can talk to a ton of people, but she's just one Anna. So for example, by the numbers, we have knocked over 1,500 doors thus far, which is amazing. And just 500, or rather, like 500 of those were just this past Saturday, which is our first full volunteer canvas.
[SPEAKER_07]: And we've only been door knocking for barely over a week. Just to sync that in, 1,500 doors, barely more than a week.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, we are just really, really crushing the doors. But, you know, having more folks, of course, means we can talk to, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 times as many voters. So not only everyone here is phone banking, please start canvassing with us. It was a lot of fun. It was really, really successful. But also, bring your friends, right? Bring a buddy policy. When you're going to be attending one of our phone banks, see if you can find someone new to bring to the campaign. That would be so, so helpful and really easy. We all have friends who are progressive and care about politics, but are maybe a little bit lazy, maybe haven't really gotten involved yet. This is their shot. This is their chance. And so I also wanted to plug something that makes that even easier. which is the barnstorm that we have coming up actually a week from today. And that is a really great event where we're not going to be asking anyone for direct voter contact during that event. It kind of lowers the barrier to entry. We'll talk about what canvassing is like, what phone making is like, what the reach is like, and then get people engaged that way. So if you can forward that link to any friends you know who are interested in Anna or might be interested in Anna, please do that because we need to continue to grow. I think we will, but we need your help to do it. And my last little make and go drop is our beautiful volunteer page on the website. Shout out to Jacqueline for making it beautiful. And that's where we have all of our direct contact events and meet and greet events for you to share around in RSVP. And I think that's all I have. And I'm gonna kick it back to Caitlin.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great, thank you. That about concludes all of our main updates of the campaign. Hopefully your brains aren't exploding. I know mine is, but that's nothing new. It's just all the times there's so many things happening. So we will be sharing more and more. The other just kind of thing to start looking out for as we have more and more voters in the district who are willing to really talk about why they support Anna and love her so much, we're going to be posting it. quotes on the website, on social media, getting it out there via email. So you can be on the lookout for that for sharing. You'll hopefully be seeing more things from both Greg and Bob, for example, and Amanda and others as well in the district. And so please do help us share those, get the word out as much as possible, because obviously Anna is incredibly inspiring, but also hearing the reasons why other people who are voting for her. are inspired is also inspiring in its own sense. So thank you so, so much. I do want to stick to my promise. I'm sorry we're a few minutes over there, but if anyone does need to head off for the night, please feel free. But otherwise, you can type stack into the Zoom chat if you are interested in asking a question. I assume of Anna, but if you'd like to ask a question of anyone else here in the kitchen cabinet, you're welcome to. But any questions at all, please type chat into the chat. and we're gonna start, it looks like, with Bob Massey.
[SPEAKER_05]: Bob, are you muted?
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. I want to be careful because I know a lot of you have good experience and you know what you're doing. So please excuse if I'm saying something you already know. One thing about door-to-door canvassing, first of all, it can be very fun, but there's some things that make it more fun, which is do it in pairs. Bring a kit. I mean, you know, people open their doors to kids very easily. And you can usually, if it's not too hot, I mean I have three kids and they've all been invited to do this. Sometimes they refuse. But you know, they have their own things that they can sometimes talk about and they're very persuasive. A small dog is also a very nice thing. Big dog, not always, but a small dog. wear your stuff. Part of it is when people look out the door, who the hell is this? They have to like you in that split second and they have to know what you're doing. So if you have a T-shirt, have a hat, this isn't somebody coming to make them pay a bill or serve them with cord papers or anything like that. So whatever you can do. The other thing is smile and smile when you're on the phone too because it affects your voice. You probably all know that. And then find a way to share Funny stories. I mean, not funny stories that mock people, but just like, wow, she offered me an ice cream sundae, or they had the most beautiful rose garden I've ever seen. People in Somerville, I don't know Medford as well, but people in Somerville tend to be very proud of whatever they're growing outside, so talk to them about that. And then, of course, COVID. How are you doing? What do you think? How are your family members? You know, that creates a real bond, and you can't ask that without, you know, genuinely connecting with folks. And then, You know, be proud of what you're doing. Share with other people, invite other people. I find calling still sometimes hard because I have to get in the mood. Invite your friends to meet you somewhere 10 feet apart and give them a sandwich and then sit in a park and make calls together. The thing is, I think it was great that Travis mentioned fun three times. I mean, it should be fun. I think it was you, right, Travis? Four times? So it should be fun. And what we're doing is important. And so it sounds like you're well on the way to establishing that culture. But any other tricks that you can do that make it more fun or make you into a band of brothers and sisters, that can really work. And I'll stop there.
[SPEAKER_07]: Woo-hoo! I love it. And now I'm remembering, on the Bernie 2016 campaign when I was in California, our best canvasser was a nine-year-old. I completely forgot about that. He was just the best. He just, like you said, everyone opened the door for him. And he was so passionate.
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: I campaigned with my oldest son up in New Hampshire for, I don't remember, Al Gore or somebody. But I got so tired that I forgot who I was. And so his name is Sam. So the door opened. And it was the end of a long day. And I said, hi, I'm Sam, and this is Bob. And then my son said, no, I'm Sam, and you're Bob. And it's a miracle we got any response from this woman, because clearly I was crazy. But Sam rescued it. So anyway, you know, the kids can bail you out. That is great.
[SPEAKER_07]: I also just will say with how much I loving all this. It sounds like you really want to canvas with us one Saturday.
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: I'm on crutches and it's just really demanding So I'd love to, in theory, and maybe we can figure out So Bob.
[x7GBP-iY0Ew_SPEAKER_00]: So Bob, I've got You know, I've got my, I've got my electric art car which Anna has seen And so I think we could cruise around in the electric art car with Anna and do a little canvassing together.
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: That's a great thing. And then you could knock on the door and then laugh at me out in the- We'll get a little speaker and I'll scat sing. Okay, well, we'll think of some fun things to do. I'm having some knee surgery next week, so I'm gonna be, you know, electronic for a while, but no, we'll figure it out. I think it's great that you have a canvassing program, and that's, you know, just, that's the secret to winning. I mean, one of them, but that's a key, key thing.
[SPEAKER_07]: Having a great candidate too, that definitely helps.
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: I'm taking that for granted.
[SPEAKER_07]: Love it. Great. And I should have said that if anyone has any other ideas, too, of things that we can be doing in the next seven weeks, beyond just questions for Anna or for the group. But yeah, anyone else jump in.
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: The more video you can do, the better. That's another thing. You know, Anna, short videos, here I am standing in front of, you know, I'm at the farmer's market and whatever. People really like just to see little pieces and that's true for anybody. Just as long as you exercise some discretion about what you say and where you are, but.
[SPEAKER_07]: Makes sense. That's what post is for. We're recording this. Sorry, Nick, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, we're recording this right now intentionally because we want to be able to use
[fnlPUPfwqrQ_SPEAKER_00]: I withdraw everything else.
[SPEAKER_11]: Just please say something so we have you right where we want you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Possibly a future event could be a voter registration rally where we get folks. I know Ed Markey is doing something similar, I think, tomorrow night. So I'm curious to see what he does and if we might get our usual crew together of our favorite progressive candidates in town. Maybe some either more local or maybe even congressional campaigns. Get our usual folks and explain to them why it's so important to, you know, they mail you the one form, then you have to fill it out, and then you have to send it back, and then they mail you another form, that's the ballot, and you have to send that back, and it's a lot of work. They've really made it, you know, you might even say they've made it difficult on purpose. I might say that.
[SPEAKER_07]: This state? No. Why would that be a thing?
[SPEAKER_16]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_13]: I heard that Galvin was going to not send out the applications unless the legislature passed some money for it or something. And there's like a court case right now. Sweet.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's definitely, we, part of, and this is one, and I actually should have mentioned this earlier, part of with the effort of, because with the mail-in ballot and it being so complex, and to be fair, any state that is going into such massive mail-in balloting for the first time, there's going to be bumps. Maybe some are excusable, maybe some not, but the point is that this, August is really gonna be get-out-the-vote month. There's no such thing as get-out-the-vote weekend or week. Coming from, just personally from California, we have a 70% vote by mail. This is what we're used to of just the entire month as soon as they're mailed out. And so part of our goal with the end of this month, we'll be getting accurate information out as much as possible so people really know what they need to do. And then starting August, it's going to be great. Have you voted yet? Have you voted yet? Okay, great. Let's do that right now. So that way it gets processed and quicker. So that'll definitely be a huge push as well, since there's gonna be a lot of unknowns, a lot of unknown factors with everything going on this cycle. So we will see.
[SPEAKER_04]: just add into that. Anna, have you registered to vote by mail yet? Don't I have to get my... Yeah, but I know what I meant before. I don't know if you were already registered, because if you haven't, like when you do, we should definitely make that a social media thing. Oh yeah. Don't just like do it mindlessly, like we need to save that moment.
[SPEAKER_11]: and a step-by-step video that we can use as an instruction.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, what a great idea. You can blur out your information, whatever, keep you safe. But definitely, we should definitely use that. And then I don't know, just going off of what Joel, how does that look with Edmar? Are they doing a step-by-step? Because I don't know, I'm happy to go and talk to the city clerk, and like become an expert and like how to help people register if that would be useful and like maybe we can plan an event where we like step-by-step like we'll like work it out together. I don't know. That's like maybe like a huge organizing project. Gotta talk to Aaron, but I'm thinking like we could do something like that to make it be like no like we are not just here to like get your votes. We're here to actually like help the community be engaged in the political process, which is one of Anna's big key talking point. So I think we should actually do that and like, I don't know, maybe we can figure out how.
[Yonc-FEd4Ek_SPEAKER_02]: I just have a question. I am working for, I was interning for a state senator and so I had to read the bill and then make a step-by-step guide on how to vote by mail. So if you want that, I can send that your way.
[Unidentified]: We do. Oh my God, please.
[Anna Callahan]: Amazing. Oh wait, I know. I'll sing the step-by-step guide. That's my little video weirdness.
[SPEAKER_11]: And early voting for the primary starts, takes place over eight days, starts the 22nd. Just FYI. That's the in-person? It's early in-person voting. Right. 22nd to the 28th.
[SPEAKER_16]: And then they're not doing election day voting, right? They're just doing the early to keep it spread out. That was, that was my, that was my understanding was they didn't, I'm not sure. There's also some, we have, we have more than one Matt on the campaign so apologies, I guess, as chances are none are on, but one pointed out to us that the law was that some of this, it was required that it be sent out by a certain date, but the funding had not in fact been secured. So the law says it has to be sent out. So we had to be very careful, not that you'll receive it, but that it is required to have been sent out, which feels like precisely the kind of meaningless political machinery that we're trying to obviate, send to the moon. It's a good place for it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just want to say, Spencer, I just, I dropped my email in the chat.
[SPEAKER_16]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_04]: I definitely want that. And yeah, Joel, we want that info.
[SPEAKER_16]: Give us the ballot. I put a link to the Google Docs. Hell yeah. I mean, yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: Cool. Good strategy planning, everyone. I love it. Any other last questions? Wrapping up for the night. Either for Anna, thoughts for the crew, otherwise. Cool. I'm going to say thank you so, so much for not only being here, but all of the dedication. There's a lot of people here who do way too many hours every single week, and it would not be possible without all the amazing, all of it. So I'm very happy and excited. And check out things in Slack, check out the public channels. If anyone here is not in Slack and wants to join, feel free to reach out to me directly and we can get you plugged in. I think for the most part, everyone here is, so we should be in good shape. But yeah, have a great, great night, everyone. And so excited, and phone banking tomorrow at 5.30, if anyone wants to join.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you so much, everyone. Great to see you.
|
total time: 4.72 minutes total words: 750 |
|||