by JayDarling on August 24, 2010
Hello Team, it’s Jay!
A lot has been going on this month! In the current political climate around marriage equality there are a lot of ways to take action, and I’m excited to be at VFE. I’m excited because we’re not only focused on creating a shift in public opinion, but also on building strong teams of volunteers to do this work for the long haul.
I’m privileged to be a part of such a dedicated and smart community of volunteers that’s growing all the time. With a strong focus on action, analysis, recruitment and planning, all VFE teams are improving our impact and allowing more volunteers to give their best.
Our teams are great now, but they’ll be better with you! Check out our new and existing action teams below and email or call me to learn how to get involved.
In addition to growing our volunteer team, VFE is now hiring. Click here to check out the Field Organizer job announcement.
Also, please join us for our upcoming door-to-door canvasses on August 28th and September 11th. For details, click here.
Thanks for your dedication and hard work now and in the future.
With Respect,
Jay Darling
VFE ACTION TEAMS:
Voter Contact Team – Focused on talking to voters and documenting results in-detail after each conversation. Voter contact actions—door-to-door canvasses and phone banks—are held 2 to 3 times per month throughout LA County.
Canvass Dream Team – Focused on organizing canvasses, recruiting leaders and implementing canvass logistics. The Dream Team manages canvasses once a month. Meetings are scheduled as needed.
Advanced Canvass Team – Focused on new experiments in voter contact and messaging, improvement of conversation quality and analysis of data, including canvass video. The Advanced Canvass Team meets 2 to 4 times per month for voter contact actions and analysis discussions.
Video Team – Focused on filming canvassers, indexing video for fast searching, and editing video to share with volunteers at VFE trainings and analysis meetings, potential volunteers at community meetings, and potential funders who are interested in VFE’s work. More videographers, video editors and video team recruiters are highly needed at this time. Videographers film twice a month at door-to-door canvasses.
Canvass Prep Team – Focused on preparing and managing turf and canvass materials. Canvass prep actions are every Thursday from 6:30 to 9:30pm.
Recruitment Phone Bank Team – Focused on contacting our list of supporters and inviting them to join our work. Recruitment phone banks are every Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30pm.
Campus Teams – Focused on collaborating with committed students to build growing teams of students involved in VFE’s voter contact, advanced canvass and recruitment teams. Actions vary from campus to campus. Currently, the most actively involved campus is Occidental College, but teams are developing at Cal State LA and USC.
For more details about each team, please contact VFE Field Organizer, Jay Darling (jdarling@lagaycenter.org or 323-770-3605)
by JayDarling on August 24, 2010
8/28/10 – This Saturday! Door-to-Door Canvass
Co-Sponsored by Proyecto Orgullo of Bienestar
10am to 3:30pm
Bienestar’s East LA Office (5326 E. Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, 90022)
9/11/10 – Advanced Canvass
10am to 3:30pm
Christ Chapel of the Valley (11050 Hartsook Street North Hollywood, 91601)
9/16/10 – 2nd Contact Phone Bank
6:30 to 9:30pm
The Village (1125 N. McCadden Place. Hollywood, 90038)
9/25/10 – Door-to-Door Canvass
10am to 3:30pm
In East LA (Site TBD)
10/23/10 –Door-to-Door Canvass
10am to 3:30pm
(Site TBD)
11/2/10 – Polling Place Canvasses
All Day (3 volunteer shifts)
by Laura on August 4, 2010
Friends,
This week we have seen two exciting steps towards winning marriage for gay and lesbian couples!
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled today to overturn Proposition 8.
This is a historic decision by the federal district court and a historic victory for all gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians, as well as those who love and support us. For a full statement about the court decision by Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, click here.
As Lorri states, the ruling is welcome and significant. However, it is in no way a final victory.
There are many more hurdles to get through in order for this ruling to stand. In the meantime, we have the responsibility to do all that we can to give the Supreme Court of the United States every reason to overturn Proposition 8. As of today, 44 states deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry, and federal marriage discrimination remains on the books. Today’s win is fabulous momentum for our community and movement, but we must use it to continue our fight to win marriage equality state by state, ballot initiative by ballot initiative. History shows that courts are more likely to overturn discriminatory laws if the people have spoken by voting these laws out at the local and state level. So we have our work cut out for us.
The second encouraging event that happened this week around marriage equality was the release of the LGBT Mentoring Project’s The Prop 8 Report: What Our Defeat in California Can Teach Us About Winning Future Ballot Measures On Same-Sex Marriage. Vote for Equality applauds this effort to analyze the data we have available to us and help our community figure out the most strategic ways to move forward towards victory at the ballot box.
This Tuesday, Vote for Equality & the LGBT Mentoring Project, with special guest speakers from Lambda Legal, will be holding an informational briefing on how to move forward from here. We hope you can join us.
What Now?: A Community Briefing on the Recent Court Decision & the LGBT Mentoring Project’s Prop 8 Report
Tuesday, August 10
7 – 9 p.m.
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
The Village at Ed Gould Plaza
1125 N. McCadden Pl. LA, CA 90038
The briefing will have limited space. To reserve a seat, click here.
Thanks so much for your continued work to create a state, country, and world where LGBT individuals – and our community as a whole – can exist with far less discrimination. It is because of people like you that we have gotten this far.
And congratulations again on today’s victory!
See you soon,
Regina Clemente
Project Director, Vote For Equality
by Laura on August 2, 2010
Hey there folks,
Last month at VFE, in a continuing effort to get better at figuring out how to get voters to open up to us about their concerns with marriage for gay and lesbian couples, we had our first voter persuasion phone banks. We’re learning about the differences between doing persuasion on the phone versus at the door with voters. And we’re learning how to coach each other as we listen to someone having a conversation next to us, so we can make sure we’re doing our best to learn what works and what doesn’t.
We also had two canvasses in the San Fernando Valley where 58 volunteers hit the Valley heat and talked to 250 voters. We are continuing to bring up the opposition’s messages around children by talking about and showing Yes on 8′s most effective ad – Princes – at the door to simulate the main message voters hear during a campaign. And we’re gaining insight on how to respond to their concerns.
Click here to see a conversation from our July 19th advanced canvass with a supporter who had concerns about the opposition’s message about kids.
On July 31st, we had our first canvass with two tracks –one for beginners, which was run by our super volunteer leaders, and one for experienced canvassers. Good news; it was a success! We’ll be continuing to have two tracks in the future to accomodate both the growing number of experienced canvassers and new volunteers.
East LA Canvass
Advanced Voter Canvass – August 14
Coming up this month, we’ve got three great opportunities to talk to voters about marriage. On August 14th, we’ll have an Advanced Canvass in East LA for anyone who’s talked to voters with us before. This time, in addition to focusing on learning how to move undecided and unsupportive voters, we will also focus on how to best utilize conversations with our supporters, including exploring if they have concerns with the opposition’s messages around children. As we meet more and more people who are with us, we’ve got to learn from them and engage them in the fight for LGBT equality.
Voter Persuasion Phone Bank – August 24
On August 24th, we’ll have our 3rd persuasion phone bank. Talking to voters on the phone gives us the chance to reach people who are in tougher areas to canvass, and, it’s a great opportunity to have these important conversations together in the same room!
General Voter Canvass in East LA - August 28
About to canvass
For our canvass on August 28th, we’re partnering with Proyecto Orgullo, the social justice project of Bienestar. We’ll be in East LA at their main office on Beverly. Join a big group of us as we work together to learn how to gain support and gain votes. We need a lot more people out there with us, so come, and bring your friends. Also, we’re look for more people who speak Spanish so we don’t miss out on talking to spanish speaking voters about marriage equality.
by JayDarling on July 20, 2010
VOTER PERSUASION CANVASS – July 31st
We need people to join us at our general canvass at the end of July. At this canvass, we’re focusing on giving volunteers new opportunities to take on leadership. Please check-in with staff if you’re interested in learning more. We’re continuing to talk with predominately Latino voters in areas of the San Fernando Valley where 55-66% of voters voted yes on 8. All experience levels are welcome as a full training will be provided. Sign-up here!
Saturday, July 31st (10am to 3pm)
Christ Chapel of the Valley, 11050 Hartsook Street North Hollywood, CA 91601
Also, mark your calendars! We’ve got canvass and voter phone bank dates for August and September and we want to see you at all of them!
August
- Saturday 14th 10am to 3:30pm – Advanced Canvass in East LA (for experienced canvassers)
- Tuesday 24th 6:30 to 9:30pm – Voter Persuasion Phone Bank (for new & experienced)
- Saturday 28th 10am to 3pm – General Canvass in East LA (for new & experienced)
September
- Tuesday 7th 6:30 to 9:30pm – Voter Persuasion Phone Bank (for new & experienced)
- Saturday 11th 10am to 3:30pm – Advanced Canvass in SF Valley @ Christ Chapel of the Valley (for experienced canvassers)
- Thursday 16th 6:30 to 9:30pm – 2nd Contact Phone Bank
- Saturday 25th 10am to 3pm –General Canvass in East LA (for new & experienced)
