A day in the life
Well, Lindsey is in Chicago, and I’m in D.C., and I’m super hungry. She e-mailed me at 11:33 am saying that she’d call me soon, so I didn’t go to lunch, for fear of being out of the office when she called. But it is now 3:16 pm, and I haven’t heard from her. Am considering making a run to Subway, but with my luck, in the 10 minutes it takes to go around the corner and grab a sandwich, she’ll call.
I know, thrilling stuff. I can tell you’re all waiting with bated breath to see if I’ll succumb to the hunger pangs.
In the meantime, though, I thought I’d give a brief introduction to what I do here on a daily basis. Feel free to visit the DA Wikipedia page , maintained by our fantastic press secretary, Jody Couser, to learn more about the organization in general. (And no, it never ceases to amuse me that we have the same initials as another one of my favorite groups.)
Most of my time lately has been taken up by planning our delegation’s experience at the Democratic National Convention (which has been given the acronym DNCC, so not to be confused with the DNC, the Democratic National Committee. Don’t ask me what the extra C stands for, I have no idea). Since the DNC considers DemsAbroad a state party, just like NY or any of the other 50, we get to send a delegation to the convention. We have 22 delegates, each with a half vote. And we’re not complaining about it, either! Take that, Florida and Michigan.
So I’ve been gathering everyone’s travel information, chasing down speakers for our Delegation Breakfasts every morning of the convention (today I’m trying to book Jimmy Carter…yes, that Jimmy Carter), making sure transportation from the airport to the hotel will be available, organizing venues for events, and trying to manage other logistical nightmares.
A typical day also includes answering e-mails submitted from the help page on www.democratsabroad.org, which is always an adventure. Today I had to figure out how a woman in Belgium could get replacement Social Security cards for herself and two kids. I also do a lot of telling people how they can vote (www.votefromabroad.org, of course!), and answering questions like, “The Obama site doesn’t ship outside the U.S.! How do I get my Obama bumper sticker/pin/t-shirt?” or “I’m traveling around the world, and will be visiting several countries in October and November. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be or when. Where should I have the Board of Elections send my absentee ballot?!”
The tough ones I forward to our voter registration issues team, but most I try to handle myself. The answers to the above, by the way, are 1) It depends on your country – some of our larger of our country committees are selling Obama chum locally – but otherwise, your best bet is to have a friend order the merchandise and ship it to you and 2) Register with your permanent mailing address on www.votefromabroad.org, but fill out and mail in the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot from wherever you are by Oct. 4th.
Wow, two posts in two days. Let’s see how long I can keep this up!
