The first week of adjusting as a Democracy NC organizer dealt with, surprisingly, a lot of organizational skills. It’s ironic that the majority of the best organizers in the state are definitely not the most well-organized people. As we tried to sort through sheets and sheets of random papers titled “Strategy Charts” dated back to February of 2010, it became clear our line of work involves a lot of…papers. Even those who are not even remotely familiar with our work, like the woman from Lan’s Alterations that works next door in our building, realizes our dilemma. “Organizing, busy work, ha? Papers up. Papers down.”
She was right. Tyshia Gray did not rest until our office was settled—she was organizing to begin organizing. She comes in every morning now and begins her day by tidying the place up, so much so that even Linda is conscious of where she puts her “mess”; she now piles her strategy charts, newspapers, spreadsheets, scripts etc. in a more systematic manner. As Tyshia sat there sorting through all these papers, I was requesting excel information spreadsheets on different non-profits, neighborhood associations, and even the list of all service-based organizations in Forsyth county to plug into my computer. I immediately began creating databases for the most unnecessary tasks (I realized this afterward and justified it by saying it was just proper and formal documentation) in organizing.
After making phone-calls to approximately 50 “Souls to the Polls” ambassadors in the community, I made an effort to keep track of the calls and responses of each phone conversation I had in a massive table. With numbers like 358 (the number of people on the spreadsheet for our first Phone Banking assignment for the HAVA funds) running though my head, we were encouraged by having made much progress in our first week on the job. We’ve interacted with city council members on the possibility of passing a resolution for a Constitutional Amendment to abolish corporate personhood, planned for speaking engagements and a “A Voter’s Truth Tour” through the wards of Winston-Salem, went to two important community meetings, but most importantly, we got a feel for what our work entails. Seeing Linda engage with various leaders and community members taught me that Democracy NC has been successful in building mutually enriching relationships. Even the woman from Lan’s Alterations had registered and voted in the primary elections, probably mostly due to Linda Sutton and her no-excuse-for-lack-of-democratic-engagement policy. A huge part of our work is to call people, email people, sometimes more than once because the work never ends. The relationship, the engagement, and the work is never-ending but long-lasting. Through this, and our extensive office management skills, I realized that our work is about organizing and re-organizing. Tyshia Gray will continue to tidy the office in the morning and I will continue filling up my flashdrive memory throughout the summer. I’m looking forward to continuing the work.
Keren Salim
Triad Team
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