After a blitzkrieg of a first week in Democracy Summer, I was extremely grateful to tackle the challenges that awaited in week two. What was the most challenging aspect of week two you ask? Remembering all the names and faces of the people I met in week one. Along with our recurring scheduled events, our team also hosted Pathways to Power so week two ran right into week one with no break.
We spent the latter part of week one recruiting additional participants for Pathways to Power and making sure we had everything we needed. We had a healthy debate with our AWESOME caterer at Steve’s Southern Gourmet about the necessity of sweet tea for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as the local preferences for banana pudding versus pound cake. Then it was off to Wal-Mart to fill three shopping carts with soda, water, napkins, etc. Interesting side note, I guess I somehow favor Nancy because our cashier thought she was my mom. . . . rrrriiiiiiggght.
So Saturday came and I immediately started confusing names and faces of some of the attendees I had met earlier that week. I was just impressed that I remembered Jenn and didn’t call her by another name. We got started around 9 am Saturday and didn’t conclude the day until around 7 pm. I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9 am but by 5 pm I was thinking “every weekend this summer BETTER not be like this.” Not that the training wasn’t fun and interactive and informative, it was just such a long day on one of the most absolutely perfect days of the year. Oh and did I mention we had the training at a recreation center where we could see and hear people enjoying the awesome swimming pool across the parking lot? Just wanted to throw that in there. So Pathways to Power ended Sunday with some good outcomes and tasks for the week and I was eager to get started.
I spent Monday reaching out to some of the local organizations through email and phone calls. Most of the emails and calls were not returned, but so is the nature of organizing. The biggest event of the week was my efforts to energize my own college campus. Most of the elected leaders to the student organizations are gone for the summer, so I attempted to reach out to staff to create awareness for students about organizing activities during the summer. It was so indicative of the strained climate at FSU when the two professors in the Political Science Department that I spoke with had complete opposite reactions to my efforts. So the good news is that we have some support and now I’m working with an organizer at Common Cause to raise awareness on campus with a speaking event next week.
Week two was a progressively more engaging week from an organizing stand point and it really put me on notice about the challenges that all of the organizers will be facing this summer. I’m glad to be on a team with someone as dedicated and demanding as Nancy, and I know as long as Demante and I keep a positive attitude, we’ll reach our benchmarks and, more importantly, bring about real change in the state.
Clarence,
Fayetteville Team
Democracy Summer Fayetteville Team
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