DURHAM: As I drove to the Democracy NC office on my first official day as an intern, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do for the next eight hours. Eight hours is a pretty long time! Would I have enough things to do during that time? My last full-time job consisted of me answering phones for eight hours and talking to angry people desperate to talk to their lawyers, so I was really hoping that situation would not be repeated this summer.
Fortunately, my experience is completely different this time, and I now realize that eight hours isn’t that long when you’re doing interesting and productive work. Even though my fellow intern, Brian, and I haven’t given any formal presentations about voter-owned elections yet, we’re talking to a lot of people and organizations around the area, and soon enough we will be out talking to them, presenting our program, and garnering support. It’s so neat to talk to one person and have them tell you about someone else who might be interested in the work we do, and then contact them only to find out that they might know someone else too! And even though I removed a couple people from our supporters’ list last night during our phone-banking session and left lots and lots of messages on people’s answering machines, I got to talk to people who are really interested in what Democracy NC is doing and want to continue to support our work… it’s worth calling a couple disconnected numbers in a row if it means I get to talk to someone like that!
Finding ways to partner and work together with a diverse set of organizations is extremely rewarding, and it reminds me that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we want to make something happen!
On a different note, if you are in the Pittsboro area, please join us tomorrow (June 4) for a Town Hall meeting hosted by Together NC at 7 PM at the Pittsboro Campus of Central Carolina Community College, in Building 2. We will be discussing the necessity of public investments in NC with our elected officials. Hope to see you there!
Peace,
–Cristina
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