September 1-14: The Niagara Falls Part

(Internal email)

Digital Dumbo 18: The Dumbo Loft

We have been in the water collecting part since Fall 2009. Those 14 days will be when the surge happens, I think. I am hoping Maloney agrees to at least one debate in August, sooner the better, but I am not counting on it. She can't do zero debates but I think she will do one as late as possible, likely week one in August. And we will have our five minutes at the September NY Tech MeetUp, first Tuesday. That is 800 plus young professionals. That could create a social media frenzy for us. Just what we need.

Those 14 days we are going to have reverse problems/challenges to what we have had so far. What do we do with all this media attention? What do we do with all these new volunteers that keep showing up at the office and getting in our way? What do we do with all this new money people are donating online? We can't save any of it for post September 14. How do we spend fast? Maloney just came out saying she wants a second debate. What now? Nancy Pelosi is on the phone. I can see Barack Obama calling up during the days after September 14, or as early as September 15.

Keeping The House And The Senate
Pelosi Will Continue As Speaker
DNAinfo.com: Reshma Saujani

Pollsters don't talk to the 18-38 crowd. They are the cellphones only crowd. And they do very little voice on those phones anyways. That's our surge crowd. That's women who want to be able to take equality for granted and men who get physically uncomfortable around sexist jokes. It is about The New Woman. It is about a new generation. This generation helped Obama get power. This generation is at some point going to want to get power for itself. And that starts now.

I expect us to ride a steep curve those two weeks. Now is the time to prepare.

Reshma 2010: Firing Up All Cylinders
Reshma's Momentum: Line Graph Or Curve Graph

Short message: stay focused on the fundamentals.

PS. Hoping for my second phone marathon on Sunday, office open to office close. Would that be 1-6? Leaving voice mails each time this time.

400 Phone Calls In 5 Hours For Reshma 2010

(I might blog out this email)

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Narayan Gopal

Phone Calls, Dress Code

Phone Calls

I experimented with two hours of phone calls earlier in the evening. Early evening on a week day truly is the best time to be making phone calls. But only slightly better. My conclusion is that all times are good. You can't be calling too early or too late at night. But other than that.

And so I have a new appreciation for my first choice: Sunday afternoons. Best would be to do both, but if I could do only one, it would be Sunday afternoons.

I have learned it is important to leave full voice mails. For most voters that call might be the one live interaction they had with the campaign before they showed up to vote.

Phone calls can't be the only thing you are doing, but they are a very important thing to be doing. And you can make phone calls every day. I think you can make 50 phone calls per hour. 10 people doing that for five hours is 2500 calls.

You talk to a few strong supporters and they make up for all those people who did not pick up the phone.

One guy I talked to, all he wanted to know was if Reshma was running against Maloney. In that case I am voting for her, he said. Another woman, when I asked her what issues she was interested in, she listed them all and said, aren't we all? I said, no. Most people are not.

Sample voice mail: "Hi, this was calling on behalf of Reshma Saujani. Reshma is running for Congress. You can learn more about her at her website at reshma2010.com. That would be r-e-s-h-m-a-2-0-1-0-dot-com. And please vote for her on September 14."

Dress Code

I got two more Reshma 2010 shirts. Now I have three. I think I am going to wear them a whole lot. Black shoes, black pants, black jacket, and the red, white and blue Reshma 2010 shirt. Actually I think I am going to wear them every time I show up at the Reshma 2010 headquarters, every time I show up for a Reshma 2010 event leading to September 14.

After some trial and error, I got a dress code now. I am all set.

Tomorrow I am going to a tech event in Dumbo. I think I am going to show up in my Reshma 2010 dress code.

A Marathon Race

A congressional campaign is a marathon race. Got to pace yourself.

We got a great candidate, a great staff, great momentum. We are on our way.

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