Pam Gentry is our Community Organizer for the area around Fairfield, IA. Pam was one of the earliest volunteers to become a Community Organizer for OFA in Iowa after hosting multiple events in early June on health insurance reform.
Pam has not always been involved in politics, but in the last few years she has become very active. Pam was a precinct captain during the caucus campaign, and has used that experience to organize OFA activities like driving attendance for town halls as Members of Congress come through town to discuss health care reform, and hosting multiple phone banks to build support for reform.
Pam will be hosting an organizational meeting this Monday in Fairfield to help build her team and plan upcoming events.
As a teacher in Muscatine, IA- Bonnie Adkins understands first hand out legislation can affect the lives of Iowans. This is why Bonnie first began to volunteer for President Obama in 2007 in Muscatine, and has been one of the leading volunteer organizers in Eastern Iowa since.
Bonnie, along with great volunteers like Lynda Smith and Mike Fuller, has been hosting events for two years in Muscatine, and since becoming a Community Organizer with Organizing for America, Bonnie has hosted many health insurance reform events across the county.
Muscatine already has a great organizing team, and Bonnie is looking forward to crossing the finish line on health insurance reform. Education and health insurance reform are the two of the top issues that Bonnie cites as her reason to be involved, and citizens of Muscatine have a great resource on both of those issues in Bonnie.
Michele Summers is a Fort Dodge, IA native who has taken the reigns as OFA’s Community Organizer in Webster County. Michele has been a Community Organizer since November, and has already hosted multiple events during our “Finish Line” program.
During November Community Organizers across Iowa held 20 organizational meetings aimed at building teams that will organize health insurance reform events this next month. Michele has already started meeting with and speaking with potential volunteers in Fort Dodge that would like to help organize.
Michele left Iowa for college and recently made her return to Fort Dodge. Whether it is providing health insurance reform for those in need, or taking the next steps towards cleaner energy sources, Michele is well on her way to making her voice heard in her community.
As an active volunteer in the Pottwattamie County Democratic Party and during the campaign here in Iowa, Susan Slauson has become one of President Obama’s most prominent supporters in Western Iowa. When Organizing for America was first starting, Susan naturally began leading health insurance reform events in June, and has become our Community Organizer for Council Bluffs.
Susan has led some of our most successful events in Iowa, including phone banks, health care discussions, and a health care organizing workshop. The picture below is from our “Send Off” event for Congressman King, where Susan helped organize a dozen residents to present thousands of signatures of support for health reform to Congressman Steve King.
Susan hopes to continue building relationships with potential volunteers in the area, and continue to creatively build support for President Obama’s reforms as they come up over the next year.
Today we are featuring Sophia Douglas, one of our Community Organizers in Des Moines. Sophia was a precinct captain and team leader during the campaign, and has continued her leadership throughout OFA’s health reform efforts this year.
Sophia has never been active on issue organizing before, but she started this summer by helping OFA collect declarations of support in Des Moines, and by helping get over 350 supporters of reform to attend Congressman Boswell’s Des Moines town hall in August for a great event.
With OFA’s efforts on health insurance reform, Sophia believes that OFA has once again shown “that one person can truly make a difference and a positive impact, both locally and globally”. Sophia just recently hosted an organizational meeting in Des Moines to start building her team, and has let us know that OFA is “the first time that I have felt as if my voice could be heard in a meaningful way”.
This past weekend, OFA Iowa hosted a training for our Community Organizers from across Iowa in Des Moines. Our Community Organizers are volunteer leaders that have been helping with health reform events, and other OFA events since April. Whether it was phone banks, attending public events, or hosting their own trai. You can always sign up online to attend OFA activities near you.
During our all day training, we had sections on volunteer recruitment, the basics of organizing, and work groups on how OFA will organize here in Iowa the rest of the year. These leaders were able to discuss experiences organizing their communities and hosting activities, and sit down with staff to plan what OFA should do next.
We are very lucky to have such a great group of committed leaders.Whether it is Laura, who came in all the way to Riceville, or Susan who made the drive from Council Bluffs, it is clear that health reform organizing in Iowa couldn't be in better hands.
Yesterday evening at CSPS in Cedar Rapids, OFA volunteers and former campaign volunteers gathered to discuss their experiences on the campaign, and how to get involved with Organizing for America. Cedar Rapids is a special place for me, in 2007 I was lucky enough to help with President Obama's first campaign stop at Iowa, and I had the chance to work for the campaign in Linn County until election day last year. The event was right after the announcement speech in Springfield, and Kennedy High School had a packed gym to welcome the President. We had a standing room only crowd on a very cold day.
Many of our volunteers, including our Marion Community Organizer Gretchen Lawyer, got to see the President for the first time that day and are still involved with OFA. Other former staff for OFA Iowa that worked in our Cedar Rapids office include our Iowa Field Director Shira Miller, and our current OFA Regional Field Director Matt Beltrami.
Last night two of the President's earliest supporters spoke to the crowd, County Supervisor Lu Barron, and State Representative Tyler Olson. Both Lu and Tyler know the importance of the volunteers that helped get the President to where we are today. Volunteers working with OFA are going to be the deciding factor in making sure those issues that we were knocking doors for in the winter of 2007, become a reality in Washington today.
We are continuing our live blog from Des Moines, where we have a "Pre-Premiere" phone bank at Smokey Row Restaurant. We have a great crowd on hand to make calls and everyone is excited to hear what the president has to say when he gives his speech at 8:00 p.m. EDT. You can watch it live by clicking on this link: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/oct20watch
The red carpet is out for our best volunteers coming in from all over the state to help with calls. Our Regional Field Director Trent Schacht has the lists ready, and a lot of calls are being made. When supporters hear that today is such an important day for calling their Members of Congress, our volunteers can't give out the phone numbers to call fast enough! With word that we have made history with how many calls we have made so far, volunteers are fired up to make sure that our representatives know that Iowans support real reform. You can show your support by calling now: http://my.barackobama.com/timetodeliver
Big day for OFA today -- in Iowa we have events going on across the state, and our staff couldn't be more excited. Our first event is a Senior Phone Bank in Cedar Rapids at the home of Lynn and Bob Ocken, which we will have updates and pictures from later today. I will also be live blogging from our Des Moines phone bank at Smokey Row restaurant this afternoon. Thank you to our Community Organizers and volunteer leaders that have helped us plan and set up events for this historic day.
We have phone banks in every district -- ranging from campus events at UNI and Iowa to phone banks in Decorah, Council Bluffs, and Emmetsburg. We also have a dedicated group of nurses in Iowa City that will be reaching out to other nurses here in Iowa from a phone bank at Bobbie Paxton's home.
After months of calling, door knocking, hosting community events, and having conversations with neighbors, our OFA Iowa volunteers are ready to deliver.
What a better way to start the day, then by calling your member of Congress!
Click here to find their number and call now.
In the first in our series of community organizer profiles, we are going to profile Gary Goldstein from Cedar Rapids, one of our newest Community Organizers. Organizing for America in Iowa is lucky to have some of the best volunteer leaders in the country. Community Organizers are popping up all over the state who are ready to take the lead organizing their local communities.Gary Goldstein has been actively volunteering with Democratic organizations for the last four years. Gary has always had an interest in politics, as a high school history teacher one of the things Gary would teach his students is about the political process. Gary has been volunteering for President Obama since 2007 after attending an event in Cedar Rapids. Shortly after that event Gary signed up to volunteer and was a precinct captain and team leader for the campaign during Caucus and General Election.
Gary believes that volunteering with OFA is a way to help make a difference, and can help create accountable government, just like he taught his students. “In order to achieve a better government we need to work for it” Gary says. By volunteering with OFA, Gary has found the opportunity to add his voice to the debate.
Gary recently became a Community Organizer on the east side of Cedar Rapids and looks forward to helping continue to build support for health insurance reform.
Last week OFA Iowa hosted a “Week of Action”. We had over 40 events across the state, all designed to let our Members of Congress know the support behind President Obama’s plan for real health insurance reform. We want to thank our Neighborhood Team Leaders and Community Organizers that held potlucks, phone banks, canvasses, coffees, discussions, phone booths, and other events.
With every event we host, we aim to learn about reform, plan next steps, and most importantly get supporters to commit to contacting their members of congress through a phone call, letter, or visiting their local office.
Our next series of events will be on October 20th. Sign up for your local event.
OFA Iowa has had a great start to our Week of Action. Across the state we have seen volunteers host events at their homes, local libraries, on campus, or at local businesses all in an effort to contact members of Congress and let them know that the time for reform is now.
Thank you to those that have participated so far. There is still time to sign up for our remaining events this week!
This week OFA Iowa will be organizing a “Week of Action” all across Iowa to show support for health insurance reform. Each community in the state will have letter writing parties, reunion events, phone banks, and other events that will show Congress the support that President Obama has here in Iowa. Sign up for your local events
Last week in Iowa we had organizing workshops in Sioux City, Marion, Dubuque, Bettendorf, and Des Moines and our volunteers are organized and motivated to help finally pass real reform and to plan our “Week of Action”. The picture below is from our Des Moines Workshop last weekend:
