Another "Link" To Make The Difference Together

Computers and the web have provided tools for less expensive, more efficient communication and outreach.  I no longer have to use the mail, develop phone trees or broadcast faxes as organizing tools.  During my campaign for County Supervisor, our team used email as a remarkable tool for communication: updating supporters on our progress, events, successes, and as a fundraiser.  We could reach thousands of supporters with very little expense, and taking less preliminary effort than a mailer.

During one recent Emerge training day, the focus was on the opportunities and advantages of using the web for outreach.  In my campaign, I was the strongest advocate for an evolving webpage, our e-mail blasts, and targeted fundraising.  I am now working with Emerge sister Deb Fudge in her campaign for Supervisor, and finding that tools like Blogs and Facebook provide a way to quickly respond within hours or even minutes to a new issue or opportunity.  I do wonder if the ease of instant communication may undercut the adage of "sleep on it", which can give a better perspective, or a more surgical response.  But clearly the future is being redefined in nanoseconds, and the Emerge training was a great insight into the tools now available.

Aside from campaigns, the web is an amazing organizing tool.  In the last month, I have also been helping a very dispersed rural area design their response to a problem in their neighborhood.  Most of them already know each other, and had dealt with local issues in the past.  But this time, a volunteer set up a Yahoo page that allowed them to gather all their information in one place, post new documents on the Project, have an interactive editing process for their issue testimony, create both open and secure pages, etc.  And many of these people were just general email users prior to having a technology that allowed them to "virtually" work together.  Within 48 hours they had a draft document up in the "clouds", had made 3,084 edits and prepared a presentation for delivery.  They also used it as a morale booster - and to settle a few arguments.  It was a "virtual" continuous neighborhood meeting / dialogue for over two weeks.

We are a tightly knit community, enormously dispersed on this bright blue planet.  I know that Emerge provides another link that binds us in a unified mission.  With this connectivity - no matter the distance that separates us, we will make a difference together.


Rue Furch
Emerge California
Class of 2010