This is a very exciting time, and your help is needed in almost every way. If you want to start an Obama Works group in your city, your time, to quote our candidate, is now. If you want to help out at an event near you, the time is now. Let's show this country what a "movement" really is. And whatever level of committment you can make, there's a way for you to help.
Click here to submit your Obama Works event for display on the this page! [+/-]
Step 1:
Register your event on the my.barackobama event registration page.
Step 2:
After you've registered on my.barackobama.com, find your event detail page URL. (A URL is the text in the location bar at the very top of your web browser that's unique for every page you visit on the Internet.)
The URL we're looking for will look like this: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4rjy9.
To find the event detail page URL:
1. When you registered your my.barackobama.com event, you received an email from barackobama.com with the subject line "Event Confirmation". (If you were not the person who registered the event, you'll need to talk to whoever did.)
2. In this email, the URL appears after "You can view this event at any time by going to:".
Step 3:
Enter the event detail page URL here:
It should look like this: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4rjy9
Your email address (required):
Your event should appear immediately on this page once you confirm it via email. If it does not, please contact us.
There are no events listed at the moment.
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It's far easier than you might think to plan and execute an Obama Works event. We've drawn up the following steps to help you get started. Also, always feel free to ask us for help, and please, let us know when you have your event so we can help you get the word out!
Also, if you feel that you'd like to help organize an event, but can't do it alone, that's fine! Email us and we'll try to help hook you up with poeple in your area who are interested as well. We are here to be a resource, and with your help, we are going national!
Also, check out our resources page for fliers, a sweep checklist and lots of other useful information, documents and images. Click the plus signs below to view the explanations.
The bread-and-butter Obama Works event is the Obama Sweep. It is easy to set up, visible, and (unfortunately) there's always a need for community cleanup. We've put together a list of specific recommendations for how to pull a Sweep off here. But there are lots of other things you could do. Deliver meals to the elderly, repaint a local YMCA, whatever needs doing. The best events, though, will let volunteers work in groups.
Pick a location, pick an event, pick a time. Make sure you have permission, if it's needed, to use the location you want, and make sure there are no time conflicts in that space. Pick a rain date, just in case!
How big do you want your event to be? How are you going to get people to participate? If it's going to be bigger than just you and a few friends (which is perfectly okay!), register your event here by following the instructions at the bottom of this page!
If you are going to have a big event, you won't be able to organize alone. You should look to make a core team, all of whom can put in some serious time. Three is a good number; that way, if a big disagreement comes up, you can vote on it.
These sorts of details will be different for every event. But the one thing that's constant is this: you will need to plan in advance. Take a couple hours the day before the event to make sure everything is in place and ready to go. You don't want to be moving things around, assembling materials, or doing much of anything on the day of the event, except the event. Plan ahead.
Some examples of important logistical tasks it's easy to forget about: for a Sweep, make sure you plan your routes in advance. Have plenty of cleanup materials (trash bags, brooms, etc) on hand, and make sure you have a way of disposing the trash!
Getting signs, t-shirts, buttons, etc is not utterly necessary, but it helps get the message out a lot! One great place to track down used Obama gear is ObamaCycle. You will soon be able to buy Obama Works gear from us, too! We plan to sell it at no profit, so you can be sure you're getting the best deal we can offer.
Do you plan to register voters? If you'd like to, contact your local Democratic Party organization for ideas – voter registration is a really great thing to do, but there are legal rules. So be careful!
Publicity is important, especially if you're looking to have a larger event. First, write a press release (you can find examples in our resources section) and send it to local news outlets, and national ones, too, if your event is large. Faxing it is generally the best way to go, and you can find lists of news outlets here. Try and send an email to your local Obama or Democratic party mailing list. If there are any schools or colleges nearby, see if they have Obama or Democratic clubs that might want to participate. To publicize, register your event here by filling in the instructions below. Put up some flyers! (We have these in our resources section as well.)
In genenral: be aggressive! Just having the event will not bring press or volunteers. And while the events are totally worthwhile on their own, there's no reason not to get the message out to an even wider audience if you can!
Also, see if you can convince someone to take photos and video of your event. You can upload photos to our images section, and if you upload your video to YouTube, we will gladly post it on the site!