Thoughts of a Third Party Campaign Manager

Sarah Hart's Blog Post: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 4:30 AM

With a little less than 11 months until the election, I think I should focus on ATP even more than I have and keep a journal/ blog about my thoughts on this venture for the next year. I just watched Julie/Julia and that inspired me.

I have a touch of hyper-vigilance. So, I am sitting in the dark writing this on my Pandigital Nova at 4:30 in the morning.
There is so much to do as a campaign manager. I often feel inadequate in the role. I blame myself for the fact that we have not received mass media coverage yet. Plus, I take full responsibility for any inadequacies with our website, etc.

With that being said, I must be careful not to fall into the abyss of despair and self-doubt. I have a wonderful life. Just because I am not President of the United States or in the main stream media (yet) does not mean that I am a failure. In fact, very few people have the time, the desire or the driven to even attempt what David Jon Sponheim and I are trying to achieve.

It's so disheartening to hear constant criticism, even if people are trying to be "constructive." I was taught to give criticism in the form of a sandwich -say something positive, then add a constructive criticism, finish with something positive. Plus, as soon as the person follows your advice of the criticism, you should praise them. My mom said one better, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Anyway, the next steps I need to take are to file a year-end report, straighten out some banking, work on the website, and focus on getting David in the media.

With the website, I had the idea of going back to using Ning as a forum, etc. I really liked their platform and the only reason we stopped using it is because they started charging for it. Perhaps I could pay for the basic plan and see if they had some kind of paid service. I'm thinking people should be able to read any info. on the site, but should have to pay if they want to post themselves. I could set Drupal 7 up like this I think, but it would take a lot more work. So, I'll see if Ning has something like this available. They should, since they charge based on the number of users you have. Another option that doesn't charge would be Google groups. So, maybe I'll blog there as well.

I am going to suggest Ning to Americans Elect tomorrow, if they have a conference call. I wish I had the resources they do to invest in our campaign. In the meantime, I'll offer advice as if I could run their organization. When I see where they are at during this stage in the election season, I feel good about the progress I have made, given the resources I've had to work with.