Putting the Pieces Together
| By Unknown user - Sep 19, 2009 10:34:16 AM PT |
As a child I loved putting together puzzle pieces. I developed an obsession for puzzles. I would assemble as many as 10 sets a day! Then I’d break it all up and start over. I especially loved showing off my masterpieces to my friends and family, flaunting the fact that I had completed 10 in one day when some people could barely assemble one. But what was even more amazing? I did this without ever having to refer to the picture on the box! I was proud of the fact that I didn’t have to “cheat.” I looked at each piece carefully and took my time to see where it would fit.
One day, after having mastered over six 500-piece puzzles, I decided I was ready to tackle the big mama of puzzle sets: a 1000-piece set. To my dismay, after two full days, the farthest I got was assembling together what looked like a cloud. Or maybe it was a cotton ball? Or perhaps a sheep? The strategies I used before just wasn’t working. Why was it so much harder to figure where each piece fit? As I was putting the pieces back into the box and admitting defeat, my father approached me and asked, “Why didn’t you finish it?” Looking away, I mumbled, “It’s too hard. There’s no way I could do this.” He knelt down beside me and picked up the puzzle box lid that I had flipped over to avoid seeing. “You know, it’s not wrong for you to look at the picture,” he said. “But that’s cheating!” I shouted. “What’s wrong with knowing what you’re up against and what you’re working towards?” he refuted. “Often times, it is important to step back and look at the big picture.”
As an activists doing mostly groundwork, talking to people at door-to-door canvasses and public events, I never actually stopped to think about the bigger picture. How does canvassing fit into the campaign? How does working in the Asian Pacific Islander community help further our cause? What are all the other pieces to an initiative campaign? My weekend at Campaign Boot Camp, a 2-day training session organized by the OUTWest coalition, answered all those questions for me. Designed to give activists a broad overview of a campaign, I learned the importance of fieldwork, fundraising, messaging, coalition building, as well as new communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook. More importantly, I learned how all these pieces fit into a campaign.
One of my most favorite exercises of that weekend was “Win Your Election!” Broken into teams of 6 or more, each team competed to win 100,000 votes (points) by choosing to take two out of over 30 actions every five minutes. Actions included, “hire a campaign manager,” “recruit multi-racial teams of volunteers,” go undercover and infiltrate the opposition to discover their strategy and message,” and “produce TV ads.” Five minutes never felt so short in my life! I truly felt the urgency of needing to move quickly, as well as strategically, in a campaign. Every action had a consequence. But some consequences didn’t show up until later down the line. The entire campaign, broken out into 9 months (rounds), flashed before our team’s eyes. Before we knew it, we had reached Election Day. After all our bickering and arguing, we had only gained about 35,000 votes. While some may see that as a loss, I saw it as a gain. I learned the importance of strategy. Many of the better-performing teams had set up a campaign plan. They used a set of principles as their guide, which allowed for flexibility—a key component in a successful campaign. It was important for us to listen to each member on the team. Each member brought a unique perspective and experience that could greatly benefit a campaign. It was also important for us to fundraise. We failed to realize how quickly a campaign could consume money and how crucial it was for our team to fundraise throughout the entire campaign. It had been a rough start to begin the boot camp. But as Eric Fleisher had said, “This is the best place to lose your first campaign.”
Our fight for marriage equality will be a long battle—one that will require the commitment, tenacity, and the heart of a community. With an estimate of over 100 people at the boot camp, it was absolutely empowering to train with individuals—both queer and straight—who have a genuine and powerful passion to push for a just society. I now understand more than ever how much work it will take for us to change the hearts and minds of those who may not realize just how their vote could affect not just a state, but an entire nation. I realized it is important for me to not just give a one-time donation or do one door-to-door canvass. I realized that it is important to engage everyone and expose them to the true meaning of equality by sharing my personal story. And above all else, I’ve realized the true meaning of the word “activism.” It is time I act. As President Obama had poignantly said, “We did not come to fear the future. We came to shape it.”
One day, after having mastered over six 500-piece puzzles, I decided I was ready to tackle the big mama of puzzle sets: a 1000-piece set. To my dismay, after two full days, the farthest I got was assembling together what looked like a cloud. Or maybe it was a cotton ball? Or perhaps a sheep? The strategies I used before just wasn’t working. Why was it so much harder to figure where each piece fit? As I was putting the pieces back into the box and admitting defeat, my father approached me and asked, “Why didn’t you finish it?” Looking away, I mumbled, “It’s too hard. There’s no way I could do this.” He knelt down beside me and picked up the puzzle box lid that I had flipped over to avoid seeing. “You know, it’s not wrong for you to look at the picture,” he said. “But that’s cheating!” I shouted. “What’s wrong with knowing what you’re up against and what you’re working towards?” he refuted. “Often times, it is important to step back and look at the big picture.”
As an activists doing mostly groundwork, talking to people at door-to-door canvasses and public events, I never actually stopped to think about the bigger picture. How does canvassing fit into the campaign? How does working in the Asian Pacific Islander community help further our cause? What are all the other pieces to an initiative campaign? My weekend at Campaign Boot Camp, a 2-day training session organized by the OUTWest coalition, answered all those questions for me. Designed to give activists a broad overview of a campaign, I learned the importance of fieldwork, fundraising, messaging, coalition building, as well as new communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook. More importantly, I learned how all these pieces fit into a campaign.
One of my most favorite exercises of that weekend was “Win Your Election!” Broken into teams of 6 or more, each team competed to win 100,000 votes (points) by choosing to take two out of over 30 actions every five minutes. Actions included, “hire a campaign manager,” “recruit multi-racial teams of volunteers,” go undercover and infiltrate the opposition to discover their strategy and message,” and “produce TV ads.” Five minutes never felt so short in my life! I truly felt the urgency of needing to move quickly, as well as strategically, in a campaign. Every action had a consequence. But some consequences didn’t show up until later down the line. The entire campaign, broken out into 9 months (rounds), flashed before our team’s eyes. Before we knew it, we had reached Election Day. After all our bickering and arguing, we had only gained about 35,000 votes. While some may see that as a loss, I saw it as a gain. I learned the importance of strategy. Many of the better-performing teams had set up a campaign plan. They used a set of principles as their guide, which allowed for flexibility—a key component in a successful campaign. It was important for us to listen to each member on the team. Each member brought a unique perspective and experience that could greatly benefit a campaign. It was also important for us to fundraise. We failed to realize how quickly a campaign could consume money and how crucial it was for our team to fundraise throughout the entire campaign. It had been a rough start to begin the boot camp. But as Eric Fleisher had said, “This is the best place to lose your first campaign.”
Our fight for marriage equality will be a long battle—one that will require the commitment, tenacity, and the heart of a community. With an estimate of over 100 people at the boot camp, it was absolutely empowering to train with individuals—both queer and straight—who have a genuine and powerful passion to push for a just society. I now understand more than ever how much work it will take for us to change the hearts and minds of those who may not realize just how their vote could affect not just a state, but an entire nation. I realized it is important for me to not just give a one-time donation or do one door-to-door canvass. I realized that it is important to engage everyone and expose them to the true meaning of equality by sharing my personal story. And above all else, I’ve realized the true meaning of the word “activism.” It is time I act. As President Obama had poignantly said, “We did not come to fear the future. We came to shape it.”
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