Precinct Organizing
In 2009 our colleagues Warren Edstrom of the Columbus, Ohio Tea Party and Peter Wolf of the Cincinnati Tea Party, both now with the Ohio Liberty Council, developed extensive training materials on precinct organizing. Their materials were previewed by the North East Ohio Conservative Coalition (NEOCC); the leadership of more than 40 conservative grassroots organizations, and are now being taught in classes throughout Ohio. They have also been asked to conduct classes in Indiana and Pennsylvania, as their materials is generic enough to be used in nearly every state and explained simply and thoroughly.
We encourage those who cannot participate in one of their classes to review their website www.thevoicesofamerica.org in its entirety. Organizational leaders (especially in states other than Ohio) are encouraged to download the material, tailor it as necessary to their states, and use it to train their own grassroots organizations. Their website includes the following downloadable documents that can be used for classroom or self-instruction:
Note that the above documents are subject to change and that the most recent version should be available on the www.thevoicesofamerica.org website. The VOA brochure is about the Cincinnati and Central Ohio 9/12 group's whose leaders put these guides together. They compiled the Precinct Organizing Best Practices largely using the training materials that the democrats used to whip the tar our of the "County Clubbing Blue Bloods Only" party in 2006 and 2008. It is the best we have ever seen and covers nearly the entire gamut. Check the VOA website for the latest updates, as they will be further refining it periodically with input from users.
We also have available a couple of party precinct leaders' guides available, one from Arizona an another one from Washington State. Read both to learn more.
This material is closely related to our pages on Precinct Walking, which door-to-door effort is the definitive effort to educate the public and Get Out The Vote (GOTV), and which training is frequently provided as an extension of the Precinct Organizing training. Also related is Party Power which is more focused upon enabling precinct organizers to gain control of an existing political party organization in general and in the state of Ohio or similar states where precinct leaders are elected in a primary election rather than at a party caucus, in particular.
Our observation is that many if not most "regular party" precinct leaders are there because they want the title, not the responsibility and the work. Good conservatives will embrace the responsibility and the work in order to make sure the right people are elected; having done all that, they have earned the right to the title of precinct leader, and have already performed the work necessary to win that title. Moreover, having the title enables them to elect the party leadership and ensure that the party does not endorse liberal candidates.
The three sections; Precinct Organizing, Precinct Walking, and Party Power (followed by the section on Roberts Rules of Order) should be studied in that order.