Volunteer

Hi. Thanks for being willing to talk about me on social media, or wherever it is that you see people you know.

What I ask is that you do not feel constrained. Say whatever, whenever. If you’re looking for ideas, tell people how you know me, and what you’ve seen of me. Tell them about yourself and what you think about politics. Whatever comes to mind. (For example, here’s what one friend wrote, unprompted.)
I am on Facebook at Robby Slaughter for Congress. Clicking there and following the page helps. Sharing it helps more.
On
Twitter @robbyslaughter. On YouTube /robbyslaughter. My Instagram is personal, because not everything is a branding exercise.

Doing this makes a difference. Because you’re not usually the kind of person to promote a candidate for public office. And I’m not usually the kind of person to run for public office.

Thank you.

Attention is the most valuable commodity in the world. Everyone with money is trying to get your attention. And you, the person reading this message, you have connections to some great people. There are people you could call right now who would answer. They wouldn’t screen your call. They wouldn’t text you back. They would answer.

That’s a person who is going to listen to you if you say, “Hey, I know this guy Robby Slaughter, he is running for U.S. Congress.” It’s a thing you’re bringing up. It’s what you’re talking about right now. It’s what’s new in your life for this fleeting moment. You heard about a regular guy taking a real shot at D.C.
I need you call those people. Or text them. Or whatever it is you do to talk to them. Ask them if they want to meet me.

Because you are special to some people. And that’s how we change something we all want: how we get more normal people into politics.

Please tell them, as soon as you can.

Thank you.

The people who know, appreciate, and love you are out there. If you are willing to get them all together, it’s an amazing way for me to reach a lot of people at once.

It doesn’t need to be fancy. And you can make it fancy if you want. You get to decide how much the event is about me.

Here’s what I would suggest:

• Have it at your home. Consider it having a few people over for a snacks and conversation.
• If you have kids, include them. Or not. They are your kids.
• Tell people I’m coming, that I will speak for literally five minutes, and that I will not be asking for donations.
• Let me know when to be there.
That’s it. But that is what politics literally is. Part of my job is to convince you to have parties for people to meet me.

And no, it doesn’t matter where you live. If I can get there in an hour, I’ll make time to drive there. If you’re farther away, I can join by video call.

It’s weird. But it’s the only way we can make this happen, if a lot of people agree to try something different.

Let’s talk about an event.

There’s the organic process of the campaign. Meeting people through people. Being in random places and bumping into strangers. The random web of opportunity.

Then there is the ordered process. Who gets a follow up, and when? Where does the data go? Do I save this business card? Which events should I be targeting? What do public elementary school principals know that Congress doesn’t, and how many are there in the District? Would any of them speak to me? Would all of them for 10 minutes each?

If you liked these questions. If you wanted an answer to any of them, or if you thought “oh, obviously the campaign has an answer for that”—then some volunteer admininstrative tasks might be a good match for you.

Or if you enjoy editing text or video or audio. Or if you like to make checklists and cross things off. Or if you want to schedule appointments. Or anything that sounds to you like it might help me.

Please contact me with your ideas. Or your skills. Or both!

I try to go campaigning most every day. What that means to me is that I go to public place where it is generally acceptable for strangers to meet eachother. Such as:

• Local government meetings (city/county)
• Business networking / Chamber of Commerce events
• Service or social club meetings
• Coffee shop*
If you want to come with me to an event, that is amazing. You can tell people you’re here to support me in my campaign. (I suppose you can also tell them I’m a terrible person.) In any case, please let me know where you want to go campaigning.


*At coffeeshops I will put up a sign on my table. If people read it I will try to make eye contact and start a conversation. But I don’t interrupt strangers.

I am not accepting nor soliciting any campaign donations.

What would I do with your money? I could run advertisements, but those are only going to annoy people. I could hire staff, but I think they would be mostly focused on asking for money. And as I said, most of that money would go to advertising.

I’ve written about money and campaigns several times: See The Biggest Problem, No Money Means More People, Money is a wonderful thing. Except in politics. But in short, we all wish politicians would focus on helping people and less on asking for donations.

Which brings me to my next topic: volunteering.

If you’re here because you were curious what I put behind this link, gotcha.

If you’re here because you legitimately aren’t sure if you trust me, thanks for being honest. Trust is essential. This idea of government and society is not going to work if we can’t trust each other.

I’ve done a lot to try and earn your trust here. There’s lots of blog posts and I’ve made some YouTube videos. I have a whole issues section with tons of content. I also had a business but I shut it down to focus on this.

But maybe you have more questions for me. Ask away. Or maybe you just need more time. Take it.
And maybe you can’t trust again. You’ve been burned by too many people who have promised to do good, but failed you.

If that’s the case, if you’re not sure if you can trust me, I get it. I’ll keep working to earn it.

Thank you.

I’m taking this at face value. You don’t trust me.

Good.

No seriously, it’s a good thing that you don’t trust me. If you think I’m full of shit, that’s good. Somebody should. Somebody should be absolutely confident that I’m wrong about everything. Because the critic does count. The critic is good, they give us perspective.

I’m only going to get better at doing this, at understanding who people are and what they need, by listening. And that means I need to hear from all types, including and especially you.

So yes, you don’t trust me. That’s good. Let’s keep the debate going. Keep me honest.

I mean it. And I think some of you do too.