BASTROP, Texas — A consultant close to President Obama told attendees of CO-OP Financial Services' THINK 09 conference that keeping up a strong flow of internal communications had been key to Obama's organizing success.
David Plouffe, former campaign manager for then Senator Barack Obama's successful 2008 run for the U.S. Presidency described how important it had been for the campaign to keep informed and involved its grass roots volunteers, suggesting that a similar approach could be used for credit union staff.
"We did something really very different, unprecedented," he said. "We had upper level campaign leaders, including the candidate, communicate often and directly with the grassroots volunteers, not just with the donors which is what had usually been done before."
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This communication was substantive and detailed and had the impact of making the volunteers feel like a direct part of the campaign. "We clued in these thousands or tens of thousands of volunteers in the primary states about our strategy, our goals, or objectives. We even let them have access to our voter file-which everyone said we were crazy to do."
The result, he told the meeting, were campaign workers who were among the most effective advocates for Obama's message going forward-much more effective than other traditional political approaches had ever been.
A similar attitude, he suggested, could bring similar results in credit unions.
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