Volunteering for Democratic candidates or for your county Democratic Party is fun, a great way to meet people, satisfying and is a highly effective way to win elections.

More and more the mass marketing techniques that have worked through the 70s and 80s and 90s are becoming less effective. Even though political activists (of all stripes) can still call to people on the do-not-call lists, those calls are met with such hostility any more, it's just not effective beyond a simple, brief get-out-and-vote reminder on election day. But that's something you can do.

Direct mail doesn't work very much any more. But hand written and addressed letters do. That's something you can do.

Candidates need people to help at dinners and coffees, to distribute yard signs and bumper stickers at rallies, and most effectively of all, go door to door in groups of two or three to ask people, neighbor to neighbor, to support their candidates, sign petitions or join in the campaign.

The tricky part

But first, you need to find your candidate! On the State and Local pages of wikiD you will find a growing number of candidates and local county and state Democratic Party offices where you can call and find out about volunteering opportunities.

And a really good way to putting a dent in your five hours of volunteering time, is to research a local candidate and then come back and add him or her to the local candidates pages. The instructions are right on the home page of wikiD!

Then remember to come back and tell your story on your Volunteer/Donors page. What worked? What didn't? How hard was it finding a candidate to work for? What was doorbelling like? Did the local party help you? Or not?