Does the "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" Game Apply to Amway and all GOPers?
In Matt Bai's "The Multilevel Marketing of the President," Ken Mehlman explains the Bush campaign's successful volunteer plan by saying the volunteers "in consultation with headquarters, set their own goals for their states and counties, and thus had a sense of ownership in the campaign."
I think this point is key in differentiating between the success of the Bush campaign and the failure of the Kerry campaign. My family volunteered in CA for BC ’04. They absolutely loved the fact that they were treated as part of the GOP family. The incentives they were given kept them motivated (along with wanting to keep me employed). I’d say one of the most popular incentives I kept hearing about related to the ‘parties for the president.’ If you registered to have a party with 5 or more guests, you were able to participate in a conference call with “Republican rock stars” like Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, Ken Mehlman, etc.
I thought the article took on a presumptuous tone when describing “pressure bearing down on volunteers.” What’s wrong with a campaign expecting results out of their volunteers and checking up on them to ensure the goals they’ve set are being reached? It’s clear from the Verini article that the Kerry campaign didn’t expect much out of their volunteers. And how could they? They hardly took the time to train them much less reward them for the time they so generously gave.
The lesson to be learned from reading these articles is to always treat volunteers as an integral part of the team. Manpower is invaluable to any campaign.
P.S. Something I find interesting…Mehlman compares the GOP volunteer organization to Amway. Dick DeVos, one of the biggest GOP contributors and MI 06 gubernatorial hopeful, is son of the founder of Amway. His wife Betsy is a former MI GOP chairman. I wonder if employing the Amway success plan will work for him in 06?
I think this point is key in differentiating between the success of the Bush campaign and the failure of the Kerry campaign. My family volunteered in CA for BC ’04. They absolutely loved the fact that they were treated as part of the GOP family. The incentives they were given kept them motivated (along with wanting to keep me employed). I’d say one of the most popular incentives I kept hearing about related to the ‘parties for the president.’ If you registered to have a party with 5 or more guests, you were able to participate in a conference call with “Republican rock stars” like Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, Ken Mehlman, etc.
I thought the article took on a presumptuous tone when describing “pressure bearing down on volunteers.” What’s wrong with a campaign expecting results out of their volunteers and checking up on them to ensure the goals they’ve set are being reached? It’s clear from the Verini article that the Kerry campaign didn’t expect much out of their volunteers. And how could they? They hardly took the time to train them much less reward them for the time they so generously gave.
The lesson to be learned from reading these articles is to always treat volunteers as an integral part of the team. Manpower is invaluable to any campaign.
P.S. Something I find interesting…Mehlman compares the GOP volunteer organization to Amway. Dick DeVos, one of the biggest GOP contributors and MI 06 gubernatorial hopeful, is son of the founder of Amway. His wife Betsy is a former MI GOP chairman. I wonder if employing the Amway success plan will work for him in 06?
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